accolades

2005 Spottswoode Estate Cabernet
The Wine Advocate, Robert Parker

The 1,850-case cuvee of 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate (97.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc) boasts a deep ruby/purple color as well as a beautiful nose of lead pencil shavings, violets, blueberries, and black currants. It builds incrementally on the palate with superb purity, medium to full body, sweet tannin, and a long, 40+ second finish. This beauty can be drunk now or cellared for two decades. The prodigious 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate may be Spottswoode’s strongest effort since their superb 2002 and 2001. A deep ruby/purple color is accompanied by a classic bouquet of violets, graphite, blueberries, and creme de cassis with hints of licorice and cedar. Stunningly pure and elegant as well as substantial and authoritatively flavored, this is a long, rich, concentrated wine with the grace of a ballerina. Give it 2–3 years of bottle age and consume it over the following 20–25+ years. 96 points (December, 2007)