WTN: King Andrews Napa Valley Cabernet 2008

Roger King and the Andrews family are local scions in Solano County....Roger King is one of the indefatigable advocates for Suisun Valley (Solano County) as a winegrowing-and winemaking-region. I purchased this cab years ago at the local Wine Coop on Suisun Valley Road. These grapes were, per the label, sourced from the ridgeline between Napa and Solano Counties at 2,000 feet-so they are way up there!

It was a pretty classic cabernet. Despite not being stored that well, this was a balanced wine. Plenty of dark cherry and cassis flavor, but with a core of pepper notes that provided quite a bit of freshness to the wine. I like a hint of "green" in my cabernet, and this had that. Also som savory elements and earthyness that really came out.

I'll be honest...I recall paying well under $30 for this wine, and I preferred it to the generous sample of $240 Jess Jackson Cardinale that Jeff turned me onto! Sometimes price has no real reflection on quality.

Roger King and the Andrews family are local scions in Solano County....Roger King is one of the indefatigable advocates for Suisun Valley (Solano County) as a winegrowing-and winemaking-region. I purchased this cab years ago at the local Wine Coop on Suisun Valley Road. These grapes were, per the label, sourced from the ridgeline between Napa and Solano Counties at 2,000 feet-so they are way up there!

It was a pretty classic cabernet. Despite not being stored that well, this was a balanced wine. Plenty of dark cherry and cassis flavor, but with a core of pepper notes that provided quite a bit of freshness to the wine. I like a hint of "green" in my cabernet, and this had that. Also som savory elements and earthyness that really came out.

I'll be honest...I recall paying well under $30 for this wine, and I preferred it to the generous sample of $240 Jess Jackson Cardinale that Jeff turned me onto! Sometimes price has no real reflection on quality.

Gasp...Brian....can't believe you said that. Heresy, it is!!

Their vnyd is one that MattRorick/Forlorn-Hope sources from. Matt's PS from there is every bit as good as any PS
in Calif. He convinced Roger to plant some GreenHungarian for him. Cuttings from a solitary old vine in the
LibraryVnyd in St.Helena. So soon SuisunVlly will be the source of Calif's most reknowned GreenHungarian.
GH puts out huge sized bunches and last yr's (first) crop wasn't able to ripen.
Tom

I think Petit Sirah could be Suisun Valley's star grape. I've enjoyed (some) versions from Mangels Ranch, as well as Roger's wines in the past!

Green Hungarian is a new one for me!


I think Matt still makes his wine at the little red barn visible from westbound I-80 (the Tenbrink property). As did/does Abe of Scholium Project, at one time!

Green Hungarian is a new one for me!
I think Matt still makes his wine at the little red barn visible from westbound I-80 (the Tenbrink property). As did/does Abe of Scholium Project, at one time!

Brian,
Both Matt & Abe still make their wine at the TenbrinkWnry.

GreenHungarian is a variety that originated in central Europe. It used to be pretty popular back in the '60's-'70's time
frame in Calif. Particularly by Sebastiani & FredWeibel were the champions of it. I think Inglenook made one as well.
These were industrial-levels of production and the wines were dull as dishwater. But Matt would like to see what quality
winemaking could bring to the grape, so he browbeat Roger into planting some for him. Obviously another forlorn hope..
or maybe not.
Tom

I seem to recall Roger has a few odd grapes planted in corners of his properties! When land doesn;t cost a million an acre, I guess one can experiment more!

An update.

Stopped by the Suisun Valley Wine Coop this weekend and was able to try the 2011 vintage of this wine from both Napa and Suisun Valley. Right now, I found the Napa vintage actually a little soft, maybe even dilute. But the Suisun Valley bottling, from just up the road near Mankas Corner, was fantastic tobacco and charcoal and earth and a hint, just a hint of green. Lovely fruit as well. I guess one can grow cabernet in Suisun Valley!!!

I quite liked it, and it was $25 for the bottle!