An Unreal Deal on a Napa Cab Vertical with $200 Pedigree

2012 Castellucci Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (Elsewhere $200) ($49.95)

Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: September 04, 2024

I found the 2012 to be showing very well on both occasions I sampled it, perhaps even more youthful that the 2013. This wine from Castellucci is absolutely classic Spring Mountain with no shortage of power, intensity, grainy tannins, and inky, saturated fruit. It also has those savory components that seem to come from this slightly cooler, predominantly east facing locale, where shade from the Mayacamas Range tempers the blazing heat of the late afternoon sun as shadows creep across the vineyards. Hints of briar patch, pipe tobacco, wintergreen and spice box are woven throughout the elderberry and cassis fruit. Saddle leather and cedar chest show some bottle development, but the core of fruit is still muscular and rich. Perfect for a bone-in Ribeye over charcoal.

Alexandre Tweedie | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: August 27, 2024

It's not often that you run into pristinely aged, gorgeously mature Napa Cabernet like the wines weve recently acquired from Castellucci Winery — presented to us as a vertical of 2012 through 2015 vintage, with two unique bottlings of Spring Mountain and Rutherford designated AVAs.

The first wine in this vertical is Castellucci's 2012 Spring Mountain Cabernet. Timbres of maturity sing through the glass - earthy, intense aromatics geared towards foraged mountain mint, with a drafting air of fir timbers patiently baking in the sun of a cooperage's lumber yard — this oak tone is dry, incredibly well spiced, showing small hints of vanilla toast, but much more geared towards tertiary oak.

The palate extends this spiced ideology, surrounding the dry oak staves with clove-spiced mulberries, with a sudden jolt of stunningly fresh blackberry fruit. Mineral structuring elements of shattered graphite, an elegant touch of pencil lead and shavings, flowing to a finish of new leather and dried sage.

This is serious Napa, for a serious occasion, at a seriously affordable price. Castellucci has graciously offered us this vertical selection so you can experience the beauty of single-site, meticulously aged Napa Cabernet, over the years for a true wine experience. Read through the other vintages available on our website, and see which year sounds the best to you — each year has its own special character and affect, with plenty of room to discover your own Napa experience!

2013 Castellucci Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (Elsewhere $200) ($49.95)

Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: September 04, 2024

It's not often we get to offer perfectly mature mountain-grown Cabernet from the famed 2013 vintage anymore. This highly acclaimed vintage, thought by some (Robert Parker included) to be the best vintage in several decades for Napa Cabernet, has been snapped up at every turn. The vast majority no doubt drunk before they reached their potential. We'll here's a chance to get a bottle for tonight, and (at this incredible price) a case to lay away in the cellar to revisit for the next decade.

Crafted by a master of his trade winemaker Jac Cole with more than 30 years of experience making Napa Cabernet. Jac made the wines for names such as Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Charles Krug and perhaps most importantly spent ten years at Spring Mountain Vineyards producing renowned age-worthy Cabernet of stature and pedigree. Spring Mountain Vineyards' Chateau Chevalier property is also a direct neighbor of Castellucci Estate. Using these hard earned skills Jac takes fruit from this small, family owned property and hones a powerful, traditional style of muscular Spring Mountain Cab.

Now, over ten years since harvest, we can really see the concentration and structure of the wine relax to show more nuance, complexity, and savory notes. Smoked plum, blackcurrant, camphor, pencil shavings, dew covered earth, an antique leather-bound book, tobacco leaf. Interesting how it can have such bold, dark fruit, but elegant, savory nuance at the same time. Elements of crushed rock and pine needles hark back to its mountain home. Perfectly mature and showing beautifully right now, decant this one for 30 minutes while your standing rib roast rests before carving. A perfect match!

The third wine in this vertical is the 2013 Castellucci Spring Mountain AVA Cabernet. This bottling is a powerful show of structure, intense mountain fruit, and richly textured aromatics that equally sing the praise of this legendary vintage. Compared to the 2012 preceding it, this bottling feels to me a little more rustic in tone, with gentle tones of small white button mushroom and forest game now complimenting the blackberry fruit of the palate, adding in a new dimension of savor and earth.

What strikes me the most about the '13 Spring Mountain is the central aromatic tone of leather — specifically the '13 to me smells (deeply positively) like an old pair of Rancheros gloves, like leather painstakingly worked and broken-in under years and years of summer sun and backbreaking vineyard work. It's a spice note that feels like California agriculture, percolating a sense of place that just doesn't exist in any other place in the world, this Ranchero glove note feels like a memory tucked inside a bottle — the '13 bottling is without a doubt my favorite through the years presented.

2014 Castellucci Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (Elsewhere $200) ($49.95)

Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: September 04, 2024

As with the 2014 Rutherford Cab from Castellucci that we launched last week, I think the 2014 seriously outperforms the vintage's rather non-existent reputation. It's not that 2014 was a "bad" vintage by any stretch of the imagination. I think it's more the case that (besides the earthquake) it was free from any particularly dramatic events or climactic extremes. The resulting wines weren't huge monsters, nor were they unusually lean. The wine media, and I think to some extent, wine consumers like to have a handle, or particular label to attribute to a given vintage to help them understand it. 2014 was right down the middle, it avoided extremes and perhaps failed to get a strong label assignment for better or worse! Anyway, I'll let the wine do the talking. I think this wine is beautifully proportioned and balanced. The fruit, structure, acidity are all in harmony. The flavors are gently moving away from the primary blackberry and mulberry fruit incorporating elements of more savory, forest floor, dusty earth, singed cedar tones. The tannins are fine and measured; the texture of the fruit is quite luxurious even at ten years of age. I think this wine probably drinks a little more easily standalone than any of the other wines in this remarkable Castellucci vertical, there's a plushness to the fruit in this bottling that is super approachable. Very delicious and by no means over shadowed by the more famed 2013.

The fourth wine in this vertical is the Castellucci 2014 Spring Mountain Cabernet. Following the two previous vintages, the 2014 Spring Mountain feels like it is signaling a style shift to me — with juicer, bolder blackberry and crème cassis on the palate, '14 feels like Castellucci is pushing further into bolder fruit as opposed to the bolder earthen tones in comparison to '12 & '13. Though the fruit is beginning to shift its penchant, the core of this bottling is still the element of Castellucci leather that I've been enjoying through the previous vintages, now showing off fresher from the tanning rack leather, that feels new and delicately perfumed, like a sophisticated, special night out. The '14 is pushing towards richer fruit, but the palate still feels elegant and balanced, providing a great home for the richer blackberries and gentle mocha-vanilla. If you're more of a fan of richer and fuller Cabernet, the 2014 vintage from the Castellucci vertical might be the pick for you.

2015 Castellucci Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (Elsewhere $200) ($49.95)

Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: September 04, 2024

Another classic from Castellucci and a vintage in which I think the property did very well when many others were feeling the pinch of the extreme drought. The past 4 years had been excruciatingly dry, vines were really struggling across California and as a result yields were historically low for many producers. However, Spring Mountain is called, Spring Mountain for a reason! The highly permeable volcanic rock that makes up this part of the Mayacamas Range is perforated with many natural springs. The mature vines (planted in the early 1990s) at Castellucci were able to tap into some of this natural, underground water and produced a beautiful wine redolent with more red fruit than the '12, '13, and '14. Spiced currant, loganberry, cigar box, dried mountain chaparral, graphite. Riper tannins than the '14, with lovely purity of fruit and polish. I really enjoyed how this wine was showing and it was still holding up the second day. Plenty left in the tank here I think.