December 2001 Over the last months, Wine & Spirits tasted 400 cabernets. The following 17 wines received the strongest praise from our critics. A list of all cabernet tasted, with the recommended wines highlighted, is included with subscription copies.

Cabernet Sauvignon
96 I Dalla Valle $80 1997 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Imagine a plum with as many facets as a diamond and you might begin to consider this wine's brilliance and beauty in your mind. But how much better to taste it, to luxuriate in its wealth of flavor, to feel the concentrated pressure of all its red fruit layered with the earthiness of the Oakville hillside estate on which it grows, with the chocolate smoothness of tannin, with the mint of acidity to refresh it? And how much better to put this wine away for ten years and taste it again, when the deep color will have mellowed and the already sophisticated flavors will have transformed into something ever more complex and satisfying? Dalla Valle Vineyards, Oakville, CA
95 I Chimney Rock $90 1998 Napa Valley Reserve Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon Plush and expansive, this wine opens up to layers of richness, from low tones of espresso and dark plums to higher notes of berries and pomegranate, all melding harmoniously, all lasting in a bridge of flavor over a base line of oak. Certainly, that oak plays a major role right now, but there's so much beyond it, the mouthwatering fruit, the deft tannins, that cellar time will bring to the fore. For all its bold flavor, this cabernet defines the gentleness of the Ô98 vintage. Chimney Rock Winery, Napa, CA
95 I Dominus $100 1998 Napa Valley On the third day opened, the wine begins to yield. Black raspberry and currant fruit presides where tannin reigned. It's transformed into a beautiful, shimmering thing, a wine completely distinct from most Napa Valley cabernets, one grown to age and to express the Yountville hillside vines rising up from the stone winery at the foot of the hill. What for some was a difficult cabernet vintage in Napa, '98 caused winemaker Bruno Champy to adjust any number of factors Ñ from thinning after a difficult bloom, to tannin management through shorter macerations and less pumping over, to less new oak and less time in barrel and finally eliminating 50 percent of the lot. The struggle doesn't show in the wine, or perhaps it shows in the greatness of the wine. Cellar it. Dominus Estate, Yountville, CA
95 I Niebaum-Coppola $100 1997 Rutherford - Napa Valley Rubicon The '97 vintage sets off Gustav Niebaum's classic Rutherford vineyard at its best: The wine is a black beauty, its tannins yielding the trademark dust, the point of ripeness so balanced it feels copacetic. Yet don't be fooled by that natural grace. Underneath, this is a tight and intricate young cabernet, a wine layering its flavors with the warmth of grapes ripening in the sun, the coolness of the earth at night, the maturity of the grape skins and pips that turns that earthiness toward dust only to be carried off into the sheer black cherry juiciness that glows on and on. Niebaum-Coppola Estate, Winery & Vineyards, Rutherford, CA
95 I Seven Hills $40 1998 Walla Walla Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon An extremely limited selection, this cabernet offers near perfect form, the fruit flavors filling out the structure with a grace and ease rarely encountered. It's dark to the rim, filled with black fig and currant scents, cabernet in a gloriously pure state. (It doesn't taste like Mouton Rothschild, but it parallels the essential black currant cabernet flavor of a ripe Mouton vintage.) The textural richness is checked in the finish by firm tannins, youthfully ferrous, but never taking the focus away from that lasting fruit. Seven Hills Winery, Walla Walla, WA
95 I Shafer $150 1997 Napa Valley - Stags Leap District Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon One of the best vintages Shafer has produced from their hillside vines, this delicious wine makes it clear why Hillside Select has become a cult cabernet. It's a pure expression of the variety, black and jamming with fruit, with lush black cherry and edgier black currant flavors. And it's clearly anchored in Stag's Leap, with the espresso bean richness, the suppleness of its young tannin. Then it goes beyond the variety and the place, and it speaks to more primitive appetites, the indefinable melding of fullness and grip that makes it yummy, that bends the will and makes even the most jaded cabernet taster swallow instead of spit (okay, I admit it). Shafer Vineyards, Napa, CA
94 I Bell $85 1997 Rutherford - Napa Valley Baritelle Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon As grown by Baritelle since the '91 vintage, the Jackson Clone (aka Clone 6) creates a complex cabernet essence out of his Rutherford terroir. The great '97 vintage will likely be a benchmark for this wine Ñ a dynamic force that will develop for years. Right now, it has the immediacy of a deep currant scent, a super-rich texture, a dark plummy and black olive savor that lasts. The tannins brace all the flavor without getting in its way, a wall of cabernet intensity rushing forward. With a day or two of air, the texture and brightness of the fruit continues to gain, lifting the wine into a cloud of currants. Bell Wine Cellars, Yountville, CA
94 I Caymus $136 1997 Napa Valley Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon When first poured, this is tight and severe, its scents of rose hips, raspberry and blackberry jam not enough to fill the youthful structure. But give it plenty of time in the glass and the expansive nature of the wine takes hold, filling the green tannins with black licorice, overcoming the substantial alcohol with grand and supple fruit. And there's a lasting soil character that emerges to lend it distinction, all carried along with a surprising agility for the huge scale of the wine. It's a bold cabernet, a Napa Valley classic. Caymus Vineyards, Rutherford, CA
94 I Grgich Hills $45 1997 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Grgich made a grand '97, a massive cabernet from start to finish, still youthful and unevolved. Tannins numb the surface of the wine, rich and black with a savor that cuts at the dark fruit like a knife. At first, that fruit is just as black as the tannins, an essence of the black skin of the grapes, then it builds from under the tannin to take on deeper, bolder plum flavors. It should lengthen out as it ages, but even now it's great stuff. Grgich Hills Cellar, Rutherford, CA
94 I Groth $135 1997 Oakville Napa Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Groth's '97 Reserve makes an impression as a standard-bearer for Napa Valley cabernet. It communicates its Oakville soil through a fragrance of currants, of red cherries and raspberries and licorice all held in a dusty tannin. It takes the clean weight and density of all that fruit, builds with effusiveness from a small, compact place to a bigger space, opening up with the grace of a swan spreading its wings. Groth Vineyards & Winery, Oakville, CA
94 I Halo $125 1997 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Seductive right from the first scent, this wine is bursting with red fruit, with freshly ground red spices, with dark roast espresso-scented tannin. And it's all in a tense balance, elevating the flavors into a glorious, cloud-like expanse as they linger, transformed from sense to memory over the course of a minute. For all its tension and tannin, it remains grounded in fruit, a wine balanced for aging ten years or more. Trefethen Vineyards, Napa, CA
94 I Liparita $65 1998 Napa Valley Vineyard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Taken to an extreme ripeness, this is almost Port-like, but gentler than that, perfumed, robust, sophisticated and purely cabernet. The aromas broaden out from lead pencil to the ripe, blackberry syrup tones of the fruit, to the toasty warmth of the oak. That oak has it all wound up, but it can't keep the earthiness from showing underneath, the raft of tannins carrying all the red and black fruit across the palate and long into the finish. Beautifully grown, beautifully balanced, this should age well. Liparita Cellars, Oakville, CA
94 I Pine Ridge $60 1998 Napa Valley - Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon Bold and seductive, this Howell Mountain cabernet transcends any difficulties of the vintage to stand generous and grand on its own terms. With scents of black currants and violets hovering over a dense mouthful of juicy plum, the wine is short but already showing signs of expanding out. The tannin is hard as ground stone, fierce at the moment, gripping the density of fruit with Napa mountain intensity. This is a long-term ager. Pine Ridge Winery, Napa, CA
94 I Pine Ridge $60 1998 Napa Valley - Stag's Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon This cabernet hits the perfect balance for the '98 vintage, neither too aggressively fruity, too big nor too tannic. Fresh and young, it has the black, espresso-roast scent of Stag's Leap tannins, and in the best SLD tradition, the wine is accessible and ageworthy at once. Drink it now and the dark fruit provides its own succor against those tannins, already offering complexity. Age it past the facile new oak, beyond the cool, primary richness of the fruit and chocolatey tannins and at eight to ten years from the vintage you'll have a deeply complex wine. Pine Ridge Winery, Napa, CA
94 I Sawyer $38 1997 Rutherford - Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon All about being grown in a great place, this lithe and supple Rutherford cabernet shows the classic dust to its tannins and an elegant refinement to its fruit. The generous texture offers a soft touch, an aristocratic grip to carry the flavors long after each sip. From the heavenly oak scent to the flavor of plums incarnate, this wine is already showing its beauty, though it will likely be best around ten years from the vintage. Sawyer Cellars, Rutherford, CA
94 I Staglin $65 1997 Rutherford Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon What's most impressive about the wine is how complete it is, how the black scents of coffee, cocoa and licorice play into the flavors of damson plums; how the extremely ripe, mouthfilling fruit manages to sustain a balance, the intricacy of its flavors packed away and laying in wait. The finish is already remarkably long, seeming to last for minutes after each sip. It's all wound up, and as it unwinds it should continue to lengthen, perhaps reaching its best at ten to twelve years of age. Staglin Family Vineyard, Rutherford, CA
94 I York Creek $45 1997 Napa Valley Spring Mountain District Red When great Spring Mountain fruit gets ripe, it offers a lovely terroir character. Here, it's expressed in scents of rose hip and beach plum, in layers of earthiness under the pure cherries and berries of the fruit. The wine has elegance, its fruit providing depth without weight, its body manifest as an essence, as earth transmuted into sky. Stay with it and the wine will reward you with the lasting savor of its red fruit, a line of flavor that continues on long after each sip. York Creek Cellars, Rutherford, CA