The 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate showed beautifully, with a deep plum hue as well as Saint-Julien-like elegance and purity, revealing lots of cassis fruits as well as chocolatey herbs and underbrush aromatics. It has plenty of classic, old school Cabernet herbal notes, silky tannins, and a beautiful finish, all making for an ultra-classic, mature Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

In 2000, Rosemary Cakebread was still in charge, and production soared to more than 5,000 cases for the first time since 1992. This was a challenging vintage in California, but this wine is a real sleeper of that year and certainly one of the vintage’s strongest efforts. This was the first wine made entirely at the new Spottswoode Winery. The blend was identical to so many of the Spottswoode wines: 94% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Cabernet Franc. Exotic, rich, blue and black fruits soar from the glass of this wine that seems open-knit, velvety textured and not terribly structured, but possessing beautiful fruit and fragrance. It is a sleeper selection and a beauty of medium body to drink over the next 7-8 years. - Robert M. Parker, Jr.