Ageability of Californian Wines

7 Jun 2013: I am in unfamiliar territory when it comes to Californian (and more broadly, USA) wines. I had in the past tried a few examples of recent vintages (by recent I meant late 90's to 2004) in the past but I had found them either too big, powerful and jammy for the reds or too flabby and cloying for the whites. So, thanks to everyone's contribution, this was a very educational tasting for me because not only were we able to compare and contrast examples from some revered AVA's and wineries, we even tasted some examples with some age, which demonstrated to us the ageability of Californian wines. This tasting took place at The Chairman Restaurant, and we were extremely well looked after - full marks for food quality, portion size (just perfect), wine service and friendliness and efficiency of staff.


We started with a couple of Chardonnays by Kistler. Kistler is a family-owned winery, founded in 1978. It now produces around 25,000 cases of single varietal wines, from Chardonnay or Pinot Noir, using Burgundian techniques and respecting the terroirs of their single vineyards. Native yeast is used. The Chardonnays are typically barrel fermented, with ageing on lees between 11 and 18 months in French barrels tailored to the winery's specifications, before bottling without any fining or filtration.

We started with the 2008 Les Noisetiers. Les Noisetiers is a blended wine from different vineyards based on the sandy goldridge soils in western Sonoma County (Sonoma Coast). The winery believes that the goldridge soils give a very distinct mineral and earthy toe to their wines. Then we had a 2007 Vine Hill Road Vineyard from Russian River Valley. This wine has been in production since 1991 and the vineyard surrounds the winery. Poor free-draining sand forces the vines to go search deep for resources and energy. This wine speaks of energy, tension, minerality and a high natural acidity.

2008 Les Noisetiers, Kistler: Golden hue. The nose was dominated by tropical fruit and candied fruit notes of paw-paw, dried mango, with hints of ripe pear, toast and smoke, with some stoney, earthy nuances. I would have preferred a bit more acidity to give some lift to the rich and smooth texture. A wine perhaps better enjoyed in its youth.

2007 Vine Hill Vineyard, Kistler: Medium lemon hue with some golden highlights. A more expressive nose of peach, roasted hazelnuts, with nuances of fig, spices, toast and yoghurt. Full bodied, creamy textured, balanced by vibrant acidity. Finishes long and complex. Drink over next 6 - 8+ years.

Then we started the range of reds.



Most of the Reds are here, just missing the BV and the Araujo

 1978 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23. This is from the Stags Leap AVA in Napa Valley. First established by Warren Winiarski in 1970, and now owned by a joint venture by Chateau Sainte Michelle of Washington and Antinori. The 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars SLV Cabernet Sauvignon (made with vines of 3 years old at the time) was the wine that changed the wine world by taking first prize in the Judgement of Paris in 1976, beating Bordeaux's first growths. The flagship Cask 23 was created in 1974, using a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon fruit from SLV (alluvial soil) and Fay (volcanic) vineyards. Cask 23 is only produced in years deemed to have the right quality of fruit. Hallmarks of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars: elegance, structure and ageability and expressiveness were all evident in the 1978 sample that we had. More than a mere resemblance to the best from Bordeaux (Left Bank and quite possibly Margaux!). Garnet core. Bouquet of plum, violet, coffee, leather, with earthy, stony notes. The fine structure still very much apparent, and enhanced with a gracefully mature elegance and harmony. Fine finish.


1986 Private Reserve, Beaulieu Vineyard. From the Rutherford AVA, of which the sedimentary gravelly sandy and alluvial soils endow the wines with a distinct dusty,earthy character about them - the Rutherford dust. Beaulieu Vineyard is one of the historic wineries from Rutherford, established in 1900 by Georges de Latour and his wife Fernande. A little tired perhaps this bottle, with more than a whiff of coffee, caramel and dried fruit......a remnant of that dustiness was perceived, somewhere amongst the drying finish.



Next was a vertical flight of 3 vintages from Heitz Cellar Martha's Vineyard. Joe Heitz made the first vintage in 1966. Martha's Vineyard is situated on the western side of Oakville AVA, on a 34-acre gentle fanning slope on the alluvial foothills of the Mayacamas, soaking up the morning sun. The fertile alluvial soil is atop with gravelly particles washed down from the Mayacamas Mountains, thus providing good drainage. The location is not too inland for some maritime influence from San Pablo Bay to moderate temperature. The vineyard is planted with eucalyptus trees at its edge and it is said that this gives the wines a distinct minty aroma and flavour profile. Martha's Vineyard has been owned by the May family since 1963, and named after Tom's wife Martha!

This was my favourite flight of the evening:

1979 Martha's Vineyard, Heitz Cellar: very Bordeaux-like....earthy, leather, savoury, hint of herbaceous/mint with an underlying all-spice note. Finishes very long. Like an old Saint Estephe?


1981 Martha's Vineyard, Heitz Cellar: a wine complete in every sense - fine backbone, freshness, flavour intensity matched by a depth of character, fine balance and harmony, complex and long finish. A beautifully crafted wine, that delivers power, elegance, finesse and ageability.


1993 Martha's Vineyard: this is richer, with a more velvety texture. Will continue to evolve.


Then we had 2 different vintages of Ridge Monte Bello. Monte Bello vines were first planted near the top of the Monte Bello Ridge (about 700 metres above sea level) in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1885 but the vineyards lay abandoned until it was bought by 4 engineers in 1959. Ridge Vineyards was establised in 1962, with Paul Draper as winemker since 1969. The 1971 Monte Bello came 5th in the 1976 Judgement of Paris. Ridge Monte Bello is now a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Here the soil is limestone, not alluvial.

1994 Ridge Monte Bello (in magnum): This was a blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 9% Petit Verdot, aged in seasoned American oak. Very primary still.....Lots of plum, blackberry, black cherry, liquorice and tobacco, with nuances of eucalyptus. Medium bodied, with velvety well-integrated tannin and a nice balancing acidity. Nice complex finish. Expressive, understatedly lush, quite stylish and mouthcoating, distinguished by its flavour profile, which was quite different from the other wines we tasted thus far. Even better the second day, as we only drank half the magnum during the dinner! Drink now till 2023+. (And at a restrained level of alcohol at 12.5%, this was really refreshing!)


1980 Ridge Monte Bello: this was quite Bordeaux-like... Plum, spices, leather and earthy notes. Beautifully matured....drinking at peak but there is no hurry to drink up...


We finished with the 2 youngest reds: 2003 Shafer Hillside Select and 2007 Araujo Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.

2007 Araujo Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon: from the famed historic Eisele Vineyard, a 38-acre vineyard east of Calistoga, which had successively seen the craftsmanship of Paul Draper and Joseph Phelps. Bart and Daphne Araujo bought this vineyard in 1990 and set to work to renovate the existing buildings and to create a new winery and cellar. Improvements were also made to the vineyards. Beautiful and pure cassis fruit, layered with nuances of herbs and spices. Medium-bodied, velvety texture. A rather subdued showing for this bottle.


2003 Shafer Hillside Select was big, powerful, and dense. Very smooth mouthcoating texture of intense and lush fruit - prune, dried berries,blueberry preserve, graphite and liquorice. You could enjoy this now, but I would probably wait another 5 - 6 years.....this will drink well until 2030+. We should have opened this wine at least 12 hours earlier to aerate and open up! Founded in 1972 by John Shafer, Shafer is located in the Stags Leap AVA. 210 acres. Annual production for Shafer Vineyards Hillside Select is about 2,000 cases. So different from the Cask 23 from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars......although from same AVA, and 25 years apart.


This was indeed a very interesting for us -such diversity in terms of styles and AVA's (Rutherford, Oakville and Stags Leap are side by side inside Napa Valley, as is Calistoga AVA, with Stags Leap being the most southern and Calistoga furthest north) and the ability to taste Californian wines with age. Thank you so much, everyone! It will be very interesting to see how the recent bigger, more alcoholic styles will fare in 30 years' time.