Cade
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley, California, USA
We drove up Howell Mountain to get to Cade two Sundays ago. What we witnessed was a horror show of fire damage. It’s hard to see nature destroyed in such a fashion. What was worse were all the brick chimneys only standing where there were once a home or a winery building.
Glass fire note. The fire investigation revealed the fire was started by a Cakebread electric fence short. An additional saddening note is Dolores Cakebread, the co-founder of Cakebread Cellars died shortly after the Glass Fire started. She was 90. No way to know if the stress of the fire factored into her passing.
The tannnins in all their 2017 Cabernets were grainy big, dry & dark tarry. Blackberries, black raspberries, black plum, creamy raspberries, dark cherries, plum, fresh roast, dark chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, some nutmeg, medium, dark spice, graphite, tobacco, youthful and showing plenty of wood with dark, red, purple, some blue flowers set in violets & lavender. The acidity was quite nice. The structure, tension, length & balance are good but, need about 8 years in bottle to start to shine. Showing promise on finish but this is still a very youthful/primary.
Photos of; Cade Estate vines, outside patio tasting area, infinity wall and their Estate Cabernet fruit unharvested. Sadly, about 80-85% of the 2020 Napa Valley Cabernet fruit will never see bottling.
We drove up Howell Mountain to get to Cade two Sundays ago. What we witnessed was a horror show of fire damage. It’s hard to see nature destroyed in such a fashion. What was worse were all the brick chimneys only standing where there were once a home or a winery building.
Glass fire note. The fire investigation revealed the fire was started by a Cakebread electric fence short. An additional saddening note is Dolores Cakebread, the co-founder of Cakebread Cellars died shortly after the Glass Fire started. She was 90. No way to know if the stress of the fire factored into her passing.
The tannnins in all their 2017 Cabernets were grainy big, dry & dark tarry. Blackberries, black raspberries, black plum, creamy raspberries, dark cherries, plum, fresh roast, dark chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, some nutmeg, medium, dark spice, graphite, tobacco, youthful and showing plenty of wood with dark, red, purple, some blue flowers set in violets & lavender. The acidity was quite nice. The structure, tension, length & balance are good but, need about 8 years in bottle to start to shine. Showing promise on finish but this is still a very youthful/primary.
Photos of; Cade Estate vines, outside patio tasting area, infinity wall and their Estate Cabernet fruit unharvested. Sadly, about 80-85% of the 2020 Napa Valley Cabernet fruit will never see bottling.
Last pour on our virtual Cade tasting today. Beautiful representation of Howell Mtn. fruit. This will be even better down the road.
Last pour on our virtual Cade tasting today. Beautiful representation of Howell Mtn. fruit. This will be even better down the road.
Jul 2nd, 2020
