Fear of 2011 Napa Cabernet

WINE TALK
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A poster asked what I was looking for in wines – I’m not picky about a particular profile. Any good experience will do. If it’s something I can drink now, great, and if I need to age it 10 years, I’ll give that a shot – I just prefer to drink stuff that makes me happy. I was a Larkmead list member and the 2011 was a disappointment in that it felt thin – not “restrained” – just thin. I hear it might not be thin in a few years, so I’ll try again later.

Thanks for the responses here – they give me places to start. My comfort zone is up to around $75 to take a flyer on something, so a couple of the good wines you describe will have to wait until the next time someone hands me a bag of money.*

Sounds like for 2011 stuff to look out for is:

AVAs: Howell, Pritchard, Atlas

Individual wines: EMH, Hobel, Anderson Conn Valley, La Jota (love the 2004 and 2009, so YEAH), Matthiasson, Seavey, Dunn HM, Rivers Marie, Craig HM, Cade HM, Quivet (CT likes both vineyards), Myriad various (some are a little more than $75)
,
Above my pay grade: Foley, Realm, Corison, Togni (unless you mean Tanbark Hill), Outpost.

And the wine that started it, Jean Edwards – that I can vouch for.

I’ll check these out!

*If anyone is handing out bags of money, I will take them, even if they’re from difficult vintages.

42

If your comfort zone is $75 I will lessen that by 33%.
Try Myriad’s Napa bottling in 2011. It is STUPENDOUS.
There are many exceptions to the bad vintage rule, always are. I do not think a bad vintage now means the same it did 15+ years ago. As abysmal as 1998 was for Napa Cabs, there was exceptions, even if I did not find any…

43

Not Napa, but the 2011 Ridge Montebello is delicious.

44

Really enjoyed Stony Hill’s 2011 Cabernet, and I hear Forman also did well, interested in trying it.

45

Forman’s 11 was very nice. We had it last year during our visit. It’s a tough compare though to the 09 and 10. Both of those are terrific and the 10 is close to perfection for me.

Glenn- Larkmead was very disappointing in 11. Agree with you on them being thin. I dropped off the list after many years with the 12 price increase. Their 10’s though are awesome.

46

I really enjoyed the Myriad Three Twins and the Myriad Beckstoffer Dr Crane.

47

This wine board needs to invent its own name for the Godwin law, but for Ridge MB. Can’t have more then a page or two of something specifically about Napa before someone brings up Montebello (search almost any napa thread and somehow it’s always there).

48

Just another data point…

My wife and I were at the annual “Taste of Howell Mountain” event today, where the wineries were pouring various combinations of their '10s, '11s, and '12s. I initially paid attention to which wines were from '11 but, eventually, stopped keeping track. On the whole, the '11s were very good wines and were not in any consistent way inferior their '10 or '12 counterparts. Each vintage has a signature, of course, and tasting a winery’s '11 next to their '10 and/or '12 often showed the '11 to be a little less tannic and a little less full bodied. However, the '11s on display certainly did not lack flavor and could not by any stretch be called “light” or “thin”. Also, none of the wines tasted “green” in any way. As has been suggested by others, as a group, it seems like the Howell Mountain wineries did very well with the vintage.

49

Fear of 2011? Hell no, I relish vintages like 2011. This is the kind of vintage that great, long lived wines are made from. Wines more of a throw back style. Wines that aren’t in your face screaming “drink me” right now, but are secretive and brooding, with the promise of greatness in 20 or 30 years.

If there were more vintages like 2011, I’d probably by a lot more Napa wines.

50

Alan, I thought in another recent thread, you posted you almost never drink California Cabernet! Set me straight.

51

Is there a point to this response other than being obnoxious? I am really getting tired of the thought police around here telling us which wines we can and cannot talk about.

52

Yes. If a conversation is about Napa specifically, why is a Santa Cruz wine always mentioned? It’s like asking for Bordeaux recomendations, or having a conversation about Bordeaux and getting answers about Chinon.

53

I really enjoyed the 2011 Vine Hill Ranch, and there seems to be a consensus on CT. Certainly not Mountain fruit which leads me to think its more of a producer by producer thing

54

Of the 2011s I have had, the VHR, Piper, and Greer have been the standouts - and no mountain fruit there.

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Leonard, here you go :wink:

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Forgot Greer - another fantastic wine in '11, fantastic regardless of vintage. Valley floor - an exception that proves the rule, or just an exceptional site? I say time will prove this parcel to be one of those unparalleled benchmarks. A shame it is so small and so few will have the opportunity to appreciate it!

57

Merrill might be a little bit biased but I recently tasted the 2011 with her and it was fantastic. I also really enjoyed a few of the Howell 11s I had (Red Cap, O’Shaughnessy, Cade)

58

I really don’t mean to be tendentious Alan but nowhere do you state that you will be looking to buy 2011 Napa Cabernet.

59

Anybody tried the 2011 Spottswoode? I’m usually a fan of the style but I rarely get to see them north of the border and did buy a 3 pack and would appreciate TNs.

For what it’s worth I’m usually AFWE but don’t mind the fruiter Napa cabs once in a while provided they have some age.

60

I opened a 2011 Pott “Her Majestey’s” from Stagecoach Vineyard with dinner last night and it was incredible. You’d never guess it to be from a difficult vintage if tasted blind.
I have actually enjoyed quite a few 2011s. I am drinking most of them fairly early, just in case they don’t have the stuffing to age a long time.