- 2018 Harrington Cabernet Sauvignon Cedar Crest Vineyard - USA, California, Central Valley, Manton Valley (1/29/2024)
Dug this one out from the back of my cellar and this one surprised me. Not because Bryan Harrington doesn't make great wine, but because he's a little bit on the more natural side, so I feared it might have not aged as well with a (presumably) lesser sulfite dose. I was expecting more oxidation, if I'm honest. Boy was I wrong! This is as nervy and youthful as anything I've ever had. A real pleasure of a wine and straight up my alley: nervy, young in feel, almost a little spritzy, hint of reduction, earth, medium bodied with perfectly elegant tannins. No discernible oak. For me, this is exactly how Cabernet should taste. What a great little surprise! (93 points)
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Thanks for posting the note, Adam! Don’t think I have any of these left.
Manton Valley is one of California’s least-known AVAs, in the far north of the state, higher elevation (2,800 feet for this vineyard) with volcanic soil thanks to being only about 15 miles from Lassen Peak, which most recently erupted barely 100 years ago.
Photo below from spring 2018 taken about a half mile up the road from Cedar Crest Vineyard, showing just how close it is to volcanic Lassen Peak.
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Bryan regularly followed his maturing wines, having a generous table of them (not for sale) being poured at his annual open houses.
I didn’t get any of these, as it was about my least favorite of the 25 wines we made that year. Bryan decided to try the Cab Sauv from there, since the Cab Franc we were getting was so good. Part of the interest in Manton vineyards was the volcanic soil from Mount Lassen. He’d been talking about getting some Italian varieties in there, including ones he was introducing. I’d had a Petite Sirah from the region that was extremely atypical for the variety, but wonderfully aromatic in a way it came across as an Italian wine. I pushed to get some of that to play with and learn from. The idea of adding another long day of driving to his hectic schedule for a wine that (he probably correctly thought) would be difficult to sell didn’t appeal to him very much. This Cab just didn’t show much early on. By our last open house, late 2019 it had filled out. Maybe what I’d call a light daily drinker, but some people were going gaga over it.
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