Was rumaging around a bit last night and came up with:
1. Tulocay CliffVnyd/NapaVlly CabSauv (13.5%) 1987: Very dark color w/ little browning; gentle herbal/blackcurranty quite cedary/pencil box old Cab/dried rose petal very complex nose; soft very smooth/polished/elegant some herbal/old Cab/earthy rather cedary/pencil box lovely/complex flavor; med.long fairly herbal/old Cab some cedary/pencilly/oak TatteredCover (the old one) book store/rose petal finish w/ light/smooth/polished tannins; a lovely/complex/smooth/gentle old Cab. $16.00
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1. Tulocay: BillCadman & I go way back to the very beginning; followed him from the very start. His first wine was an Amador Zin '76 or '77. Big/ripe/classic Amador Zin, but more structure than many. Started following his wines pretty closely. Really liked his PinotBlanc, but he dropped production of it. He made some stunning Pinots in those early yrs. He was sourcing grapes, I recall, from the HayneVnyd early on, before it became famous; though not sure it was the same HayneVnyd. Alas, no more Amador Zin after that first one or two. And I liked his Cabs, back when I actually bought Cabernet. Did a visit w/ Bill to his tiny wnry out on CoombsvilleRd about '78 or '79.
This CliffVnyd (and EganVnyd) Cab '87 was about my last hurah w/ Bill. His wines sorta dropped off my radar for some reason. When this wine was young, it was a pretty big/powerful/structured Cab that my intuition told me might age well. I'm pretty clueless about predicting if a wine will age well or not...it's mostly guess work. In this case, I guessed right. It had come together very well, was very smooth & polished & elegant, with gentle tannins...no sign of drying out & astringency...even a bit of blackcurrant fruit left. Of course, at only 13.5% alcohol, this kind of wine would never garner huge scores from important wine critics. But, IMHO, BillCadman..he did good on this one.
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2. OldWines: I've had some experience with old & mature wines over the yrs. And more than a few that were sliding down the slippery slope into senility. This Tulocay was a great example of an old/mature red. It had come together very well and showed good complexity...everything you'd want in a fully mature Napa Cab...with no signs of cracking up on the shoals of old age.
Did I like the wine?? Yup...quite a lot. Did it go w/ my braised flat iron steak? Nope...it was pretty much lost in the rowdy racket the steak hit my palate with and a young/brash Zin or Syrah would have been much better. The Tulocay was not a sensous pleasure..but it was a deep/intellectual pleasure. It brought back some very fond memories of that Amador Zin, some of those early PinotNoirs, my wonderful visit w/ Bill up that steep driveway (which my old DodgeDart, back end loaded w/ wine, struggled to navigate) at his wnry, way long ago. It's like watching GreerGarson stroll onto the stage. You wouldn't want to hustle her off into bed. But you recognize that that is one classy lady up there and you are in awe of that.
TomHill
