More California Cabernets

CAYMUS VINEYARDS
2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon List $72  SALE $64.99
2006 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Magnum List $180  Sale $159.99  (last bottle)
2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Magnum List $180  Sale $159.99

The Wagner family has been farming in the Napa Valley for a long time.  We've known Charlie and Chuck since their initial vintage back in 1972!   They've always made good Cabernets and the wines have improved steadily over the years.  

In their first years the winery made quite a range of bottlings.  They were especially proud of their Pinot Noir Blanc, a wine they called "Eye of the Partridge," a term you might find on a light pink wine in France or Switzerland.  There they were, in the middle of prime Cabernet country--and they were fooling around with Pinot Noir.  (The Inglenook winery used to buy fruit from the Wagners in those days.)

I recall stopping in one day with my sister, Ellen, whom you might know if you stop by the shop these days.  Old Charlie, who passed away some years ago, proudly was pouring wine in their tasting room.  He was really angry, as I recall, that the price of a cork had escalated from around a few pennies to a nickel or a dime.  He thought his competitors ought to stop using so many corks and switch to screw caps.  
When I suggested he bottle his little "Eye of the Partridge" Pinot Noir with a screw-cap he groused some more claiming the wine aged well and wouldn't be right with a screw-cap.

In those days, the winemaker was a youngster named Randy Dunn.  He started his own enterprise up on Howell Mountain in the late 1970s and he still makes good, old fashioned Cabernets.  His, though, are quite different from what Caymus makes today.

 

During the decade of the 1990s, their wines have pretty much "kicked butt" in just about every blind-tasting they'd been in.  While they had been slow to increase their prices, they sure caught up in one vintage, moving the 1995 Cabernet to its $68 price, up from $37 the vintage before!  With many people crying about this increase, take a look at the situation from the Wagner's perspective:  Your wine aces out $50-$100 bottles of your neighbor's wines on a routine basis.  People are lined up to buy your product.  You spend a small fortune on fruit and oak barrels.   Why not ask a premium price when you're offering a premium product?

We suspect they lost a lot of their old-time customers with such a huge price change, but today they still have quite a good following for their wines.  Cabernet remains king at Caymus, though the Wagners are still dabbling with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay...Pinots come from cooler climate sites such as Sonoma and Santa Barbara, with a Chardonnay coming from Monterey.  These wines, though, are found under the labels Belle Glos and Mer Soleil.


The  2008 Caymus Cabernet is a lovely wine...  A lot of the fruit comes from newer vineyards which Caymus is cultivating in a fashion different from the way they've grown Cabernet when Chuck Wagner was a youngster.  Vine spacing is closer, for one thing, and production per vine is smaller.  

They use a lot of oak, too.  The 2008 is a flashy wine, sporting dark berry-like fruit and sweet, cedary, woodsy notes from the aging in barrel.  It's drinkable in its youth and should be nice for a decade or so.  Maybe more.

We're sold out of the Special Selection Cabernet...the kid who's the winery marketing guru is, like many "executives," uncaring about past history it seems.  We'd sent numerous missives to the winery asking if they'd kindly allow us to buy a dozen bottles...finally we sent a note to the "kid," saying we just woke up to the fact that we've been buying Caymus wines for more years than he's been alive.
The kid called to "reach out to us" and see about twisting our arm to buy some of their other wines.
We had sufficient inventory of their Belle Glos Pinot Noir and a number of leaky bottles of their Conundrum white wine, so he was unwilling to accommodate us.
"We need those remaining cases of Special Selection for corporate chain restaurant accounts." he explained.  

Knock yourself out, kid.

CHAPPELLET

Chappellet was one of the first "new" wineries in the Napa Valley back in the late 1970s.  At the time there were mostly just the big, famous cellars: BV, Inglenook, Christian Brother, Beringer Brothers, Charles Krug...some guy named Robert Mondavi had started a place in Oakville. 

The Chappellet family had built a triangular-shaped winery way up in the eastern hills of Napa at a place called Pritchard Hill.  Chenin Blanc was popular in those days and Chappellet still makes a lovely dry version of that Loire Valley grape.

Cabernet Sauvignon from this area is special and uniquely flavored.  I remember with great fondness wines from 1973 (stunning!) and 1981.  Now Chappellet has neighbors such as Bryant Family, Ovid, Melanson and David Arthur, so the 'hood is getting crowded.

Chappellet has always had good winemakers.  Tony Soter and Cathy Corison were associated with Chappellet in previous lifetimes. 
Phillip Corallo-Titus is the current winemaker. 



They have issued for only the fourth time, an "Estate Bottled", deluxe version of Chappellet Cabernet.  This comes, of course, from their Pritchard Hill estate.  Nice oak with the intriguing spicy notes of Cabernet from this particular micro-climate.  The 1999 wine won a recent blind-tasting of mostly hundred-dollar Cabernets.  Pretty impressive!   Cellarworthy, too.  The 2000 is very fine, as well.  Nice to see these people do well.

The 2001 Estate is a fabulous bottle.  Deep, big, rich, dark fruit, black cherries and nice oak...Very fine.

Their "regular" bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon is called "Signature" and it shows the handwriting of winery founder Donn Chappellet.  The 2009 is the current release.  It's 76% Cabernet, with 9% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot and 11% Malbec.  The perfume is a delight and nicely complex...I find an almost floral undertone to the wine, reminding me a bit of some of the wines from Bordeaux's Margaux appellation.   And like those wines, it's a deep Cabernet blend which, despite its elevated alcohol, manages to retain a measure of finesse.  We find it's quite drinkable now and ought to blossom a bit more with several years of cellaring.

Currently in stock:  

2000 "ESTATE" CABERNET SALE $99.99 (limited)
2001 "ESTATE" CABERNET SALE $119.99 (limited)
2009 "SIGNATURE" CABERNET  SALE $45.99

CHATEAU MONTELENA

When Chateau Montelena started operating in its current incarnation, Mike Grgich was the winemaker.  Grgich had been affiliated with Lee Stewart at Souverain.  He also worked with the Christian Brothers and then as a protégé of Andre Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu.  A stint at the University of Robert Mondavi at Oakville came next before he started as the winemaker at Chateau Montelena.

The first wine made at Montelena was a lovely Napa Riesling.  This is still made in tiny amounts and you can find it at the winery's tasting room and an occasional wine list in a Bay Area restaurant.  Chardonnay was Grgich's next success, followed by Zinfandel.  Cabernet Sauvignon never really achieved a significant degree of notoriety in the early days.  Mike departed and was followed by Jerry Luper, previously the head winemaker at Freemark Abbey winery.  Bo Barrett, son of the major investor in Montelena, had been somewhat of an "understudy"  (I think he took over with the 1982 vintage).  By the late 1970s, Montelena's Estate vineyard, predominantly planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, became the backbone of what is now a highly-regarded Napa Cabernet.

I should point out that Montelena is at the northern end of the Napa Valley in Calistoga. 

Cabernet Sauvignon from this vineyard tends to display a ripe character which I find reminiscent of blackberry or black cherry.  While they use a percentage of new oak, you won't find Montelena's Cabernets resembling those of Caymus or Silver Oak, for example.  Bo Barrett does a fine job of capturing the fruit and crafting a rather big, intense red wine with a moderately tannic spine.   Older bottles we've opened, from time to time, always seem remarkably well-preserved. 

Montelena offers its Estate Cabernet along with a secondary wine that used to be called "Calistoga Cuvée."  The latter is a more forward, simpler wine with a significantly simpler price tag. It is now simply sold as "Napa" Cabernet.  

The 2007 is a very fine bottle, showing plenty of nice dark fruit notes.  You can drink it now, if you like, and it will cellar well for up to 5-10 years as it has a moderate level of tannin.

An earlier vintage received an absurd score from the Wine Spectator critic, Jim Laube.  This fellow must have had an "off"  to rate this a score of 69 out of a possible 100 points.  The 2007 vintage is the current release, similarly styled and showing nice, dark fruit all the way through the nose to the palate...

Mr. Laube arrived at the same score for Montelena's "Estate" Cabernet from 2001 as well.  We had it in a blind-tasting and the wine was very nice.  I had it highly ranked as did my colleague Bob Gorman.  I was pleasantly surprised by the elegance of the wine, since these are often pretty hefty and brawny.  Not one taster mentioned any of the curious, supposedly "musty" notes Laube finds so prevalent in Montelena's wines.

The Wine Spectator's Laube has, apparently, trained himself to look for notes of a musty character.  It can be detected at really low concentrations if you care to develop this tasting acumen.  Most people are not that sensitive and so, to 98% of wine drinkers, the Montelena Cabernets are fine.  

This reminds me of the comment from a friend who pointed out that dogs can hear things which are inaudible to human beings.  "You know," he said, "The New York Times does not send a dog to critique the symphony."

In February of 2008 we opened a bottle of Montelena's 1995 Cabernet and found the wine to be exceptional.  It was clean, showing lovely dark fruits and the oak was well in the background.  At 12+ years of age, this was still youthful and capable of additional cellaring....We had another bottle in May of 2010...dark fruit, mildly woodsy and thoroughly drinkable.


Montelena embarked upon a program of selling its wine on a "futures" basis, asking customers to put their cash on the barrel-head a couple of years in advance of the release of the wine.   They have, apparently, stopped this program and it's probably a good idea.  

In the Spring of 2008 rumor swirled around the industry of the impending sale of Chateau Montelena.  In late July of 2008, the winery announced it was being sold to Michel Reybier, a fellow who acquired Chateau Cos d'Estournel in 2000.  The sale fell through, however, as the exchange rate in favor of the American dollar significantly increased the price for the French buyer.

 

In July of 2010, I was invited to come taste 25 vintages of Montelena's estate Cabernet...Click here for that report.

 

Currently in stock:  2007 Napa Valley Cabernet (list $50) Sale $42.99
1997 Napa Valley "Montelena Estate" Cabernet $139.99
2001 Napa Valley "Montelena Estate" Cabernet $119.99

 

CLIFF LEDE

Cliff Lede is a Canadian-born fellow who made a few bucks north of the border and is now dabbling in a serious Napa Valley enterprise.

He purchased the old S. Anderson winery and vineyard and has hired some good folks to run the place in a serious, quality-driven fashion.

I have enjoyed some bottles of S. Anderson bubblies over the years, but none has seriously challenged the sparkling wines of France's Champagne region.    The table wines from S. Anderson have been well-made, but not especially compelling (as in "compelling me to buy some").  

Their 2001 was a bit ordinary, but they hit their stride, perhaps with the 2002 vintage.  We liked the 2003 Cabernet very much, as well.

Unfortunately, though, the wines attracted the attention of a few critical wine publications and soon demand grew.  The marketing folks here decided to somewhat abandon their early supporters in favor of those new folks who needed the wine to feed their desire for "points."  

I spoke with the marketing guru and she told me "I can't help it if people want our wine."  Of course, she's reduced the amount of wine available to early supporters to accommodate new markets.  This, for some reason, is a common phenomenon in California wine marketing.  People often establish a presence in a market (like their backyard), only to abandon it once the phone starts ringing with long distance calls.

As a result, we're no longer offering the wines from this producer

 

Currently in stock:  Nothing.  Nada.  Sorry.

 

CATHY CORISON

We first met Cathy Corison when she was the winemaker at a rather new estate in Napa called Chappellet. 

She made good wine for the Chappellet family eons ago and she's been making wine under her Corison label since 1987.  Over the years Cathy has been affiliated with a flock of good estates, including Staglin, York Creek and Long Meadow Ranch.

The style of her Cabernet, which comes from several vineyards, I believe, may be considered a bit "old school."  We consider it to be a traditional style of Napa Cabernet and one you don't find much these days.  For one thing, it's not pushing 15% alcohol.  For another, it's not a "fruit bomb" with "gobs of fruit."  Another unusual feature:  it will age gracefully.

Cathy's wines have typically had a firm structure and plenty of tannin.  The 2004 seems to have brighter fruit, a shade more wood and a sunnier, even smiling disposition.  You can enjoy a bottle now paired with a roast or steak, but cellaring this for 5 to ten more years is ideal.  

 

Currently in stock:  2004 CORISON Napa Valley CABERNET SAUVIGNON  $74.99 

 

ROBERT CRAIG CELLARS

This fellow had been associated with the Hess Collection winery and was instrumental in developing many acres of vineyards on Mount Veeder (with William Hill) in Napa.  I don't believe his is affiliated with Hess any longer, but makes small quantities of a couple of "mountain-grown" Napa Cabernets, along with a blended wine called "Affinity."  

We don't currently have anything of Craig's Cabernets.  I included some in a tasting not too long ago and was not especially excited.  Now that the wines retail for $75 a bottle, I'll have to include the current vintage in a tasting to see if they show better at their elevated prices!

Currently in stock:  Special Order Items

COVENANT

Jeff Morgan used to be the bandleader at a fancy hotel along the French Riviera before moving back to the U.S. and making wine on Long Island in New York.  He later worked for The Wine Spectator as the "west coast editor."  We wonder what the price was for escaping that bit of enslavement.

Later he worked at the Napa Valley Dean & DeLuca store and has been a champion of dry Rosé wines, producing SoloRosa with winemaker Daniel Moore.  

The owner of the Dean & Deluca stores is a fellow named Leslie Rudd, who's also got the old Girard facility along the Silverado Trail in the Napa Valley. It's now called Rudd (are you surprised?) and they make some expensive Napa wines.

Morgan and Rudd are partners in a little adventure producing a small amount of Napa Valley Cabernet under the Covenant label.  The fruit comes from a small section of the historic Larkmead Vineyard (once owned by Lillian Coit---Coit Tower) which has all kinds of clones of Cabernets planted there.  

The 2007, just released, is delicious (already) and rather showy.  One of the "big deals" of the wine is that it's also Kosher.  While we find that a nice "feature" of this wine, simply being Kosher and not tasting like a jar of jelly or drain cleaner is not sufficient reason to buy this wine.  It has to be good, complex and soulful and, happily, it is.

The price of $90 is ambitious, so we've knocked it down to $79.99.  Good wine, too.

Currently in stock:  2007 Covenant Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (list $90) SALE $79.99

 

 

DARIOUSH

Darioush Khaledi is a Persian émigré who left Iran around the time of the Islamic Revolution.   I don't know what bit of insanity caused him to choose to set up a winery and vineyard in the Napa Valley, but perhaps the hot sun in the Middle East had something to do with it.
He had been passionate about wine for much of his adult life and had a fondness for vineyards since they had been so prolific in the winegrowing region of Shiraz (said to be where the Syrah grape was born). 

The winemaker is Steve Devitt, whom we first met eons ago at his folk's winery out in Pope Valley.  Steve has worked at a variety of places since, including Newlan Vineyards & Winery and Signorello Vineyards.  Steve is in charge of the Darioush vineyards as well as the cellar. 

They're developing a rather good track record for Cabernet.  The wines are stylish, nicely oaked, packed with dark fruit notes and balanced enough to be drinkable young, yet structured to have a bit of cellaring potential.  

 
The 2007 is in stock...and it's showing the usual Darioush character.   French oak. Lots of berry fruit. They do a moderate amount of "whole berries" in the fermentation tank and this may be one key to the fruit fragrance of their wine.  

Currently in stock:  2007 Darioush Napa Cabernet Sauvignon  SALE $79.99

There are some magnums of the 2007 in the shop presently as well...





There are some magnums of the 2007 in the shop presently as well...

DEL BONDIO

The Del Bondio name is familiar to Napa Valley old-timers, but probably unknown to most California wine drinkers.  The family has owned an Oakville vineyard for well more than a century and they have a prime patch of 31 acres in Rutherford which they've owned for more than 60 years.

Their vineyards are organically farmed and they embarked on that sort of cultivation well before it was fashionable to do so.  In fact, in 2002 the government tightened the requirements for "organically farmed" status and only about seven percent of the vineyards which had been advertised as "organic" were able to retain this status.  Del Bondio's was and continues to be organically farmed.

We have a 2006 Cabernet from their Rutherford estate in the shop.  It's a lovely "dusty" Napa Cabernet, typical of Rutherford-grown fruit.  The wine has a bit of dark fruit and a mild bittersweet cocoa character.  Oak is in the background and the wine is mildly tannic, so pairing it with a steak or roast beef is ideal.  We suspect it will cellar handsomely for a decade, or so.  

This wine costs $36 at the cellar door.  We have it sale-priced at $25.99.

Currently in stock:  2006 DEL BONDIO Napa-Rutherford CABERNET SAUVIGNON SALE $25.99

 

 

 

 

 

 

DUNN

We first met Randy Dunn when he was the winemaker for some little place in Rutherford called Caymus.  He's not one for "singing and dancing," so you won't find him pouring wine at "winemaker dinners" or "Meet The Geek" events.  His efforts are solidly on viticulture and winemaking rather than showmanship.

Dunn's first vintage under his own label was the 1979 if I recall correctly.  The wine was well-received and was one of the first "cult" Cabernets.  

Dunn's wines are full-throttle, massive Cabernets.  He offers two bottlings, the "Napa" Cabernet and one from vineyards on Howell Mountain.  The latter is typically the bigger of the two and the most costly.  I can't say it's necessarily the better of the two, though, so please don't think of the Napa bottling as a lesser wine than the massive, brawny Howell Mountain bottling.

We have had delicious bottles of Dunn's Cabernets.  The Napa bottling is usually lovely at about 10-15 years of age.  

We've yet to have a Howell Mountain Cabernet from Dunn that's hit a point of maturity where you'd say "Better drink these up right away."  That's because they have a lot of intensity and plenty of tannin and structure for cellaring.  

In February of 2007 I opened a bottle of 1982 Dunn Howell Mountain for a visiting winemaker friend from Italy.  The wine was impressive for about 30 to 40 minutes, just long enough for us to enjoy the grilled slab o' beef we paired with it.  After about an hour the wine was spent, growing tired and old...it was great, though, when first poured.

In March of 2007 we had another visiting European dignitary and we opened a 1994 Howell Mountain...this was a youngster, but beautifully evolved and probably on a plateau.  Deep, dark and with youthful black fruit notes, this was a delight.

The current releases are from the 2003 vintage.  These are delightful and perhaps a tad softer than earlier vintages.  

One feature of Dunn's winemaking is that he strives for keeping the alcohol to sensible levels.  Instead of making big, flabby, ready-to-drink immediately, sweet, "gobs o' fruit" wines, Dunn makes Cabernets for adult wine drinkers.  

We have the Napa Valley bottling which is predominantly from Howell Mountain grapes with a small addition of valley floor vineyard juice.  The 2003 is perhaps a tad more precocious than most of its predecessors.  

The 2003 Howell Mountain wine is entirely from the hills and it's a bigger, more structured wine.  Another feature of Randy and Lori's wines are they're not hugely oaked.  You'll find the Cabernet taking center stage in virtually every vintage.

 

 

Currently in stock:  2003 DUNN "Napa Valley" CABERNET $62.99
2003 DUNN "Howell Mountain-Napa" CABERNET $72.99

We also have some older vintages of Dunn and, sometimes, some magnum bottles.   

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    Last modified: February 3,  2012