Ratings & Tasting Notes:

CellarTracker Community Score: 90.1 — Tasters describe a wine typical of Silver Oak’s style from this era, somewhat extracted and heavily oaked but well balanced, bright, and energetic, with real richness and depth of flavor and texture carrying through to a nice finish. Most agree it’s drinking at or very near its peak.

Cult Wines International Notes:

Silver Oak Cellars was founded in 1972 by Ray Duncan and Justin Meyer, built on a singular focus: producing exclusively Cabernet Sauvignon, aged entirely in American oak — a distinctive stylistic choice that set the estate apart from the moment it launched. The winery remains family-owned today, now led by Ray’s sons David and Tim Duncan, with estates in both Oakville, Napa Valley, and Alexander Valley in Sonoma County. Silver Oak’s Alexander Valley bottling draws on the region’s mineral-rich benchland soils, a blend of Mayacamas Mountain weathering and gravelly, sandy loam deposited by the Russian River.

1997 is widely regarded as one of the single greatest vintages of the 20th century for Northern California, following a long, uninterrupted growing season with ideal, moderate conditions throughout. Silver Oak’s own tasting notes for this vintage describe a wine with vibrant, still-youthful color, aromas of cassis liqueur, mint, and crème brûlée, and full, broad texture — a bottling the estate itself notes is “showing very few signs of slowing down” even decades later, a testament to the strength of this legendary vintage.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.

Condition:

Please note: The bottle shown is the exact bottle being sold.

Outstanding condition.