2018 Stone The Crows Cabernet Sauvignon

Tasting Notes

Our flagship 2018 Stone the Crows Cabernet Sauvignon from our estate Three Twins Vineyard shows a deep, royal ruby-purple in the glass. One swirl reveals fabulous aromas of candied violets, ripe blackberry, blueberry, and cherry liqueur, along with rich earthy aromas, and spiced mountain sagebrush. Incredibly pure and layered, offering decadent blackberry fruit, spiced plum, and crème de framboise, even hinting at blueberry tart. All this succulent fruit is underscored by silky, elongated tannins, that are chewy and powerful, supported by a firm acid backbone and framed by elegant French oak accents, splashes of dark chocolate, brown baking spices, and a long dark Cherry finish with tobacco leaf accents. While deeply concentrated, this 2018 release possesses an almost feather-lite quality. Seamless from start to finish, we recommend a 30-minute decant, and serve in large Bordeaux stems at cellar temperature. Enjoy this wine now and often over the next 15-20 years.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2017 Stone The Crows Cabernet Sauvignon

Tasting Notes

Opaque ruby color. Violets, creme de cassis, crushed stones, thyme, toasty French oak spices tinged with savoy herbs de Provence. Waves of silken fruit envelop the palate, unfolding in layers of rich blackberry and wildberry compote, mountain blueberry, and flourishes of tart raspberry. Underneath a bevy of lush fruit, supple tannins with remarkable fine-grained texture are the result of aging in fine French oak, and all leading to a minute-long finish accented by subtle brown spices, violets, and ethereal red rose petals notes.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2017 Fallen Feather Cabernet Sauvignon

Tasting Notes

Opaque ruby-purple. Intensely aromatic, with pronounced blackberry, just-picked blueberries, cassis, candied violets, brown sugar, and vanilla spices. Immediately dense, powerful, and packed with ripe and juicy dark-berried fruits, redolent of blackberry, black cherry, and blueberry coulis. For all its power and fruit concentration this is a vintage that is teeming with energy and freshness. After time in the glass aromas and flavors of bright red berry fruits begin to emerge, all supported by a framework grippy, cedar-like tannins and a long finish lavender floral finish punctuated by the same aromatic wild herbs like sagebrush and thyme that grow around our Three Twins Estate Vineyard.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2016 Stone The Crows Cabernet Sauvignon

2016 Growing Season

2016 Marked yet another outstanding vintage in Napa Valley, following suit with 2013, 2014, and 2015. A warm spring jump-started the season up to a month early, similar to 2015. June was hotter than normal and July looked to follow suit until temperatures peaked mid month, cooling off into August. The temperature drop was accompanied by a heavy marine layer that settled above the Napa Valley floor, keeping morning temperatures in particular in the low 60s.

The Three Twins vineyard, always an earlier site due to being hillside, ripened evenly with a medium crop load, with the first blocks coming off in late September. This turned out to be magnificent timing as it preceded the heavy October rains.

The Three Twins estate vineyard which produced the 2017 Stone the Crows Cabernet Sauvignon has traditionally been a site that comes to full maturity early in the harvest season, which greatly benefitted the wines for this vintage due to the wildfires which began the first week in October. The fruit was harvested between two separate picks, based on flavor development, on September 19th and the 28th. The wines have developed in barrel with layers of complexity and waves of vivid flavor. This vintage is showing a lot of structure early on and that paired with the classic Three Twins vineyard profile of intense dark fruit and spice notes suggests this wine will be one for the ages.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2016 Fallen Feather Cabernet Sauvignon

2016 Growing Season

2016 Marked yet another outstanding vintage in Napa Valley, following suit with 2013, 2014, and 2015. A warm spring jump-started the season up to a month early, similar to 2015. June was hotter than normal and July looked to follow suit until temperatures peaked mid month, cooling off into August. The temperature drop was accompanied by a heavy marine layer that settled above the Napa Valley floor, keeping morning temperatures in particular in the low 60s.

The Three Twins vineyard, always an earlier site due to being hillside, ripened evenly with a medium crop load, with the first blocks coming off in late September. This turned out to be magnificent timing as it preceded the heavy October rains.

This vintage is marked by incredibly luxurious, giving notes on both the nose and palate. Hedonistic aromas of blackberry reduction, fresh tobacco leaf, roasted meat, and spearmint oil swell from the glass in vivid layers. Rarely do you refer to aromas as being saturating, but that applies here. The palate follows suit with mouth-coating notes of cocoa, macerated brambly fruit, baking spices, river stone, and lavender. There is a fine balance between the lush fruit component, and a silky integrated tannin structure. The astute use of new French oak rounds out the periphery of the wine giving it a very soft trajectory, front to back. While drinking extremely well now after a few hours in the decanter, with 3-5 years in the cellar this wine will develop into an even more graceful expression of hillside Cabernet Sauvignon.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2015 Stone The Crows Cabernet Sauvignon

2015 Growing Season

2015 was a difficult growing season. While the quality of fruit was superb, the yields were about half of a normal harvest. However, the subtly, concentration and balance of the wine is quite remarkable and very approachable even at this time.

In 2015, a vintage defined by a smaller than average crop, both in cluster size and berry size, this wine reached a new level of concentration and complexity. Completely purple-black in the glass, this is a wine defined by mystery and power. Aromatic notes of smoked cedar, blackberry compote and pine bough swell from this glass. The palate suggests blueberry reduction, cinnamon stick, lavender and blossoming jasmine. The tannin profile is medium-grained and present from the front to the back of the palate tightly framing the rich fruit and spice notes. With 3-5 years in the cellar this bold wine will unpack a bit and open up to show even more expressive qualities.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2014 Stone The Crows Cabernet Sauvignon

2014 Growing Season

Following suit with the previous two vintages, 2014 produced exceptional fruit, creating wines with intense aromatics and complex, layered flavor profiles.  What sets 2014 apart is two-fold.  Both overall quantities and individual berry size was down significantly from the previous two vintages.  2014 also marked the earliest harvest for Cabernet Sauvignon that even multi-generational Napa Valley winemaking families had experienced.  The growing season albeit compact, was notable for its even and consistent temperatures.  There weren’t any dramatic heat spikes so the fruit matured on the vine with sugars and flavors advancing in accord.  The smaller crop and berry size produced wines that are incredibly dark due to the increase in skin-to-juice ratio and the end result is wine of great character.

It’s hard to imagine a vineyard that gets so much uninhibited sun exposure throughout the day could produce a wine that is so complex, brooding and cavernous.  Upon initial inspection, the color of this wine is impenetrable black-purple.  The aromatic profile is densely multi-layered, exhibiting notes of black licorice, lavender, cassis, graphite; all the classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon characteristics. The mouth feel is highlighted by round red fruit notes in the front of the palate, transitioning deeper into crushed blackberries, river rock, cocoa nib, tobacco leaf and toasted cedar bark in the mid-palate, all the way through the elongated, ethereal finish.  This wine is a very pure, effusive expression of Cabernet Sauvignon.  With 5+ years in the cellar it will evolve into an even more expressive wine, which is difficult to fathom now.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2014 Fallen Feather Cabernet Sauvignon

2014 Growing Season

Following suit with the previous two vintages, 2014 produced exceptional fruit, creating wines with intense aromatics and complex, layered flavor profiles.  What sets 2014 apart is two-fold.  Both overall quantities and individual berry size was down significantly from the previous two vintages.  2014 also marked the earliest harvest for Cabernet Sauvignon that even multi-generational Napa Valley winemaking families had experienced.  The growing season albeit compact, was notable for its even and consistent temperatures.  There weren’t any dramatic heat spikes so the fruit matured on the vine with sugars and flavors advancing in accord.  The smaller crop and berry size produced wines that are incredibly dark due to the increase in skin-to-juice ratio and the end result is wine of great character.

In the glass this wine possesses a nearly opaque dark purple hue.  Vivid aromatics emerge, dominated by notes of dark brambly fruit, graphite, black licorice, and sandalwood. Rich notes of cassis, plum skin, cranberry compote and worn leather are woven throughout the palate experience.  While this wine starts with a pleasing fruit focus, the finish is where the structure comes through with a balanced fine tannin profile.  This wine will benefit with an hour decant before enjoying and over the next 2-3 years will age gracefully in your cellar.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2013 Stone the Crows Cabernet Sauvignon

2013 Growing Season

2013 signalled another year with a bumper crop and ideal growing conditions, with even temperatures throughout the growing season only peaking above 100 degrees once in June.  This led to the progression of the clusters going from budbreak, to bloom, to set and into veraison with a remarkable consistent pace.  When nature doesn’t force or stall the hand of the vines to move through their growth cycle, what can potentially come through in the finished wine is limitless.  In the case of the 2013 Stone The Crows Cabernet Sauvignon it is a pure expression of the site, and everything good that Cabernet Sauvignon has to offer.

Immediately on the nose there are deeply layered aromas that draw you in with notes of cocoa nib, tack room, graphite and baking spices.  On the palate there is a robust, spherical mouthfeel that encapsulates complex notes of brambly fruit, crushed rock, black tea, and cassis with a clean finish that does not overstay its welcome.  One of the most striking qualities of this vintage is the keen balance of both power and richness complemented by a clean purity of form.  This wine will age will the same kind of grace it displays in the glass today for at least 7-10 years.

Thomas Rivers Brown

2013 Fallen Feather Cabernet Sauvignon

2013 Growing Season

2013 signalled another year with a bumper crop and ideal growing conditions, with even temperatures throughout the growing season only peaking above 100 degrees once in June.  This led to the progression of the clusters going from budbreak, to bloom, to set and into veraison with a remarkable consistent pace.  When nature doesn’t force or stall the hand of the vines to move through their growth cycle, what can potentially come through in the finished wine is limitless.  In the case of the 2013 Stone The Crows Cabernet Sauvignon it is a pure expression of the site, and everything good that Cabernet Sauvignon has to offer.

This wine undoubtedly comes from Three Twins vineyard as you immediately experience sweeping high tone aromatic notes coming from the glass, a hallmark of the site.  On the palate, the mouthfeel is incredibly sleek and has a nice balance of very bright and airy fruit notes, coupled with an earthiness and structured set of tannins.  This is definitely a wine meant to be enjoyed early on, but with 2-3 years in the cellar, the hillside tannin profile will become smoother and more refined.

Thomas Rivers Brown