92 Points - Beverage Tasting Institute
Gold Medal - Winemakers' Challenge
Gold Medal - Sommelier Challenge
With so many new wine labels popping up each year, and so many older family-run wineries being sold off to big companies, it seems like a great achievement when a small winery can make it to even its ten-year anniversary. To make it to 30 years and beyond, as Hagafen Cellars has done under the original owners Ernie and Irit Weir, is truly a special accomplishment. Today we are offering Hagafen’s 2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a special bottling which commemorates Hagafen’s 30th anniversary.
The 2008 Napa Cabernet is sourced from the Weir Family Vineyard, from the pirzed area along Silverado Trail between Stag’s Leap and Oak Knoll that is home to so many great Cabernet vineyards. Deep ruby in color even at 6 years of age, this must have been an extremely dark wine at bottling. The nose shows classic Cabernet notes of crèmes de cases, cherry, leather and cedar. The palate shows cherry, cigar box, vanilla, and an herbal note, along with a hint of plum that may be coming from the addition of 5% Merlot. Fine grained yet still chewy tannin and spice linger on the finish. This is a marvelous Napa Cabernet, just hitting its prime drinking window now, and a bargain in a region where $40 is generally the starting point for Cabernet, let alone for one of this quality.
Vintage: 2008
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Appellation: Napa Valley
Harvest Date: September 24th, 2008
Sugar: 25.0° Brix at harvest
Acid: 6.2 g/L
pH: 3.69
Alcohol %: 13.6
Gold Medal
Light pink in color with aromas of watermelon, cranberry, orange rind, and fresh spring flowers that leap from the glass. The palate offers more peach, strawberry, and melon, with an intriguing note of rose and hibiscus. It's crisp with just the perfect hint of red fruit, and delicate whisper of strawberry that gives goosebumps.
91 Points
Shimmering ruby-purple hue. The nose is a walk through a damp Sonoma forest—mossy bark and wild earth—brightened by high-toned notes of cranberry sauce and blood orange. On the palate, it's generously long in the mouth, with good concentration. It's a masterclass in tension: intense, cherry and red current fruit meets dark spice and fine, sandy tannins.
96 Point Vintage
Entices with aromas of Bing cherry, raspberry, and cedar spice. Indicative of the cool vintage, the wine carries a freshness throughout. The palate offers a harmonious balance between bright red fruit, spice, and nicely woven tannins.
Gold Medal
Generously packed with black cherry, cola, cassis, and plum that all intermingle together in a creamy, velvety texture with great layering, finishing with delightful notes of oak and spice. Persistent, well-defined structure, wonderfully balanced.
97 Points
Rich dark fruit flavors of blackberry and cherry with notes of baking spices, licorice, coffee, and chocolate that interlace seamlessly with complexity, creating a wine that is both structured and delightfully supple, achieving an ideal balance of tension and grace. Artfully composed of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon with 17% Cabernet Franc, resulting in harmonious depth and freshness.
92 Points
A powerful expression of Cabernet Sauvignon. On the nose, it's enticing and fragrant, bursting with fresh blueberries, blackberry tart, cedar, black olives, and hints of spicebox. Its palate provides big, round chewy tannins, sweet ripe black cherries, blackberry cordial, Bourbon-soaked maraschino cherries, maple roasted walnuts, and a touch of vanilla.
