Senior editor James Molesworth is Wine Spectator's new lead taster for California Cabernet Sauvignon. He recently returned to Napa Valley for more visits with top wineries. And don't miss our Q&A with James on his Napa Cab eureka moments, his scoring philosophy, and what he's up to when he's not tasting wine.
All wines included in this report were tasted non-blind, at the properties in Napa. The wines are listed in the order of tasting.
Abreu Vineyards' Chef in the Cave
Abreu winemaker Brad Grimes has the rugged winemaker look down cold—a bit Cornas meets Catskills, with a full beard and a well-worn T-shirt. His winemaking approach draws on his background as a chef and exemplifies his on-the-job training and intuition. There is no strict recipe per se, but the approach does run within a few lanes, as Grimes puts the parts together early on and then builds a blend from there.
As I taste the young wines, I see parallels with Clos des Papes in the Rhône, which keeps foudres of the three main varieties together but in varying percentages, using those lots to build the blend. These are rich, powerful and dense expressions of Cabernet blends, but they're matched by an inner energy and brightness. They are showstoppers that also make you think, rather than just leaving you spent.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are given almost equal status, with Cabernet Franc the “great unifier,” according to Grimes.
“That’s the grape that allows us to use so much Petit Verdot,” he adds, explaining that tanks contain usually two if not all three of the varieties for co-fermentation.
A sample drawn from one is 2018 Madrona Ranch fruit that has fermented dry. Made of equal parts of the two Cabernets with 15 percent Petit Verdot, it’s cassis-laden and very much in the house style here: big, broad and deep. Yet it zips along, too, with a fresh bay note through the finish.
“Immediately in this vintage, there’s this big, lush feel,” says Grimes.
A tank of all 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon (a bit of an anomaly here) from Cappella shows very intense black cherry and blackberry purée flavors with a lacing of mouth-puckering black licorice snap. It’s remarkably defined and focused already.
Tasting a sample of 2018 Las Posadas, made from equal parts Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot along with some Cabernet Sauvignon, shows a saturated plum paste feel with lots of dark bramble and tobacco notes.
The 2018 Thorevilos combines two different blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon and is the tightest of the bunch (all four wines are clearly nascent wines in need of élevage) with cassis, bitter plum and sagebrush notes that are very steeped in feel.
As an example of what happens after that élevage, we try a bottle of the 2007 Cappella, which is sappy and intense. A fruit-laden wine in the house style here, it still sports an inner brightness despite its density, with a long graphite finish that lets a host of bitter plum, cassis, ganache and roasted juniper notes flow through beautifully.
Spottswoode: A Quintessential California Wine Story
Winemaker Aron Weinkauf has been here since 2006, working as head winemaker since the 2010 vintage, and today Spottswoode makes around 4,000 cases annually of Sauvignon Blanc (using some purchased fruit) along with 2,000 cases of its Lyndenhurst Cabernet Sauvignon, which combines estate and purchased fruit. The top wine is the estate Cabernet, which tops out at around 4,000 cases.
For my visit, owner Beth Novak Milliken opened a vertical of the Spottswoode Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, covering 2010 through 2016, providing an ideal look at the consistency of style and quality here, as well as the wines' slow and subtle evolution over time. There's a delicacy to the Spottswoode Cabernet, but the wine is no pushover. Sneaky long and with tensile strength, it's a yoga pose held for minutes, in stark contrast with the stereotypical Napa Cab's bodybuilder reps. It has a uniquely pure feel, and while it's in a less "obvious" style, its ageability is clear. The wine, like the estate, has the reach to connect Napa's past to its future.
The 2016 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is youthfully tight (and not yet released), with a coiled feel to a range of plum skin, cassis and cherry paste flavors augmented with violet and mineral hints. It’s long, very fine-grained and extremely persistent, though it relies more on precision and its slatelike cut than on sheer ripeness or power. Mind you though, the wine is clearly ripe.
“That’s the result of the path Tony [Soter] put us on,” says Novak Milliken. “Energy, precision— I think those are the words people use today, versus balance in the past. But that elegance, that feel, is what we aim for. We think that is the expression of this place. A wine that shows well when young but also has the ability to age considerably.”
That slatelike feel, along with alluring cut and polish, ran throughout the range of vintages in the flight. The 2015 has a bit more lift and range than the ’16 (the latter from a notably high-yield crop, notes Weinkauf), as it has had an extra year to unfurl, with its plum paste and cassis notes showing concentration but still in harmony with the subtle, fine-grained feel that carries the finish.
The 2014 shows the character of the vintage that is steadily winning me over as the most intriguing of these past three big years, with notes of sagebrush and savory amid the tightly focused cassis and plum flavors. The wine has a bit more tension than ’15 and ’16, with the mineral edge piercing the finish and adding extra length.
The 2013 is bright, with more floral lift, tinged with damson fruit and bitter cherry flavors that are redder in profile than the norm here. It has a coulis feel through the finish, with its mineral edge peeking through.
The 2012 is another highlight in the flight, with notable energy, as it seems to be kicking into a second gear, sporting a full range of bitter plum, cherry preserve and juicy cassis flavors, harnessed by a twinge of plum skin on the finish. It has tension and cut but still feels generous, a wonderful combination.
The 2011 is the plumpest in feel of all the vintages here, though it is equally pure in its profile, with plum and cassis again the featured fruit flavors.
The 2010 seems to have hit its second phase, picking up the lightest echo of mint amid a polished and very lengthy beam of cassis and plum puree flavors. It’s remarkably refined and very, very stylish.
Cathy Corison's Unconventional California Cabernets
Cathy Corison is definitely doing her own thing. Diminutive and wearing blue wire-framed glasses, Corison has worked 41 commercial vintages in Napa, "and one vintage as intern," she adds. It's safe to say her experience allows her to chart her own course.
Corison's wines typically check in under 14 percent alcohol, low compared to most Napa Cabernets. The style is bright, high-toned and fresh, with a crunchier feel rather than plush or dense. And they age remarkably well—I recently sprung for a bottle of Corison's 1996 in a restaurant and it was a wine that was fully mature, confidently so, and in no hurry to finish its run, either.
“The main question is what is the best thing to do with a given place,” Corison says. “I’m looking for energy, vibration. And what drew me here was the dirt. I knew this dirt could produce long-lived wines.”
The first Kronos Vineyard bottling was the 1996, and the vineyard yields about 400 cases annually. Corison bought the nearby Sunbasket Vineyard, planted by André Tchelistcheff in the 1950s and from which she had been purchasing fruit for decades, in 2015.
The 2014 Kronos shows a core of bitter cherry and loganberry fruit, with a distinctly juicy feel and flash of savory through the finish.
The 2014 Sunbasket is similarly juicy in feel, with a slightly brighter profile than the Kronos, showing damson plum and raspberry coulis notes and flashes of tea and mulled spice.
The 2014 Napa Cabernet bottling sources fruit from three vineyards, Hayne, Grech and Sunbasket. At 2,500 cases, it’s the workhorse here, offering the house style of brisk pomegranate and bitter cherry fruit with a sleek, iron-tinged finish.
To demonstrate the wine’s ageability, Corison opened a bottle of her 2001 Napa Cabernet, which comes off as very elegant yet quite persistent, with gently steeped cherry and damson fruit infused with rooibos tea, sandalwood and blood orange notes, all backed by a light sanguine edge on the finish. No bombast. Instead it relies on precision and balance, allowing it to reach maturity and then easily hold steady. Just like the winemaker.
Dalla Valle Takes the Hard Road
"Everyone thought I was crazy when I bought up here and planted vines," says Naoko Dalla Valle. "They said, 'Why don't you plant on the valley floor, where it's easier?'"
"This was really one of the first wineries to take that approach," says Andy Erickson, who has made the wines here since 2007. (He and Dalla Valle met at a barbecue at Screaming Eagle.) "It was a change in the mindset of Napa to move to lower yields, more difficult-to-work hillside sites. At the time there was basically just Diamond Creek and Joseph Phelps. Dunn was just getting started. Dalla Valle helped show the way."
Today Dalla Valle produces around 3,000 cases annually, with about 1,000 cases each of the Cabernet and Maya bottlings and an additional 500 or so of Collina, their introductory wine that uses fruit from younger vines and is made to be approachable when young.
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon (75 percent Cabernet with the rest Cab Franc) has an intense core of cassis infused liberally with toasted spice and raspberry coulis notes, with a fine-grained texture that adds energy through the earth-tinged finish.
The 2016 Maya (two-thirds Cabernet and the rest Cab Franc) has a plusher, denser feel, with plum paste, cassis and tar notes running together, backed by a long licorice and singed sandalwood–framed finish. It comes from the main block on the estate which, Erickson notes, “is always more aromatic and denser in fruit.”
The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon has matured nicely, showing rooibos tea, damson and cherry notes against a backdrop of singed apple wood.
The 2008 Maya has a similar profile but an extra layer of fruit, as Erickson noted, with finer-grained structure and a beautiful incense-infused finish.
The 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon is at a delightful peak of maturity, with perfumed cedar, sandalwood and tea notes around a gently steeped red currant and plum core. The cedar note holds sway through the finish but is supple and charming and not at all dried out or grainy.
The 1998 Maya is a shade darker once again, with plum and black currant fruit that is still remarkably fresh, with singed cedar, vanilla and tea notes weaving around. It has a touch of tension through the finish, too, admirable at 20 years of age from what would have been young vines at the time.
Naoko Dalla Valle may have chosen the harder route, heading up the winding road just east of the Oakville Cross to find her bit of land. But it proved to be the right one: Her estate is a reference point in Napa Valley, making ageworthy Cabernet blends infused with a distinctive, lightly rugged tug of red earth that sets them apart.
Lokoya's Winemaking Mountain Man
Jackson Family Wines is known for its large-volume wine brands from California and beyond, none more than Kendall-Jackson. But there's a coterie of small-production, highly focused wines beneath the company's umbrella. Winemaker Chris Carpenter handles this group, headlined by Lokoya and Cardinale and including Mt. Brave and La Jota.
Carpenter, who stands a full 6'5" and has well-worn winemaker's hands, couldn't be better cut from central casting for the role of mountain man winemaker. Carpenter took over at Lokoya and the other brands in 2001.
Lokoya, which debuted in the 1995 vintage, produces four wines, one each from Diamond Mountain District, Spring Mountain District, Howell Mountain and Mount Veeder, with the wines always 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. Total production is about 3,500 cases annually. "Lokoya is full-on tannin," says Carpenter with his deep voice. "The wines are meant to provide the full expression of the place."
"Full-on tannin" is putting it mildly. Lokoya's wines are densely structured—rigid but integrated. Consequently, they seem unyielding at first, and they age slowly. But even at an early point in their lives, the cuvées show clear differences in terroir.
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District has a chunky feel, with intense, sappy-textured cassis fruit at the core waiting to unwind.
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District is more succulent in feel, with cassis and raspberry compote notes and brambly grip.
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain sports everything I dig about this AVA’s wines: copious black and blue fruits that are explosive through the gravel-lined finish.
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is the brightest of the four, leaning to kirsch and red licorice, with a very lively feel through the finish.
For the four wines, the winemaking is the same, except for the selection of barrels, with the élevages lasting 20 months in a high percentage of new oak. While new oak is a bugaboo for some, it clearly serves a role, especially when dealing with red wines as muscular and in need of bottle age as these.
As an example, Carpenter pours the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District. It seems to have barely moved: It's still sporting a strong-willed bramble and currant paste–filled core, with a youthfully succulent feel that's similar to the '15. On closer inspection, the tannins have yielded ever so slightly, but the wine is still polished, lengthy and full of life, remarkably so.
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