Sorry, The Wine Spies doesn't support Internet Explorer anymore. Please use a newer browser to continue browsing our wine collections.
What We Say 2002 Progeny Cabernet Sauvignon
LIBRARY RAID WINE ALERT:
Today’s selection is a very limited allocation direct from St. Clement Vineyard’s wine library. Enjoy this exceptional selection at 25% off its regular price.
SECRET SAVINGS ALERT:
Subscribe to our Daily Dispatch (above) and you’ll always know what our Top Secret coupon code of the day is. Every day we issue a new members-only code that entitles you to have Ground Shipping included on orders of six or more and, sometimes, an added discount!
Mission Codename: Leader of Mt. Veeder
Operative: Agent White
Objective: Secure a library vintage of St. Clement Vineyards’ Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon
Mission Status: Accomplished
Current Winery: St. Clement Vineyards
Wine Subject: 2002 Cuvee Prometheus Cabernet Sauvignon
Winemaker: Danielle Cyrot
Backgrounder:
Mt. Veeder, located on the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas range has a climate that is cooler than the valley floor below. This climate and the more difficult (less fertile) volcanic mountain soil influence the flavors of the wines from this region. Most known for both Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, Mt. Veeder is known for producing grapes of exceptional character and intensity.
Wine Spies Tasting Profile:
Look – Dense and dark purple, almost black with an inky core. Along the edges, just a little light shines through revealing a dark purple-burgundy color. When swirled slow fat legs of varying speeds thin as they descent to the wine below.
Smell – Medium-bold in intensity with a whiff of blueberry that hits immediately upon opening. As the aromas settle, scents of ripe dark fruit are interlaced with wild anise, cedar box, black tea, tobacco, toasted oak, and smoked herbal notes.
Feel – This full-bodied wine is smooth and dry with finely textured firm tannins and balanced acidity that spreads across the palate. There are hints of this wine’s structured texture long into the finish.
Taste – Rich and dense with deeply extracted ripe blackberry and black-cherry (and other dark fruit) layered over oak, smoky herbal notes, tobacco, mocha and cedar box flavors. Earthy minerality that are both tasted, and more importantly, felt, mild spice and anise are well integrated with this wine’s classic mountain fruit.
Finish – This wine is clean and has a solid textural quality from the fine-grained tannins. Notice lingering fruit, herbs, and spice notes and minerality.
Conclusion – The 2002 St. Clement Vineyards Cuvee Prometheus Cabernet Sauvignon from Mt. Veeder’s Progeny Vineyards shows much of the Terroir character that makes the region’s fruit so well loved. Great textured tannins that linger long and hold the dense extracted fruit and other complex flavors makes this classic Cab a joy to drink and savor. Enjoy this lovely wine now or cellar for another ten plus years.
Mission Report:
The following is an extract from our first-encounter mission report, in which Agent White first becomes acquainted with our now-good friends at St. Clement:
It was perhaps the strangest of locations to start a wine mission. I entered the church and as the instructions indicated, I was to go to the second pew and show penance. As I knelt, in the pew, I noticed a book with a bookmark in it. Looking more closely, it was a history of the Papacy and the page that was bookmarked was about Pope Clement I (Clemens Romanus), who is also known as St. Clement. No being sure if this was the clue, I stayed for another hour and beyond the woman practicing on the organ, nobody came or went from the church.
Back at HQ, I entered in our research computer the search term ‘Clement’ and found that indeed, the bookmark was a clue. All signs pointed in the direction of St. Clement Vineyards in Napa Valley. We had an asset who could get us some additional intel so I PIN messaged Agent Malbec and within a few hours a courier had delivered a bottle of the St. Clement to our front company.
The bottle was immediately taken to the lab for analysis. The results were clear; It was an almost perfect wine, with fruit from one of the best vineyards in Napa. St. Clement had been on our radar for a couple months. Their winemaker Danielle Cyrot, with a long lineage of European winemakers was making quite a name for herself.
But as we always say, the proof is in the juice… Lab results, research, walks through the vineyards are all nice, but its in the glass that matters… Well, there’s no knelling for St. Clement wines. After tasting it, we were jumping for joy.
Wine Spies Vineyard Check:
The approximate location of the St. Clement Vineyards can be seen in this satellite photo.
What the Winery Says
St. Clement Vineyards
Awards & Accolades:
90 Points – Wine Advocate, Robert Parker, Jr. – “A monster in the making, it is not easy to evaluate the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Progeny Vineyard. A mountain-styled, highly-extracted, powerful, full-bodied, dense, meaty offering, it exhibits notes of smoked herbs, black cherries, blackberries, currants, and earth. Rich and fragrant, but frightfully tannic as well as broodingly backward, it is hard to judge where this huge Cabernet is headed. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2020” – February 2005
Voted Best Boutique Winery Two Years In A Row By Napa and Sonoma Valleys magazine.
Voted Best Local Winemaker – Winemaker Danielle Cyrot -
About This Wine:
Barrel aged for 20 months in 100% new French oak barrels, this Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon is filled with aromas of red cherries, blackberry jam, cola, and cinnamon spice. The steep hillsides from which this fruit came from, gives the wine intense tannin and structure. The dark red fruit flavors integrated with the dark chocolate and caramel flavors of the barrel make this wine a beautiful example of the complexity of mountain fruit.
About The Winery:
The philosophical approach to winemaking at St Clement is all about the land of Napa Valley. Much has been written about the idyllic nature and diversity of this 50-mile long valley. It is this diversity that forms the foundation for our approach to winemaking.
As an artist holds many colors on the palette to create subtle hues, we hold a collection of vineyards from the north in Calistoga to the south in Carneros and from the alluvial benches of the valley floor at Rutherford to the cloud clinging heights of Mt Veeder.
We take the fruit from this collection of small, independent growers to balance, blend and build our wines into totalities that mirror the complexity and beauty of the Napa valley itself.
About The Winemaker:
Danielle Cyrot – Winemaker, St. Clement Vineyards – As the third decade of her life begins, Danielle Cyrot brings a broad scope of international winemaking expertise that extends well beyond her age. And as the descendant of French vignerons whose history goes back for centuries, she is also renewing an enological tradition that had been dormant for three generations.
Technical Analysis:
Varietal Content: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot
Appellation: Mt. Veeder
Harvest Dates: September 23rd and September 24th, 2002
Vineyard: Progeny Vineyard
Bottling Completed: June 2004
Case Production: 205 cases
