97pts Wilfred Wong

The 2021 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon is superb and impressive. This wine offers aromas and flavors of exotic spices, red and blackberries, oak, and licorice. Serve it with a glorious prime rib. 

96pts Decanter

It is a marvellously compact and coiled-up wine with a towering structure. Very beautifully fragrant dried purple flowers and herbs. Full-bodied with loads of succulent ripe blackberry, creme de cassis, graphite, and loamy earth. Very firm, tight-grained tannins form the base note of this wine, and the finish is long and rich in wild herbs and spices. Cellar worthy. It will release internationally in September 2024. It is rounded out with 6% Merlot.

95pts Wine Enthusiast

An extra-dark color and heady aromas of crushed blueberries and blackberries leads to super-concentrated black fruits and milk chocolate on the palate, where silky tannins put a gentle grip around all that flavor. The wine is huge in pure fruit depth yet well polished in texture.

95pts Tasting Panel

Hailing from volcanic soils on the slopes of the revered Pritchard Hill—handpicked as an ideal spot by André Tchelistcheff for the Chappellet family in 1967-this youthful red has time yet to show its true colors: Displaying an athletic, angular structure, its muscles are still forming. Slate, black plum, and dusty notes of dried lavender are enhanced by formidable opulence, while mocha-covered cranberries coat the palate on the finish.

95pts Jeb Dunnuck

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Signature shows the density and structure of the vintage, with medium to full body, good mid-palate depth, plenty of mountain tannins, and classic Pritchard Hill blue fruits, dark chocolate, and ample minerality. This is a serious wine in the making, and I suspect short-term cellaring will be warranted.
Range: 93-95

95pts International Wine Report

The 2021 Signature Cabernet Sauvignon from Chappellet is fantastic. Composed of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec and 6% Merlot this opens with inviting aromas of ripe dark currants and blueberries woven together with sweet baking spices, mocha, sage, gravel and violets all taking shape. On the palate this is full-bodied, plush, and structured with beautifully polished tannins. It possesses excellent depth which gives way to ripe dark fruits and sweet spice flavors that continue to build through the supple finish. This appears to be a fantastic vintage for Chappellet's Signature Cabernet as it is already quite compelling, however it also possesses the potential for a wonderful evolution ahead.

94pts James Suckling

Aromas of cassis and dark berries with sweet spices, dried orange peel and minty undertones. Hints of walnuts, too. Medium- to full-bodied with well-integrated, melting tannins. Very silky texture. Succulent and layered, ripe but bright and vivid. Delicious fruit. Long. Attractive now, but better after 2025.

93pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Domineered by scents of ripe cherries and loamy earth, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Signature is a strong effort, a blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec and 6% Merlot. Medium to full-bodied, with an appealingly taut structure and silky tannins, it should be approachable young yet capable of aging for more than a decade.

Winemaker Notes

The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon has been a foundational wine for more than five decades. It is a benchmark for the long-lived hillside wines of the Napa Valley, full of structure and aging potential, yet seductively forward in its concentrated varietal character. The dry, rocky soils of Pritchard Hill produce small, intensely flavorful grapes. Crop thinning allows for full, even ripening and elevates flavor complexity.