2009 Napa vintage: Just bad?

I’ve had enough 09 Napa’s at this point to just think this is a lousy vintage. What are the general opinions? I generally like structure, acid and less fruit forward character. A lot of 2009s have a forward, slightly confected note for me. Others have similar or divergent thoughts?

I’ve had a few lower end Napa cabs, but i have much more hope for 2009 than 1998 or 2000 for sure.

I’ve only had a few from 2009…RM regular and Panek, Myriad GIII and Dr. Crane, Quivet Rutherford and Spring Mountain (yeah, I like killing 'em young). Of those, both the Myriad GIII and Dr. Crane were easily the most open and accesible. In fact, for my taste Mike’s 2009 Dr. Crane my even eclipse his 2008 and the 2009 GIII is utterly profound. The RM regular and Quivet Rutherford were both pretty tight, even with quite a bit of air. The RM Panek needed aeration but man, it was super delicious. And somewhat oddly given the appellation, the Quivet Spring Mountain was drinking well almost immediately and was also very tasty.

Based upon my small sampling, I would definitely agree that the 2009 vintage is more structured than the previous 2 vintages. However, I disagree that it’s a bad year in Napa. In fact, if I had to compare it to any other somewhat recent vintage, I would say it’s most similar to 2006, at least in terms of structure. However, for my taste the 2009s have more “freshness” to the fruit overall and the tannins seem less chunky. I actually like it more than 2006, although I do think both vintages need quite a bit of time in the cellar before showing their best.

Either way, will be fun to taste them as they age!

have only had x2 '09s from bottle - '09 rivers marie and '09 fairchild sigaro. both were outstanding. i get that 2 data points is almost meaningless, though.

I am drinking a 2009 Pott Wine Cabernet Sauvignon Actaeon Quixote Vineyard at this very moment and it is extremely nice. Great fruit nice acidity, great mouthcoating tannins. Darn good juice!

Oh also had the 09’ Seven Stones in January it was rockin. Maybe you should try a few of Aaron Pott’s wines he is making some killer juice, and he is pretty cool.

I have had some very nice 2009s as well, but i’ve been surprised at the number of terrible ones too. My guess is that its a very uneven vintage and appeals more to primarily new world fans.

All the more reason for you to try some of Aarons wines. They are far from new world. More like out of this world :>) ( Blackbird Merlot, Seven Stones,Greer if you are lucky,Quixote,his own Pott label of course,Chester’s Anvil)

The 09 Blackbirds were nicely balanced, but not as good as the 08s IMO.

I think it will be more irregular. Did they pick before the rains? If not, how did the fruit handle the rains? How much after? How good was the vineyard drainage? There are some great 09’s but its not going to be great across the board.

I dont know of any Napa vintage that doesnt appeal to more new world lovers, so i dont get what is being said there.

The 2009, 2010 and 2011 vintages were challenges for Napa wine makers and most were up to the challenge. A great deal depends upon your personal palate. If I were to go strictly on “my palate,” France and Italy have had 13 bad vintages in a row, but we know that’s not so. Before writing off a vintage, I’d have to hear the wine makers themselves declare it an off vintage. Some “bad vintages” declared by the wine writers have produced some very good to excellent wines and most of those needed a lot of time in bottle, kinda like the French wines that although rated 150 points, need 10 to 15 years of cellaring to be drinkable. IMHO

I very much enjoyed the 2009 Match Butterdragon from a 375ml bottle this weekend.

Randy, thanks for the perspective. Just curious, does any particular recent vintage in Napa stand out to you more than the rest?

I prefer 07 and 08 to 09. Some are dense with monster tannins, while others seem like cooler wines lacking some of the depth of the two previous vintages. It’ll be interesting to see how they age, but for pleasure, you’re probably better suited with 07/08. I’ve been a bit non-plussed by 2009. I saw a comment about non-chunky tannins and fresh fruit. I’d spin that to “gripping tannins” and generally lacking the same level of fruit density and overall complexity of previous vintages. It’s a late-rain vintage, if I recall correctly, and some of the wines I’ve had seemed a bit less focused. Given the tannic backbones of many of the wines, I’m guessing the top end of the quality spectrum will age very well. That said, I believe the mid-market will be inconsistent and rough when young.

Yeah, it is a very tannic vintage, in general. Although there is not a lot of uniformity. Ones I have had that I liked off the top of my head include… Pott Acteon and Incubo, Continuum, Drinkward Peschon, Erna Schein “Labor of Love,” Jones Family, Harris “Lakeside,” Fairchild Sigaro, The Vineyardist, Spottswoode, Realm “Dr Crane,” Rudius “Panek,” "World’s End “missouri Hopper” and … I will have to keep thinking.

Kapcsandy?

If we are only discussing cab based wines, I think 2009 is a mixed bag but there are some good ones that I like very much. I have probably tried wines from 12-15 wineries so not a big sample size. However, that won’t stop me from drawing conclusions. For me it seems that many of the wines from the valley floor vineyards lack acid. The mountain vineyards don’t seem to have that problem but some of the wines do come with big tannins that are going to take time to mellow. Tannin’s don’t bother me all that much and I found them sticking out on some otherwise great wines like vineyard 7 & 8 so I know they are big.

Last year at this time, I thought 2009 was a great vintage. I tasted a number of wines side by side against the 2008s and found I prefered the 2009s in almost every case. A year later and tasting them again, this time against 2010s, I wonder if my initial assessment was wrong of if the 2009s are just in an akward state right now.

One of the best young Napa cabs I have ever had is the 2009 Hobel. Other than my own GIII I haven’t had too many other 2009s yet. I don’t see the hurry. A 2009 Larkmead Firebelle blend last night was good, not great. I thought the 2009 Kapcsandys at a recent tasting were outstanding. The last Napa vintage that I found across the board unappealing was 2003 and by reports they seem to be coming around, so I think I am getting out of the business of dismissing vintages.

One of the best young Cabs I have had is 2009 Shafer Sunspot.

I agree on the Hobel and I’ve had the Rivers Marie twice and thought it was great and a couple of Mike Smith wines (quivet and myriad) that I also thought were very good.
I had the 2003 Arrowood reserve last night next to the 07 Ladera Napa and was pleasantly suprised at how good it was for a supposed off vintage.