Producer: Heitz Wine Cellar  
Region: Napa Valley, California 
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon 
Year: 1975 

Decanter, 99 Points 

"I have nothing but admiration for Heitz Cellar, and writing a profile on them this year gave me an excuse to try a number of bottles of their wines. While the 1974 Martha’s Vineyard tends to win all the attention, the 1975 also clearly ranks as one of the most thrilling Napa Cabernets produced during the 20th century, and I really like the wine’s tension and reserve. Complex aromatics of red and black fruit, cedarwood, dried rose and cocoa are followed by a powerful, beautifully balanced wine with a firm core of tannin, fruit and fresh acids. A few hours in the decanter really help this still-youthful Cabernet expatiate. To my palate, this could go head to head with the handful of great wines produced in Bordeaux in 1975 such as La Mission Haut Brion and Pétrus." 

John Gilman, 97 Points 

"The more I drink California cabernets from the decade of the 1970s, the more I am convinced that I have a slight preference for the style of the 1975s over their more highly touted brethren from the riper year of 1974. The brilliant 1975 Martha’s Vineyard is certainly pretty persuasive evidence that 1975 is indeed a great, great year for cabernet in Napa, as the wine is beautifully deep, pure and still a tad on the young side at age thirty-six! The magical and deep-pitched nose offers up a great mélange of black cherries, petroleum jelly, cigar smoke, leather, a touch of chipotles, coffee and a very complex base of soil tones. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and powerfully built, with impeccable focus and balance, a rock solid core of fruit, still a bit of tannin to resolve, superb, tangy acids and simply stunning length and grip on the perfectly poised and refined finish. A wine of First Growth depth and dimension by any stretch of the imagination." 

Alcohol: 13.5% 

*Discounts do not apply to items like this one in the Fine & Rare category. Price and availability in store may vary.