1] Ovid: Similar thoughts from Steve above, this is Pritchard Hill sex juice! Great site and uber-talented young winemaker in Austin!
2] Abreu: Iron fist in a velvet glove!
3] Spottswoode: When I crave elegance and finesse!
4] Kapcsandy: Great people whose attention to detail is unmatched! Are we in Bordeaux or Napa?
5] Realm: Juan is just killing it! Owns no vineyards but each year these wines go from strength to strength, especially with Benoit now on board. The '12 Crane and TK were out of this world, the 13’s (out of barrel) I think are better which is hard to believe.
Honorable Mention Vine Hill Ranch: Short track record as a producer but long in farming. Great site, incredible family, Bruce and Francoise and just a great tag team, how can you not support them?!?
Interesting that EMH and Bevan are vying for spots on your list. Russell and I discussed a joint venture for this vintage, but harvest has snuck up on me, and the discussions for the future will have to continue over the winter.
Kapcsandy-Great GV,RR & Rapsz
Dominus-Fools many , thinking Bordeaux
Schrader- Hot wine for the top 2%
Abreu-Thorevilos is always epic
Phelps-Named my Chesapeake after Backus !
Arrowood. The 90’s Reserve Speciales age so gracefully, and some of their single vineyard bottlings are fantastic. (i.e.: '01 and '03 Monte Rosso, '07 Lasseter) Dick Arrowood made some damn fine wines in the 90’s, and the '95 RS is probably my all time favorite Cab. So glad I’m sitting on over 5 cases of their product ranging from '93 to '08 - mostly '01 RS and MR.
Chappellet. Their Signature and Pritchard Hill offerings are hard to top in their respective price ranges. How can you beat a 1.5L magnum for $100 or less with this kind of quality?
Lokoya. What a great group of steak wines! Doesn’t matter if it’s pre-Chris Carpenter (before 2001) or after he took over. Nice peppery spice in their '97 Diamond Mountain. Waiting on some '01, '02, and '11 to come around. Obviously the '11 needs a decade.
Shafer. NOT the Hillside Select, although I like it - it’s Shafer’s second bottling that blows my skirt up. It used to be called Napa, now it’s One Point Five. It’s such a consistently good bottle.
Hill Family Estate. Their Atlas Peak from 2011 and 2012 really show how different one year can be from the next. Powerful mountain fruit in the '12, while the '11 is restrained and more balanced. Their Napa bottling is a nice blend of several sources. After trying a few of their varieties when we visited their tasting room, I stopped buying Dunn, Mt. Brave, and Silver Oak because IMO the Hill Family does it better for less money.
Honorable mention to Sebastiani for great QPR in both their Alexander Valley and Sonoma Cabs.
If you asked me this a year or two ago, I would have put Caymus in the top 5 because I enjoyed their Special Selection from '01 and still have a few bottles of their '04 SS. However, this forum has led me to some alternative Rutherford Cabs that I like better.
Shafer - HS is a consistent winner in blind tastings and on its own, great rich fruit, and 1.5 ain’t bad
Screaming Eagle - seamless balance, great fruit, factor
Ridge - complexity of the Monte Bello as it ages
Harlan - rich lush fruit, though I’ve dropped them due to price (can only afford I ridiculous splurge and Screagle is it)
Pride -that rich fruit again in the Reserve, like the Shafer HS
So 4 of my 5 are all about the fruit, which hardly seems fair to the likes of Montelena, Phelps, Araujo, Anderson Conn Valley, Togni, Laurel Glen, etc., without which there would be a boring consistency to my Cab consumption. But you did ask for favorites, not for a list of wines to squirrel away for drinking on a deserted island.
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Merrill!
factor