I don't do this very often anymore. Taste wines made in California that is. Nor do I often taste two wines side by side, allowing them to develop in the glass, tracking their progress, in a deliberate effort to judge them. I taste a lot of wine and I remember every wine I have ever tasted. But I usually taste wines for the pleasure of it, only incidentally noting things like color, concentration, extract, tannin, acid, etc.
But yesterday was different. I tasted side by side two wines made in California, one from Coombsville in the Napa Valley, the other from the Santa Ynez Valley. Both wines were 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Both wines are very recent additions to the commercial wine market, one being completely unavailable to the general public, and the other so prohibitively expesive as to render it unavailable to most average wine drinkers. So I guess the deliberation was justified in this case.
The wines:
2007 Meteor "Perseid" Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (owned by the former CEO of AOL, hence .commer Cab)
2007 Santa Ynez Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, made by Rob Dafoe (as yet unlabeled). Rob is a Pirate (which explains the other portion of the title of this post).
The bottles were opened almost simultaneously, within a half hour of one another. The wines were tasted before and after decanting. The wines were near identical in color, with Rob's wine showing a bit darker and more opaque (I'd venture to guess that this is because Rob's wine was unfiltered). The Meteor was exuberant on the nose, all bright red fruit, subtle and well integrated oak, ripe, firm tannin with good acidity. As was Rob's wine, except without quite as much polish. Some pleasant green notes, a bit of baked fruit and a broader overall mouthfeel were the main differences. The Meteor reminded me of many Oakville Cabs that I have tasted, and it certainly had a femininity about it, much like the wines of Etude, Dalla Valle and Screaming Eagle. This is a very high quality wine, extremely polished and typical of high-quality Napa Cab. It was remarkable for its restraint and elegance, something I am not always used to seeing in a California Cab this young.
Rob's wine, while of the same overall quality as the Meteor wine, had a different personality entirely. A bit rough around the edges if not surly, it reminded me of many super-seconds I have tasted over the years. Mainly I am thinking of Leoville Las Cases, but I was also reminded of the somewhat brutish 86 Mouton-Rothschild. This wine felt alive with personality and pluck. This was a very distinctive wine, bristling with character and complexity, something very rare indeed, considering that this is a wine from Santa Ynez, and a Santa Ynez Cab to boot! This was the winner in my opinion. It delivered an authenticity that the Meteor wine lacked.
The Meteor wine, curiously, began to completely fall apart about two hours into the tasting. The fruit was gradually overtaken by a bitter, metallic component, and the acid became disjointed, making for a total loss of pleasure. Rob's wine continued to gain weight in the glass, developing notes of black tea, leather and bitter chocolate.
And today it is as it was...still plucky and full of life. Both wines were a real treat and very, very good. But Rob's wine reminded me why I am in the industry in the first place: because truly great, compelling wines are frequently unexpected, around the next corner, from people and places one can never anticipate. I have been known to completely berate Santa Ynez Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and anyone who knows me at all will tell you how thoroughly underwhelming I find Santa Ynez Valley wines generally. It is really nice to be disabused every now and again, to break the bones in one's head.
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