Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 51
I can trace the beginnings of my Napa Valley cabernet
bias back to one such tasting, when I found myself
at a table with several open bottles of 1997 cult cabernet. These were the wines that changed the course
of Napa cabernet sauvignon. The proverbial Helen of
Troy wines that "launched a thousand ships," all destined to land 100-point scores. These wines had been
buoyed by volatile acidity and just enough residual
sugar to soften the edges on release. With ten years
of age, they were falling apart in front of us. It was
more than disappointing-we had been expecting
beautiful wines, but we were tasting zombie wines,
flabby with bruised fruit, driven into the ground by
volatile acidity and alcohol. More than one person in
the room that day worked with producers who were
actively pursuing this winemaking style, and suddenly the room became uncomfortably silent.
For many of us who grew up in California, Napa
Valley cabernet was our first encounter with wine.
There's a mythology surrounding the giants in the
industry, the first families of wine and the icons of
cabernet. And the wines themselves are front-loaded
with fruit, with muscular tannins and velvet-Elvis
plushness. It's easy to see how this style of cabernet
has leapt to the forefront over the past 20 years. But
after that tasting, and after I moved to Los Angeles
and took a job at Spago, I became disenchanted with
these wines. At Spago, Master Sommelier Chris Miller
encouraged me to focus, instead, on Burgundy and
riesling, and I was happy to assent.
Now on a new team, in the LA office of Wine &
Spirits, I recently found myself facing down several
long flights of current-release cabernet sauvignon
from Napa Valley. Armed with pen, paper and a tiny
bowl of crackers, I took a deep breath and sighed. It
was 78 degrees outside and the last thing I wanted
to do was take on a lineup of broad-shouldered and
bruising cabernets. But over the course of eight
weeks, 1,500 wines (150 of those cabernet sauvignon)
and many, many tiny bowls of crackers, I came faceto-face with wines that both supported and shattered
my bias against Napa Valley cabernet. So I decided
to drive north and test some theories about what
was going on in the vineyards, wineries and minds
of the winemakers behind the wines that made me
do a double take.
The iron-rich soils of Diamond Creek's
Red Rock Terrace (foreground) face the
white volcanic ash across the creek on
Volcanic Hill.
WINE & SPIRITS
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018
Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 3
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 5
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 6
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 7
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 8
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 9
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 10
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 11
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 12
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 13
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 14
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 15
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 16
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 17
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 18
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 19
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 20
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 21
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 22
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 23
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 24
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 25
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 26
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 27
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 28
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 29
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 30
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 31
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 32
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 33
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 34
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 35
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 36
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 37
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 38
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 39
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 40
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 41
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 42
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 43
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 44
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 45
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 46
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 47
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 48
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 49
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 50
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 51
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 52
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 53
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 54
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 55
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 56
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 57
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 58
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 59
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 60
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 61
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 62
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 63
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 64
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 65
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 66
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 67
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 68
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 69
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 70
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 71
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 72
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover3
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover4
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