Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 Tasting: A Seismic Vintage?

Everyone living or working in Napa Valley at the time remembers the 2014 harvest season well. Not necessarily for the quality of the wines, but for the earthquake that struck south Napa County at 3:20 a.m. on Aug. 24, wreaking havoc in some wine cellars and rattling vineyard trellises just as the crush was underway.

Now, 10 years later, I had a good look at the quality and maturity of the cabernet sauvignons from that vintage through a retrospective tasting of 45 wines. And at least one winemaker thinks the 6.0 Richter scale quake may have played a role in how they taste.

Rebekah Wineburg of Quintessa winery remembers 2014 as a drought year, but not troubled by extreme weather, either hot, cold or wet. “I remember waiting for the heat wave that often comes in late summer, but it didn’t come,” said the winemaker who was already working in Napa Valley and joined Quintessa the following year. “Instead, we had the earthquake.”

The Quintessa Rutherford 2014 was my top-rated wine in the tasting. It was bold and still youthful, laced with polished tannins and exuding graphite and cocoa that will benefit from at least another 10 years’ aging.

Wineburg said it tastes today like a vintage that had one modest rain to refresh the vines just before harvest: “It was not like a true drought vintage. The tannins are more supple – incredibly supple tannins. I think the earthquake did that.”

She believes the seismic shaking that tossed barrels around in cellars and damaged structures like the historic Trefethen winery also loosened some underground water channels and gave the vine roots a drink. “The only thing that I can connect it to is that after the quake, some seasonal streams that had dried up started to flow,” she said.

While just a theory, it was interesting to think about as I reflected on the tasting. The wines gathered together by the Napa Valley Vintners overwhelmingly proved that 10 years is not too long to age a good quality Napa red. All but a few of the wines, which were sourced directly from the winery cellars, tasted as good or better than when they were first released.

Brilliant examples from Quintessa, Inglenook, Larkmead, Patel, Keenan, Freemark Abbey and Vine Cliff were far from over the hill, and mostly just beginning to show hints of the spices, potpourri and bay leaf notes of bottle bouquet that we look for in a great, mature red.

In fact, most of the top-rated wines in this tasting had barely moved in maturity since James first rated many of them in 2017. There is certainly no hurry to drink the three wines that earned the highest scores: the Quintessa 2014, Inglenook Rubicon 2014 and Barrett & Barrett Calistoga 2014.

READ MORE NAPA VALLEY CABS SHINE IN 2021: APEX VINTAGE IN A ‘REDEMPTION’ YEAR

The Inglenook Rubicon 2014, from Francis Ford Coppola’s historic property on the west side of Rutherford, was robust and structured in firm tannins yet subtle and complex. Such a grand, complete wine, and barely beginning to show the fascinating tertiary aromas and flavors that will come with a few more years’ time.

The people behind Barrett & Barrett are the married winemaking couple Heidi and Bo, she of La Sirena and Amuse Bouche, etc., and he of Chateau Montelena. Their Calistoga 2014 was one of the most linear, fresh and balanced wines in the tasting, with tight but polished tannins. It will perhaps be at its best in five or 10 more years.

While far from comprehensive, the tasting was broad enough to get a good sense of the vintage quality today compared with other years from the 2010s. James wrote in 2017 that 2012, 2013 and 2014 form an exceptional trilogy. “I love this vintage and will always wonder if it is actually better than the highly revered 2013 vintage,” he said. “Time will tell.”

Time has not made the ultimate call, but his advice on 2014 is still solid: “The wines show a harmony in fruit and structure that will allow early drinking as well as aging. It’s much better to … leave the powerful 2013s to mellow with bottle age.”

The harmony and supple structure come from a moderate growing season, when the temperature at the University of California’s Oakville station in mid-Napa Valley showed only one heat spike that hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius). In this current season and in 2022 the number of extreme heat days was much higher.

While the 2014s had rich tannins and full bodies, virtually none were overly drying or stiff in mouth-feel, as cabernet sauvignon – young or old – can be. They give plenty of pleasure now but have not reached the magical point where they begin to show more of the subtle, ethereal, earth, iron, floral and even cola notes that come in time.

The Freemark Abbey Bosché Vineyard 2014 offers a preview of qualities like those in its tobacco, rosemary and roasted plum aromas. “I liked 2014 a lot and it really shines in the cellar right now, but we think it can age 20-30 years easily,” said Freemark Abbey winemaker Kristy Melton. “It’s shifting from that nice ripe, primary fruit to secondary, more dried fruit, dried pomegranate, and starting to develop that bottle bouquet.”

What’s the best time to drink a good Napa Valley cab? “If I was forced to pick a number, I like to drink them between 10 and 15 years,” Melton said.

So, if you can get your hands on some 2014s now, they’re going to reward you for quite a few years. Interestingly, some of these are likely to be no more expensive than the most current release – 2021 in most cases – from these Napa properties.

Virtually of the wines in the tasting notes below are being offered direct from the winery cellars from Oct. 14 to Oct. 21, and can be viewed at www.openthecellar.com.

James’ view and mine is that we don’t like to dictate when you drink a wine that you bought with your own money. That’s up to you. People’s palates and preferences vary. You can drink a firm and concentrated 2021 Napa cab tonight with osso buco and have a fantastic evening.

Yet I have long told friends and readers that a good time to drink any reputable Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon is at 10 years of age. And those from nested AVAs or that are estate-grown or single-vineyard-designated often cruise easily to 20 years.

After that it gets a little dicey. I have drunk several cabs from the late 1990s and early 2000s in the past year that were past their primes – especially the ones that started out with huge fruit and high alcohol.

Yet the tip-top reds like those mentioned above and many of the proven collectibles like Dominus, Opus One, Harlan and Colgin, can be counted on for 30 to 40 years from the vintage.

– Jim Gordon, Executive Editor

Note: You can sort the wines below by score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.