EISELE VINEYARD Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2018 Bottle

Description

‘Eisele Vineyard. This is one of the greatest terroirs in all of Napa Valley, if not all of California.’ Robert Parker

Eisele Vineyard is one of the greatest single vineyards in northern California. It comprises some 38 acres of warm, cobbly soils, located on an alluvial fan just east of Calistoga – protected by the Palisades Mountains to the north and cooled by westerly breezes from the Chalk Hill Gap. The reserves of groundwater lie at great depth and encourage the roots to delve deep into the subsoil for moisture. The well drained soils, warm days and cool nights result in low yields of thick skinned, small, intensely flavoured berries. The estate is certified as organic by the California Certified Farmers and biodynamic by Demeter.

The vineyard was first planted over 130 years ago and was most recently named after Milton and Barbara Eisele, who bought the property in 1969. Ridge Vineyards made a legendary Cabernet Sauvignon from this source in 1971 and Joseph Phelps made a succession of fine wines throughout the 70s and 80s. However, following Bart and Daphne Araujo’s acquisition of the property in 1990, they were responsible for producing some of the world’s greatest and most sought-after Cabernet Sauvignon based wines.

The latest chapter began in 2013, when Eisele Vineyard was purchased by Francois Pinault – the owner of Artemis (Chateau Latour, Domaine d’Eugenie and Chateau Grillet), which has already seen even greater investment and a determination to build further upon the marvellous legacy of this unique site.

To produce the estate's flagship wine, three quarters of the 38-acre Eisele Vineyard is dedicated to Cabernet Sauvignon and its companion varieties, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The resulting wine is an intense expression of the Eisele Vineyard terroir, exhibiting characteristic flavors of cassis, blackberry, cedar and chocolate, with a lingering mineral finish. Cabernets from the Eisele Vineyard are highly regarded for their complexity, concentration, weight without heaviness, silky texture and ability to age for decades.

THE WINE ADVOCATE 99 points
Drink Date: 2024 - 2058
The very deep, purple-black colored 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. It takes a fair amount of swirling to unlock an incredibly intense nose of dark chocolate, warm cassis, baked plums and Morello cherries plus touches of red roses, violets, pencil shavings, cinnamon stick and dusty soil with a hint of iron ore. The full-bodied palate is so exquisitely elegant, charged with electric black and red fruits and a firm frame of super-ripe, grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing very long and very perfumed. This is pure energy in a glass!

“2018 was nice for us—it was an easy vintage,” Eisele Vineyard’s winemaker Helene Mingot told me last year. “The conditions for ripening were ideal. It was a nice, cool summer. We didn’t have too much problem with vigor. Our vines are 25 years old, so our yields remained 2.5 to three tons per acre. It was a long harvest because we could harvest when we wanted. This year was the highest color we ever recorded!”

During my visit this year, she added, “These 2018s were not so easy to age. It was hard to know what direction to take—the amount of racking, toast level, etc. The wines had a different structure and freshness, the polymerization dynamic was different from previous vintages.”

In addition to the Altagracia and Cabernet Sauvignon, Eisele Vineyard revealed a new wine for 2018: Pickett. It is essentially a “third wine.” “It was developed to give us more selection for Altagracia,” managing director Antoine Donnedieu told me. “Altagracia continues its trajectory to become the best expression of our eastern vineyards. The new Pickett wine receives a little less time in barrel and less new oak than the other two reds, designed for earlier consumption."

- Lisa Perrotti-Brown, 30th Nov 2020