In the what would you have done differently thread I said I would have bought more old Napa wines when they were dirt cheap. This was one of those wines. During the financial crisis I bought of ton of old Sterling wines on winebid. I think the non-Cab wines mostly Pinot and Merlot were going for $20. Every wine has been good to great. This one pulled for a friends 50 birthday was great. The cork looked like it was 5 years old and tight as a drum. The wine was extremely fresh and in no way seemed more than 15 years old. Reminded of a 93 Laurent Chambolle Musigny Les Charmes I had the night before. Just a marvelous wine. A couple of winemakers who know Napa well speculated where it was from and if was actually Pinot. For those that don’t know Ric Forman was the winemaker during this period. Alex Kongsgaard was present and said his dad was a cellar rat at Sterling around this time. If anyone knows where the fruit might have come from please post.
p.s. I did an interview earlier in the day about Rudy and could not help but think what he could have done with this!
Anyone remember the Sterling CabernetSauv '70?? That vintage in the NapaVlly was a legendary.
People were wildly anticipating its release. Apparently RickForman put the wine in some new
heavily-toasted unseasoned oak ovals. The wine tasted like BarBQue sauce. The consternation
was heard all around the World and even up to LosAlamos. Actually, with much age, the wine
developed into a rather interesting wine. Though still lots of burnt character.
Tom
I seem to vaguely recall they recalled the wine, debottled it, and blended it w/ more recent wine.
My memory is a bit vague here.
Taste it & let us know what you find.
Tom
