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Pride Mountain Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon

California, United States 2017 (750mL)
$79.00
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Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Pride Mountain Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon

We were all so blown away by this Pride Mountain Vineyards Cabernet it got me thinking about the infamous “Paris Tasting” of 1976. No, I wasn’t there—I hadn’t been born yet—but this is exactly the kind of deep, soulful California Cabernet that stood toe-to-toe with France’s best all those years ago.


We love Bordeaux, and offer a lot of it on this site, and we could be accused (as could most sommeliers I know) of judging the merits of a Californian wine based on how it compares to its French counterparts. I’m not going to do that with this 2017 because it stands so resolutely on its own, not needing (or wanting) a Bordeaux comparison for validation. Of all the things California does well, including ever-more-nuanced Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, it does Cabernet Sauvignon the best, and since their first commercial vintage in 1994, the Pride family has done it as well as anyone. So many culty, ultra-expensive labels have come along in the intervening years that it makes the price of this icon seem quaint. In the spirit of the Paris Tasting, I’d place this bottle alongside the best fine wines in the world. Sold mostly via direct-mail to Pride Mountain’s faithful fans, this isn’t a wine seen widely at retail—so if you’d like to make an exceptionally smart addition to your cellar, make off with up to 6 bottles today. We’re lucky to have gotten what we did!


Jim and Carolyn Pride purchased what would become Pride Mountain Vineyards in 1989; previously, the property was known as the Summit Ranch, situated at a crest in the Mayacamas range not far from other high-elevation icons like Smith-Madrone and Spring Mountain Vineyards. Wines had been made at Summit Ranch as far back as the 1890s, but Prohibition turned the place into one of Napa’s many “ghost wineries,” the ruins of which are still found on the property today. Climbing up to about 2,000 feet above the valley floor and covering some 85 acres of undulating vineyards, the Pride Mountain estate is the kind of special, secluded place that, once you’ve seen it, turns you into a lifetime customer.



Because the vineyards straddle the Napa/Sonoma County line, today’s flagship Cabernet is always labeled with the percentages of fruit used from either side. This one, as is visible on the label, is 53% Napa, 43% Sonoma, and 100% “mountain” through and through. The soils are volcanic loam, and the elevation here is such that the vines sit above the “fog line,” meaning they experience less temperature variation than the valley floor below. The lows aren’t as low and the highs aren’t as high, and as such the vine’s metabolism never shuts down; it’s a more even, and, overall, a cooler, climate, and this combined with the intense UV light at elevation results in grapes with good natural acidity levels but great concentration. They develop thick skins rich in the anthocyanins that give “mountain” Cabernets their robust character. 



Winemaker Sally Johnson, who has been with Pride since 2007, has mastered the art of taming some of that tannic brawn in the interest of balance; she sourced from 27 distinct vineyard blocks for this 2017, vinifying each separately and the aging each separately for about six months before assembling a blend. In all, the wine spends 18 months in French oak barrels, of which 50% are new.



When tasting this 2017, one thing becomes clear immediately: great mountain-grown Cabernet Sauvignon isn’t just about power. The precision balance of this wine is what impressed me most—it is richly layered, with lush flavors and impeccable balance. In the glass, it’s an opaque dark crimson with a purple/black-ish tint, with a big blast of dark fruits leading things off: blackberry, mulberry, cassis, currant. Then the savory elements chime in: cacao, warm spice, leather, tobacco, cedar. It is the perfect kind of full-bodied—palate-coating but fresh, finishing with a violet-scented flourish. If enjoying a bottle now, decant it 60 minutes before enjoying in big Bordeaux stems at 60 degrees, being sure to pair it with a proper hunk of meat to do it justice. Otherwise, this wine has 10-15 years of positive evolution ahead of it, ready to be uncorked on special occasions in the future. I’ll be grabbing a few for sure. This is a benchmark! Enjoy!
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Country
United States
Region
California
Sub-Region
United StatesNapa Valley
Soil
Volcanic Loam
Farming
Sustainable
Blend
Cabernet Sauvignon 93%, Petit Verdot 5%, Merlot 2%
Alcohol
14.4
OAK
50% New French
TEMP.
60
Glassware
Bordeaux Stems
Drinking
Now-2035
Decanting
60 Minutes
Pairing
Leg of Lamb w/ Garlic & Rosemary

United States

Washington

Columbia Valley

Like many Washington wines, the “Columbia Valley” indication only tells part of the story: Columbia Valley covers a huge swath of Central
Washington, within which are a wide array of smaller AVAs (appellations).

Oregon

Willamette Valley

Oregon’s Willamette Valley has become an elite winegrowing zone in record time. Pioneering vintner David Lett, of The Eyrie Vineyard, planted the first Pinot Noir in the region in 1965, soon to be followed by a cadre of forward-thinking growers who (correctly) saw their wines as America’s answer to French
Burgundies. Today, the Willamette
Valley is indeed compared favorably to Burgundy, Pinot Noir’s spiritual home. And while Pinot Noir accounts for 64% of Oregon’s vineyard plantings, there are cool-climate whites that must not be missed.

California

Santa Barbara

Among the unique features of Santa Barbara County appellations like Ballard Canyon (a sub-zone of the Santa Ynez Valley AVA), is that it has a cool, Pacific-influenced climate juxtaposed with the intense luminosity of a southerly
latitude (the 34th parallel). Ballard Canyon has a more north-south orientation compared to most Santa Barbara AVAs, with soils of sandy
clay/loam and limestone.

California

Paso Robles

Situated at an elevation of 1,600 feet, it is rooted in soils of sandy loam and falls within the Highlands District of the Paso Robles AVA.

New York

North Fork

Wine growers and producers on Long Island’s North Fork have traditionally compared their terroir to that of Bordeaux and have focused on French varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

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