Blind Wine Tastings. That’s my jam. Throw in good friends, good eats….perfect Sunday evening material right there. When I was up in Napa for the Wine Writer’s Symposium, I received a lovely little gift bag from the Napa Valley Vintners. Inside were 3 bottles of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. After a week of cabs and chards at the symposium, I needed a little hiatus from all things Northern Cali for a while. Last Sunday, I decided it was finally time to pop some bottles. Call the friends, enlist cheese purchasing, ready the aluminum foil. Blind tasting time.
We drank them in no particular order. After covering them in foil, I had already forgotten what was what. There was no real scholarly approach to the tasting, we just discussed what we liked and why. After the third wine, we had a clear winner. Number 2. It was more elegant and restrained on the oak, lower in alcohol (coming it at 13.6%) and well balanced and had a nice acidity despite its rich cab fruit. Our second favorite unanimously was Number 3…coming in last was the first one out of the gate, Numero Uno. So, what did we drink? The reveal….
The “winner”- 2007 Frog’s Leap Cabernet. 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot. From the winemakers:
“…what kind of cabernet to make? There were the closed, tight fisted, cough-and-hack Cabs of the late 70’s or the now popular pick-late, sweet fruit, high alcohol wines of the early 21st century. Instead of chasing fads we simply learned from the past, favoring the lessons passed on by generations of Bordeaux winemakers. Our attempt is not to emulate anyone, but rather to avoid sacrificing the balance between Cabernet’s ripe fruit character and its lean herbaceous side at the altar of over-extraction and manipulation.”
Runner-up was 2002 Cafaro “Alta Tierra” Cabernet (92% cabernet, 8% petit verdot) and lastly the 2005 Porter Family Vineyards Cabernet (85% cabernet, 12% syrah, 3% merlot- and the most expensive bottle of the 3). As you all know, I am not keen on reviewing wines and giving extensive tasting notes. Therefore, I will spare you my thoughts only to say that we favored a more balanced wine and Old World style. Bonus wine- Jane, our host for the evening, had a bottle of 2005 Stag’s Leap “Artemis” Cabernet she had been holding onto for a special occasion. She had mentioned that she thought it might have gone bad as she came home and saw a few drips of wine under the bottle on the wine rack. We decided now was a better time than any other to see if it had indeed been damaged (I never mind being a test subject) and to compare to the other cabs. It was great! Super decadent and velvety but not at all cloying. Possibly a tie for first place.
Conclusions: I can’t say that after all of this Napa Cab-ing, that I am more likely to purchase a bottle of Cali Cab the next time I’m dropping dollars on a bottle. As a varietal, Cabernet Sauvignon just isn’t my favorite. I can say that my aversion to and prejudice of has subsided on the whole…
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Thank you to Jason and Jane for the hospitality and the opening of some Stag’s Leap in the name of research.
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