Napa Valley Cabernet: Best Mount Veeder 2018 wines

At the southern end of the Mayacamas range, Mount Veeder is rugged, remote, and feels frozen in time compared to the valley floor beneath.

Steep slopes render tractors useless, and low yields from vineyards with twisted exposures are the norm.

Scroll down for the top-scoring Mount Veeder 2018 wines

It is the only mountain AVA with direct exposure to the San Pablo Bay, with Carneros at Veeder’s southern base.

Most vineyards reside above the fog line atop loam, shale, sandstone and fossilized seabed.

This combination of mountain structure and marine influence sets the region apart, producing broad shouldered wines that are forward and tannic but balanced with a floral, saline freshness.

Napa Valley Cabernet: Full 2018 vintage report

Chris Carpenter crafts both Mt Brave and a spectacular Lokoya bottling from Veeder. ‘The tannin is tremendously structural with lots of backbone. The wines maintain acid by way of its position to the San Pablo Bay. It’s a really easy place to work with in that way, knowing that I’ll maintain acidity.

‘The hard part is that the tannins can be really ponderous if I’m not careful. They can almost overwhelm some of the delicate, violet characters you can get.’

Quick links

Individual AVA analysis and top-scoring wines coming soon:

Calistoga, Coombsville, Howell Mountain, Oakville, Rutherford, St Helena, Stags Leap District

The growing season here is the longest in Napa, compounded by a vintage like 2018.

Harvests such as this offer an opportunity to coax a softer side from the mountain, which Sara and Jonah Beer of Pilcrow do through the Hillwalker site.

‘We think of Mount Veeder as being more on the elegant, feminine side of things compared to something like Howell Mountain. There is always this beautiful, granite minerality’ says Sara.

There is no more definitive producer than Mayacamas, with Progeny and O’Shaughnessy making riper but authentic examples. Mount Veeder Winery produces a lovely ‘value’ proposition.

See the best Mount Veeder 2018 wines

See also

Decanter Premium Collector’s Guide: Napa Valley 

The rise of US urban wineries

California Cabernet 2016: Panel tasting results