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California
Cabernets
Sad to say, but many California Cabernets are no longer "just"
beverages; they're collectibles. As a result, we've seen a phenomenal escalation in
pricing  the past couple of
years.
While we used to have a bunch of $10 Cabernets in the shop, today that same ten
bucks is viewed by many wineries as merely a down payment on a bottle of their rare and
precious liquid.
Fueling inflation are those producers who ask a high price and are able to get
it. This causes other winery owners or marketing people to reason "My wine is
as good as that other producer. They're asking $100. We're asking $30.
If we raise our price to $50, we're still offering a good value." One estate
will soon be releasing its Cabernet for a suggested retail price of $300 a bottle!
The situation has taken a sudden turn, starting in the summer of 2001. The
"dot-com" boom is over and all those people on expense
accounts are not jamming Bay Area restaurants and buying $150 bottle of
Cabernet. Many dining establishments are no longer open for lunch,
for example, so many former opportunities for the sale of a bottle of wine have
evaporated.
The highly-touted 1997 vintage (much over-praised in my view) gave way to the
difficult, challenging vintage of 1998. I've tasted some very good 1998s,
but have had customers tell me "Oh, we can't put a 1998 on our dinner table
for guests...what would they think??"
The 1999 vintage appears to be a nice vintage, while 2000 looks to be more
challenging. Now many people seem to think buying 2001 Cabernets is the
way to go. (Having tasted some slacker wines from 2001, I can tell you
it's another vintage that should convince you to not pay any attention to a
vintage chart!). And the 2002s hitting the market today appear promising,
but it takes a good winemaker to produce a good wine, no matter what the
vintage. Many of the 2002s we've tasted have been poor...over-ripe grapes
but under-ripe flavors. Some wines have had stuck fermentations, leaving
the wines with noticeable levels of unfermented sugar! Our first
line-up of 2003s was disappointing, but the second flight we tasted was very
fine...as usual, a mixed bag.
The 2004 vintage can be quite nice and some 2005s show promise, as well.
Happily we have many fine alternatives to California Cabernets. If you're value
conscious, try to find our Spanish wine page as you'll discover many Cabernet alternatives
in the $5-$30 price range. We also suggest having a look at the Malbec
wines from France's Cahors region or the Tannat-based reds from Madiran in the
southwest of France.
The winemaking has changed with respect to Cabernet. Years ago it was normal to make
Cabernet Sauvignon without blending any other varieties. Today, many producers add
Merlot to "soften" their Cabernets. There are other winemakers who blend
in other Bordeaux varieties, such as Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
One winemaker, years ago, told me his best wine was 100% Cabernet. "I blend
Merlot into our regular wine, but mainly to give the marketing people something to talk
about." he said.
Looking back to the wines made in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s in Napa, we find most were
aged in large wooden tanks. The notion of adding oak chips to flavor the wine was
certainly foreign to winemakers of that era. Wines were often aged in redwood tanks
or relatively neutral cooperage for a few years and then a few more years in bottle before
the wine reached the market.
Today many people give their wines 12-18 months in smaller cooperage (it matures faster in
60 gallon barrels than in a 2,000 gallon vat). Many replace a percentage of barrels
each year in order to insure a certain amount of oak is showing in the wines' bouquet and
flavor. And the wines are pushed into the market after 2 or 3 years,
whereas into the 1960s and 1970s, most Cabernets arrived in shops when they were
about 5 years old!
While many winemakers produce big, deeply-colored, aggressively tannic wines, there is not
guarantee that a wine of such style will "age well." The wine must have an
appropriate amount of fruit (grape character) to go along with the tannin. Even more
important is the level of acidity in the wine. Low acid/high tannin wines, in our
experience, often do not age particularly gracefully.
 We have had the pleasure of opening old bottles of California Cabernets
which we are fairly certain we not outrageously tannic when the wines were young. I
am thinking of bottles of Louis Martini Cabernets from the mid-to-late 1940s which, at 50
years of age, were still vibrant in color and fresh in "fruit." I also
recall a Simi Cabernet of elderly stature (probably from the mid 1960s or so) which we
shared with a group of visiting Alto Adige (Italian) food and wine fanciers: the wine was
fruity, berryish and thoroughly delicious despite never having been hugely tannic or
excessively oaky. The late Mario Gemello also made exceptional Santa Clara County Cabernet
Sauvignon. His 1960 is legendary! And still fabulous (the bottle in the photo
above was opened, and consumed with enthusiasm, in January 2001). That wine was aged
in wood for nearly a decade!!!
Yes, winemaking has changed.
Cabernet Best Buys
- LYETH 2005 "L de LYETH" SONOMA COUNTY CABERNET SAUVIGNON
$8.99
 The
Lyeth (rhymes with 'teeth') winery was founded in 1981 by Chip Lyeth, a
fellow who quickly gained a good reputation for his Bordeaux-styled wines
from Sonoma County, California. He was a high-flying winemaker,
producing some marvelous wines until disaster struck.
Lyeth was a pilot and was doing some acrobatics, showing off for a family
event when he had technical difficulties and was killed in a horrific small
plane accident. His son sent us a note to say his dad had taken some
ear medication which they think threw off his equilibrium...
The winery building was soon sold to Silver Oak and remains the home of that
brand's Sonoma facility. The Lyeth label was sold to the French wine
firm of Jean-Claude Boisset, who also bought the William Wheeler label.
A new "L de Lyeth" Cabernet is currently available, easily the
best buy in a good quality North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine
comes from the 2004 vintage and is reasonably deep and displays lots of dark
red and black cherry fruit notes and a mildly floral tone. There's a hint of oak, too. Not
particularly tannic, so this is quite drinkable now.
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RODNEY STRONG
2004 Sonoma County CABERNET SAUVIGNON (list $15) SALE
$11.99
 Sonoma
County Cabernet with about 16 months in wood makes for a medium-bodied,
minty, woodsy red.
We think this is one of the best values in North Coast Cabernet in
California. It is drinkable now and may be kept for several more
years.
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- HART'S DESIRE 2004 "CLARET" $18.99
 John Hart
married a woman named Desiree, so he pretty much had no choice in naming the
winery!
He's been making a delightful "Claret" for us over the past few
years and the just-arrived 2004 is quite good. It's actually got 70% Cabernet
Sauvignon and 30%
Merlot. All Alexander Valley fruit. The wine has a nice
touch of wood (the proverbial "kiss" of oak) and the tannin level
is such that drinking it now is a pleasure.
It's a medium-bodied red. Not huge, over-the-top, but balanced and
refined. And fairly priced.
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ALEXANDER VALLEY VINEYARDS
2005 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon $16.99
 The
Wetzel family has been farming in Sonoma's Alexander Valley for more than 40
years. We bought our first wines from them with the 1975 vintage!
Though many of their neighbors ask serious money for a bottle of Cabernet,
the Wetzel's still sell wine for a price which allows one to drink well,
even if you didn't part with a fifty-dollar bill. In fact, you'll get
change and a bottle of wine for a twenty-dollar bill!
The 2005 Cabernet is much like its predecessor, a deep, cedary, woodsy note
on top of dark, black cherry fruit. Bob likes it better than the
2004. I find it to be quite good and one of the few bargains in
California Cabernet. The 2005 is nice now and it will age well, given
another 5-8 years of cellaring.-
MARIO PERELLI MINETTI
2005 Napa CABERNET (reg $21) SALE $18.99
 Uncle
Mario lives a few blocks from the shop and is a kindly, old (he's about
90-something) gentleman who loves wine.
He and his grandson run MPM wines. Mario's family was a major force in
the California wine business, once-upon-a-time. Wine runs in
Mario's veins.
His Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Napa Valley fruit. It's entirely
Napa and entirely Cabernet. Oak is not a major player here, as Mario
hates having his palate pummeled with toothpicks. It's a good wine to
pair with mildly-seasoned beef, for example.
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- Other suggestions:
Consider some marvelous Spanish wines:
Pago Florentino at $18.99 and La Planta for $13.99. Rioja can be had
for $12-$25...there are also some really good reds from the southwest part
of France...Madiran wines give these California Cabernets a run for the
money and they're $17.99.
Bordeaux is another great place to start exploring. We have reasonably
price, delicious Bordeaux wines from $9.99 to $25.
DeLuxe CABERNETS
- ALTAMURA VINEYARDS & WINERY
 This family enterprise started out in the mid-1980s with a lonely
little stone building on the Silverado Trail. Chardonnay was an early release, but
given their penchant for aging wines in oak, reds have been the highlights here.
Frank Altamura used to work at Caymus and so he's partial  to oak. In
abundance. The winery makes Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards
are in the southeastern part of Napa Valley in an area, appropriately, called "Wooden
Valley." Production remains small and the wines have a good following thanks to
nice fruit and balance in the wines. The current and recent vintages
show less strong oak and more Cabernet.
The 2002 vintage is available. It's a nice wine for a grilled steak or prime rib roast. It's a
delightful Napa Cabernet showing red and black fruit notes and a hint of a floral
tone. The tannins are such that this may be consumed now, with red
meats, of held for 5-8 more years.
The 2003 is remarkably good...really "classic" Napa Cabernet
aromas. The oak is not as prominent as in early vintages of
Altamura. The wine has tremendous balance
every-which-way...tannin...fruit to oak...everything.
- Currently offered: 2002 Napa Cabernet
$59.99
2003 Napa Cabernet $59.99
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- BEAULIEU VINEYARD
 Located in Rutherford, in the heart of "Cabernet Country,"
the BV winery has made an impressive comeback in recent years. I'll bet, however,
they'd claim they never left. Yet for those looking for serious quality Napa Valley
Cabernets, this winery went into the doldrums from about 1975 or so until the 1994
vintage.
Two historical figures play prominent roles here: the founder, a Frenchman
named Georges de Latour and a Russian gentleman named Andre Tchelistcheff.
Georges de Latour was from the Perigord region in France and came to California in
the 1880s in search of gold. He lost what money he had attempting to find gold in
the Sierra Foothills. He had a background in chemistry, however, and traveled from
winery to winery buying sediment and the tartrates which precipitated out during the aging
process. This he made into cream of tartar which was destined for baking powder.
His business was headquartered in Sonoma near the Dry Creek Valley. In 1899
he purchased a property located immediately north of the very prestigious (at that time)
Inglenook winery in Rutherford. He returned to his native France for vine cuttings
and opened a small winery.
In 1915 he bought the stone cellars of the Seneca Ewer winery across the road and
that remains the main home of BV.
Prohibition didn't shut down the winery, as de Latour was a producer of altar wines
for the Catholic Church. When Repeal finally came along, de Latour had stocks of
well-aged wines and was ready to supply a thirsty market.
Claude Rains portrayed Georges de Latour in a movie called "This Earth is
Mine," based on a book written by Alice Tisdale Hobart. I understand the
situations were changed somewhat to avoid legal wranglings.
De Latour and his son-in-law, the Marquis de Pins, visited the Institut National
Agronomique in Paris in search of an enologist to replace the retiring Professor Leon
Bonnet. They met a research enologist named Andre Tchelistcheff who accepted their
offer of a position in the Napa Valley.
Tchelistcheff felt Cabernet Sauvignon had the greatest potential and wanted to
concentrate on making a wine to challenge the best of Bordeaux. But the owners of BV
felt they had to have a complete "line" of wines and made everything including
Napa "Burgundy," "Chablis", "Muscat de Frontignan" and other
fortified dessert wines.
The first BV "Georges de Latour Private Reserve" Cabernet Sauvignon was
from the 1936 vintage.
I have a very old copy of Leon Adams "The Wines of America" in which he
writes of the initial Private Reserve:
"It was the 1936 vintage and was priced at a
dollar and a half. (At this writing, the ten year old Private Reserve brings
fourteen dollars a bottle in the few stores that have any in stock. The three year
old can be bought at the Beaulieu tasting room in Rutherford for $5.25 but there is a
limit of two bottles per buyer."
I think I still may have a bottle or two of that $5.25 Private
Reserve with our ancient orange price sticker on it!
The winery was sold by the Marquise de Pins in 1969 to the large Heublein company.
Tchelistcheff remained as winemaker, though he retired in 1973 or 1974. His
protégé,
Dick Peterson made the 1974 vintage and left shortly thereafter to be the head honcho at
the new "The Monterey Vineyard" in Monterey County, California.
The winery, in our view, went into a tailspin through the late 1970s and all
through the 1980s. It seems, to our taste-buds, the winemaking was being hampered by
the bean counters as less-than-stellar fruit and barrels were being used to make, not
surprisingly, less-than-stellar wines.
We were shocked when a BV Private Reserve 1994 won a blind-tasting here. We
were delighted, however, to see the return of "an old friend."
This, to us, marks a renaissance at BV.
The shackles have been removed, it would seem, and BV can, once again, take its
place as a source of excellent quality wines. BV Reserve Cabernets have won
blind-tastings here with their 1995 and 1996 vintages.
The winery is also making tiny amounts of special bottlings of Cabernets and other
experimental varieties. We hope the string of successes continues!
BV makes a modest quality "Coastal" Cabernet which has yet to attract our
attention. Their regular bottling of Napa Cabernet is called "Rutherford,"
though some in Napa are amused that the wine is NOT made exclusively from Rutherford-grown
fruit. Actually, the word isn't really "amused." They're not at all
happy about this.
BV Private Reserves have been entirely Cabernet Sauvignon.
The major change
effected by their director of winemaking, Joel Aiken, is BV's Reserves are no longer
exclusively matured in American oak. The latest Reserves have been matured in French
oak to the tune of 73%. The balance is American wood, with 80% of the cooperage, in
some fashion, being new oak.
Another wrinkle in the BV fabric has been the introduction of a Bordeaux-styled
blend. You could call it a "Meritage" wine, but that would cost a premium,
so BV came up with their own proprietary name, "Tapestry." The 1995 and
1996 vintages have been very nice, polished clarets with Cabernet being the predominant
variety. The 1996 Tapestry has a bit of Merlot with a drop each of Petit Verdot and
Cabernet Franc. The oak is split nearly evenly between French and American, with
some half of the cooperage being new. With the 1997 they achieved a new
level of success and though 1998 is regarded as a modest vintage, we were
pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wine. It has a woodsy bouquet of sweet
oak and it's smooth and reasonably drinkable now. Probably "The
Critics" won't like it as it's too drinkable now and may not be a wine
for drinking in the year 2010. Too bad.
The 2000 Tapestry was surprisingly good.
We had a taste of the current vintage and while it's good, we didn't find it
to be "fifty dollars good."
The 2001 Private Reserve is pretty typical of BV's recent Reserve
Cabernets. I find some nice oak, of course, though it doesn't strike
me as being as big as the 1999. It's the sort of red wine that pairs
most handsomely with a grilled steak or perfectly grilled lamb.
Drinkable now, if you like and it probably can be cellared another decade,
or so.
The wine garnered a shocking "score" from Wine Spectator critic
James Laube. You know how some "dog whistles" are inaudible
to humans, but dogs supposedly can hear them? Well, Laube has trained
himself to have this super-sensitivity to a cellar condition which about 99%
of wine tasters cannot smell or taste. As a result he blasted the 2001
BV with a shocking score of 69/100! A friend of ours was explaining
that while dogs may have an especially sensitive range of hearing, we don't
send them to the symphony to critique the musicians.
The 2002 Private Reserve is rather showy. Nice and woodsy, typical of
this bottling of BV. It is drinkable now, with food, but is also
likely to develop additional complexity and soften with a decade in the
bottle.
 We
picked up a few bottles of 1973 Private Reserve, a "library"
release from the winery in September of 2005. It and the 1974 were the
final two really grand Private Reserves before BV went into a period of
"hibernation" (in our view) for about two decades.
My Letter From Andre.- Currently in stock:
- 1973 BV Private Reserve Sold out
1996 BV Private Reserve (1.5ltr) $199.99
1996 Clone Six Cabernet (please inquire)
2001 BV Private Reserve SALE $89.99
1994 BV Private Reserve $139.99 (a few bottles
available presently)
1999 BV Private Reserve magnum (list $205)
SALE $179.99
- 2002 BV Private Reserve (list $90) SALE
$79.99
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BECKMEN
 Not
many red wine drinkers look to Santa Barbara County to satisfy their
cravings for a good Cabernet Sauvignon. We certainly have not thought
of Bordeaux varieties and Santa Barbara as being remotely related (though we
do recall a Cabernet made by Rick Longoria back in 1979, but that was then
and this is now).
The Beckmen estate, further, specializes in Syrah and other Rhone varietals,
so it's really remarkable to find them producing one of the best Cabernets
of the region and a wine worthy of comparison with Napa and Sonoma wines.
- The Beckmen family purchased an existing winery and vineyard in the 1990s
and they did their homework and uprooted many of the vineyards on the
estate. They realized they "inherited" vines which were
perhaps not best-suited to their vineyard sites, so the Beckmens set about
changing and upgrading.
We tasted their 2005 Santa Ynez Valley Cabernet and were delighted to find a
wine showing lots of dark fruit notes and good, cedary oak. The wine
may have a few years of cellaring potential, but there's not a lot of
astringency, so you can easily enjoy this in its youth.
It's quite reasonably-priced, too.
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- Currently in stock: 2005 BECKMAN Santa Ynez Valley Cabernet
Sauvignon (List $28) SALE $21.99
BEHRENS & HITCHCOCK
 This
small enterprise has gathered a lot of steam over the past few years,
combining the resources of Les Behrens and Bob Hitchcock.
Behrens was in the restaurant biz and put together an impressive wine list
to go with Mrs. Behrens' cuisine.
Bob Hitchcock used to work counting beans. I suppose he still counts
them as part of his contribution to the B&H endeavor.
We've been fans since their early days when they were true "garagistes."
Now they have a winery atop Spring Mountain, complete with a cave (so they
remain "an underground" winery).
The wines, so far, have been wonderful. Behrens, thanks to his
restaurant background, seems to strive for balance and
"drinkability" in their wines. Wines we've tasted don't have
the maximum tannin nor are they hugely oaked.
As they produce but a few hundred cases of the various bottlings, wines from
this property tend not to hang around for very long. Cellar treatment
is minimal, fining and filtering being handling the B&H crew is allergic
to.
- Currently available:
2000 Napa Cabernet $59.99
2000 King of the Gypsies $99.99
2000 Petite Verdot $49.99
2000 Kennefick Cuvee Magnums $139.99
2002 Dr. Crane Cabernet $64.99
2002 Les Chats du Monde $64.99 (last bottles)
- 2003 Les Chats du Monde $64.99
BERINGER
 This winery was founded by the German-born Beringer brothers, who came to
the U.S. in the 1870s from Mainz. Jacob and Frederick built the
"Rhine House" and had a cave or two excavated for wine
production. Jacob went to work for Charles Krug across the street
until their own digs were dug and ready for wine-making.
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The family ran the place until about 1970 when it sold the winery and
tremendous acreage to a Swiss firm called Nestlé. Back in the late
1960s and early 1970s, Beringer was probably most famed for a rather modest
red wine called "Barenblut" (Bear's Blood!) which was a curious
blend of Grignolino and Pinot Noir. Bears must have thin blood!
The winery also put out a fortified wine of Malvasia Bianca.
Nestlé set about improving the winery and hired a guy named Robert Pecota
as a 'big wig' along with a fellow named Myron Nightingale as its
winemaker. They made all sorts of wines, from Grey Riesling to Fumé
Blanc to Cabernet Sauvignon. A second label was created called
"Los Hermanos," the nickname given the Beringer brothers by their
Spanish neighbor, Señor Tiburcio Parrott. The Los Hermanos label featured jug wines and
single-serving bottles which came complete with plastic cup!
The winery plodded along for many years, never really competing seriously in
the realm of connoisseur wines until about the early 1980s. We recall
being stunned to taste a 1984 Reserve Cabernet that was seriously better
than the ordinary plonk Beringer had been known for making. The winery
continued on an upward spiral with winemaker Ed Sbragia at the
helm.
The Nestlé folks, with a seller's market easily in view, surprised many
industry folks by divesting itself of the Beringer winery and its various
brands (Chateau Souverain was the Sonoma "sister" and "Napa
Ridge" was a secondary label). Today Beringer is part of the vast
"Beringer Blass" empire and Ed Sbragia remains in some capacity,
over-seeing the wine production.
This property makes a range of wines, from marginal "plonk" to
deluxe, top-drawer Cabernets.
Owning substantial property in neighboring Sonoma County, Beringer's
standard bottling of Cabernet wears the Knights Valley designation.
The 1998 and 1999 are nothing special...in fact, a bit disappointing.
The Private Reserve wines (don't confuse these with the poor stuff
called "Founder's Reserve," a replacement for their
bulk-production Napa Ridge label which they sold to another company) are
usually pretty good. Expect to lay out some cash for
these. And they're sometimes really tops, though the 1997 was
less-than-stellar, 1998 was sold off cheaply to Morton's Steak Houses and
the 1999 was good, but not fantastically so (despite its elevated price
tag).
- Currently in stock:
1999 "Montagia" Cabernet Sauvignon $74.99
1999 Napa Valley Cabernet "Reserve" Sale $99.99
BURGESS CELLARS
1992 Burgess Cabernet Sold Out This
modest winery is located in an old stone cellar on the road towards Angwin and Pope Valley
in the eastern hills of the Napa Valley. It was the original Souverain winery when
Souverain was a small, artisan producer back in the 1960s. Lee Stewart sold
Souverain name to Pillsbury (I don't think they made that much dough in the wine biz) and
the facility was acquired by former airline pilot Tom Burgess.
They've made good wines over the years, but have never really managed to
capture the attention of wine critics or wine geeks. The wines are, for the most
part, soundly-made but not exceptionally complex or lavishly oaked.
We taste their wines on a periodic basis and find them to be okay.
We can special order their current releases for you.
- CALAFIA CELLARS
1999 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon $29.99
 Calafia
Cellars is the work of Randle Johnson, winemaker at the Hess Collection facility in
Napa. Randle has worked at a number of wineries, honing his skills along the
way. Early Calafia wines were idiosyncratic. We recall a number of bottlings
which were just plain funky. This always left us wondering how this fellow could
make some pretty nice wines under the banner of others, while his own products were not
nearly of the same caliber. This situation has changed, for whatever reason.
Johnson was affiliated, in case you're keeping score, with the old Souverain winery in
Napa, Mayacamas, Stags Leap and, presently, Hess. The past few vintages of Calafia
Cabernets have been terrific! I suppose since his "roots" (so-to-speak)
are in the Mayacamas Mountains and the Mount Veeder area, it's no wonder that area is the
source of the Cabernet fruit. The wines are "mountain" wines, too--big,
intensely colored and deep in fruit. They tend to have a bit of tannin, so it's wise
to pair a Calafia Cabernet with something like beef, duck or lamb. As his wines are
becoming "discovered," availability is rather limited.
The label was dormant for the 1998 vintage, one of the main
vineyard sources having been uprooted and re-planted. The 1999 marks a
good return to form, though the fruit source is quite different. While
the previous wines came from Howell Mountain, this one is from the Rozzell
Vineyard in Pope Valley. Johnson credits the rocky soil there limits
vine vigor, producing small berries and a high skin-to-volume ratio.
(More color, hopefully more character in the wine.) Aging was in half
new French oak and half once-filled barrels. The wine displays good fruit of Cabernet,
blackcurrants...the structure suggests another 5-10 years of cellaring,
though it may be paired with rich foods today, if you like.
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CAKEBREAD CELLARS
2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon SALE
$64.99
 For years the Cabernets
from this property have been merely big and burly. We've seen a definite (in our
opinion: improvement) refinement in the wines in the last vintages and today they're
making wines even fussy folks such as ourselves even consider to drink!
I
just don't like paying so much for them...but a lot of people find the wines
to be priced fairly and pop for a bottle.
The 2004 is
a fairly-full bodied wine, typical of Cakebread's work. Oak is not a major component, though
about two-third of the barrels are new. French oak only. A tiny bit of
Malbec and Cab Franc are used and about 12%
Merlot makes its way into the blend. The vineyards range from the cool
Carneros in southern Napa up to the warm climes of Calistoga in the northern
part of the valley.
The wine shows a bit more complexity than you'd find in a Cakebread Cabernet
of a decade ago, or so. Part of this is simply greater experience on
the part of the winemaker. Another factor is their use of a wider
variety of clones, grape varieties and vineyard sources.
The 2004 is young now, but a few more years in bottle will repay your being
patient.
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