What's Better: Napa or Sonoma Cab?

Kinda surprised that nobody, unless I missed it, mentioned that it is not a good idea to do long term aging on a wine rack in the living room. Unless you live much cooler than we do. If you do not have an actual cellar under your premises, recommend get a temperature controlled unit before buying for long term aging.

I had a snappy answer ready in that my living room is north facing, with a big maple tree near the window, is on a concrete slab with one air duct furthest from the furnace and the room barely tops 60 degrees in the winter so I have a natural cellar. This is all true in the winter and my snappy answer presumed that in the summer, it may get to 65 maybe 70 on the hottest days of the year.

For curiosity, I measured the temperature of my bottles using an infrared temperature reader. I though it would read 60-65 for the wines closest to the slab. I was surprised that it was 70 degrees. The actual wine was probably a few degrees colder but it certainly wasn't anywhere close to 55 degrees. So maybe I should get a temperature controlled unit. I have been aging two cabs for 2 years (Provenance and Barnett) on the bottom rack - hopefully they're still OK.

I was fortunate to taste a `04 Landslide Vineyard Simi Cab over the festive period. A true gem in my opinion!

Kinda surprised that nobody, unless I missed it, mentioned that it is not a good idea to do long term aging on a wine rack in the living room. Unless you live much cooler than we do. If you do not have an actual cellar under your premises, recommend get a temperature controlled unit before buying for long term aging.

I had a snappy answer ready in that my living room is north facing, with a big maple tree near the window, is on a concrete slab with one air duct furthest from the furnace and the room barely tops 60 degrees in the winter so I have a natural cellar. This is all true in the winter and my snappy answer presumed that in the summer, it may get to 65 maybe 70 on the hottest days of the year.

For curiosity, I measured the temperature of my bottles using an infrared temperature reader. I though it would read 60-65 for the wines closest to the slab. I was surprised that it was 70 degrees. The actual wine was probably a few degrees colder but it certainly wasn't anywhere close to 55 degrees. So maybe I should get a temperature controlled unit. I have been aging two cabs for 2 years (Provenance and Barnett) on the bottom rack - hopefully they're still OK.

You should be fine. I have kept wine in much worse conditions than you describe and for longer periods of time until I moved into our current home. Worst case would have been seen by the 1990 La Lagune that I opened last week. I purchased the wine shortly after graduating form college when all I could afford for housing was an attic apartment in an old house without A/C. I built an insulated cabinet and put in ice blocks in the morning to attempt to keep the temp somewhat reasonable as the apartment could get into the 90's in the summer. Two-three years later moved to Maryland and into an apartment with A/C so a step up but still no celler so still using the box but without ice since we kept the apartment at 72. 18 months later move into a house and turned a first floor bedroom into a library where I mounted a wine rack to a wall. The room had two south facing windows and while I don't recall the rack getting direct sunlight, the room was generally warmer than the rest of the house. The bottle resided there for another 5 years. For the last 8 years or so the bottle did reside in my passive cellar that runs around 57 in the winter and 66 in the summer. The wine was wonderful and could have sat another year, maybe two. Nice fruit, medium-full body, and had that leather bound dusty book smell that I associate with older bordeaux. Opened it along side the 1989, which I purchased after I moved to Maryland and saw most of the same storage condition and I liked it slightly better. The 1989 was more floral and had more leather while less fruit and a slightly less body.

Santa brought me one of each:

NAPA: 2004 Von Strasser Sori Bricco Cabernet Sauvignon
SONOMA: 2002 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon

I'll report back when consumed.

Dave