Appellation: Napa Valley, California
About the wine..
Caymus has a signature style that is dark in color, with rich fruit and ripe tannins – as approachable in youth as in maturity. Since its founding in 1972, Caymus has become renowned as a consistent leader in the production of Napa Valley Cabernet. Grapes for this wine are farmed in 8 of Napa’s 16 sub-appellations, with diversification enabling us to make the best possible wine in a given year. Our Cabernet offers layered, lush aromas and flavors, including cocoa, cassis and ripe berries.
The Vineyard
Caymus Vineyards is a wine producer based in Rutherford, in California's Napa Valley. Like most of the valley's famous producers, it specializes in top-end wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, and its top wine, the Caymus Vineyard Special Selection, is notable for having been the only wine to have twice topped Wine Spectator's Top 100 list, with its 1984 and 1990 vintages.
The first vintage of Caymus was in 1972, although the Rutherford property, owned by the Wagner family, has been planted to grapes since the 1940s. These were sold to other producers in Napa until the 19-year-old Chuck Wagner agreed to help his parents establish a winery on their ranch. Today, Caymus Vineyards is still family owned and operated, with various wines made by Chuck's sons Joe and Charlie, and his daughter, Jenny.
The Special Selection is Caymus's flagship wine, and is only made in years where the vintage conditions are considered good enough. A lower-tier (but still premium) Cabernet Sauvignon is produced every year, and a Zinfandel is also produced in small quantities. The Wagner family is involved in a handful of other brands including Conundrum, Mer Soleil, Belle Glos and Emmolo. In 2015, the family sold the Meiomi wine brand to Constellation.
Caymus Vineyard wines are unapologetically New World in style, tending toward the big, bold, fruit-driven end of the spectrum. Grapes are given a long hang-time in the vineyard, and crop thinning maximizes the amount of sunlight the grapes see during ripening.
