February 2024 Wine Club
WINES
Wine Club Selections, February 2024
• Mayacamas, Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 (Mount Veeder, Napa Valley, California)
When it comes to Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, wines tend to fall in one of 3 camps:
1) High-priced ‘cult’ wines from extreme mountain sites with extraordinary concentration, high alcohol, and intense power.
2) Lower-priced concentrated and jammy wines from the hot valley floor of Napa Valley
3) Terroir-driven cabernets from single vineyards/communes that express elegance along with power–yes, often expensive.
4) Classic cabernets made with longer agings, older barrels, and older vines that produce a more Bordeaux-like style–very elegant and extremely ageworthy with minerality and acidity–yes, also expensive.
While the taste for many consumers is for the giant wines from category 1 and 2, my preference is for the wines of categories 3 and 4, with a special love for the most classic and traditional productions. That is what Mayacamas is. If 100 sommeliers were asked to choose the 10 most historic and traditional producers of Cabernet Sauvignon, no list will be completed that does not have Mayacamas on it. The winery (which is still in use) was first built in 1889. After the financial upheaval of the first half of the 20th Century, the estate was purchased in 1941 and renamed Mayacamas. The Travers family bought the estate in 1968 and the wines made here ever since have continued in a traditional fashion, using large barrels for fermentation, extended agings in mostly old oak barrels. Grapes come from vineyard at nearly 2,000 ft. elevation on Mount Veeder, getting cooling air from both San Pablo Bay and the Pacific Ocean. This helps preserve acidity, as does the traditional early picking done at Mount Veeder, which helps insure that these wines have potential to age. That said, they are not shy, and still show the dark fruit qualities, spice, and power that make Cabernet Sauvignon what it is, they are just shown without the overpowering influences of lots of new French oak.
This is an amazing place and I am thrilled to share this wine with you. It is among my favorites in all of California.
Drink: Yes, you can drink now. BUT, this wine has massive aging potential and will continue ‘improving’ for at least 15 years and will drink perfectly until 2045-2050!
Serving temperature: 58º-60º
Food pairings: Classic big red cuisine: steaks, burgers, pork chops - but also works with roasted meats and game.
