98 points Antonio Galloni presents Vinous - September 9, 2020
Mount Eden’s 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon represents the essence of what Cabernet Sauvignon is all about in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Deep, powerful and explosive, the 2016 simply has it all. A wine of tremendous depth and intensity. Readers, take note. This is world class Cabernet Sauvignon that in any other region would cost 2-3 times as much. Savory and expansive, with tons of mountain character and remarkable richness from low yields in 2016, the Cabernet Sauvignon is simply off the charts. It’s another utterly breathtaking wine from Mount Eden.
97+ points Robert Parker Jr's The Wine Advocate - February 2021, Week 1
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is blended with 12% Merlot, 7% Cabernet France and 2% Petit Verdot. The nose offers pure cassis finely layered with Chinese five spice, dried rose petals, graphite and pipe tobacco with a wine, game-like undercurrent. The palate is seamless, opening to an array of detailed fruits and spices, with a silt-like structure and expansive juicy uplift. It’s a wonderfully balanced Cabernet that offers immediate appeal plus everything it needs for a long life in the cellar. —E. B.
97+ points Decanter Magazine
- June 2021
The combination of high-elevation vineyards, oceanic influence and surrounding coniferous forest give Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet a singular profile, and few show it off as well as Mount Eden. Aged 22 months in 50% new oak, a mixture of French and American. Contains 12% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot. American wood instils notes of candied orange rind and coconut flakes into an otherwise gravel-driven nose. The palate has a graceful, buoyant quality that gently floats across the palate. The finish is very dry and wound up like a spring, which will continue to be the case for the next several years. This is a wine to slowly let unfurl, both when ageing and consuming; open several hours in advance. Drinking Window 2024 – 2054 —Matthew Luczy
95 points Wine Enthusiast Magazine - November 2020
Cellar Selection
Dried dark fruit, toasted cedar, shaved cocoa and sappy redwood tones make for a very dry expression on the nose of this classic bottling. Those elements meet with dense and dry blackberry and black plum on the sip, where dried herbs, black-pepper and soy flavors also arise. The elegant structure is such that this wine just doesn’t die, even after more than a week of sitting open. Drink 2022–2046.—M.K.
95 points Wine & Spirits Magazine - December [Year's Best US Cabernet & Blends]
It’s rare to fine joyous cabernet: This is a wine with bounce to its black raspberry and red currant fruit, as if that succulent fruit were rising directly out of the warm, earthy tannins. Jeffrey Patterson grew this at his historic vineyard, were cabernet sauvignon (75 percent), merlot (22 percent) and franc are rooted in shale soils 15 miles from the Pacific and 2,000 feet above it, the vine selections tracing their lineage directly back to 19th-century Bordeaux. The 2016 is compressed as a young wine, needing four days after the bottle is first opened to fully show itself, then it will turn your head with its lovely weight of sumptuous fruit. Give it a decade or more in the cellar to get the most out of the bottle. —J.G.
93 points Wine Spectator - November 2020
This shows a zesty mix of sage and grilled savory notes, backed by a sleek black currant, plum and black cherry core. The singed alder and mesquite frame shows on the finish, which is tightly focused and youthfully closed for now, with just a bolt of iron showing. When this rounds into form, it will be a winner. Best from 2023 through 2036. —J.M.
18 points JaniceRobinson.com - January 18, 2021
18 (about 93-95 on the 100-pt. scale)
Grown at an elevation of 2,000 ft (610 m) on the original Mount Eden Estate.
Dark garnet. Aromas of black cherry and cassis. Elegant and lithe flavours of black cherry and cassis are shot through with pencil shavings and a touch of whiskey- barrel wood. Excellent acidity and restrained fine-grained tannins suggest a very long life for this wine. Poised and impressive. (AY)
