But despite my affinity for it, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has become a challenging category for me. Not only are prices hiking ever higher, but the style is becoming more and more exaggerated. It’s like each producer is looking to make a bigger and bolder wine than the next. I’ve had very few wines from the infancy of Napa Valley. I had the express pleasure of trying the 1977 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon with Tim Mondavi, one of his first vintages as winemaker there. I’ve had a couple wines from the 1980’s, and a few more from the 1990’s. Tasting those earlier wines was quite an experience, and something I should never forget, and they were worlds away from what Napa Valley wines taste like today. But, I also can’t imagine what these wines tasted like when they were youthful and fresh. No doubt, they were still very different from what you buy today. From everything I’ve read and been told (sometimes by those who were making wine back then) the style was much more restrained and food focused.
While it’s true that alcohol levels were often lower, something most critics are quick to point out, that doesn’t by default make a wine worse. If other traits are still in balance with the alcohol levels, I don’t think this is an issue. In the right context, big, bold, powerful wines are beautiful and sometimes even necessary. And I can’t deny Napa Valley’s ability to create some truly extraordinary wines.
But, to be completely honest, it’s typically the price that keeps me away from Napa Valley Cabernet. Ironically, however, it is one category I will splurge on and sometimes spend $70 or more on a bottle. But, if I’m gonna spend $20-$30? I’d rather head to Italy, Spain or France. This time I couldn’t help it, though, I only wanted to spend $20-$30 on a bottle and I wanted Napa Valley Cabernet. But because it’s been so long since I’ve bought anything in that category, I had a hard time choosing. So to help me make my decision I decided to try a little experiment. I would try three that I wouldn’t normally pick up (feel free to point out that buying three bottles at $25 didn’t really save me any money, but it was more fun this way). I chose what I very unofficially refer to as the Holy Trinity of Napa Valley Cabernet brands: Robert Mondavi, Beringer, and Beaulieu Vineyard (BV).
All three have been making Cabernet in Napa Valley practically since the inception of Napa Valley and were bastions of generational winemaking but have since been bought by large multinational corporations. The Robert Mondavi Winery was sold by the Mondavi family in 2004 to Constellation Brands, the longest holdout. As far back as 1971, the Beringer family gave control of their winery to Nestlé (maybe they should’ve tried Chocovine back then, just saying). And BV became corporate way back in 1969 when it was bought by the Heublein Corporation. Constellation still owns the Mondavi brand, but Beringer and BV have switched hands a number of times and are now owned by Treasury Wine Estates and Diageo respectively. These three corporations are among the top ten alcohol companies in the world, maybe top five, but there’s been a lot of mix up lately so I can’t be sure of the current standings.
Here’s my point: while there are plenty of other top names that have been making Napa Valley Cabernet since the 1970’s (Martini, Krug, Heitz, among others) all three of these brands used to be considered among the top in terms of quality. It’s been my observation in the past that while they’re still capable of making some great top quality high end wines, they have become so diversified that their intermediate and definitely their entry-level labels have suffered greatly. With a lot more competition and a string of great vintages, I wanted to see if this still held true.
Coincidentally, Luke Sykora over at Wine & Spirits recently published a piece comparing some of the older vintages of Napa Valley Cabernet to the 2012 releases. Wish I could’ve been at that tasting.
Head on over to my Wine Reviews page to see what I thought of the wines.