Steven Kent Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

This is clearly a situational wine for me. With has a berry and licorice nose. Full bodied with earthy-leather taste and a smoky medium finish. The reason I think its situational is because I could really see this wine going very very well with a hardy cigar. Over time the aromas open up more and even more earth and smoke become noticeable. Highly recommend if you're a wine and cigar enthusiast (for that crowd I'd give it a 4).

May 2007

The aromas are wonderfully redolent of dark chocolate covered cherries, black pepper, and purple plums.

Steven Mirassou is a passionate sort of fellow: he loves wine, he loves the arts, and he loves history, all with equal energy and appreciation. Coming from a storied family in the wine business, he has more than a few wine-related endeavors to reflect on, and more than a few up his sleeve. This wine is one of them. His commitment to the potential for Cabernet Sauvignon in Livermore is legendary. “NAPA?” he quips, “Isn’t that an auto parts company?” He’s bone-tired of people thinking nobody can make a great California Cabernet outside of Napa, and he’s not alone. Steven’s personal read more...mission is to prove that Livermore just might be the next crown prince to the King Cab throne, and with examples like this, one can see that vision resembling reality. Pour this wine into your glass and you know you have a ticket to something rich, ripe and potent. The color is that gorgeous dark red velvet you might find on the inside of a fine silverware chest. My grandmother had several: the knives always felt so buttery smooth up against that plush velvetness. It almost seemed wrong to expose them to the reality of, well, meat. But, I never was very good at being a vegetarian, and one whiff of this wine will make you reach for the beefsteak, prime rib and all the other pleasures of carnivoredom. The aromas are wonderfully redolent of dark chocolate covered cherries, black pepper, and purple plums. A lovely texture weaves together flavors of fine herbs, blackberries, leather, spice and rich, ripe Santa Rosa and French prune plums. You can really appreciate the subtle dark power that the Petit Verdot lends to this equation. The fine-grained firm tannins from nearly two years in 90% new French oak (mostly medium toast barrels) are present and pleasant throughout, and the finish is tinged with great hints of white and black pepper. You might not buy into Steven’s vision of Livermore as <I>Cabland,</I> but all you need to enjoy this wine is a glass.    (hide)

For centuries, the Bordelais have used Petit Verdot in their blends to provide their wines with darker color and more tannin. This wine is a perfect demonstration of how well the two varieties work together. While the 2001 vintage Cabernet had a very dark red color, this vintage is profoundly dark purple with a core verging on the black. In the nose, one detects intense aromas of black plum and cassis fruit, underpinned by a layer of non-fruit aromatics: pencil shavings, wetted earth, créme brulee oakiness, dark chocolate, and subtle lavender perfume.In only one other vintage since our first read more...have we produced anything but a 100% Cabernet wine under our Livermore Valley banner; 2002 marks the second release. In certain vintages we have found that the addition of another varietal adds levels of complexity and completeness to the wine it would not otherwise achieve. After tasting through the various lots made from our Cabernet vineyards, we added Petit Verdot from Livermore to our Cabernet to make a wine of great depth and ageability. In this vintage, which was cooler than 2001 and produced more fruit-forward wines, each lot was vinified separately. After about 20 months in wood, the separate wines were blended and put back in barrel to "marry" for three months before the wine was bottled. Consistent with our Livermore Valley program, about 90% new French oak and 10% second use barrels were employed. Of this total, about 80% were medium toast barrels and the remainder were medium+ toast.    (hide)

November 2008