Wine and Spirits - December 2011 - (Page 50)

YEAR’S BEST CABERNET SAUVIGNON & BLENDS Our blind panels tasted 700 new-release American cabernet sauvignon and cabernet blends over the past 12 months. Our critics rated 136 as exceptional (90+) and 47 as Best Buys. Joshua Greene reviews California wines; Patrick J. Comiskey reviews Washington wines. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com. C ALI FO RN I A CABERNET SAUVIGNON | Mount Eden $ 2007 Santa Cruz Mountains Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Open every stop on your cabernet church organ: Pure cassis. Mountain freshness. Baking spice. The pencil lead of Graves in that less-than-overripe varietal character. This is unadulterated cabernet pleasure, three words that have never come together in my mind before. Grown at 1,800 feet, 14 miles from the coast, this vineyard traces its heritage back to Château Margaux, where Emmett Rixford selected cuttings for La Questa in the 1890s. Martin Ray propagated cuttings from those vines to plant Mount Eden in the 1940s, replanted in the 1980s with a selection from Ray’s vines. Between the cool site, the exceptional vintage and the pedigree of the vines, this is a true California classic. (W&S, 10/11) Mount Eden Vineyards, Saratoga, CA who has tended the vines and made the wine at Diamond Creek since the early 1990s, believes Volcanic Hill to be the most long-lived of the estate cabernets. It shows ﬁrst-growth stature in 2008. (490 cases) Diamond Creek Vineyards, Calistoga, CA 414844 | La Jota $ | Diamond Creek $ 2008 Diamond Mountain District Napa Valley Red Rock Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon This wine’s dark, curranty tension captures Red Rock’s cooler, northern exposure. It takes the rich, saturated ﬂavors of classic Napa Valley cabernet in a fresh direction; a walk in the woods harvesting berries and morels. The ﬁnesse of the tannins combines with the zesty cool of the fruit to trigger all sorts of pleasure receptors in the brain. This is elegant and hard to resist, though it will reward a decade of patient cellaring. (406 cases) Diamond Creek Vineyards, Calistoga, CA 2007 Howell Mountain Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Open this bottle now and you may ﬁnd a fascinating evolution over the course of several days. When ﬁrst poured, it’s remarkable for the access it provides to fresh cherry ﬂavor—with a bright ping of acidity and an unusual ease for a Howell Mountain cabernet. The structure closes in with the force of a tightening ﬁst, its monumental size apparent as it takes on air. The wine’s expression of power has a grand cru sophistication, layered rather than blunt—a splash of cherry, a black mushroom savor—the taste of the earth lending a savory dimension and ﬁnesse. Grown at an elevation of 1,700 to 1,900 feet in volcanic tuﬀ, this should reach peak drinking around eight to ten years from the vintage. (W&S, 8/11) La Jota Vineyard Co., Angwin, CA 414967 414322 414845 | Domaine Eden | Groth $ $ | Diamond Creek $ 2008 Diamond Mountain District Napa Valley Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon Josiah Baldivino of Michael Mina in San Francisco noted a commonality among the Diamond Creek wines, “a simple approach, an even keel.” What sets Volcanic Hill apart in this vintage is its energy, the elegant beauty of a rose in bloom. Smelling the wine might bring woodland fruits to mind, wild cherries and tiny fraises des bois. Tasting it, the ﬂavors are fat with fruit yet weightless, the ripeness of the tannins creating a structure underneath the wine that keeps it tessellating into layers of detail. Phil Steinschriber, 50 W I N E & S P I R I T S D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 2007 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon (Best Buy) Balancing bright berry notes with the earth tones of a cool cellar, this is a complex and forthright cabernet sauvignon. It includes merlot, franc and small amounts of petit verdot and malbec— Mount Eden estate fruit as well as grapes from three other vineyards in Saratoga and Los Gatos—all coming together in a wine that’s completely satisfying to drink. There’s suppleness to the texture, a silk brocade of strawberry-tinged fruit, wood, stem and earth. Brisk and mouthwatering, this is glorious California cabernet and an unbeatable value. Mount Eden Vineyards, Saratoga, CA 2007 Oakville Napa Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon A classic Napa Valley cabernet, this grows at Groth’s 21.8 acre Reserve Vineyard on the Oakville Crossroad. It’s a parcel of high ground on the valley ﬂoor, the best-draining soil on the estate, replanted in 1999 and 2000. The young vines produced a tightly structured 2007, layering fresh woodland cherry ﬂavors over supple tannins. There’s power in those tannins, expressed in a chipped mineral character as the wine evolves with air. The tension between zesty fruit and dark tannins gives this wine its rounded form. For the cellar. Groth Vineyards & Winery, Oakville, CA http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com http://onlinestore.mounteden.com/domaine-eden-releases-c10.aspx http://www.grothwines.com/ http://www.diamondcreekvineyards.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine and Spirits - December 2011

Wine and Spirits - December 2011
Editor’s Note
Happenings
Contents
Fined & Filtered Luke Sykora on Napa's Latest Vintages; Wine Manga Hits Our Stores
Spirits: Winter's New Must-Haves from Lou Bustamante
Bordeaux on the Down Low
Post-Modern Barolo
Coombsville Rising
Breaking the Mold
Where’s the Beef?
Extreme Values
Tastings Overview
Champagne
American Cabernet & Blends
Barolo & Barbaresco
Rioja
German Riesling
American Wines
Imported Wines
Champagne’s Warming Trend

Wine and Spirits - December 2011