96 Points Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from a valley floor site that’s starting to get some vine age, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard is a full-bodied, rich, savory beauty with lots of darker berry and cassis fruits, some iron, tobacco, and chocolaty notes, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It shows the structure and density of this vintage and, I suspect, will warrant some bottle age to show its full potential.
96 Points Vinous
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard is dense, plush and explosive. It shows all the Panek signatures, beautifully amplified. Readers will find a sumptuous, racy St. Helena Cabernet that hits all the right notes. Ripe red/purplish fruit, rose petal, lavender and spice build into the creamy,
95 Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Panek is situated north of the town of St. Helena, near the Aida Vineyard. It's a relatively warm site, but the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Panek Vineyard doesn't show any signs of over-ripeness, just gorgeous black cherries and cassis, plus hints of cedar. Full-bodied and creamy in the mouth, it's reasonably tannic on the finish but fully ripe and yet not overdone at all.
Winemaker Notes
Rivers-Marie's small five acre piece of this northern St Helena vineyard is really where their Cabernet program found its launching point. This old creek bed site features a wild spectrum of red, blue and black fruits veering from generously fruited in more giving years to brooding and deep in the small berry, drier vintages.
