LIFE IS A CABERNET

Wine

Good news about California's recent-vintage Cabernets

JOEL L. FLEISHMAN

If your pulse quickens at the thought of a rich California Cabernet Sauvignon, the current offerings will make your heart zing. This is surprising, because the 1985s were roundly regarded as being of superb, not-soon-to-bematched quality. Yet that exemplary vintage has now been succeeded by two years of comparably gorgeous wines, some of which are even more striking than their 1985 versions. While Washington State's run of good weather promises some excellent '88s and '89s, Northern California's inauspicious seasons in 1988 and 1989 make it unlikely that the reds of those years will be more than average. As a result, the best wines from earlier years will be in short supply, so the time to stock the cellar is now.

To assist you in your sifting, this column conducted a tasting of sixty-six of the best California and Washington Cabernets from 1985, 1986, and 1987. All were tasted blind, and in order to ascertain vigor and stamina, we sampled each three times over a span of eighteen hours. Except as noted, the wines are Californian. All are now available in America; most can be found in Great Britain.

The most remarkable wine in the array was the 1986 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars SLV ($28). Warren Winiarski, its creator, has been known as one of America's greatest Cabernet-makers ever since his 1973 became the first American Cabernet to best a selection of France's greatest Bordeaux in a blind tasting in France. Winiarski's 1986 version is even more impressive. Its nose beckons with vigorous cassis and sweet violets. In the mouth, it is a flawless balance of opulent, peppery black currants infused with sweet violets and framed by cool eucalyptus. Its fruit is intense and chunky, making it feel chewy on the palate. It has great length and a lingering rich, dry finish. The 1987 Stag's Leap SLV ($28) seems less massive, and its still-unevolved flavors kept it from showing well early, but by the eighteenhour retasting it too overflowed with intense spicy cassis and fragrant fresh cedar. The 1985 Stag's Leap Cask 23, at $75 the priciest of all American Cabernets on first release, is simply dazzling. Its profusion of sweeter-than-honey violets and berry-perfect cassis is elegant, silky, fresh, and delicately balanced.

The 1987 Spottswoode ($40) brandishes more sheer power, though it strikes a harmonious balance, making it the best vintage yet in a six-year succession of Cabernet paragons. Its core of intense black currants, sweet and a bit pungent, is suffused with spicy plum and tart raspberry essences, and the whole is deepened by anise, cedar, and eucalyptus. Not only did it show as one of the two most stunning wines on opening, but after eighteen hours it also retained astonishing freshness and power.

Joseph Phelps's gifted winemaker, Craig Williams, has produced yet another outstanding Cabernet at a moderate price, the 1986 Napa ($15), which was every bit as soft, lovely, rich, and accessible on first opening as it was eighteen hours later. It is a winemaking masterpiece, gorgeous in its richness and intensity of plums, cassis, and sweet violets set off by peppery eucalyptus, and elegant in structure, with a sensational, lingering spicy-sweet violet finish.

All three Clos du Bois Cabernets finished in the top ten, and each one was singled out for a best-oftasting award by at least one panelist. The 1986 Clos du Bois Alexander Valley ($14) is by Tar the best Cabernet I know of at its price. Its rich, aromatic violet and blackberry flavors, countered by anise and cedar, are thick, clean, elegant, and keenly focused. The 1985 Marlstone ($21), a more elegant and reserved wine, tastes of delicate, peppery cassis and sweet violets surrounded by soft, not-the-least-bit-bitter tannins. The 1985 Briarcrest ($20) is less sweet and rich, but features plum, violet, and cassis flavors that are peppery, chewy, and vigorous. All three entries offer clean, puissant flavors at startlingly low prices. (Other top values in almost any vintage: Beaulieu Vineyard Beau Tour, Columbia Crest, Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley, Joseph Phelps, Raymond Napa, and Hagafen.)

Raymond, long reliable for excellent value in Chardonnay, is clearly hitting its stride in great Cabernets. Its 1985 Private Reserve ($25) is its best yet, with a nose of velvety violets and, in the mouth, rich, sweet violets and cassis tempered with anise and eucalyptus—altogether a focused, powerful wine of peppery flavors and briery textures.

Other wines that showed well included the 1985Mayacamas($28), 1986 Sterling Three Palms ($21), 1985 Kalin Cellars Sonoma Reserve ($24), 1986 Livingston Moffett Vineyard ($25), William Hill 1986 Reserve ($25) and 1987 Napa Silver Label ($15), 1987 Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley (Washington, $13), 1987 Cakebread ($21), 1986 Hess Collection Reserve ($25), 1987 Dunn Vineyards Howell Mountain ($60) and Napa ($45), 1987 Leonetti Cellars (Washington, $24), 1987 Robert Mondavi Reserve ($44), 1987 Hagafen ($18), 1987 Beringer Knights Valley ($16), 1986 Gundlach-Bundschu Rhinefarm ($16), 1985 Robert Pepi Vine Hill ($20), 1986 Clos du Val ($18), 1986 St. Andrew's ($14), and 1986 Cain Five ($30).