History
The family's Napa lines run deep: the Stices arrived from Missouri in 1857, Lafayette Stice made wine at Brun and Chaix around 1900, and Carl and Catherine Wagner bought seventy Rutherford acres in 1906, running a winery until Prohibition closed it. Charlie Wagner Sr. and Lorna Belle Glos bought their 73 acre ranch in 1941, orchards with ten acres of vines, and in 1972 founded Caymus with son Chuck on a first vintage of 240 cases. The Special Selection tier began in 1975 when father and son bottled the barrels that outshone the rest; the 1984 and 1990 vintages each took Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year, a double no other winery has managed. Chuck leads today with his children Charlie and Jenny.
The Site
The home ranch sits at 8700 Conn Creek Road near the Rutherford crossroads, seventy-plus estate acres within a family farming operation that has grown to roughly 2,400 acres across California, largely farmed by its own crews. The original estate Cabernet came from cuttings out of the Fay Vineyard in the Stags Leap District.
Vines and Blocks
Cabernet Sauvignon anchors the Rutherford estate, with lots separated each vintage toward the Napa Valley and Special Selection tiers.
The Wines
Caymus Cabernet is Rutherford in a plush register, dark, supple and generous, with Special Selection the barrel-picked summit of the house style.