One of the travel blogs I read had a discussion on the best airline wine. No domestic US carrier was on the list.
It was noted that American Airlines served a '11 William Hill Central Coast cab sauv in the premium cabin. This retails about $20. I was surprised to read that they even made these wines in CC.
10% of my California wine is from this region. Most of my bottles are Syrah and Pinot Noir.
I checked average ratings on Cellartracker for cabs. Here are several results:
Napa 90.7 – 302,000 notes Sonoma 89 – 60,000 notes Central Coast 87.2 – 21,000 notes Justin and J. Lohr got a combined 40% of the notes.
How come the region doesn’t lend itself to this grape?
Much of the eastside portion of Paso Robles is Cabernet. There are also sub-AVAs like Happy Canyon that produce some Bordeaux varieties. In this case, I think a lot of it has to do with producers looking for low cost alternatives to Napa Cabernet and this is reflected in the quality. The Central Coast AVA itself is a very expansive area that covers many different climates. That makes it a bit hard to generalize. If I were to do so, I would say that a great portion of the AVA is too cool for contemporary taste and some portion too hot.
Good question. I don’t know for sure but have guessed that with the large diurnal that one had to let the fruit hang a lot longer and to higher bricks to push past any green flavors which pushes harvest way back and also forces a bigger style that may not be what the wineries want.
I have been thinking about the question of what makes a good wine region or more appropriately what prevents an area from making growing good wine. Maybe I should start a separate thread for that.
Yup…gotta agree w/ Taylor on this one. Most of the EastSide Paso Cabs are not a thrill a minute, but there are some on the
WestSide that are pretty good. I find most Paso Cabs are a little on the ripe side for me.
Because of the early abominable Firestone Cabs (remember Andre Tschelitschof was consulting for them), SantaBarbara
Cab got a bad reputation. But in the last 10 yrs, there have been a number, especially the HappyCanyon area, that are as
good as any you find in Calif.
But as Taylor points out, most are seeking cheaper sources of Cab grapes vis a vis Napa.
Tom
I have had some great Foxen cabs over the years. In a riper vintage they can be lush and full, in the leaner years little more vegetal/green pepperish (along with fruit) which I really like. Always with enough acidity and plenty of minerality. Vogelzang vineyard seems to be their mainstay for cab. YMMV
Watch out for future releases of Starlane cabs and blends coming out of the Happy Canyon area. Their winemaker is now Tyler Thomas, a name that may be familiar to many on this board. He was asst winemaker at HdV after graduating from UC Davis a year ahead of me, then became winemaker at Donelan after the Pax ‘breakup’ - and was responsible for their wines through the 2012 vintage IIRC.
He took the reigns at Dierberg/Starlane in time for the 13 harvest, but before taking the job, he convinced Jim Dierberg that he was NOT going to try to ‘mimic’ a Napa style, as had been done before him.
Smart guy doing some great things - and will most likely become ‘the face’ of that AVA moving forward (or at least he should be).
Well, Brig, I would say that that vineyard, and Happy Canyon in general, is good for Mourvedre . . . for rose only. I do not believe they get enough late harvest heat to fully ripen the variety. When I pick for rose, the vines have already started ‘shutting down’ . . .
How head a few miles west to Camp 4 - NOW we’re talking!!!
I am with you on this line of speculation. Bordeaux varieties have high pyrazine levels. This is part of the varietal character, but is not usually appealing when dominant. The further south grapes are grown in CA, the greater the need for mediating the latitude with coastal cooling influence. But I think there are reasons why this in general may make Cab S more challenging than other varieties.
Aside from the diurnal flux impact, there is also the length of the day in the growing season. The days are not as long during summer as one approaches the equator, though they are typically hotter. If sunlight is driving maturation of pyrazines, but heat the accumulation of sugar, this would often mean high alcohols accompanied by green flavors. The coastal marine layer, if necessary for cooling, would likely exacerbate the problem.
There’s a huge spectrum of micro-climates from the coast through to the central valley of CA. So there likely are niche areas that are well-suited to Cab S. I’ve had some delicious Bdx-variety based wines from SBC, in fact, but they were not in the Napa style. Where Cab S is balanced on the central coast, it almost certainly will have a different profile than the standard Napa style.
Daniel Daou’s passion is Cab. If I recall correctly he made a 93 and 95 point (RP) Cab. He is also founder of the Cab Collective in Paso. He is waiting for some To Kalon cuttings to bear fruit. His are high elevation hillside fruit.
West side fruit does not tend to be as overripe as East side in my opinion.
Justin has made very good wine for years as well as their next door neighbor Carmody McKnight.
Then you have Clos Selene. Before that you had Dr, Hoffmsn making Cabs as long ago as the 60s if I recall.
Lots of other producers at the collective like RN.
Pretty decent Juice coming out of nice soils, huge diurnal shifts, some good elevations. Those properties with a good taste of the Templeton Gap do alright.
It will be interesting to see how the Daou project moves along, but they’re certainly not my cup of tea - opulent, heavily oaked with sun tan lotion aromas. But they’re a fine analog for Napa wines in the same style and my family members who love the largesse style Napa wines raved about some of the higher end Daou wines. I think we can consider that “Mission Accomplished” for Paso Robles Cabernet even if it’s not what I identify with.
I’m curious about the Rangeland wines, especially since former Denner assistant winemaker Paul H. (I won’t butcher the spelling of his last name, since I can’t recall it precisely off the top of my head.) That property is far to the west, further than Tablas. Their 2011 was quite good for the region, especially considering that it likely lacks in investment compared to other areas. I’m sure Paul will take this property to a higher level.
Of the areas listed, I like the Adelaide area the best in cool years (2011 was a very cool year), when it makes a very lovely, balanced, lean wine, but my experience making it locally has lead me to a pretty surprising conclusion: the best place for cab on the Central Coast is the west side of the Santa Clara Valley. Nice long growing season plus the red volcanic soils give you rich tannins with density. There isn’t a gaggle of great Cabs coming out of the region right now, but that’s more a fault of the production than the place.
It’s possible the climate and/or soil is not well suited to Cab, but let me take the skeptical view and say I don’t believe this has ever been much of a consideration for most of the vineyards planted in California. I think it’s more likely the varietal makeup of vineyards more represents the fashion at the time the bulk of the vineyards were planted, add throw in maybe a desire to not compete with Napa.
I’ve had some pretty good cabs and cab blends from Beckmen in the past. I didn’t seek them out but received them when I was a member of their double club.
This seems like as good a place to post this as any. On night 2 of drinking this wine, tasting note is from night 1. Overall impressions: this is absolutely not Napa, it is very classically styled Cabernet that is just entering its drinking window. If you happen to have some of this I encourage you to bust one open to track its progress.
2010 Tablas Creek Cabernet Sauvignon- USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles (11/13/2015)
Secondary characteristics are starting to show and this is really interesting. Green Bell Pepper, Cedar, Iron, and a little bit Gamey. There is still rich red fruit underneath and just the slightest hint of sweet tannin left. This should continue to evolve for a couple more years, but I love it now.
Some sort of bloody pulpit?
As most of you likely already know one of Tablas Creek’s stated missions is to grow all 13 of the permissible Chtnf. varieties on their estate vineyard in Paso Robles, most of which did not exist anywhere in the U.S. at the time of their founding. They set out to do this by importing cuttings from their partner winery Cheateau de Beacastel and as a result were the original importers of several new varieties that were not being grown anywhere in the U.S. at the time. Their expertise in getting these new varietals through quarantine lead to their ability to provide the new vines to growers throughout the country who had an interest in these varietals. As a result of this business they were occasionally asked to import another (non rhone) vine type into the country and IIRC this is what resulted in 2 rows of Cabernet Sauvignon being planted on their property. This was strictly used to blend into their Tannat for a number of years, but in 2010 they found it compelling enough to produce a few barrels of 100% CS. It is my understanding that this was a 1 time thing and these vines are all now gone as they have gotten almost all of the 13 Chtnf varietals through quarantine and needed to make room.
The Adelaida Viking Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from both 2002 and 2003 were phenomenal, in my opinion. There was balance and an awesome stoniness (?) to the finish on both. I highly recommend it, as well as the Syrah Viking Reserve, from the same vineyard.
I’ve had a number of exceptional Monterrey County Cabs from the '60s onward. There’s certainly good stuff from Santa Clara and San Benito Counties, too. It’s not exactly new that the likes of Almaden and Mirassou expanded and/or moved south with large plantings. They weren’t dumb in what they planted where.
With one blind tasting group, we had a Galante beat out respectable Napa and Bdx. Recently, a Marinus finished third of 8 (and was my 1st). Both were part of our '95 series.
Another group of us blind tasted 18 Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley Cabs. The group’s #1 wine (my 3rd) was one of the 3 from Santa Clara Valley. (Martin Ranch Dos Rios)
There are respectable wineries in the Carmel Valley, but they mostly get local and tourist attention.
Southern Santa Clara Valley fell out of attention decades ago and slipped into mediocrity. That’s changed. There’s a new generation pushing quality with good results.
The large Monterrey vineyards sell to (or are owned by) large wineries, so that’s the domain of grocery store wines. You do not find pyrazines in those wines.* The market has changed and now growers have the incentive to identify the superior vineyard blocks.
*Pyrazine management is about sunlight, ripening rate, water availability, hang time. Not so much temperature. Pre-veraison direct sunlight on clusters reduces their production. High vigor in this phase increases production. Post-veraison it’s about depleting them. Hangtime is good. Quick ripening, such as due to heat, is bad. Excessive water apparently inhibits depletion.
