Wednesday, September 7, 2011

International Cabernet Day Celebration

As many, including myself, did not know, September 1 is International Cabernet Day so I decided to celebrate at the Cabernet Day Napa HQ Seminar held at the Napa Marriott. As it happens, it turned out to be one helluva event, with some very serious flights of cabernet poured for our evaluation. The whole event was covered live on Twitter and Toutesuit which is a new video blogging site.

First, hats off the the Napa Marriott for volunteering to host this event, and to JJ Buckley in Oakland for sourcing these incredible reds. And a serious hats off to Deborah Parker Wong and Andrea Immerman Robinson for providing the commentary at this event.

The event itself was divided into 5 flights, each one dedicated to a single Cabernet topic. So we had Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley, Washington State Cabernets, Library Cabernets over 10 years old, Australia Cabernets and the final flight was an overview of Bordeaux. Between each segment we had some surprises, such as Cabernet Franc from Colorado and a two Cabernet Sauvignons from Baja Mexico. Unfortunately I had to leave after the Library segment and missed Bordeaux and Australia. Judging from the quality of wines that I did taste as well as my familiarity with several of the wines from Australia, I'm sure that the last two flights were outstanding as well.

So lets get to the wines. The first flight were Cabernet Francs from the Loire. I found these interesting, but not to the point that I would rush right out and purchase them. The three selections all had herbaceous noises, some tight fruit and a very good acidic structure. The 2009 Chinon, poured last, was my favorite. Again, I would not run out and buy any of these, probably due to my new world pallet.
In between flights, we sampled a 2008 Cabernet Franc from Colorado. I wish I wrote the name down. This wine was definitely new world in style with big fruit, pronounced tannins, leather and spice. It surprised me a great deal, until I thought about a recent Daily Grape from Gary Vaynerchuk. He tasted a Cab Franc from Colorado and raved about it. I wonder if it was this wine. Whatever, at $25 per bottle it packed a lot of power, great fruit, texture and tannic structure.

Next up were cabs from Washington State. These were a revelation. Washington State has 15 plus hours of sun during its growing season, yet it has a shorter and cooler growing season than Napa or Sonoma. The result are ripe wines that do not have the explosion of fruit upfront on the nose. Yet this fruit showed itself with certainty on the pallat. The two standouts were L'Ecole 41 Columbia Valley cab, their single vineyard cab and Gilbert Cellars Wahluke Slope. All had tremendous finesse and subtle fruit. I would have loved to taste these side by side with the Bordeaux that were poured later in the evening.

We then tasted the Library Release cabs. I always enjoy old wines because you cannot predict how one will evolve, you have to leave it to chance. First up was the Vilafonte Series M from South Africa. This Cab Sauv-Cab Franc blend was downright delicious. Still showing some very nice fruit, it had some serious weight on the mid pallet and a great finish.

Next was L'Ecole 41 2001 Walla Walla Washington. This wine was at its peak. Leather, cinnamon, cedar, vanilla with at nice touch of fruit peaking through on the pallet, it was spectacular. The Jordan 2000 Alexander Valley cab proved to be the most surprising wine of the flight' at 11 years old, it was still very youthful. I have always found Jordan wines to be very lush on release and rarely have I tasted one that was over 7-8 years old that had any life left on it. This one was still young, my guess is that it would still need another 3-5 years to resolve itself and smooth out the tannins as it still was a fruit driven wine. Yet all the elements of a great aged wine were there, the leather, spice, tobacco and cedar were just waiting for an excuse to peak out through the fruit. This wine should be great.

The biggest disappointment, yet not really disappointing was the Chateau Montelena 1998 Napa Valley cab. 1998 was an awful year in Northern California. For those who need a reminder, it started raining late in January and did not stop until mid June. They were still picking grapes in November. Back then I was catering and one of my largest clients, Rosenblum Cellars was loosing banquet business because they could not hold eventsin the winery because were still fermenting their wines in December. The year was a mess of vegetalness and under ripeness. Chateau Montelena is a great winery with great vineyards, however this wine was over the hill. No disrespect to them, as I've had their most recent releases and they all are outstanding, this was just a bad vintage.

With this I had to leave for other commitments. Great event, and great show.

Later this month I will be tasting wines from Argentina, going to a Calistoga tasting, and a grand tasting of the SF Wine Competition winners. I hope you will read my comments on them.