Walking through Costco and saw this and figured what the heck - I am having Ribeyes for dinner so give it a shot - I have not bought any Caymus since the late 90’s but it is one of the most popular wines: Cellartracker lists 330,000 bottles and it is number 6 - number 1 is Ridge with 425K. I would guess it has to be one of Costco’s best selling Cabs. Then I figured let’s taste it blind against a Schrader recent release.
FWIW, in its current Nov 15 issue, WS gave this bottle of Schrader a 98 score and placed it in its top five wines for the vintage as well as rating it as a collectible - oops - should have held on to it I guess!
Disclaimer - I admit I am a bit of a Schrader fawner; however, considering that the price has been under $250 until the 2021 vintage I think it has been a decent QPR for Napa Cabs. IMO, I think Schrader is the best Cab in the Constellation line up - I guess I should try a recent iteration of Opus One and Mondavi Reserve to compare. Albeit, I do find it amusing that as you flip the page in WS the ad on the left is for ARCH and TOWER (which is all about Schrader)
Tasted blind by the wife and myself - We both picked the Schrader as the better wine. Interestingly, the profile on the nose and the palate are pretty similar. These are both very fruit forward but the striking dissimilarity was the finish - the Caymus has no discernible tannin to speak of - there is just nothing there. The Schrader on the other hand lingers with silky smooth ripe tannin. Schrader is a very complete wine. The Caymus also suffers from being borderline cloying (around 10g/L) I don’t know what the Schrader has - I am guessing it is just a bit less but certainly there is some RS here too.
I have one bottle of Caymus in the cellar that was a gift (probably needs to go as it is the 2012 edition) I do recall having Caymus Special Selection from the 97 vintage that was pretty good - I actually went back to my tasting notes and my note was “Mouth puckering tannins that linger but not overly astringent.”
Two final thoughts - 1) It appears Caymus has changed their style over the years. 2) My guess is this current style mitigates any need for the wine to age - this is a mass produced wine that is usually consumed immediately and a favorite of steak houses. The “baby taste” (an expression I attribute to Terry Theise) is satisfied by having it a bit on the sweet side and the lack of tannin means no bitter astringency on the finish that many find off putting - hence a easy to drink wine even if a bit uninspiring.
I think that’s a pretty fair (if maybe a bit charitable) description of the last 10 years or so of Caymus.
They’ve basically moved that product into the Belle Glos / Prisoner / Martinelli category, at the steakhouse expense account level. Silver Oak for those with a sweet tooth.
And it’s been a wildly successful commercial move, notwithstanding what I and others around here think.
I don’t think we wine enthusiasts need to praise or to condemn wines made in that style and for that audience. Probably just be aware of what it is, so you can seek it out or avoid it based on how much you enjoy that type of wine.
Well, I am not going to praise or condemn it - It’s tasty enough for a fat ribeye. I just was surprised how little finish it had. Still tasted better than a 25 dollar bottle of cheap Bordeaux that I also had yesterday.
I do think of red wine being a better pairing with fatty steak if the wine has significant tannins and/or acid. Sweet and low acid and no tannin seems like it’s better as a cocktail than with big steak?
But I agree it’s probably passable enough as a pairing.
Costco is one of the biggest retailers for Caymus - and to the best of my knowledge after Total Wine they are the number one retailer for wine. Constellation brands speaks for itself. So I was just trying to compare what I consider each “brands” better offerings.
I had the 97 Caymus sort of recently and it was a lot better than I would have expected. Perhaps in that era it was made differently?
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Earlier today, I visited warehouse #464 - which according to my Costco checklist / bingocard I have only visited three times in the last two years as its a fine wine wasteland - and one of the few $$ bottlings they were offering was indeed Caymus.
Exactly - the point isn’t to compare two wineries - but to compare two massive wine sellers - essentially both are retailers - one markets to distributors as well as some DTC - the other sells DTC. For Costco I used to see Phelps Insignia as one of their go to high end Cali wines - I don’t see much of it anymore but it seems like Caymus is a favorite. BTW, I finished off both the Schrader and the Caymus tonight after sitiing in the cellar for a couple of days. The notes are pretty much unchanged - the Caymus is just a little jammy - it’s pretty good for the “baby taste” and drinkable. But there is just absolutely zero finish - no mouthfeel whatsoever.
