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MORE CALIFORNIA CABERNETS
 Chappellet, the
Harrison's offer a medium-full-bodied Cabernet with some of the wild herb elements of some
mountain Cabernets. This is nice now, but probably will really develop with another
3-5 years in bottle. Only 150 cases were produced, so this is an
endangered species. The aromas are reminiscent of dark cherry along
with some cedary notes.
HART'S DESIRE 2004 North Coast "Claret" $18.99 2001 Napa "Ambience Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon Sold Out  This is a small wine enterprise in Sonoma and we find, periodically, some
wine in the portfolio we like well enough to recommend to our customers.Winemaker John Hart is married to a woman named "Desire," so he pretty much had no choice in naming his winemaking enterprise. It had to be Hart's Desire!  A 2004 vintage red features the usual Bordelaise suspects, with Cabernet
Sauvignon accounting for 70% of the blend along with 30%
Merlot...Nice wine, well-balanced and drinkable now.
 They started
small. In 1961 Joe Heitz purchased a small cellar and vineyard on the
St. Helena Highway. The man he purchased the place from made one wine
from a grape thought to be Italy's Grignolino. The wine was called
"Brendel's Only One". In any case, Heitz is one of the old-timers, making a style of Cabernet that's a bit of a throwback to a different era. Their wines do not taste like Bordeaux-wannabes and they steadfastly stick to the notion of giving the wine a certain amount of aging in wood (not new French oak, either) and then in bottle, releasing the wines when they're 5 years of age. The 2002 Napa bottling is a medium-full bodied Cabernet. It's a shade dusty and typically "Heitz-ian" in spice. The wine is 100% Napa and 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. A year in American oak tanks and two years in French oak make for a fairly supple, dry red. It's lovely with steaks, a prime rib roast or some well-seasoned lamb. We like this now, though it will last another 5-10 years, well-stored. Trailside is a vineyard which was owned by a guy named Shown and it's just south of Conn Creek Winery along the Silverado Trail. It has been a very fine Napa Cabernet, not at all like the regular bottling from Heitz, since it's matured exclusively in French oak. I find much more red and black fruit and cedary, sweet oak to this wine. The 1999 is really delicious. Not cheap, but I find it special. Don't miss this one! I think it's reasonably-priced for upper echelon Napa Cabernet, especially since so many wines cost $100-$200 these days. I tasted the 2000 and it is really good, too...though many 2000s are not stellar, you would not know, tasting the 2000 Trailside, that it was a difficult vintage. Highly prized in the crown is a vineyard designated wine called Martha's Vineyard. This comes from the Oakville-Rutherford border and is named after Martha of owners Mr. & Mrs. Tom May. It is often a remarkable wine, minty and with a pungent note reminiscent of eucalyptus. Not to everyone's taste, Martha's Vineyard Cabernets have been a Napa Valley "grand cru" for many years. The vineyard was replanted and the first vintage in several years is the 1996. Does it taste like the Martha's Vineyard wines of old? Happily, the character of the 1996 IS reminiscent of those minty affairs Heitz made years ago. Perhaps not as intensely minty, but you sense a touch of that character in the 1996. | The 1999 vintage is in stock and a really fine example of Heitz' Cabernet and Martha's Vineyard. It is lovely now and will continue to grow over the next 5-10 years. Very fine. The 2002 Martha's Vineyard is superb. It's not only a great example of "Martha's," it's a demonstration of "grand cru" quality Napa Cabernet. The wine is deep and complex. The bouquet is already beautiful and it will only grow more interesting with time. Kudos to the Heitz family for this!  The Hewitt
label is brand new, but the property the vineyard sits on is an old, historic
estate on the Rutherford bench right near the BV winery.The history of the place is fascinating, weaving together many famous and historic names in Napa Valley enological history. Brun & Chaix was a prominent Howell Mountain estate in the late 1800s and Brun was the maternal grand-pappy of William Hewitt. In 1962 Hewitt purchased a piece of property, aided by the hubby of the grand-daughter of Georges de Latour, founder of Beaulieu Vineyards. BV's winemaker, the legendary Andre Tchelistcheff, is reported to have helped Hewitt plant the vineyard. Hewitt's father-in-law is Charles Deere Wiman, head of the firm which makes John Deere tractors and other farming equipment. Mr. Hewitt, in the 1980s, became Ambassador Hewitt, mon. Yes! He was the U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica, don't you know? Well, old Ambassador Hewitt died in 1998 and the property was purchased by The Chalone Group. Tom Selfridge, who heads Chalone, used to work for BV years ago and so he knew this vineyard produced dynamite Cabernet fruit. The Chalone Group hired Tom Rinaldi away from Duckhorn and Tom makes some "okay" wines under a label called Provenance. Every time I've been shown these Provenance wines, I have always been reminded they're "made by Tom Rinaldi, former winemaker at Duckhorn." I have nearly had the idea that Tom has changed his name, the family name now being "Rinaldi-Former-Winemaker-At-Duckhorn," since he's never referred to by these people simply as "Tom Rinaldi." The Provenance wines, frankly, have yet to capture my attention. Okay...one wine has been really good...the 2003 To-Kalon Cabernet. But the rest have been a bit weak or but of standard quality/ For $25-$35, I want a more interesting, compelling wine. So I have been curious to know if Rinaldi-Former-Winemaker-At-Duckhorn will ever have something of note during this gig with Chalone. Well, now he has something worth putting his name on. Or Hewitt's name on. The wine is 100% Cabernet, much like the old BV Private Reserve wines. But Rinaldi-F-W-A-D is still keen on blending, finding it a challenge to craft this wine from various vineyard parcels on the property (which comprises 57 acres). He says there are several clones, rootstocks and soil variations which provide numerous components for the final "blend." The grapes from this estate had been, we're led to believe, incorporated into BV's famed Private Reserve Cabernets. Rinaldi-F-W-A-D claims it's an "intellectual's wine" more than an "in-your-face Cabernet." We find it to be really good, but there's plenty of power and stuffing to the wine which ought to get some favorable prose from point-scoring critics. The wine was matured in French oak, 100% of the cooperage being brand new. The fruit is dark, rich, plummy and ripe. A note of cedar and tobacco, with just a touch of a sweet tone are in play on the nose and palate. Mouth-drying at this stage, we suspect a few years in the cellar with soften up the wine on the palate. Very showy. Very nice. Now I don't think the Duckhorns will mind the constant association... PAUL HOBBS  Mr. Hobbs is a globe-trotting wine consultant
who's produced some very fine wines over the past few years. He's been
instrumental in helping some wineries in Argentina to elevate their quality
to that of "world class" stature. We've periodically found some of his own California Cabernets to be pretty good. Some are not to our taste. All are expensive. In fact, a New York Times article examined the costs of producing a bottle of wine and Mr. Hobbs' ideas about pricing the wines. I was invited to a tasting of Hobbs' new wines, including his Cabernet from Andy Beckstoffer's "To-Kalon" vineyard. Mondavi says they own the rights to this "To-Kalon" name, so it will be interesting to see what happens when the court battles are settled (someone else also has this "To-Kalon" on a label!). We included a bottle of Mr. Hobbs' 2004 "Stagecoach" Cabernet in a blind-tasting of Napa wines. It was the resounding last place wine, costing three times what our first place winner cost. The $180 price tag has little to do with the quality of the wine and its cost of production. The wine, though, garnered high numerical scores from various critics who, apparently, find the need to reward such a pricey wine with a 90 point (or more) evaluation. Watch this space for further news. Back to our first Cabernet page
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With
much fanfare, this property has enjoyed a phenomenal amount of praise from some wine
writers. It is managed by Christian Moueix, a fellow whose family owns the famous
Chateau Petrus in Bordeaux's Pomerol region. Dominus was owned, also, by the Lail
family, who had ties to the old Inglenook winery. Mrs. Robin Lail's father was John
Daniel, a legendary figure in Napa Valley wine history. I understand the Lail's no
longer have a share of Dominus.
I
have found, I will admit, the recent vintages have become better balanced examples of red
wine. These are not the lavishly-oaked sorts of reds which tend to attract the most
attention. 
This
winery was originally established to make a name for itself as the leading
producer of Merlot. Over the years they've made good Cabernets,
too! Their first vintage was 100% Cabernet, while today they seem to
like to blend other "Bordeaux varieties" into the wine.
Early vintages demonstrated a commitment to quality. I felt they had a
modest drop off in the late 1980s, but have tasted exceptional wines from this
property in the past decade. 
They offer a second label wine under their "Decoy" label, a blend
of Bordeaux varietals that didn't make "the cut" in their
premium-priced wines. 
This is a new label from the Burtton Wine Company. Spencer Graham and
Elizabeth Pressler own this enterprise, he being a former wine distributor and
she being a former winery sales manager who's now a marketing guru in
Napa.
There's an
annual trade tasting in San Francisco featuring about 300 to 400
wineries. Making one's way around, even with sniffing and spitting is
a challenge and it's really tough on the wines, too. Something has to
be pretty damned good to make you stop and take notice.
The wine is made by long-time Napa Valley winemaker Joe Cafaro. The
2004 is their current release and it's quite a good example of Napa Valley
Cabernet in general and Oakville area Cab in particular. The
wine displays lovely black fruit notes and a hint of cedary oak. The
tannin structure is nicely balanced, a bit of a Cafaro "signature"
to some extent. Production, since it's only 4 acres, is
small. 
We
hadn't been particularly enthusiastic about paying the Far Niente price for Cabernet from
this estate, but we will say their 1994 marks a change for the better in terms of what's
in the glass, anyway. Yes, these are expensive and they're priced for those with
Platinum credit cards. 
You're
probably wondering why I've placed a photo of the sparkling wines of the
now-defunct Hanns Kornell winery under this Frank Family heading.
We have
their 2001 Napa Cabernet in the store. It's a medium-bodied, nicely
oaked red wine. The wine is 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet
Franc. They make two other more costly Cabernets. We find their
basic bottling to be worth its price. The 2001 is drinkable now and
will be fine for probably another 5-10 years. 
The Frias family
has its roots in Mexico, but they left their own country in a hurry.
Manny Frias' father was mayor of their little town, but feared for his
safety when other's political views became more popular. Dad worked
for Schlage lock company, a far different life than he had back in Mexico.
Mr.
Mike Grgich worked at BV back in the Dark Ages, learning from famed Napa
Valley legend Andre Tchelistcheff. He later went on to be the
first winemaker at Calistoga's Chateau Montelena, making
its first wines. The winery was highly acclaimed for its Chardonnays,
though I recall (vividly) a superb 1973 vintage Zinfandel. Cabernets
were good, of course, but Grgich didn't really excel at that variety when
Grgich Hills got rolling. 
Here
is the "old" Grgich Hills Cabernet label. If you look
closely, you will notice the distinctive grape design is the same as on
their Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc labels. Someone once explained
that Grgich is a frugal fellow and merely photocopied the Chardonnay
design...he didn't want to commission the artist to draw labels for each and
every varietal made by the winery. They finally had a
"color" version designed for their Cabernet Sauvignon.
Finally. But sharp eyes will notice the same colorful design of
Cabernet Sauvignon grapes also adorns Grgich Zinfandel and Merlot
bottles! 
The recently-released 2003 is a really fine example of the Grgich style. The
wine is medium-bodied and rather elegant. It offers a nice
"woodsy" note from its aging in oak. The winery claims to
have matured the 2003 in 60% new French oak. It's certainly
not the sweet, hugely vanillin character of wood one finds in many of
today's in-your-face Cabernets and Merlots from Napa. The blend
features 4% Merlot, 2% of Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. We find this to be
drinkable now and expect it will develop quite handsomely over the next
decade, or so. 
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