93pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Sentinel comes mainly from the Monte Rosso Vineyard. It was blended with 3% Petit Verdot and was matured for 19 months in 48% new French oak. It opens very slowly from graphite and iron to wafts of blueberry, blackcurrant, aniseed and sagebrush. The full-bodied palate features understated, mineral-driven fruit at this early stage. It’s structured by fine, clay-textured tannins and bright acidity and has a long, latent finish. It will be long lived in the cellar. 2,228 cases produced.

93pts James Suckling

A structured but elegant, concentrated and age-worthy wine made from all Sonoma County grapes, mostly from the mountaintop Monte Rosso Vineyard. Black cherries, blackberries, bay laurel and earthy notes on an energized base of great acidity and agile tannins. Full-bodied. Seems poised for further aging. Drink or hold.

93pts Wine Enthusiast

The nose of this Cabernet is loaded with bright berry fruit and black pepper aromas, while the palate brings on flavors of cherry, plum skin, dark chocolate, fresh mint and leather in a powerful tannic framework. Give this some time to unwind in the cellar and enjoy with grilled ribeye. 

Wine Spectator

An overtly toasty style, with a direct core of black cherry and plum compote that tries to peek through. The menthol-accented finish is caressing in feel, but the toast is overwhelming. Drink now. 2,228 cases made.

Tasting Notes

Sentinel opens with aromas of dense, dark fruit, Crème de cassis and bay laurel, Sentinel is rich and full-bodied, offering hints of blackcurrant, blueberry, and black cherry with layers of soft leather and wood smoke. The wine's acidity and tannins are in perfect balance adding texture and depth on the smooth, layered palate, finishing with suggestions of ripe wild blackberry.

About the Wine

Sentinel™ Cabernet Sauvignon is inspired by the shield-shaped block overseeing the entrance to Monte Rosso Vineyard, a site that produces grapes with the layers and power that are the foundation of great Cabernet. Our Sentinel Cabernet Sauvignon is named for the shield-shaped block that casts a watchful eye over the entrance to Monte Rosso Vineyard.

About the Winery

The Mount Peak story begins more than a century ago at the celebrated Monte Rosso Vineyard and culminates with the revival of Mount Peak Winery, a vestige of one of California's ghost wineries. Our wines are inspired by this great place, and we pay tribute to the extraordinary winery that once stood there by capturing its enduring spirit in our wine.

Built in 1886, Mount Peak was a marvel of innovation. The three-story, gravity-flow winery was built from the rocks pulled from the dry-farmed Monte Rosso Vineyard. It quickly emerged as one of California's top ten producers, but the start of Prohibition in 1920 forced the winery to shutter its doors. Like many of California's pioneering wineries, Mount Peak was abandoned to the elements, a true ghost winery never to reopen. For decades the winery lays silent, as wild vines and towering fig trees seek to reclaim it stone by stone.

Over 130 years later only the ruins of the winery remain, yet the vineyard's still-thriving vines have persisted—standing silent above the fog line, occupying the space between earth and sky. The ghost winery and the world-class Monte Rosso Vineyard are perched at nearly 1,300 feet along the spine of the Mayacamas Mountains, just straddling Napa and Sonoma valleys. Monte Rosso's steep hillsides, robed in bright red, iron-rich soils, are set against a dramatic backdrop of manzanita and madrone, under the expanse of piercing blue skies.