Wine Enthusiast Rating: 92; Cellar Selection
All the parts aren’t even close to coming together yet on this immature Cabernet. You have strong dusty tannins, prickly acids, lots of toasty new French oak, and fine cherry and blackberry fruit. All they need is six to 12 years to figure out how to get along with each other. When they do, the wine should be a beauty. (December 15, 2006)
Wine & Spirits Rating: 91
Dark and massive without feeling heavy, this cabernet is packed with black currant flavor. The fruit is firm and clean, the cabernet fragrance lasting with an herbal edge. A beautiful red for roast lamb. (December 2006)
Dan Berger's Vintage Experiences Rating: Exceptional
Most complex wine in the tasting, with spice, earth, herbal notes; complex taste with traces of mint, cumin and other nuances. Almost sweet entry, but substantial tannins for aging...(November 23, 2006)
California Grapevine Rating: Highly Recommended
Medium-dark ruby; attractive, intense, herbal, plummy, black cherry and blackberry fruit aroma with notes of cassis and licorice; full body; somewhat tight, herbal cassis and blackberry fruit flavors with overtones of toasty oak; firmly structured; full tannin; lingering aftertaste. Needs a few more years of bottle aging.
(August/September 2006)
2001 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Decanter
...While is shows power in flavour and structure, its perfect balance of acids and ripe tannins renders it silky smooth and elegant. (August 2006)
Wine Enthusiast Rating: 90; Cellar Selection
With just 13.5% alcohol, this Cab marches to its own beat. In an era of gooey, late-picked wines, this one’s dry, tight and tannic, obviously designed for the cellar. Clos Du Val always has celebrated their Cab’s ageworthiness, and such are the wine’s fruity cherry flavors that it should do interesting things after 2008 and beyond. (December 15, 2005)
Dan Berger's Vintage Experiences Rating: Exceptional
Classic aroma of black fruit, dried herbs, and a trace of anise. Entry is richer than some wines of the past, but the finish is based on acidity, so it isn’t as ‘sweet” as many. As with CDV wines of the past, structured to age. (December 8, 2005)
East Valley Tribune Calling all collectors: This is the one. I already enjoy Clos Du Val's regular Cab, but this one is taken to a whole new level. The winemaker only makes Reserve varieties in exceptional years, which says something on its own. Just released last month, it's chock full of ripe dark fruit, herbs and coffee, and has been (already) smoothed out some by 20 months in French oak (75 percent new). The bottle is made in a classic Bordeaux style with 76 percent cab, 18 percent merlot and 6 percent cab franc, and will age for 10 to 15 years. Put it on the floor or your darkest, coolest closet and forget about it. (October 19, 2005)
Ventura County Star Wines aged for 20 months in mostly new French oak barrels will typically be the most expensive wines on the shelves, and this is no exception. But if you want a classic Bordeaux-style blend from California, this is among the best representations of it. (September 14, 2005)
2000 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Wine Enthusiast Rating: 91
Clos Du Val fans always have appreciated the elegance and ageability of its Cabs, and this release continues the tradition. It’s been getting riper and softer every year, yet still has that edge of herbs and tannins, and in this vintage, a hint of smoked meat. Now through 2015. ( December 31, 2004)
Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences Rating: Exceptional
A startling wine in one respect: it is true to the house style, and thus offers a glimpse of what Bernard Portet envisioned when he moved to Napa 32 years ago. The wine has a classic 1970s nose of cooler, southern Napa Valley fruit, with its faint green tea and olive components, a trace of underbrush, and the fresh and dried cherry that was always a hallmark of the Clos Du Val wines…a deep rich layer of dried cherry fruit and a tannin layer that provide a “grip” the wine will use as it ages for a number of years, perhaps a decade or even two. (October 7, 2004)
California Grapevine Rating: 90; Very Highly Recommended
Medium-dark ruby; attractive, plumy, ripe currant and black cherry fruit aroma with a hint of eucalyptus; full body; big, rich, textured, herbal, cedary, ripe black cherry fruit flavors with notes of olive and tobacco; firmly structured; full tannin; lingering aftertaste. Needs some bottle aging. Very highly recommended. (August 15, 2004).
1999 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley
Taste California Travel An opulent wine. It’s rich, deep and complex. Was wonderful when tasted in November ‘03. It’s likely it will be even more wonderful in ‘13, ‘23, and ‘33. (July 5, 2004)
Wine X Rating: XX; Highly Recommended
A private full-court press from Rick Fox – rich, smooth and spicy. (April 15, 2004)
Wine & Spirits Rating: 91
This Reserve comes predominantly from Clos Du Val’s Stag’s Leap District estate (with 30 percent from Rutherford). And it’s a graceful SLD wine: This opens from a tight, rosy perfume to a plush, zaftig richness. The fruit is almost ruddy in its ripeness, with the flavor of date and prune plum. Yet there’s brightness and liveliness that keeps the impression light and red rather than weighty and black, an intriguing, extended line of flavor. Clos Du Val’s Reserves are built to age, and this is no exception. (December 2003)
The Wine News California’s Best of 2003 (December 2003)
Sacramento Bee The easy winner in a blind tasting of recently released cabernets, this Clos Du Val is one magnificent wine, husky yet smooth, firm yet agreeable, its persistent cherry and berry flavors accented with the varietal’s characteristic herbalness. A noble cabernet -- supple, elegant, lingering. (November 23, 2003)
Wine Spectator Rating: 88
Elegant and restrained, this complex, well-crafted wine offers hints of green olive, cedar, currant and black cherry, supported by fi rm tannins. The long, elegant aftertaste is enlivened by acidity. Drink now through 2010. (November 15, 2003
California Grapevine Rating: 90 Points
Medium-dark purplish ruby; attractive, intense, spicy, toasty, herbal, black currant and black cherry fruit aroma with overtones of creamy oak; full body; big, rich, textured, concentrated, tightly structured, cedary, black cherry and blackberry fruit flavors with notes of green olive; full tannin; lingering aftertaste. Needs another three to five more years of bottle aging. Very highly recommended. One of 'Best Wines Tasted in 2003'! (Aug/Sept 2003)
Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine Rating: 91 Points
Scads of creamy and caramelly oak is juxtaposed comfortably with scents of ripe plums, cherries and hints of currants in the broad, outgoing aromas of this very solid offering. It is a little on the tight, bony side on the palate, yet it is never hard and, with its deep and keenly focused flavors very much in charge, it can only get better and better over the next five to eight years at the very least. (August 2003)
Daily Press Rating: 93 Points
Hate the price, love the wine—not unusual for a Napa Cab. This bottling offers lush dark fruit flavors (blackberry, black cherry and a hint of blueberry), framed by subtle spice, earth and garden herb notes. A special wine for a special occasion. (July 30, 2003)
San Francisco Chronicle
Sweet ripe black fruit; cherry, black plum, toast, light prune with dark chocolate, coffee, some tar and pencil lead; juicy yet backed by firm tannins, lots of oak; good balance. (December 11, 2003)
The Mercury News Rating: Outstanding
The 1999 Clos Du Val Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($95) is outstanding, a rich, dense wine with black cherry, spice, juicy acidity and a muscular structure. It will benefit from further aging but is delicious now with a hearty meal.—Laurie Daniel, (September 10, 2003)
Life of Reiley A classic, big bear of a California Cab, this is the kind of wine to cellar in anticipation for several years. Its fruit flavors are dark (think blackberry and black currant), and its finish is long and hinting of cedar, vanilla and caramel. (April 2005)
Decanter An old friend, Clos Du Val, its 1998 Reserve maturing nicely, floral again, crisp and dry. (January 2005
Knoxville News Sentinel Rating: Excellent
Dredged with tannin and laden with minerals but elevated by floral and berry notes, this wine is built to last. It needs four to eight years. (February 11, 2002)
Naples Daily News
The Clos Du Val Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1998, Napa Valley, would be magnificent with grilled T-bone steak. Dredged with tannin and laden with minerals but elevated by floral and berry notes, this wine is built to last. It needs four to eight years. Excellent.—Fredric Koeppel, Scripps Howard News Service. (August 2, 2003)
Wine & Spirits Rating: 90 Points
Built for the cellar, this is tough and irascible in its youth. It’s a lasting cold cherry shower, the tannins blunt and unyielding. Yet the structural line of the wine is clear, and even if the fruit reads in a minor key for now, it holds some flash, a promise to develop. Clos Du Val Reserve is built to age, and this one should age well. (December 1, 2002)
Wine Enthusiast Rating: 91 Points
This is a lovely, tasteful Cabernet that emphasizes elegance and finesse. The currant flavors are pure, and framed in rich new oak. Shows all the signs of superior pedigree and breed from a lighter vintage. For the next several years it will be a beautiful wine. (November 15, 2002)
Wine Spectator Rating: 88 Points
Well-made, in a tight, restrained, structured style, with deep currant, anise, cedar and spice flavors that finish with firm, gritty tannins. Best from 2003 through 2010. 2,000 cases made. (November 15, 2002)
