1995 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Jim Pride bought this ranch atop Spring Mountain in 1990 and now has 55 acres under vine, with another 15 scheduled to be planted. The grapes here are typically harvested a month later than vineyards on the valley floor. In part because most of the ripening occurs at a cooler time of the year, the cabernet and merlot fruit here shows an extraordinarily sappy, crystallized berry character, with a degree of sweetness that can verge on port-like. Tannin levels tend to be very high, but buffered by sheer strength of raw material. I got an in-depth look at numerous lots of 1996 cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc with winemaker Bob Foley (the wines are made in the old Cornell Cellars facility north of St. Helena), but because the final blends had not yet been made it is impossible to offer early assessments of these wines. Still, I must say that I tasted some of the richest, darkest, most extravagantly fruit-packed barrels of mountain-style red juice I have ever come across. Foley describes the '94 crop of wines as voluptuous in style, but feels that the '95s are even sturdier and will be longer-lived. 1996 did not bring a short crop here, says Foley, as the weather was fine during the later flowering on Spring Mountain. Pride Mountain larger-than-life reserve wines, sold mostly via mailing list, represent selections of the estate's richest lots, given an additional six months of barrel aging.