My Article: Thoughts on Napa Valley Cabernet

I have been back in Los Angeles a few days now from Napa Valley after tasting about 150 of the top names in Cabernet Sauvignon in the region, as well as other parts of California. My palate is finally back in shape. It needed a rest.

Honestly, I felt pretty beat up. A lot of the wines I tasted were just too much – too much alcohol, too much extract, and too much raisin character.

I wish some wine producers would curb back their apparent quest to making the biggest and baddest Cabernets. Who can drink the stuff?

This said, I found numerous very balanced and refined Cabernets from the 2008 vintage. (The bottle of Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow is one example.) With a few exceptions, I don’t think anyone believes that 2008 is better than the highly touted 2007 vintage – but there are some exceptional wines made in 2008. In fact, I think that the cult legend Screaming Eagle is better in 2008 than 2007, just by a point.

And some other Cabernet makers are more inclined to their 2008 Cabs than their 2007s. “The pedigree sites always come through in a vintage, and in 2008 they did,” said Andy Smith, winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards. I really thought the 2008 Larkmead Cabernets showed a beautiful balance of fruit and tannins. “The 2008 was not obviously a great vintage like 2007 and 2009; 2008 was more of an introspective vintage. But the wines, more so than any vintage I worked with, changed dramatically in barrel. The leafiness changed to cassis and graphite and sweet tobacco, and the vineyard signature came out. The 2008 has the strongest vintage signature to it.”

Vintage signature is another way of saying that the wines are not dominated by that super ripe, full-blown style. I think many of us are looking for that in Napa Valley Cabernets – and red wines in general.

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