Dunn
Diamond Creek (but that was mentioned 2 posts above)
Dalla Valle
Any comments on Shafer in this context? Are they considered classic or not?
(Never had a wine from them)
I only have small experience with Matthiasson, but it was a good one. In addition to the Cab Sauv, I would also recommend his Cab Franc, which I found to be really good.
Another vote for Mayacamas as well.
Not Napa but I have always liked cabernets (and pinots and chards) from Mount Eden Estate in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
No, Shafer is one of the rockstar hedonistic blue blue blue cult Cabs. Their One Point Five is less so than their Hillside Select, and if you can find a 2001 Napa Cab from them you’ll enjoy it if you like a more classic style than their HSS.
+1. We just tried the 2012 this morning and it’s very good.
I actually just got back from Napa around a week ago and visited and tasted many of the places above including Matthaisson, Stony Hill, Corison, Smith Madrone, Heitz, Montelena, Ridge, etc.
I enjoyed the wines at all of these places but if I was ranking the cabernet, it would be Smith Madrone, Matthaisson, Ridge and Heitz up front with Corison and Montelena toward the back. Our tasting at Stony Hill was primarily all of their white wines and while we did taste the current release of cabernet, it did not really give me much of a feel for them so I do not know where I would rank them in this lot.
Old school cabernet is alive and well in Napa if you know where to look, and a few different winemakers that I spoke to all indicated there is somewhat of a shift going on and the thought process is that more producers may try and go back to the less bombastic versions of cabernet, primarily as a result of how fine dining and food pairings influence what people want to drink with their meals.
Rich, while I really like the Stony Hill Cab, they’ve only been making it for a few years and they only made white wine for a very long time.
I’d agree it might be hard to place after tasting through their whites but if it was tasted in context with other Cabs in the same genre I think it makes a lot more sense.
Merryvale