Wine Reviews

Pleasing aromas of guava, gooseberry and cotton candy grapes pick up greener hints of lime and grass on the nose of this bottling in a newer line from the Cakebread family of wines. There’s a good grip and zip to the sip, where lemon lime soda and crushed granite flavors align.

The 2025 Sauvignon Blanc is spicy to the core, with a burst of wild herbs, musky green citrus and sea air that form its intense bouquet. This is juicy and soft-textured, blending lime-laced orchard fruits with a cascade of minerals and spice. Fresh, pleasantly tense yet a bit short, the 2025 does its job well by calling the taster back to the glass for more.

Classic sauvignon blanc with aromas of lime zest, passion fruit, lychees and cut grass. The palate is light-bodied with bright acidity and a generous texture, giving flavors of mandarins, pineapple and lemon pith.

This wine came as news to me—very good news. Explicitly a project of the Cakebread family, it is among the most complex and enduringly interesting Sauvignon Blancs I’ve tasted from Paso. Whether the fruit was picked at just the right time or whether multiple pickings were performed at different stages to capture acidity as well as riper fruit, the interplay of citrus and white melon fruit could hardly be better. Zesty and yet also showing substance on the palate, this is terrific.

Whether the fruit was picked at just the right time or whether multiple pickings were performed at different stages to capture acidity as well as riper fruit, the interplay of citrus and white melon fruit could hardly be better. Zesty and yet also showing substance on the palate, this is terrific.