Unpacking the Phenomenon of Napa Cult Cabernets

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello, enthusiasts and welcome back to wine and the bottle, the podcasts for wine nerds of all levels. I'm your wine and spirits. Education trust level three certified host Sarah and today's topic is Napa valley cult Cabernet. You've heard the names, Opus, one screaming Eagle, ghost, horse Colgan, Harlan bond Melka or maybe you haven't these names. Plus a few others are considered cult like gods of the Napa Cabernet game with exclusive mailing lists, high prices and whispered reverends through the wine community. Like the rest of Napa's 400 plus wineries. These producers strove to make the perfect Cabernet Sauvignon, but somehow these few were the ones ending up on the pedestal, earning consistent 100 point reviews and successfully retailing their wines for hundreds of dollars per bottle. For example, screaming, Eagles, flagship Cabernet will set you back upwards of four grand for a single bottle. And only if you can get your hands on one at a private auction, don't even think about visiting the wineries. Speaker 0 00:01:19 Opus one is surprisingly open to the public, unlike many of the others, but two splashes of wine plus access to the property costs you $100 per person and the full Opus experience, a tour, a flight of four wines and pretty good cannabis is $200 per person anywhere else. You'd be walking away with two full bottles of wine for those prices. Many of the other cult classic producers are closed to the public completely available to visit by invitation only to get in. You already have to have an end. So what makes these blessings few different? Well, to find out, we first need to go back to the beginning or in this case, the second beginning, while quality wine was coming out of the Napa valley, as far back as the 1880s, this cult Cabernet phenomenon didn't pick up until the 1980s when Napa was just starting to hit its stride as a premier wine region, you may have heard of the 1976 judgment of Paris and event that pitted classic French wine against new world Napa valley wine Stag's leap wine cellars Cabernet Sauvignon came in first by 0.05 points eking past Chateau, Mouton Rothschild from Bordeaux, a well-established quality Bordeaux name that you probably recognize other Napa producers like Heights and Freemark Abbey plus Ridge, a producer from Cupertino about 90 miles south of Napa outranked. Speaker 0 00:03:11 More well-known contemporary French wine. That event revolutionized Napa a rebirth of sorts and drew the world's gaze to this small secluded valley, just north of San Francisco. The cult craze is less about legacy and more about quality and perhaps mostly about marketing. For example, Chateau Montelena established in 1882 was the oldest winery to place in the judgment of Paris event. Their Chardonnay ranked first in the competition for white wines, but somehow Chardonnay didn't catch on quite like Cabernet and Montelena his wines are still quite reasonably priced. Most commanding less than $100 per bottle save for the odd library cab, but they've never marketed themselves as ultra premium. And that's the difference. They're just proud of their product and legacy. The cult producers, all younger producers, some established nearly 100 years after Chateau Montelena took advantage of the global phenomenon that Napa was becoming and earned their status with a combination of quality and exclusivity collectors. Speaker 0 00:04:25 After all love having something that you can only get if you know how to get it. And so it was all in the marketing. The main catalyst was word of mouth. Basically get the right information in the hands of the right people and you're set high roller wine collectors tend to follow in the same circles. So if you get your product in with one they're bound to tell their friends and boom established client base, 1981 saw the beginning of auction, Napa valley, a yearly event for vintners and collectors that comes with a steep entry price starting at $100 per ticket. And going up from there, not including bidding on the auction, lots at the auction bitters have the opportunity to buy for rare wines, vertical collections, exclusive experiences, and even lots right out of the barrel. The proceeds from this event get infused back into the community with over $200 million going to local nonprofits since its inception auction. Napa valley was a fantastic avenue for luxury producers to distribute their wines, to discerning deep pockets. And so the cult fire was lit by limiting the number of cases produced, ensuring that only the best grapes are used for their wines and darn well, making sure that that wine is good enough to keep people coming back for more Speaker 1 00:05:56 And their friends and it worked, many wineries have come and gone in the last 30 years after all wine-making is a tough end competitive business, but these cult names have remained and willing your all thanks to word of mouth marketing. So I came across a couple of cult classics on my favorite wine auction website, and I splurged a little, but I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. So I have two wines for us to try today. One is from Shafer vineyards and the other one is from Bryant family vineyards. So let's jump right in first up Bryant family vineyards, 2006, DB four red blend. Their winemaker is Phillipe. Melka mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, likely with a smattering of Merlow or petite for dough. I couldn't find the exact percentages, but it does say Cabernet Sauvignon on the label. So we can assume it is at least 75% Cabernet Sauvignon. This particular wine got an average score critically of 93 points. The 2006 vintage in Napa was a rather unremarkable vintage, nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened, save for some unwelcomed damp and doing mornings in the month before harvest season. So 93 points is pretty good for an unremarkable vintage. Speaker 1 00:07:42 This bottle currently retails for about $149. I paid 105 later vintages though, average about 170 per bottle. And I found one that was almost $300. Bryant family is so exclusive that on their website, they have an authentication page where you can type in your bottle number to verify and avoid any fraudulent activity. Yes, cult Cabernet is often duplicated in a fraudulent manner. Believe it or not. I'm really excited to try this wine. I love my red wine, oldest dirt, and this is 2006. So that's 16 years and you can already tell it right out of the bottle is a gorgeous Garnett color, just starting to turn Garnett also, but it's very pale and it smells delicious. Obviously you get that black currant and Cassie's that you want to get out of a Napa Cabernet, but also pomegranate and red cherry, a little bit of wet leaves and leather, and just a hint of, I don't know how else to describe it other than kerosene. Speaker 1 00:09:03 And I didn't decamped this I just core of, and it's straight out of the bottle into my glass, black plum, blueberry, Blackberry, it's dark and vibrant juicy, and all of those flavors are on the palette. Wow, wow. This wine is concentrated and delicious and you get a little bit of stewed plumb, prune, Blackberry jam, more tertiary on the palette, but it's still a very vibrant and fruit forward. 16 years in this things still holding up the tannins medium tannins. They're soft, but they're present. And it has high acidity. I think this thing could go for another 10 years, to be honest, this is an amazing line. No wonder it costs so much. It's a dry wine. It's not sweet, but due to the bottle age and those tertiary stewed fruit flavors, you get kind of a perception of sweetness. This would be one of those Cabernets that people try to pair with chocolate. Speaker 1 00:10:13 I would not do that. Have this with braised ribs and thick Texas barbecue sauce with just a hint of spice in it. This is an amazing wine. I can't say it more. I guess next up is the Shafer vineyards, 2017 TD nine red blend. And after tasting that amazing 2006, I don't really know what to expect. I'm a little scared, but to be fair, this next wine is different, very different. I couldn't afford their a hundred percent Cabernet from Shafer vineyards. It's $300 per bottle, current release. So I had to pivot and the TD nine is 62%. Merlow 22% Malbec and 16% cab SAV. And it only costs me $55. Now 2017 was a terrible vintage, a wet and wild spring and a hot dry windy summer that ended with the devastating wildfires that we've discussed on this podcast before. So I'm not sure what to expect in comparison. Speaker 1 00:11:36 Shafer vineyards was one of those wineries that debuted their product at the first auction Napa valley in 1981. So they're one of the original cult producers, very much like Bryant family estate. They have history in the valley. They're known for their quality. And even this 2017 red blend average is about 90 points critically. So that's not too bad for the circumstances. Let's see what happens when we open the bottle right off the bat, you can see in the wine, it's a little bit darker, I would say medium. And it is Ruby. Although it is starting to borderline Garnett. This wine is 11 years younger than the 2006. So we'll give it a swirl, whoa, so much vanilla, totally different, totally different. I get strawberry rhubarb, vanilla, a little bit of a dill character. I'm wondering if this was aged in American Oak, cranberry raspberry, very red fruit forward and just a hint of tobacco and earth. Speaker 1 00:12:56 So there's a hint of tertiary. I do get some sort of stewed fruit. I would expect that from the 2017, I am expecting lower acidity and less longevity. This 2017 might be at the same stage as the 2006 tannins are grippier much more present. I can definitely taste the Oak presence as well. There's some Cedar in addition to just more vanilla, I'm not knocking the vanilla. I think when used in moderation, the vanilla quality that Oak imparts can be really desirable. Like I mentioned that this smells like strawberry rhubarb and vanilla. It's almost pie like just without the pie crust. So it's almost pie filling like, so the structure is definitely coming from the Cabernet Sauvignon. It has maybe a medium plus body and definitely high tannins. There's a smoky, savory quality that is probably coming from the Malbeck and the Malbeck is also providing those juicy red fruits. Speaker 1 00:14:04 And in my opinion, anytime or low is aged in Oak. You get vanilla. So I think that's really where that's coming from is from the Merlow character. But I should also be getting some like blueberry Blackberry, which I'm not particularly getting overall. It's a good quality wine, nothing to write home about like the day before, but it's still pretty good. Can it continue to age? Yeah, absolutely. I would drink it now. It won't go bad. Will it get any better? Probably not. But that's the 2017 for you. They really did very well with the circumstances they had for that 2017 vintage. I would totally drink this wine. Here's the difference between the two wines? The 2006 is so overwhelmingly vibrant still that it knocks you off your feet. TD nine is a thinking wine. It really makes you contemplate what's in your glass. It's good. And would go well with pretty much anything. This one I could see more with like a black pepper crusted tri tip or sirloin steak rather than the more tender ribs that I mentioned with the other one. I think it is a Testament to how amazing Schaffer is as a producer, because what they do in even the most dire of circumstances is quality work. Oh gosh. Now I'm going to have to go buy one of those $300 bottles of Cabernet Ark de Speaker 0 00:15:26 And there you have it enthusiasts, a taste of fine wines and cult classics. Thank you for joining me for this episode of wine and the bottle. Don't forget to subscribe. If you'd like to hear more stories about the vast world of wine and drop a comment to keep the conversation going until next time. Cheers.