Silverado Vineyards SOLO Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, Napa Valley, United States secured the best package score and came at the 3rd spot along with a few other wines that got 95 points.

 

In 1968, Harry See planted the Silverado Vineyard to Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the next two decades with careful vine selection and cultivation, the Silverado Clone emerged becoming the only Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon designated as a “Heritage Clone”, by the University of California, Davis. Each year, we honor this select clone designation with SOLO.

Vintage notes

A series of warm days and cool nights pushed Napa Valley’s vintners and growers across the annual harvest finish line by the third week of October. This year’s harvest will go down as one of the earliest ever in Napa Valley and it will also be noted for near-perfect weather throughout the growing season, resulting in a fairly abundant and very high-quality crop. In spite of the drought, vintners are using words like, “quality,” “depth of flavor” and “excellent” to describe their expectations for the 2014 vintage. Many are also using “good fortune” among the blessings they are counting in a season where Mother Nature threw a curveball.

Tasting notes

This bold Cabernet Sauvignon has aromas of dark fruit with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and cassis. Intense fruit, dark chocolate, toasty oak, and spice lead to a velvety, long finish with refined tannins.

Silverado Vineyards Miller Family

In 1981, Ron and Diane Miller and her mother, Lillian Disney, established Silverado Vineyards to make wines from the historic sites of their estate. For years, they had sold their fruit to neighboring wineries who were building global reputations for excellence. It was time, they decided, to create their own wines, their own expressions of the Napa Valley they loved and admired.

The winery takes its name from the historic vineyard which surrounds it. The vineyard borrowed its name from the abandoned mining town at the top of the Napa Valley. Here, over a century ago Robert Louis Stevenson stayed and wrote, “The beginning of vine planting is like the beginning of mining for precious metals: the winegrower also ‘prospects’.” Four generations of Millers are still ‘prospecting’ for wine, making something beautiful from the land under their care.

Jon Emmerich, winemaker.

Jon Emmerich is only the second lead winemaker in the history of Silverado Vineyards. During his years at the winery, he has grown Silverado’s reputation for quality and consistency.

Growing up in Redwood City, Jon remembers his parents drinking Mateus Rosé and Blue Nun, popular wine brands in the 70s. Jon’s introduction to California wines began at The University of California, Davis where, on a lark, he enrolled in the fermentation science program. It was then that he was introduced to the greater world of California wine. As it turns out, Jon’s lessons took place not only in the classroom but also in his dorm room. He and a dormmate, whose family owned a small farm and winery in Lodi, decided to use some of the family fruit to make wine in their dorm room. At that point, Jon realized that if he could make a decent red blend in a dorm room, then he could make a very good wine in a winery. 

In 1985, Jon headed to France for an internship where he augmented his knowledge of the traditional winemaking craft. After graduating from The University of California, Davis in 1987 with a BS in Fermentation Science, Jon worked a harvest at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. He then spent a year at Conn Creek Winery and Sebastiani Vineyards before joining Silverado Vineyards in 1990.

Jon is a past president of the Napa Valley Wine Tech Group and past president of the Winemaking Techniques Committee of the California Enological Research Association.

Winemaking is just one part of what Jon does at Silverado Vineyards. He spends a lot of time on the road, meeting customers and carrying the Silverado story outside the Napa Valley. He works in Silverado’s estate vineyards to better understand the terroir and tell its story through the wines.

Here are the highlights of the 2020 London Wine Competition.

Wine Of The Year - The Dead Arm Shiraz 2017, Australia, McLaren Vale - 97 points.

Winery Of The Year - d'Arenberg, Australia, McLaren Vale

Best Wine By Quality - The Dead Arm Shiraz 2017, Australia, McLaren Vale - 97 points.

Best Wine By Value - Villa Saletta Chianti 2015, Toscana IGT, Italy - 96 points.

Best Wine By Packaging - Silverado Vineyards SOLO Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, Napa Valley, United States - 95 points.

About London Wine Competition

The London Wine Competition is an international wine competition organized by Beverage Trade Network. The competition looks to recognize, reward and help promote wine brands that have successfully been created to identify with and target a specific wine drinker. 

For any wine brand to earn its place on a retailer’s shelf or a restaurant’s wine list -  and then vitally stay there - they need to be marketable and consumer-driven and not just produced in the general hope it can find enough people willing to sell and buy it. Learn more at www.londonwinecompetition.com