The rating for 1991 Araujo Estate Wines Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is 96 points from Robert Parker and the tasting note - There will only be about 3,000 cases of the Eisele Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, so connoisseurs will undoubtedly be fighting over the limited quantities available. If readers are unable to find any of the 750 cases of the 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard (reviewed in issue #95), keep a lookout for the release of the 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard next year. I have long been an admirer of this vineyard situated at the base of the mountains in northern Napa Valley just to the south of Calistoga. Long-time readers may remember the ecstatic reviews of the 1974 Conn Creek Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, the great 1975 Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and its successors. The new owners, Bart and Daphne Araujo, who purchased the vineyard from the Eisele family, are intent on pushing the level of quality to new heights. Future plans include the production of a Syrah as well as a Viognier The rating for 1992 Araujo Estate Wines Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is 94-96 points from Robert Parker and the tasting note - If readers are unable to find any of the 750 cases of the 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard (reviewed in issue #95), keep a lookout for the release of the 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard next year. Another fabulous wine from this superb vineyard, it displays a sweet, pure nose of blackcurrants, minerals, and spices. Full-bodied, tannic, and powerful, as well as undeveloped, it exhibits the potential for 20-25 years of aging. A splendidly rich Cabernet Sauvignon, with outstanding balance and purity, it will not be mature before the turn of the century. There will only be about 3,000 cases of the Eisele Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, so connoisseurs will undoubtedly be fighting over the limited quantities available. I have long been an admirer of this vineyard situated at the base of the mountains in northern Napa Valley just to the south of Calistoga. Long-time readers may remember the ecstatic reviews of the 1974 Conn Creek Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, the great 1975 Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and its successors. The new owners, Bart and Daphne Araujo, who purchased the vineyard from the Eisele family, are intent on pushing the level of quality to new heights. Future plans include the production of a Syrah as well as a Viognier. The rating for 1993 Araujo Estate Wines Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is 96 points from Robert Parker and the tasting note - As I reported last year, the 1993 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard is a spectacular wine from a vintage that has consistently received unfavorable press (particularly from the Wine Spectator). It seems to me that if the 1993 vintage were taken out of the context of the historical succession of outstanding years in the nineties, and put in the eighties, qualitatively, 1993 would tower over the likes of 1987, 1985, or 1984. The Eisele Vineyard 1993 Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the half dozen or so candidates for wine of the vintage. I have tasted it three times out of bottle, once rating it as high as 98, but never less than 96. It is a mind-boggling Cabernet Sauvignon that is remarkably well-balanced for its size and intensity. The color is an opaque purple, and the nose offers up smoky, chocolatey, blackcurrant, licorice, and mineral scents. On the palate, the wine reveals fabulous density, concentration, sweetness of fruit as well as tannin, and a 30-40 second finish. Although there is a high percentage of new oak, this wine has completely soaked it up, a testament to its extract and concentration of fruit. While the wine displays a certain precociousness, unusual for a 1993, there is plenty of tannin lurking in the finish, but it is well-concealed by the wine's exceptional richness. This beauty is destined to age effortlessly for 20-25 years. The Eisele Vineyard has always produced concentrated Cabernet Sauvignons with blackcurrant/cassis personalities intermixed with a mineral component. What the Araujos have been able to achieve is to intensify the fruit character, as well as the wine's purity and definition. That, plus high quality French oak barrels and a natural approach to winemaking has resulted in a succession of extraordinary Cabernets that began in 1991, and shows no signs of abating. The rating for 1994 Araujo Estate Wines Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is 95 points from Robert Parker and the tasting note - The Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the renowned Eisele Vineyard, which has a long history of producing stunning wines (the Ridge 1971 Eisele Vineyard, the Conn Creek 1974, the Phelps 1976 Insignia, and the 1975 and 1978 Eisele Vineyard Cabernets). At present, the Araujos limit production of their estate Cabernet Sauvignon to approximately 2,500 cases. It is a wine that combines the extraordinary power and richness of this hot area of Napa, with stunning purity and delineation. The 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard is just beginning to emerge from a period of post-bottling dormancy. Like its siblings, it exhibits an impressively saturated dark purple color. This wine is intent on revealing its charms at a relatively early age given its knock-out aromatics. Although slightly less powerful than the 1993 and marginally less concentrated than the 1995, the 1994 is still a profoundly rich, silky-textured wine with an uncanny balance between its smooth tannin and layers of cassis and blackberry/mineral-tinged fruit. This wine is particularly impressive if it is first decanted for 45 or so minutes. It will age well for 15-20 years.