A small countertrend in Napa: crafting high quality, affordable wines alongside reserve and estate wines. After sampling two cabs in Napa, I’ll drink to that.
Napa wineries: Signorelli, Sequoia Grove
When I visited Signorelli Vineyards, in the Napa Valley, almost a year ago, I focused on some of their excellent and expensive reserve wines and on an estate cabernet sauvignon that sells for $40. Recently reading the October issue of Food & Wine Magazine with its annual American Wine Awards, I realized I should have paid more attention to Edge, Signorelli’s $20 cabernet. Food & Wine awarded 2004 Edge its best “$20 and under” cabernet sauvignon prize noting “It’s tough to find any Napa Cabernet for $20 these days, much less one this stylish.”
Edge is sourced from grapes grown in Napa outside of the Signorelli property in the Stag’s Leap district of Napa so it is not considered an estate wine. It’s good to have that information but as long as the grapes come from good growers it hardly matters to us as consumers after we buy the bottle. I couldn’t find the winning 2004 vintage so I tested the 2005. That was an excellent growing season in California so I was optimistic. Edge is a delicious, full-bodied, lightly oaked cabernet sauvignon with a deep black cherry and current palate and silky tannins.
Its lush California style flirts with voluptuousness but never tastes flabby. Traditional French winemaking methods are employed and like the other Signorelli cabs I’ve tasted in the past Edge manages to maintain a California identity but with a kind of finesse usually associated with Bordeaux. Judging from the black on black, tightly cropped label design Edge is intended for a very stylish drinking audience.
Sequoia Grove is a small, highly respected winery in the Rutherford area of Napa. They produce a number of award-winning reserve wines but this time around I was more interested in testing their lower priced 2004 cabernet sauvignon. The grapes for this wine are sourced from some of the best Napa growers but the style will make you think more of Bordeaux than those big, jammy, high alcohol cabernets and cabernet blends currently popular with some of its neighboring California wineries. It is a serious wine with concentrated fruit and a rich bouquet, powerful, elegant and supple, reflecting the vision of Michael Trujillo, a noted winemaker. At $32, it compares well to many far more expensive wines.
Important Napa Valley cabernets sauvignons are expensive. Many are over $100, and even the $60 or $70 range is considered medium priced. Are they worth it? After sampling quite a few over the years, my answer is yes. Even for a frugal guy like me, most of them are worth it. But most of us cannot afford these kinds of wines very often. As well as higher prices there has also been a trend in California toward higher alcohol levels that in unskilled hands produce an unbalanced “hot” taste.
Happily however in a small countertrend many Napa wineries—Signorelli and Sequoia Grove among them—are crafting high quality, more affordable wines alongside their reserve and estate wines. These wines are more than a standard, humdrum effort to fill a price slot. They are expressive and significant wines. The two I sampled were well balanced with individuality and sophistication and were also good values. I hope this movement continues.
