- 1993 Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon Cinq Cépages - USA, California, Sonoma County (3/29/2025)
From my late father’s cellar.
I approach these older bottles of Cinq Cepages with some trepidation, not because of the wine, but because I don’t know how/when my dad acquired them. Lots were bought on release, but for some it was on the secondary market.
This bottle was thankfully pristine. Cork came out in one piece, and after stretching its legs a bit the wine was delicious. Deep red fruit, cedar notes, and a notable aged bottle sweetness created a full mouthfeel, and a luscious finish. Definitely showing California sunshine, despite being from the unfairly maligned 1993 vintage, this was everything I could have hoped for from a 32 year old bottle of mid-priced California Cabernet.
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That’s awesome, man. I work ITB and the Company just bought a cellar off a storage client. I think it was 16? Bottles of Cinq Cepages 95 or 96. Anyways, it all got bought in like an hour after the email.
Haven’t tried it myself. Looking forward to! Cheers.
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I’ve had the ‘96 in the last couple of years. It’s still very good.
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I, too, have found these mid to late 90s bottlings to hold up well.
I remember buying when it is was Spectator wine of the year
That was the 1996.
Excellent note as always my friend! Sounds delicious and makes me want to search one out from the 90’s.
Side note, i’ll always have a soft spot for Cinq Cepages as the 1999 was the first ‘nice’ wine i ever purchased to lay down. It was my junior year at ASU and i worked at a liquor store and was just starting to get into wine (when i wasn’t slamming Jager shots and cheap long island iced teas, ha!) with my gf at the time and would read Wine Spectator during the downtime. Think it was #2 on the top 100 that year. Simpler times, ha! 
Tops Liquors??
No way! ‘F’ Tops! I worked at T’s Liquor baby! Ha!
There’s 4 bottles of the ‘99 in dad’s cellar.
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I opened a 1996 Chateau St. Jean Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon about six months ago. Still deep in color, showing ripe berry fruit accented by spice and smoke notes. Nice weight and a long finish. A powerful wine with hints of tannin that seemed to get firmer (!) over the course of lunch. Impressive and surprisingly youthful , considering its age.
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Tops probably has the same wines on the shelf! Their Sutter Home White Zin vertical 2011-2016 that’s been stored at ambient temp is ready to drink now.
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glad to hear these are holding up. I have a 3L of the 1995 waiting for the right occasion. sounds like there is no rush to open it!
Ha ha! No doubt!
You know whats really funny? Now that i think about it, that 1999 Cinq Cepages i mentioned (first nice bottle i bought to lay down) - I purchased it Tops! Full circle here, ha!
Steve Reeder made these wines if I recall. The dude knew his stuff and never really fell into the overblown, high ripeness, wines of that era. His white wines were also great at CSJ
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