Life Is A Cabernet!

Monday May 2 was the annual Passport To Cabernet tasting sponsored by the California Cabernet Society. This event is one of the five major trade tastings, along with Pinot Days, Rhone Rangers, ZAP and Family Winemakers of California, that allow you to taste almost every wine produced in this state. That's an whole lot of wine, in a whole lot of wine styles.

This event has actually had several incarnations. I first encountered this event when it was a road show that toured all the major US markets. In 1994 my wife was out here in California and I remained back in NYC to arrange our move out here to the Golden State, I attended the event with my good friend and fellow racquetball enthusiast Ed. Being held in the NY Hilton main ballroom, there was a dazzling array of wineries pouring both their current releases and barrel samples.

After tasting many wines, we ended up at the Diamond Creek table and had a very extended conversation with the legendary winemaker of the estate, the late Al Brounstein. It was an amazing conversation about how the estate was founded, planting the vines, and the difficulties of selling what was at the time an extraordinarily high priced product ($80). We were mesmerized. At the end of the event, around 11 PM, we were tapped on our shoulders and there was Al telling us to take all the opened bottles he had left. It did not take us longer than 1 second to thank him and agree.

Ed and I then had a problem, we had to drink the wines pronto. So after an interesting ride back to Brooklyn Heights via the A Train, we ended up knocking on the door of our favorite local restaurant Henry's End. This establishment is a true neighborhood restaurant. The owner Mark Lahm is a local celebrity. His restaurant's annual game festival is now known all over the city as a truly unique eating event. To this day, 17 years after we moved out of the neighborhood, whenever we are in NYC, we always go back to eat here. They have an amazing all American wine list.

But I digress. Mark comes to the door questioning our sanity for being there so late. We show him the 3 open bottles and explain our conundrum of having to drink them. Mark replied "well, I suppose I can find something to pair with this." We were there for several hours drinking the wine and eating leftovers from Henry's End's service.

After the CIA opened their Greystone facility, the Passport to Cabernet event was a yearly fixture at this Napa Valley venue. The atmosphere overlooking Cabernet vineyards made for an exquisite event location. However, this location proved difficult for many trade people to attend, so it was moved to the Bentley Reserve in San Francisco. While not a bad location, it lacks the dramatic scenery of traveling through the vineyards to attend this event.

This year's event lacked many of the Cabernet superstars that have poured in previous years. Mondavi, Beringer, Paul Hobbs, Stags Leap among others were not there. That's a pity, as I have been able to tasted some cult cabs, like Screaming Eagle, at previous events.

This also could be a swan song as well. For those who don't know, Robert Parker no longer reviews CA wines. His replacement at Wine Advocate has a much more European pallat. This could mean that the extremely extracted, fruit forward, powerful wines that have dominated Cabernet over the past 10-15 years may be receding.

This begs the questions, is there a sense of place to these wines? Are the characteristics that make these wines uniquely Californian or from the Napa Valley.

I am pleased to report that there were several wines that had very unique personalities, ones that differentiated them from the others. The first was Rocca Vineyard Coombsville 2006. The nose was so earthy, with bright fruit seeping through, I loved it. It was so different then the standard cedar, pencil shavings, smoke, ash and dark fruit noses that dominated this group. Not that I did not enjoy all these wines, but I found them all the same.

The other unique wine was from Frias Family. Again, big time earth on the nose, followed by California's signature bright fruit. This wine finished with very long and very integrated tannins. A really interesting wine.

Which brings me back to Robert Parker. I just view a video of Gary Vaynerchuk speaking to wine marketing people. It was fascinating and should be watched by any marketing person. I linked to it on my Linkedin page. Watch it.