I will go back and read this when I have a minute, but in the meantime, just wanted to +1 the inevitable “where did cabernet go” “I was never aware Cabernet left” “I have been drinking Cab the whole time” comments.
I recall the high octane zins of the late 70s and early 80s (I remember sharing many with a friend, our eyes lighting up at those lofty ABV numbers), but I recall the counter-trend extending beyond zins. I remember food wines being a topic when the 84-86 cabs were in the market. I don’t know how their alcohol levels compared with earlier vintages, but people in the trade were thinking about restrained cabs in that time. And I was living in California then.
I’m with you. My stongest recollections of Monterey cabs are Jekel’s (no C is there?), which were seriously smooth and lush, as well as fairly seriously vegetal. I don’t recall any underripe cabs from there, unless you define underripe as being vegetal. Sounds like a confusion over two senses of “green.”
John,
My guess is that Jon is in his upper 30’s. Maybe just 40. They all look so young looking in my rear view mirror.
Jon would not be tasting those wines of that era. That said, he’s done his homework and has, I feel, a pretty good grasp of
the Calif wine world in the '70’s-'80’s, even though he wasn’t living that wine era.
Tom
Your position is quite surprising as I think picking decisions are the most important aspect to fresher more ageworthy styles of wine. Winery techniques can reduce ABV but they don’t change the more raisinated character of late picked grapes.
Finally, the average brix number is, IMO, only worth something in relationship to the other numbers from previous years. That average was dominated by lower priced, high volume producers in every other vintage as well.
Yes which is why none of the annual reported average numbers are very indicative of trends in high end wine.
I have no clue what you are saying. I don’t have a “position.” I am saying that from what I can see looking at the numbers picking was not done at lower sugar levels. Wineries may still make lower alcohol wines, but if they are going to do that they will have to do it inside the winery, because the sugar levels don’t allow for that.
I also don’t think there is a lot of low end wine made from Napa grapes. Perhaps you know something there that the rest of us don’t.
Adam, it’s really very simple. Bonne never claimed that, by 2013, the entire valley had adopted the practice of picking at lower brix. What the article does, is highlight a handful of producers who he believes are at the vanguard of a movement back towards more traditionally styled cab.
Don’t twist my words, please. I never said anything about Bonne writing that “the entire valley had adopted the practice of picking at lower brix.” I do think that Bonne is arguing that this movement that you reference is changing Napa Cabernet as a whole. I don’t see that the numbers back that up when it comes to harvest timing.
The simple fact of the matter is that, in Napa Valley, harvest brix was the highest ever recorded in 2013. I believe (as opposed to Kevin seemingly) that Napa is about as closed a loop as you get and that it is not overwhelmed by bulk producers, etc. But that even if it was, it was that way in the previous two decades as well, and during that time no Napa Cabernet vintage came with 0.5 brix of the sugar level of 2013. When Bonne writes that sugars at harvest were at unheard of numbers in the late 1990s and early 2000s…that simply isn’t true. The only unheard of number was 2013 at 26.3 (and the 3 highest before that were 2008, 2006, and 2004).
Please try and understand one other point…I am not trying to say Bonne is wrong about Napa Cab moving towards less oak, less extraction, even less alcohol. I can’t say that I agree or disagree with that because I don’t have any statistics to back it up, and I don’t drink enough Napa Cabernet to even have a feeling about it. But it appears to me that if that is the case, the lower alcohol will have to be achieved via methods in the winery…such as the “traditionalist” Randy Dunn who picks very ripe and spins out the alcohol.
I have been getting the impression that this whole movement Bonne and Asimov are always talking about are really just a few places they like and they use their positions to hype it up. Creating smoke when there is no fire. Not to say some of the places aren’t good though.
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