The Cakebread Cellars single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons from the highly anticipated 2012 vintage will be arriving in the BC market in late September of this year.  As such we are very pleased to offer you these wines on a pre-offer basis.

All the details are below and pre-orders can be placed by emailing jonellison@marquis-wines.com.

2012 Vine Hill Cabernet Sauvignon - $178.17 pre-tax ($205.00)

"A dense, ripe, perfumed nose of blackberry, black plum and blackcurrant, coupled with intriguing lavender, loam, spice and mineral scents, prefaces an immensely concentrated palate packed with intense, potent, blackberry, cassis, mission fig and dark chocolate flavors beautifully structured by firm, supple tannins. Incredibly focused, with a spellbindingly long finish showcasing savory black cherry, spice and mineral tones, this remarkable cabernet sauvignon, among Napa Valley's most distinctive, will age beautifully for a decade or more."

- Winemaker's Notes

2012 Benchland - $178.17 pre-tax ($205.00)

"One of the flagship wines of Napa Valley is Cakebread's 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Benchland Select. Made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville (27%) and Rutherford (73%), and aged 21 months in 52% new French oak, it exhibits a dense ruby/purple color, lots of minerality, a hint of oak in the background, and abundant crème de cassis fruit. The wine is full-bodied with beautiful integration of acidity, tannin and wood. It is still youthful, but the opulent characteristic of the 2012s is well-displayed. This brilliant wine can be drunk early in life, or cellared for another 10-15+ years."

- eRobertParker.com #215    95 points

2012 Dancing Bear Ranch - $208.60 ($240.00)

"The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Dancing Bear Ranch, a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot from Howell Mountain, is a superstar of the vintage. Beautiful notes of graphite, mulberries, blueberries and blackberries jump from the glass of this dense purple-colored 2012. Its full-bodied opulence, luscious texture, 45+-second finish, purity, texture and uncanny integration of all the component parts are beautiful to behold. This is a sensational, world-class Cabernet Sauvignon to drink early in life, or cellar for 10-15+ years."

- eRobertParker.com #215     99 points

About

Cakebread Cellars began in 1973 with the vineyard lands on the original 22-acre property in Rutherford. Over the years, the family has acquired additional vineyards throughout Napa Valley and the North Coast. Today, the winery owns 15 sites totaling 560 vineyard acres in Carneros, Rutherford, Howell Mountain and Anderson Valley as well as other prime locations in Napa.  The original property was predominantly pasture. Consultation with the University of California at Davis determined that the best varieties to plant were Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. Jack Cakebread enrolled in the viticulture and enology program at UC Davis and made all his own wines until 1978, when his son Bruce joined him as winemaker. The first harvest from Cakebread's own vines yielded a small bottling of 1976 Sauvignon Blanc, although a 1973 Chardonnay and 1974 Cabernet Sauvignon were made from purchased fruit.

At first, the winery was housed in a tractor shed now referred to as the Pond Building. In 1977, the original 3,500-case winery was expanded, and in 1980 an existing barn was refurbished to create a press and barrel-aging room that now serves as offices. In 1985, the winery expanded again with a new structure designed by architect William Turnbull to merge stylistically with the barn/press room, increasing capacity to 28,000 cases. As of 1995, capacity had risen to 45,000 cases and a new expansion began that now allows tremendous flexiblity in production, including the separate fermentation and maturation of each vineyard lot to maximize grape and terroir expression before blending.  Cakebread's vineyard managers use technology such as aerial imagery and vineyard monitoring stations to enhance their farming programs. Monitoring stations gauge 30 environmental factors including temperature, soil moisture, and the presence and development of pests and diseases in the vineyards. Each year, this data allows "game plans" to be drawn up for each vineyard block-whether the fruit will be whole-cluster pressed or destemmed, how it will be fermented, the type and toast of the barrels-based on current and previous years' readings. This allows each fruit lot to be given the ideal treatment for greatest possible variety and expression among the lots. 

One of Cakebread Cellars' most established technologies is a remarkable water management system that illustrates the family's environmental insight from the winery's beginnings. To compensate for the Napa Valley's high, variable water table, a network of gravel and drain tiles, designed to Jack Cakebread's specifications, have been woven through the vineyard deep beneath the vines. Precisely graded to draw excess water to the southwest corner of the property, they lead to a well emptied by three automatically triggered electric pumps which expel the water either into the reservoir behind the original winery or passively into a stream feeding the Napa River. The water in the reservoir is recycled for frost protection and irrigation. There is also a two-cell waste water pond which recycles all water from winery operations for irrigation. The system is backed up by 14 subterranean neutron probe sites that give weekly readings of the level of ground moisture.