CWD: '97 Spottswoode Cabernet

D

drssouth

Stephen South
With steaks on the grill...
1997 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, alc 13.5%, ~$70: Decanted for 1.5 hrs...I spotts a little "woode" on the nose...fortunately, the palate is not showing that much woode at all...the fruit is fresh and bright...the acidity is fair..all in in balance...tannins are not impressive... little "spark" or interest to made it stand out...it did well with the food and was a "good Cab"... still primary and likely to remain so well beyond the point at which interest might intrude...glad this was my only bottle...

Per WineSearcher Pro:
For a mere $119 to $250 (plus shipping) you too could experience this wine in your own home
 
Most Cabernets are just not all that interesting to me these days and your Spottswoode experience shows why. These wines tend to be valued a lot higher than their worth.

I attended a big consumer tasting yesterday that drew a lot of Napa wineries. O'Shaughnessy, Frazier, Minor, and others were representing the newer, slicker style, with lots of up-front fruit and gobs and enough oak to balance it all out. These wines showed beautifully yesterday, but I didn't get the sense that they would develop much in any sort of way that would provide additional enjoyment for the hassle of storing them. Meanwhile, the old school traditionalists were represented by the likes of Lewelling, Sawyer, Corison, and Smith-Madrone. These wines were equally beautifully made, but didn't have the immediate appeal of their glitzier neighbors. They showed more acidity, tannin, and tended toward savory (rather than sweet) notes. While approachable now, they'd change into something better over time.

I'd probably still categorize Spottswoode with the latter group, but even then, I'm not sure that I want to spend the money and deal with storing the wines for the amount of time necessary for them to reach their et voila! moment. There are just other wines out there that I'd rather fuss over.

-Eden (but I'll probably keep buying Lewelling because Dave and Doug are cool guys)
 
I probably drink about 2-3 Cal Cabs a year, though I had collected and drank quite a few in the 80s. Here's my most recent experience. You can get this from the winery for a mere $48, which I suppose passes for budget in Napa these days.

2005 Martin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Bacchanal Rutherford (USA, California, Napa Valley, Rutherford)

What kind of wood are they using in Napa these days? Old whiskey barrels? This tastes like someone poured a half shot of Maker's Mark into my wine. Do people really want their wine to taste like Bourbon? In fairness, no one else at the table complained, but to me this was just disgusting.
 
Sounds like some good old fashioned American oak barrels, kiln-dried and sawed rather than split along the grain. Lactone and vanillin city.
 
I probably drink about 2-3 Cal Cabs a year
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I was checking my notes, and other than press/trade tastings, my actual consumption count of California cabernet sauvignon was 3: a drinkable if ashen Hess "Hess Select" 2004 Allomi that belonged to someone else, a beautiful but still young Corison 1994, and a Stag's Leap 1994 Fay that was all angry eucalyptus and tannin, but otherwise closed up tight.

That seems about enough, for me.
 
originally posted by Thor:
I probably drink about 2-3 Cal Cabs a year
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I was checking my notes, and other than press/trade tastings, my actual consumption count of California cabernet sauvignon was 3: a drinkable if ashen Hess "Hess Select" 2004 Allomi that belonged to someone else, a beautiful but still young Corison 1994, and a Stag's Leap 1994 Fay that was all angry eucalyptus and tannin, but otherwise closed up tight.

That seems about enough, for me.
Click to expand...

In contrast to the Spottswoode, for my wife's birthday last week we enjoyed a '98 Araujo Eisele Cab and a '98 Dalla Valle Cab...both were drinking well and were excellent with the thick med rare steak...I think I may have some of the '99 of each but nothing newer than that

We drink Cab about 2-3 times a month...mostly when we are having steak...my cellar still contains 233 Cab/Cab Blend wines (10 from Australia, the rest US) ...I did sell off quite a few last year and am shipping out 2+ cases tomorrow to Hart Davis Hart
 
At a party we drank some regular Hess cabernet and it was an okay wine with a little cabernet weediness and it wasn't sweet. A Bonterra cab tasted like flat syrah. Very strange. Three Bandits was too sweet for me.

Is there a cheap domestic cabernet sauvignon that is honest, unpretentious and delicious?
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
At a party we drank some regular Hess cabernet and it was an okay wine with a little cabernet weediness and it wasn't sweet. A Bonterra cab tasted like flat syrah. Very strange. Three Bandits was too sweet for me.

Is there a cheap domestic cabernet sauvignon that is honest, unpretentious and delicious?
Click to expand...

Perhaps Twenty Bench..no excess oak..~$20....very good..not sure it is all the way to delicious
 
originally posted by drssouth:

We drink Cab about 2-3 times a month...mostly when we are having steak...my cellar still contains 233 Cab/Cab Blend wines (10 from Australia, the rest US) ...I did sell off quite a few last year and am shipping out 2+ cases tomorrow to Hart Davis Hart
Click to expand...

So, Steve, how does HDH label you? "Distinguished Southern Gentleman"? "Noted Collector from the South"? Inquiring minds want to know...

Mark Lipton
(Occasional HDH bottom feeder)
 
I have enjoyed Spottswoode Cabs from the early '90s/late '80s in the past. The Soter years. I'm actually quite happy to come across them when I do.

I also have a fondness for the '98 Araujo Cab. A bit rougher than many of it's brood. More tethered. I haven't tried it in a couple years now, but I remember thinking it would really come across with age.

I think the normal (non-Maya) Dalla Valle Cab is consistently overlooked. Drinking vintages from the early and mid-90's is quite enjoyable.
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler:
At a party we drank some regular Hess cabernet and it was an okay wine with a little cabernet weediness and it wasn't sweet. A Bonterra cab tasted like flat syrah. Very strange. Three Bandits was too sweet for me.

Is there a cheap domestic cabernet sauvignon that is honest, unpretentious and delicious?
Click to expand...

Renaissance. More rustic though.
 
Renaissance is excellent - I'm just not sure I'd put it in the 'cheap' bracket.

Although let me know if you see it around at good prices, as that's a wine I'd love to buy at a lesser price tag.

Edit: Ignore that. Just looked it up again, turns out I'd seen only the prices for their reserve labels which I found a bit pricey in the ~$50 range.
 
If I've sought out cheap, honest cabernet lately I pretty much blow off California bottles and opt for Chile or Argentina. Lots of good wine coming from both countries that offer a lot more wine for the money. No, they don't taste as if they come from places like Stags Leap or Howell Mountain, but wines from those AVAs aren't exactly cheap anymore (if they ever were, factoring in relative money values, inflation, etc). It's massive fail if in a blind tasting I try to discern Casablanca cabernet from Colchagua (I can tell that there IS a difference, but damned if I can tell you which one is which with any regularity) but I don't buy these wines to get all geeky over in the first place.

For Chilean cabernet, try Casa Silva and for Argentine cabernet, check out Crios de Susana Balbo. The carmenere and malbec (respectively) from each producer is better than their cabernet, but it's all high quality wine for the money.

-Eden (the Smith-Madrone cab is still a hell of a relative value for around $40)
 
There's also some serious value in Cabernet from Coonawarra and South Africa IMO. I still haven't found better value than Wynn's Black Label for consistency/ageability vintage to vintage - and there are some gems from RSA like Meerlust Rubicon (a wine I do need to get more of).
 
Given the prices in question, I'd probably choose a Le Riche or Kanonkop from South Africa, or the (noted in Graeme's post) Voyager Estate -- actually a cs/m blend -- from Margaret River over anything from CA.
 
Agree that Margaret River blends are generally preferable to most Bdx blends from CA - only didn't mention them as the more reasonably priced ones are impossible to come across here (managed to still get my hands on some Cullen DM recently which is a fabulous wine) and only the higher end ones like Moss Wood or Leeuwin (which I personally dislike) are available occasionally.

Haven't tried any of Kanonkop's Cab/Bdx blends though, will have to look out for them. (Then again if they can make a good Pinotage, I'm pretty sure the rest of their lineup wouldn't suck...)

I need to try more RSA reds though. Had a couple of Nederburg cheapies (the basic Cab/Merlot and Cab/Shiraz) recently that really impressed me - more complexity and depth than I'd expected at the prices and enough structure to suggest they'd last a few years in the cellar.
 
Kanonkop's best wine is unquestionably their Paul Sauer blend (Bordeaux varieties), but that's several orders of cost higher, and thus out of Kay's intended price range.

Having done a bunch of tasting, visited, and then done a bunch more tasting, I can tentatively say a few things I think I've learned about South African reds:

1) Despite what the wine folk down there seem to think, their cabernets and cab blends are, in general, much, much, much better than their shirazes. Also, they're less spoofy...or, sometimes, taste less spoofy, which for the purposes of the drinker rather than the wine philosopher is the same thing. They won't be mistaken for classic Bordeaux, though.

2) With a few exceptions, the prices for cabs/cab blends haven't risen grossly out of proportion to their contextual quality.

3) Their horrid currency is great news for buyers in other countries. (This one I'm sure about.)

4) I'm not sure I tasted an unquestionably "great" wine in South Africa, but the two of the three candidates were a Le Riche 1998 "Reserve" and a Kanonkop 2005 "Paul Sauer"...both cabernet-based blends.
 
Someone is bringing bottles of Dry Creek Meritage (2003) into Australia. Given that nearly nothing from the US ever lands here at all, much less at a respectable price, I'm prompted to ask: Is this a wine in any way worth drinking? Representative of the modest achievements of a not-too-aspirational American blend? Even something honest and unpretentious?
Or is someone unloading undrinkable swill over here thinking we won't notice the difference?
(I might expand the question to include anything from the Dry Creek stable, as there seems to be quite a range of wine.)
I'm not really interested in trying the US's Jacob's Creek...
cheers,
Graeme
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top