Mount Eden Vineyards
'Domaine Eden'
Santa Cruz Mountains
2018

The producer

Mount Eden Vineyards is a historic, family-run estate perched at 2,000 feet in the Santa Cruz Mountains, just south of San Francisco. Founded in 1945 by pioneering vintner Martin Ray, the winery is renowned for producing small-lot, estate-grown Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards are planted on austere Franciscan shale soils, and the cool, fog-free climate allows for slow, steady ripening, resulting in wines of remarkable depth and longevity. Under the stewardship of winemaker Jeffrey Patterson since 1981, Mount Eden emphasizes sustainable viticulture and minimal intervention in the cellar, utilizing native yeasts and aging in French oak barrels. The estate's commitment to expressing the unique terroir of its mountainous site has earned it a reputation for crafting some of California's most elegant and age-worthy wines.

The wine

Mount Eden Vineyards' Domaine Eden Cabernet Sauvignon is a refined Bordeaux-style blend that exemplifies the unique terroir of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Sourced from five distinct vineyards—including the Domaine Eden estate and nearby sites in Saratoga and Los Gatos—this wine combines 75% Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec . The 2019 vintage benefited from a favorable growing season, resulting in a wine with plush, deep flavors of black plum, tobacco, dried herbs, and licorice, as noted by Vinous Media, which awarded it 94 points . Winemaking practices include indigenous yeast fermentation, aging in a mix of French and American oak barrels (50% each, aged 2–5 years), and no fining or filtration before bottling . This approach yields a wine that is approachable in its youth yet possesses the structure and complexity to age gracefully over the next 7–12 years.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.