Napa Valley Cabernet 10 years apart

The American embassy in London hosted a tasting of Napa Cabernets organised by the Napa Valley Vintners. The 14 wineries invited to pour their wines brought two vintages ten years apart. There was no programme behind the event, but it did give tasters an opportunity to monitor the evolution of wines from top producers. In most cases the young vintage was either 2015 or 2016, and the older 2005 or 2006.

These were all good vintages so quality was, or should have been, consistently high. Indeed, the wines ranged from very good to superb, as one would hope for given that they ranged in price from around £100 to £500. Harlan Estate was probably the most expensive wine, so I asked its manager, Don Weaver, what has changed between 2005 and 2015. He didn’t hesitate: ‘There is vintage variation, of course. Apart from that the only significant change has been that the vines are older and more balanced. But Harlan remains the same place, with the same team in the vineyard and winery.’

That would be true of many properties here. True, in California it is common practice to buy grapes from contracted growers so sources can vary from year to year. But the majority of wines here came from single vineyards, such as Tor’s To Kalon or Heitz’s Martha’s Vineyard.

One evident change has been the growth in AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) within Napa Valley. These are topographical designations. Unlike French AOCs or Italian DOCs AVAs are regulation-free, with no stipulations about permitted varieties or maximum yields. Stags Leap District, Rutherford and Oakville are long established AVAs here, with Coombsville and Calistoga more recent additions. Judged by the broadest of parameters, it is possible to characterise each AVA. Thus Coombsville in southern Napa lies closer to the cooling influence of San Pablo Bay. In contrast Calistoga is at the top end of the valley, which is its hottest sector. But extensive tastings demonstrate that Coombsville wines do not necessarily have a ‘cool-climate’ character, and Calistoga wines from the likes of Chateau Montelena or Eisele can have just as much finesse as a wine from Oakville or Stags Leap.

The human touch

The simple truth is that human intervention often overrides so-called ‘terroir’ characteristics. Years ago I asked the Napa Valley Vintners to organise a blind-tasting focused around Cabernets from different AVAs. Could I tell them apart? Not really, although Stags Leap seemed to have a touch more elegance. Similarly at blind tastings organised by Decanter, AVAs such as Oakville have offered some truly outstanding wines alongside some grimmer examples.

Scroll down to see the comparative tasting notes & scores

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. In Napa as in Bordeaux or Burgundy, winemaking, not to mention farming, leaves an imprint. Heitz’s wines were aged in Limousin oak, a very different medium from Allier or Troncais. Some estates, such as Dunn or Corison, pick relatively early, so as to avoid wines with any cooked or jammy characters and without excessive alcohol (broadly defined as 15% or above). In contrast, other properties favour a full-throttle style, accepting a proportion of overripe or raisined grapes, even at the risk of high alcohols.

This is not to say that one approach is better than the other, although American palates have a higher tolerance than European ones for overripe styles. If someone positively enjoys a Porty wine with 15.5%, well, who’s to deny them? Nor does moderate alcohol guarantee a balanced wine. Some early-picked Cabernets can be stringy or mean. When at this tasting I commented on the high alcohols of the Pahlmeyer wines, the winery’s representative murmured: ‘We get a lot of sun in Napa Valley.’

Californian sunshine and daily fog incursions are Napa hallmarks, and that hasn’t changed much over a decade. Growers uneasy about global warming, often expressed in Napa in the form of ‘heat spikes’ – a few days of equatorial temperatures around 40C – know that in most circumstances there are ways to deal with it. No grower need feel helpless in the face of extreme conditions. Caution about leaf removal and exposing bunches to direct sunlight, higher yields so as to avoid excessive concentration and high alcohols, earlier harvesting even at the expense of the shibboleths of ‘hangtime’ and ‘phenolic maturity’ – these are all ways to retain balance in a finished wine. It remains a personal, and sometimes commercial, choice whether to adopt these methods.

In this respect little has changed over a decade. However, I would suggest that quality is steadily improving. There is certainly more care taken about tannin management: grossly extracted wines are far less common than they used to be. Similarly, over-oaking, a problem in the 1990s, has receded and today oak is well handled. Even estates employing entirely new barrels tend to do so with discretion and care. Beth Novak Milliken of Spottswoode agrees with this analysis, and indeed her wines show that Napa can deliver wines of silky textures, intensity, purity, and finesse.

Rubicon illustrates this trend. This flagship wine from the Inglenook estate was renowned for its dense tannic structure, and was often given a few years’ bottle-age before release. The wine had a rugged grandeur, but it wasn’t much fun to drink. In 2000 the estate hired a new technical director, Philippe Bascaules, formerly of Château Margaux. The change in style soon became apparent. He reduced the proportion of new oak and length of barrel-ageing, and made other changes that resulted in a more elegant and approachable style.

Others stick to a path of over-ripeness, ending up with high-pH wines. This chemical measurement is closely related to the acidity of the juice and the final wine. In Bordeaux, the pH of a Cabernet Sauvignon wine would be between 3.4 and 3.7. In Napa, it can be 4.0 or above. The winemaker at the Peter Michael estate once insisted to me that his pHs of 4.1 or 4.2 would have no effect on longevity – but most would disagree. Many estates with a penchant for this style in the past have not changed their approach, and their wines – soft, broad, fleshy, powerful, relatively short-lived – still find favour with many consumers.

But where Napa winemaking has changed, it has changed for the better. Growers have a greater understanding of their terroir and how to farm it, and winemakers are more skilled at crafting balanced wines. Old-timers recall some wines from the mid-1980s – Mondavi Reserve Cabernets are a good example – that were 12.5% in alcohol and aged beautifully. Opulence and power are no guarantees of ageability. There were also green wines in the 1980s and few argue for a return to that style. But Napa farmers and winemakers know they need not be entirely at the mercy of global warming, heat spikes, and other unwelcome conditions. Napa has long produced some of the world’s greatest Cabernet-based wines, as well as grotesque distortions, and will no doubt continue to do so.

Napa Valley Cabernet Ten Years Apart:

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