Wine Last Sold on: January 16, 2013
Storybook Mountain Vineyards
Featured Wine:
2008 Seps Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
| Varietal: | Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Region: | California: Napa Valley |
| Avg. Price: | $65.00 |
| Wine Spies: | $39.00 |
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SUPERIOR WINE ALERT:
We only showcase wines that we love. While our emphasis is on quality first, every now and again we come across a real standout wine that rises above. When we do, we issue alerts like this one.
Mission Codename: The Rest of the Story
- Operative
- Agent Red
- Objective
- Send Agent Red to one of our very favorite Cabernet producers to secure an ample allocation of their newest Cabernet Sauvignon - and offer it to our operatives at a Top Secret price.
- Mission Status
- Accomplished!
Final Assessment
We are very excited, today, Dear Operative! Today, we welcome back one of our very favorite Cabernet producers, Storybook Mountain. Their Seps Estate wines are extraordinary, award-winning gems that we prize very highly. The wine press also adores Seps and Storybook wines, vaulting both to the top their Best of and Top 100 lists. Most of their wines earning scores in the 90s, making them highly sought-after.
Today’s 2008 Seps Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is another in a exceptional continuum of great Cabernet Sauvignon from this coveted producer. VERY highly recommended, we suggest that you stock up on this terrific wine. Reminiscent of Bordeaux, this wine is earthy, plush and fruit-forward. Soft tannins and a blalnced, bright acidity lend this wine to a wine range of food pairings.
While still youthful, this ready to drink wine is also very age-worthy. Firm and structured, this wine should really hit its stride in the next few years.
Dr. Seps really understands Cabernet and his years of experience really show in this exceptional wine.
Pair this delightfully food-friendly with an oven-roasted herbed chicken, bacon-wrapped pork loin or green peppercorn and butter flank steak.
Tasting Profile
Dark ruby red with a dark core that gradually lightens at the glinting. Tall, skinny, wine-stained, widely-space legs fall slowly from high on the glass wall.
Leads with floral aromas of violet and dark iris. Dense and concentrated fruit follows on, with black cherry, cassis, and boysenberry. After a good swirl savory and complex notes of black tea, leather, and dark toasted cedar emerge.
Chewy and concentrated with black fruit, currants, black plum, ripe blackberry and boysenberry. As the wine opens, a dried earth component mixes with raspberry, savory herbs du provence, subtle leather, dried fall leaves, and red tobacco leaf.
Chewy and lengthy with well-integrated tannins. Flavors take a very long time to fade. In particular, plum, leather and herbs linger for a long time.
What the Winery Says
Winemaker’s notes:
The same structure, finesse, and purity of fruit that have long characterized Storybook Mountain Zinfandels are evident in Seps Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. These qualities reflect the estate vineyard’s relatively cool climate, its clay-loam soils, and its easterly and northerly exposures. The style of the wines also reflects Jerry Seps’ preference for wines of moderate alcohol, intense, focused fruit and exemplary balance.
Wine Specs
Alcohol: 14.5%
Vintage: 2008
Appellation: Napa Valley
About the Winery
Storybook Mountain has established a world-wide reputation for the consistently high quality of its wines. The Zinfandel tradition began at Storybook Mountain in the early 1880s when its red clay-loam hillsides in the Mayacamas Range were first planted to this varietal. Here, an ideal match of terroir and grape allows Zinfandel to show its true potential.Legend has it that all Storybook Zinfandels have happy endings.
Storybook Mountain’s sought-after estate wines are carefully hand-crafted from choice grapes grown in certified organic estate vineyards surrounding the winery. They are aged at least 12 months in the best French, Hungarian and American oak barrels, inside century-old caves dug deep into the mineral-rich volcanic rock underlying the hand-tended vineyard.
Proprietors Jerry and Sigrid Seps’ wines are famed for intensity and longevity. Raspberries, black cherries and spice are the essence of their complex, well balanced and elegant wines.
