1974 Monte Bello
Best wine I’ve ever had.
Had the 75 Chappellet a couple of times in the early to mid 1980s. Loved the wine. Would have loved to have drunk the wine at maturity.
I don’t think these wines emulated Bordeaux, but I will say whatever you were doing at the time, go back and do it again.
The 1970 BV Gdlt was great and I liked the 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1978 as well.
Dang, I forgot a legendary near perfect wine, 1972 Sutter Home zin.
We killed a 6 liter bottle for a wedding party a few years ago and it was unspeakably great.
Off to Wine Searcher I go!
My favs have been mentioned multiple times:
1974 Martha’s
1974 Mayacamas
1974 Conn Creek Eisele
1975 Phelps Eisele
1978 DCVH
Still have the empty Conn Creek due to the stun factor from a tasting 30+ years ago.
Anton, we had 72 Sutter Home Zin in inventory for years, at least through our 1990 catalog. It was not an easy sell as a Zin from 1972 which was a damp cool year–weakest vintage of the decade. Glad to know and am surprised it was a winner.
I have a 1968 Souverain here in my Library. If anyone wants set a date to share, email me.
Last time I had a 68 BV PR, it was singing, even held its own with a Petrus, though admittedly the Petrus was another level. Both excellent.
1974 Montelena Napa
1978 Montelena Estate
Both still drinking really well today.
I am glad we’ve ‘met’ here, I need to learn more about your company! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
The early Sutter Home Zinfandels from Amador county were quite a revelation as the area was basically unknown for winemaking. We can give D Corti some credit here. These wines had wonderful fruit early on. Many thought they would be like some wines from Rhone…great early, great late but with a boring middle period and that seems to be what happened.
Shout outs should also be given to Mt Eden Pinot Noir…72, 73 and 74 all wonderful in their own ways, along with Chalone, a winery that blew the doors off with some its chardonnays and pinots.
Ditto 76 Sanford and Benedict Pinot.
I think of Bob Travers often. He really packed a lot of fruit and tannin into his wines and they survived gloriously. How did an ex stockbroker do this?? How did he have the courage to make such tannic wines?? I remember asking him if I would live long enough to enjoy the 70 and he made a crack about diet and exercise.
Well, I went to the gym for many years, drank the 70 with some friends around 2005 and stopped going to the gym. Should have bought more.
Mel, there’s currently a 1978 Sutter Home Amador Zin on winebid for $52.
I remember in the early 80s when Amador County Zins were the hot thing - both literally and figuratively. Interesting that these wines have survived this long.
1970 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill
Has anybody mentioned J Phelps?? Some of those Insignias were pretty amazing
Two somewhat obscure favorites from the 70’s:
1970 Mount St. John Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes were from the Bosche vineyard and the wine was made for the old Esquin Imports on Townsend Street in San Francisco.
1970 Joseph Swan Gamay. It was the Dorian Gray of wines - with every passing year it seemed to get younger.
74 Insignia was just a step behind the Mayacamus.
'78 Shafer Hillside (wan’t called Hillside but I believe that is where they sourced grapes) was tasted about 10 years ago right next to a Margaux '82. The wines were almost indistinguishable. John Shafer tells the story about how the wine was an accident. Wanted to pick a couple of weeks earlier but couldn’t get a crew. Ripeness level was 24ish brix, he thought he screwed the vintage up by getting the grapes overripe. Turned out to be a harbinger of things to come…
Diamond Creek Lake and Volcanic Hill 1978
+100
I very much enjoyed the 1976 regular Phelps Cab.
Mel:
The '74 Insignia was, IMO ,a compelling wine from Steltzner’s vineyard in what is now the Stag’s Leap AVA; and a ripe pick @ >25 Brix for that decade. Also the '76 Insignia from Eisele was pretty tasty along with the '75.
I recall Ric Forman’s 1974 Sterling CS Reserve as also being an excellent as well as the '74 Conn Creek (not identified as Eisele), which was actually bulk wine bought at a bankruptcy auction from Lynncrest on Spring Mountain.
Souverain made some great 74’s as well. Heitz Martha’s was terrific, too.