The wondrous and Worrisome Ways of a Vintage
A short commentary (in some ways a desultory phillipic) on several recent Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Vintages.
2018: Mostly these are now gone from the market. They were impressive at release, although many were by no means dinner-friendly when first offered. 2018s were ripe, focused, long and age-worthy, yet they were frequently rustic and coarse in their youth. Many are just now showing their potential for greatness.
2019: It was almost impossible to find an unattractive bottling of 2019 Napa Cab upon release. These splendid wines had all of the virtues of the best 2018s, but were almost universally balanced, rich and amiable from the gate, and they had backbone for cellaring. It is certainly a great year.
2020: Not that much fancy Cabernet actually got to the marketplace. 2020 was condemned by Vinous magazine before release, yet was generally ignored by most other magazines (Although Decanter felt the vintage somewhat worth covering). Late September fires were the main issue, although some fine Cabernet was picked in mid-September. Many of the most famous/expensive Cult producers were scared by the prospect of bad press and avoided release of this vintage altogether.
2021: These were anxiously awaited, as the marketplace was bereft of new releases. This admittedly great year was brutally slow to reveal itself and in the sales gap that this created the overall Cab market was stalled or without interesting product for many months. 2021s now show power, weight, focus, charm and depth, all hallmarks of greatness.
2022: This was the year of the heat spike, which struck everywhere at one time or another. 2022s were more forthcoming than the 2021s, but were often short and mostly seemed a bit simple and overripe, as those heat spikes often damaged quality and disrupted the normal ripening process. 2022s seemed very expensive as well. Everyone balked at the price, while the Wine Spectator magazine outright condemned Napa 2022s because of their price-value ratio.
(What is a heat spike? Imagine it is late August and the Sauvignon Blanc crop has just gone into the fermenter. All of a sudden you get 10 days of 110 degree heat and have no place to put the now fast-ripening Cabernet. The sugars are rising in these grapes, which may not yet be physiologically ripe. If you don’t pick them though that sugar will convert to higher alcohol while the grapes turn into prunes.)
2023: Just beginning to be released. Too many 2022s are still unsold, so many distributors and wineries are late in releasing the clearly lovely 2023s (which remind me of the best 2019s). We fought ferociously just to get tasting samples of the new wines in time for the release of our latest Cab Club box. Magazines seem to have been slow to review 2023s as well (Decanter, the exception, has screamed about the vintage. Giving about fifteen wines a 100 point score).
What the heck…
As for California Pinot Noirs in 2023? The press has been incredibly slow to acknowledge this unique vintage. Anyone with a wine glass and a slight interest will see that this is a great year across our state. When did that last happen? It didn’t in my 50 plus years of watching. By the way, the Wine Spectator magazine just sent out an email reviewing more than two dozen outstanding 2023 Pinot Noirs.
They quietly refer to it as a Benchmark year.