Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 97pts

97 Points James Suckling
This structured and concentrated wine is spot on for the vintage. It’s very dense in color and aroma, saturated with ultra dark chocolate, graphite and blueberries on a firm texture of taut tannins that will need time to evolve. Aged in 85 to 90 percent new American oak barrels.

95 Points Decanter
The lovely ruby red color is translucent, revealing a heady wine of blackberry, licorice, vanillin, spicebush, and dried floral notes with savory, toasty oak spices. This 2018 offers one of the more restrained and pretty bouquets of Silver Oak's Napa Cabernet in my memory. Very elegant on the entry, revealing a medium-bodied red wine with lovely cranberry fruit, plums, and currants, with a real depth to those fruit qualities framed by sculpted tannins that affix themselves onto the palate before giving way and resolving. Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant with trace amounts of Petit Verdot and Malbec. Aged in 85% new American Oak from The Oak Cooperage in Higbee, Missouri, the Duncans have owned it outright since 2015. The other 15% are second-use American oak barrels. They've been using the same cooperage for decades. The barrels imbue the Silver Oak wines with a classic vanillin quality, a nuance they always want to retain, even as they experiment with various toasts to produce smoother tannins in the toasting process.

Wine Notes
Ruby in color with notes of strawberry, fresh carnation, black pepper and vanilla. Good body across the mid-palate with a blackberry character on the finish and bright cherry return. Integrated tannins, balanced finish. With proper cellaring conditions, this wine will continue to improve through 2043.

Sustainable and LEED Platinum Certified Napa Green

The Novaks (of Spottswoode fame) invited Ray Duncan for his first visit to Napa and Sonoma. Ray spotted a report published by Bank of America that forecast a significant increase in the average wine consumption of the American consumer which at the time was around 2 bottles per person per year. Intrigued by this as well as the region, Ray purchased his first land in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley in 1970 in partnership with Jack Novak (100 acres called Los Amigos Vineyard).

Originally called Duncan-Meyer, the winery’s first name didn’t sound right or look appealing on the label. Bonny suggested ‘Silver Oak’ based on the dairy barn’s location half way between Oakville and the Silverado Trail. They presented the name to Ray, who wasn’t keen on its sound at first.

Oak aged for 24 months. Blending before barrel aging—a signature of our winemaking style—allows blends to be based on the inherent qualities of their vineyard components before oak influence. It was then aged for an additional 24 months in bottle before being released in February of 2023.