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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2003 and 2009 (based on 7 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 90.2 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 8 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by RichEB1 on 5/1/2021 & rated 93 points: I mean....Best label ever?? First time with this producer and I was not disappointed. Old school, rustic cab goodness with distinct minty, herbal notes being the main attraction. Perfectly complimented by high acidity and a bit of cassis. And you gotta love the 12.9% ABV. Great stuff and exactly what i was looking for tonight. (532 views) | | | Tasted by tooch on 1/12/2013 flawed bottle: Saturday with David White (Domaine Wine Storage & Sun Wah - Chicago, IL): off bottle (2350 views) | | | Tasted by tooch on 11/12/2012 & rated 93 points: Dinner at Sun Wah (Sun Wah BBQ - Chicago, IL): A great year in California adds a bit of depth and volume to this wine. Compared to the 1995 & 1996, this was a bit darker and denser. Still had that great minty, earthy, dark fruit profile that reminds me a lot of aged Montelena's. (2071 views) | | | Tasted by vcerf on 1/7/2012 & rated 80 points: I am not sure I can say this was corked but it was acrid and bitter - NOT recommended. (1581 views) | | | Tasted by tooch on 10/15/2011 & rated 92 points: Nerd Dinner (Medium Rare - Washington, DC): Another wonderful bottle of Thunder Mountain Cabernet. Nose is full of eucalyptus, peppers, dark fruit and smokey minerals. I continue to love these Thunder Mountain wines...restrained and elegant with focused dark fruit, cedar, shredded tobacco and spices. Thunder Mountain continues to be a favorite California cabernet producer for me...great stuff. (1926 views) | | | Tasted by pgb67 on 10/20/2009 flawed bottle: Wow - badly corked! (1692 views) | | | Tasted by cgoumas on 12/15/2005 & rated 90 points: Not the typical Cal Cab. More earthy and complex than most. Fruit is secondary characteristic. Still finishes strong with a lot to tannins. (1816 views) | | | Tasted by Keith Levenberg on 6/15/2005 & rated 93 points: Seriously impressive, this combined the balance and depth of a top Bordeaux with truly amazing richness. Scents of cigar box, scorched earth, and beef blood give it a personality with equal parts of Pauillac and Graves, plus the intensity of California Cabernet without any crowd-pleasing sweetness. The bold, mouth-coating fruit masks the tannins for awhile, but a few gulps without food plants the woolly tannins on the gums with an exclamation point. (2407 views) |
| Cabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.
Used as frequently in blends as in varietal wines, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend) and in Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace. Even the bold Tannat-based wines of Madiran are now generally softened with Cabernet SauvignonUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Santa Cruz Mountains Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association | Wikipedia
Once referred to by wine writers as the Chaine d'Or -- or "golden chain" -- the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA sits above Silicon Valley, running along the craggy range next to the Pacific on some of the prettiest parts of Northern California. The area supports more than 75 wineries, despite being limited by geography and high land prices.
In 1981 the Santa Cruz Mountains Viticultural Appellation became federally recognized, one of the first American viticultural areas to be defined by geophysical and climatic factors. The appellation encompasses the Santa Cruz Mountain range, from Half Moon Bay in the north, to Mount Madonna in the south. The east and west boundaries are defined by elevation, extending down to 800 feet in the east and 400 feet in the west. |
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