THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601040050
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: HUMBLE STEWARD
SOURCE: JIM RAPER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
I WALKED out of a ballroom at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond last spring toting handfuls of tasting notes and slumped into a soft chair in the lobby. I had been sampling wines for three hours. Before too much time or distance separated me from the extraordinary road show put on by the Napa Valley Vintners Association, I wanted to review my notes and collect my thoughts.
Forty-odd wineries from Napa had participated. A panel of celebrated winemakers had kicked off the event by conducting a tasting seminar. Then the doors of the ballroom had been thrown open to reveal a wonderland of tasting booths and displays.
The wines I had sampled, perhaps 60 of them, had been so uniformly excellent that I had trouble picking clear favorites. My notes, in which I had used a four-star rating system, looked like the sky on a clear night. Stars everywhere.
I tried to remember a tasting that had been more satisfying. I couldn't.
A bunch of months have passed, and the event has not diminished in my memory. For me, it qualifies as the top wine event of 1995.
The Napa gala left me with this primary impression: California wineries, and particularly those in Napa, have had one heck of a success run in the 1990s. Perhaps the producers have hit their stride in viniculture and winemaking, and their consistency - barring horrible weather - can be taken for granted. But there is a good chance, too, that we will look back upon the early '90s as a charmed period in Napa winemaking.
Napa's white wines, mostly chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, have been quite good through the first five vintages of the decade. But my focus here is on the cabernets, merlots, Bordeaux-variety blends and zinfandels, the wines that are the greatest that Napa - and the United States - have to offer.
Napa's reds from 1990, 1991 and 1992 are almost incredibly good. These are the vintages of the better reds that are available on store shelves now. The 1993s seem to be not quite as intense, but early reports about the 1994s are promising.
There are reasons other than vintage variation, however, for us to grab up the ``charmed'' Napa reds that are in the stores today.
Newer wineries produced carefully handcrafted red wines in 1990, 1991 and 1992, and one wonders whether this beginners' diligence will continue. Established wineries, it seems, turned up quality a notch, and raised prices accordingly, leaving me to wonder just how many $20 to $50 cabernets the market can bear.
The reds I tasted in Richmond reinforced impressions about veteran and widely known Napa producers: Cakebread, Frog's Leap, Shafer, Silver Oak, Sterling, Beaulieu, Cain, Clos du Val, Duckhorn, Grgich Hills, Joseph Phelps, Newton, Pine Ridge, Robert Mondavi, St. Supery and Storybook Mountain.
Wineries lesser known in Hampton Roads that poured well-structured and tasty reds were Chateau Potelle, Livingston, Anderson's Conn Valley, Harrison, Merryvale, Staglin Family, Swanson, Truchard, Turnbull, Viader, Villa Mt. Eden, and ZD.
The wines from the tasting that I finally settled on as my favorites were:
Stafer 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District ($25) and Shafer 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select ($45).
Frog's Leap 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa ($25).
Harrison 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa ($35).
Phelps 1991 Insignia Napa, a Bordeaux-variety blend ($50).
Merryvale 1990 Profile Napa, a Bordeaux-variety blend ($35).
Storybook Mountain 1990 Zinfandel Estate Reserve Napa ($25).
Turnbull 1991 and 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa ($20).
A note, too, about the chardonnays of the tasting: Among the many good ones, the relatively inexpensive examples from Silverado Hills stood out. The 1993 Chardonnay Napa is full-flavored, and the 1993 Chardonnay Art-in-Wine has loads of fruit without intrusive oak. Both cost $10.
A final note about another superb wine event, the 1995 Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic. More than $75,000, easily a record, was raised at the classic's auction, which benefited public broadcasting in Hampton Roads. Congratulations go to chairman Bob Stanton and executive director Liz Rountree.
This past year there were more private donations of rare wines than ever, and the prices they brought at auction gave a big boost to the amount raised.
A single .750-liter bottle of Chateau Latour 1961 Pauillac donated by Sally and Ted Adler of Virginia Beach was sold for $700. And one of the many wines donated by Eileen and Joe Small of Virginia Beach, a very rare .750-liter of Marcassin 1992 Chardonnay Gauer Ranch ``Upper Barn,'' went for $200.
Cellarkeepers throughout the region might want to plan their donations to the 1996 Classic, which will be in October. If you have questions about donations, call Bob Stanton at 627-1961. MEMO: The Humble Steward is a biweekly feature of Sunday Flavor. Send
questions or comments to: The Humble Steward, Sunday Flavor, The
Virginian-Pilot, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510. If
possible, give complete label information when naming wines, and list
the vintage year. Please include your name and phone number. by CNB