Nothing Short of Magnificent
- 95 pts Wine Spectator95 pts WS
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2013 Caymus Vineyards "Special Selection" Cabernet Sauvignon 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
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- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
“Special Selection” is a gentle monster
Chuck Wagner was just 19 years old when he took his parents up on a proposal to make “home” wines, drawn from grapes harvested on their property in Rutherford. Chuck and his dad, Charlie, founded Caymus Vineyards in 1971 … and never looked back.
It’s hard to imagine today, given the elite status Caymus has attained among the world’s most collectible Cabernet Sauvignons, but in those early days, the family did almost everything themselves. Chuck’s mom, Lorna, began her day whipping up home-cooked breakfasts for the kids, before grabbing a pair of pruning shears, or hustling over to the bottling line. His dad was a jack-of-all-trades, and that work ethic quickly rubbed off on young Chuck.
If you’ve managed to get an appointment at the quaint, low-key tasting room in Rutherford, and have been fortunate enough to meet a member of one of Napa Valley’s royal families, you know that the apples haven’t fallen far from the tree. Chuck’s children, Charlie, Joey and Jenny, are as understated as their granddad, even in light of the meteoric ascent of a family-owned brand that reached new heights in 2013 — Robert Parker’s “greatest vintage in 37 years in Napa Valley.”
Of course, the family’s pride and joy is the Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon “Special Selection,” the only wine ever to be named Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year TWICE — first for the 1984 vintage, and then for the 1990.
The 2013 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon “Special Selection” is a gentle monster. Opaque purple-black. Massively concentrated, dense, plush, and opulent, velour-like texture, filled with a full-throttle mix of blackberry, black raspberry, and black currant preserves, doused with sweet crème de cassis, seemingly round, soft, and pliant. After a half hour in oversized Riedel, the titanic structure of this magnificent “Special Selection” begins to take center stage, as sneaky tannins brace and buttress all of the vintage’s natural black-fruit concentration, arguing gracefully for 15-25 years of cellar slumber.