Spottswoode Winery—2002 Estate Cabernet Accolades

accolades

2002 Spottswoode Estate Cabernet
The Wine Advocate, Robert Parker

The elegance, purity, complexity, and striking beauty of the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is something to behold. This is a prodigious example of marrying the power and richness of Napa Cabernet with a sense of restraint, elegance, but tremendous, authoritative flavor intensity. As I said last year, if Chateau Margaux were making wine in Napa, this might be what it would taste like. An extraordinary nose of black currants, chocolate, sweet licorice, and a hint of toast jumps from the glass of this wine, which exhibits superb ripeness, an incredibly well-delineated, full-bodied, opulent palate, and good, uplifting acidity and freshness. This is a stunning tour de force in winemaking and ranks as the finest Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon I have ever tasted. It should drink well for 15–20 years. 97 Points (December, 2005)

Spottswoode has been on a roll lately with the Cabernet program, but I can’t think of a better vintage than the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate. This dense, ruby/purple-colored 2002 boasts an extravagant nose of licorice, créme de cassis, and truffles. As it sits in the glass, notions of white chocolate and mocha also emerge. In the mouth, it is like a New World version of Chateau Margaux’s 2000 or 1990. Wonderfully rich and opulent, but structured and delineated, with exceptionally sweet fruit, laser-like precision, and purity, this Is a tour de force in winemaking. One of the greatest reds Spottswoode has produced during its distinguished history, it is a full-bodied classic of extraordinary proportions. The wine’s low acidity and ripe tannin suggest early drinkability, but it is still a youthful effort that should evolve easily for 15–20 years. Don’t miss it! 96 Points (February, 2005)

Wine Spectator, James Laube

Bold, rich and concentrated, with a dense core of spicy currant, plum and blackberry with ripe, fleshy tannins that coat the mouth on the finish. Shows off hints of nutmeg and earth on the finish. Best from 2007 through 2012. 90 Points (November, 2005)

International Wine Cellar, Steve Tanzer

Good medium ruby. Rich aromas of black raspberry, currant, roasted plum, dark chocolate, graphite, minerals and baking spices. Big, round and sweet. An atypically lush and chocolatey-rich wine for Spottswoode, with a bit less black fruit and floral character than usual but solid underlying minerality. Finishes broad and long, with horizontal tannins that seem a bit tougher than those of the young 2003. The estate sold off a lot of their wine in bulk in 2003, eliminating the lots that they considered overripe and less ageworthy. 92 Points (May/June, 2005)

Barrel Sample: Bright medium ruby. Superripe aromas of cassis, violet and dark chocolate, with strong oakiness showing today. Sweet, supple and rich; atypically large-scaled for a young Spottswoode cabernet and a bit less floral than usual. Winemaker Rosemary Cakebread notes that she has not made the absolute final blend. Finishes with substantial but rather suave tannins. Will this wine offer Spottswoode’s normal finesse? Cakebread noted that the berries were smaller in 2002, yielding more tannic wine. 90–93 Points (May/June, 2004)
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California Grapevine

Medium-dark ruby with purplish tinges; attractive, forward, rich, complex, intense, spicy, cedary, cassis and blackberry fruit aroma; full body; forward, rich, intense, concentrated, textured, cedary, ripe blackberry fruit flavors with notes of tar and canilla; well balanced and structured; lingering aftertaste. Deserves another three to five more years of bottle aging. Very highly recommended.

Robert Whitley on Wine

The strong bouquet of ripe cassis and vanilla suggest one thing to me: I’m about to plunge into a high-class Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon. When I’m met with firm tannins and lush, supple fruit, I know my nose hasn’t betrayed me. What I have hit upon is a Napa cabernet that has been one of the most polished, stylish and consistently elegant over the past decade or more. Spottswoode, to its everlasting credit, has resisted the popular trend toward over-extracted, sweet, plumy cabernet. Its hallmark has been finesse and elegance, and the ’02 vintage extends the run. I should add that there is a hint of the earth, as so often is found in fine bordeaux, that is a welcome complexity on the nose.