2015 Juslyn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain 750 ml

Spring Mountain’s Most Inspired Slope

Numbers never tell the whole story of a wine, but on a day like today, they simply can’t be ignored. At 97 points, the 2015 Juslyn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon from Spring Mountain is the highest rated wine ever produced by Juslyn. It’s also #3 on Robert Parker’s list of the top Spring Mountain Cabernets of 2015, right behind Lokoya (98pts, $375) and Vineyard 7&8 (97+, $185). Offering “exuberant black cherries, mulberries and cassis,” the 2015 Juslyn is “full-bodied, rich, concentrated and decadent,” as Robert Parker put it, as well as an exceedingly good value. 28 cases were all that remained of the entire production when we visited the winery a few weeks ago, and we were so blown away by the quality that we took them all.

Part two of this story begins over 20 years ago with Napa legend and longtime Juslyn winemaker, Craig Maclean. In 1994, the youthful MacLean first spotted the impossibly steep slope at the base of Spring Mountain that would one day yield today’s 97-point gem. At the time, he was the head winemaker at Spring Mountain Vineyards and was becoming an expert on the mountain’s jagged ridges and valleys. But the hillside that Maclean found most intriguing spoke far less of the mountain itself than it did of the rocky patches of ground on the valley floor in St. Helena and Oakville. With one salient difference: The grade of MacLean’s slope was 30 degrees!

MacLean passed by the hillside every few days, trudging up and down, marveling at the rugged soil, fantasizing about the Cabernet it could produce: To Kalon-like richness, bracketed by the edgy backbone of the looming 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, why not dream?

Two years later, Perry Butler and his wife Carolyn not only bought the property, but brought in a vineyard management team lead by Oscar Renteria (whose clients include Etude, Duckhorn, Rombauer, and in the past Screaming Eagle and Dalla Valle) to plant the impossible slope with spades and shovels (there was no other way, given the poor soil and the heart attack-inducing slope). Then Butler called MacLean.

Between 2004 and 2014 Maclean translated that perilous hillside into a plethora of high-scoring, Parker favorites—fabulously rich, ultra-sleek Cabernet Sauvignons that race from the gate like thoroughbreds, but continue to age gracefully for decades. Then, in 2015 Maclean passed the reins to Angelina Mondavi—yes, that Mondavi. The brilliant winemaker wasted no time getting accustomed to her new digs, quickly skyrocketing Maclean’s cherished parcel to still greater heights in the form of today’s Spring Mountain stunner.

In what amounts to a new beginning, the estate Robert Parker called “under most consumers’ radar” is on the verge of blowing up. And when it does, 97-pointers won’t go for anywhere near $125. Don’t miss the last 24 cases of Mondavi’s incredible first effort.