WTN: a 43 year old gem

[Jenise]

Long ago, I went on my first wine tasting trip to Napa Valley. I wasn't even legal age yet, but my soon to be husband was 28 and I hadn't looked like a baby since I was, well, a baby! I knew nothing about wine except that I liked it, and it was January, and we were the only patrons in most of the tasting rooms we visited. I recall Heitz, Freemark Abbey, Beringer, Beaulieu and several wineries over on the Sonoma side like Pedroncelli and Souverain.

My favorite winery of the trip was Sterling. Possibly for lack of anything better to do, upon finding us taken with the cabernets he pulled out several bottles from other vintages--I was beyond impressed. The winery has changed hands many times since and the quality has never been (IMO) what it was in the Bill Dyer days, but all of the above explains why I picked up this wine back in 2015 and opened it last night to serve with a tiny prime rib while watching the Pebble Beach Pro-Am taped earlier in the day.

1978 Sterling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Excellent cork--came out in one piece (Durand) and only the first third was saturated. Medium garnet red color--very youthful for a 43 year old wine. On the nose and palate, musty cherry fruit, tobacco, mint, bandaids and antique book leather, with a finish that goes on forever. Outstanding condition.

[David M. Bueker]

Wonderful!

And I love watching golf at Pebble. It's so damn gorgeous. Now I won't pay attention until The Players, and then The Masters.

[Jenise]

I won't be happy when the fans come back, though I know some players, like Koepka, really feed off the crowds. Pebble, La Quinta and Torrey a few weeks back, were just stunning in their emptiness. It's been a blessing in this pandemic to spend a weekend elsewhere via golf.

And separate from the scenery, so excited to see Jordan playing so well.

I love old Sterling. I think '78 was Ric Forman's last vintage (or maybe last harvest and then someone else finished). My Zoom group recently acquired a bunch of '77 Reserve in mag and 750. I don't think in general there's much of a quantitative difference between the Napa and Reserve bottlings.

We were impressed with a 20 year old Sterling Reserve years ago. Based on the blend, it might be labeled a Meritage now. A magnum stored at the winery until we received the bottle. My first impressions were: relief that it was still good because I paid more for that Magnum than any previous bottle ever. And, relief because it was the oldest wine we'd had up to that point. Finally, that the wine was elegant. This was way before I wrote tasting notes. It was a very special occasion we were celebrating. I still have that bottle.

[Jenise]

As others have noted, Sterlings age well. Did you buy yours when the winery sold and they were clearing out their library wines? I bought a few mags on that occasion too.

But Meritage--I doubt it because no one uses it anymore. The gambit to get people to pay to use the copyrighted name, if that's the correct legal reference, was a total failure. Separately, I think the proprietary names wineries come up with themselves are both a lot more interesting and less restrictive. In WA we frequently see the additions of small amounts of syrah and sangiovese, just to name two, in what would otherwise be classic Bdx blends.

I used the term "might be" Meritage because my quick research could not find out whether the Meritage Alliance is a going concern or not. Based on the grape blend, it would qualify. Personally I find it more helpful just to list the blend on front or back label, in percentages. I bought directly from the winery but well before any organizational changes. That was long ago. But the wine was impressive.

[Jenise]

Oh yeah, it would qualify but it costed $$$ to qualify so the Alliance flopped. The word still shows up infrequently as a noun, lower case, but since you capitalized it I commented.