95 pts Antonio Galloni presents Vinous July 2015
95 pts Wine & Spirits Magazine October 2015


2011 started off late just like its companions 2010 and 2012. Dry cool weather presided over the vines and the grapes ripened successfully under late autumnal skies. The Cabernet harvest occurred in the waning days of October and into early November. The average sugar level was 22 percent - not your typical year.

The style of the 2011 is transparency, both in texture and flavor. This is not a brooding, tense vintage which needs 15 years to open.  Classic blueberry and cassis aromas tinged with earth on the nose is followed by sweet oak and blackberry fruits on the palate, again tinged with earth notes in the finish.

Mount Eden just did a 41 year retrospective of our Cabernets over three days in Santa Barbara.  Every wine was distinctive going back to our inaugural 1972.  No wine served tasted old and all of the bottles--especially those from the 1990s--were memorable.  

Given proper cellaring, the 2011 should out live most people reading this.