2013 Juslyn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Spring Mountain District Napa Valley 750 ml

A youthful Craig MacLean first spotted the impossibly steep slope at the base of Spring Mountain in 1994. MacLean was then the head winemaker at Spring Mountain Vineyards and was coming to know the mountain about as well as anyone. But this hillside that he found most intriguing spoke far less of the mountain than it did of the rocky patches of St. Helena and Oakville on the valley floor, albeit with a 30-degree slope!

MacLean passed by the hillside a couple days a week, trudging up and down and marveling at the rugged soil, imagining a Cabernet with To Kalon-like richness braced by the edgy backbone of the mountain. But the young winemaker knew his dream spot was just that; the likelihood of anyone ever buying the parcel, then investing in its planting, was almost nil. Still, the winemaker thought, what’s wrong with dreaming?

Two years later, Perry Butler and his wife Carolyn not only bought the property, but brought in a team with spades and shovels (there was no other way, given the poor soil and heart-attack grade), jabbing sticks in the ground, planting Cabernet Sauvignon all around. Then Butler called MacLean.

Since the release of the 2004 vintage, Robert Parker has lavished high scores and praise on MacLean’s fabulously rich, ultra-sleek Cabernet Sauvignons, bottles that come out of the gate like racehorses, but continue to age gracefully for decades. In the mild, dry 2013 growing season, Juslyn’s deep-rooted Cabernet Sauvignon shrugged off drought conditions, eking out 3 tons per acre of small-berry Cabernet Sauvignon. Skin-to-juice ratio was high. Concentration was extreme. Seeds were brown, much explaining the sumptuous tannic structure of this herculean Cabernet Sauvignon.

Saturated purple. Intense aromas of blackberry, black raspberry, and mountain blueberry jam, generously laced with new-wood cedar. Explosive on entry, dense, voluptuous, and far more compact than the more loosely knit 2012, the core is packed with black-fruit preserves with hints of violets, spice, and what British wine writer Michael Broadbent always called Lafite-Rothschild “lead pencil.” Drink now if you just can’t help yourself or far, far better, lay down the most powerful Cabernet ever crafted off this world-class estate until the late 2030s!

Tasted twice by Parker — 92-94 points each time. $150 on release. A tad over HALF PRICE on Wine Access.