A Giant in Cab and in General

The first full day KB was here, we got off to a late start and only made it to two wineries in Napa. One of those was Robert Mondavi, where we headed straight past the shop, tour sign-ups, and regular tastings to the reserve tasting room. I learned that was the best course of action from going to another bigger-than-big winery (Beringer) summer before last, finding it to be like a smaller, less obvious amusement park. A wise decision we made, as we ended up tasting seven wines, including several older Cabernet Sauvignon samples side by side.

Here’s a summary of the five Cabs, in order of preference, finishing with my most favored.

5) 1996 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
Bell pepper until it faded, tobacco, cedar, licorice, blackberry

4) 2003 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
more subtle nose than others, alcohol, black currant, vanilla, clove, spices

3) 1999 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
lots of pepper, smoke, bell pepper, and plum

2) 2001 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
beautiful fruit–blueberry & boysenberry– and cinnamon

1) 1997 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
fruit still very present despite age–plum and black currant–peppery mid-palate then light vanilla, tannins still going strong, it’s good for the long haul

We also tried a couple of dessert wines that were interesting but not nearly as impressive as the Cab comparisons. It really was impressive to taste such notable wines and such expensive ones at that. The 96 and 97 ran at $150 and the other vintages at $125. The reserve flight normally runs four 1 oz pours for $30. KB got to see first hand some of the fringe benefits of working in the business….