2012 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2012 Reserve Cabernet represents the very essence of mountain grown cabernet sauvignon, with just a kiss of exotic spice and floral notes courtesy of the petit verdot. Intense, inky and massive on the palate, the wine will stop you in your tracks today and will only improve with age. The nose is as seductive and brooding as the deep dark color in the glass, expressing black tea, black raspberry, blueberry, dark chocolate, espresso and subtle wet clay. Balancing the structure and intensity of the finish is a rich and unctuous mid-palate that coats the mouth and lingers for minutes.

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Appellation: 60% Napa/ 40% Sonoma
Vintage: 2012
Harvest: November 2012
Fermentation: Stainless Steel
Cooperage: French Oak
Blend: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon
4% Petit Verdot
Alcohol: 14.8%
Bottling: December 2014
Production: 1471 cases
Release Date: March 2015
Release Price: 135.00

Reviews

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  • The Wine Advocate: eRobertParker.com #221 Oct. 2015 - Rating: 100

    The incredible 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is 96% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Petit Verdot treated identically to the Reserve Claret (40% new French oak aged in wood for 22 months prior to bottling). There are nearly 1,500 cases of this wine, with 60% coming from the Sonoma side and 40% from Napa. An absolutely amazing nose of camphor, lead pencil shavings, blackberry and cassis, some new saddle leather, a touch of spicy oak followed by a profoundly concentrated, multi-dimensional mouthfeel with gorgeous integration of acidity, tannin, wood and alcohol. This is a fabulous, seamlessly constructed Cabernet Sauvignon to drink now and over the next 15+ years. Kudos to Pride!

  • Vinous: October 2015, online - Rating: 95+

    The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve wraps around the palate with serious depth and intensity. Huge, broad swaths of tannin provide the backbone. Dark and intense to the core, the 2012 possesses magnificent intensity as well as considerable structure. Readers will have to be patient, as the Reserve is not forthcoming today, especially within the context of the year. Pride fans won't want to miss the 2012, as it is superb.

  • Vinous: 2012 & 2013 Napa Valley: Too Close to Call (May 2024) - Rating: 97

    The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is an infant. Rich and flamboyant, the 2012 offers up jammy dark red fruit, tobacco, cinnamon, blood orange and pomegranate. The 2012 is just starting to show the first signs of aromatic development, yet it remains a pretty huge wine, especially on the palate. A large-scale, energetic finish framed by plenty of mountain tannins wraps it all together. I loved the 2012 when it was a young wine, and I love it today. 

    -By Antonio Galloni on May 2024

  • Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine: August 2015 - Rating: 93

    Pride wines are never lacking in potency and potential, and this superb effort, with its deep and precise blackcurrant fruit, its rich soil notes and its generously laid-on lashings of lavish oak hits all the right marks from start to finish. It is, not surprisingly, full in body, yet its supple entry is followed by full, fairly brash tannins that provide both balancing grip and the promise that its markedly solid fruit will be kept in line for a decade at the least and, if past performance is any guide, over a second decade. This wine may be rich and tasty now, but it is clearly one for the future, and we recommend that it be hidden away to mature.

  • Wine Spectator: October 31, 2015 - Rating: 93

    Features lots of extra facets, from the core of dark berry, licorice, gravel and dust to the pure red berry and spicy oak flavors that peek through midway. The tannins clamp down nicely on the finish. Drink now through 2028. 1471 cases made. - J.L.

  • California Grapevine: Volume 41 - Rating: 93

    Medium-dark ruby; attractive, intense, fragrant, cedary, ripe, red and black fruit aroma with notes of cassis, dried herbs, and mocha; full body; deep, rich, ripe, spicy, blackberry and black cherry fruit flavors with firm backbone and some plushness in the mouthfeel; full tannin; lingering aftertaste. Very appealing to taste now with its forward, rich fruit, though has the balance and structure to support further development with more bottle aging. Very highly recommended.