California Cabernet is one of the most popular and sought after categories in the wine world, and it was North America’s first real superstar category that began emerging in the 1970’s. It has everything from $800 per bottle trophy bottles with cult followings to cheap and easy $18 everyday bottles. Stylistically it can go from austere, lean, earthy, and tannic to super smooth, ripe, and jammy. The only thing that’s a constant in California Cabernet is that they’re always big, full bodied wines, regardless of which style.

California was originally planted mostly with Pias (pronounced pie-ace) aka The Mission Grape, which was brought over by Spanish missionaries in the 1500’s. This was the most common grape in California until the arrival of European immigrant populations to the west coast in the late 1800’s, most notably Italians. There was quite an array of different varietals that were brought over and planted all around California, mostly produced for large volume blends or jug wines. Eventually prohibition put an end to all this in 1920, putting most wineries out of business, which later made way for new investments to arrive once prohibition was repealed in the 1930’s. In 1939 Beaulieu Vineyards paid to have André Tchelistcheff, a winemaker from France come to California and takeover their winemaking. This is the biggest turning point in California’s winemaking history, as Tchelistcheff set the tone for all of what was to come for California’s wine industry.

Following soil samples and climate analysis, it was Tchelistcheff who said that California’s Napa Valley was perfectly suited to become a new Bordeaux, therefore they must plant Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and also Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, as they would thrive there. Coupled with the growing prestige of Bordeaux wines in North America, this is what set California on it’s current path today. The next generation of pioneering winemakers emerged under Tchelistcheff’s tutelage and consultation, famous names like Robert Mondavi, Joe Heitz, and Mike Grgich. This is what we would refer to as “classic” California Cabernet, the wines of the 1950’s through the 1980’s into the 90’s. When the wines were more or less meant to mimic Bordeaux with their own California flare. It’s how wines like Stag’s Leap or Heitz Cellar’s “Martha’s Vineyard” Cabernet beat out many top Bordeaux’s in several French judges blind tastings in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.

Some wineries still produce that classic California Cabernet style today, but in the 1990’s and 2000’s the style began to change for a number of reasons, but mostly due to the palate of the world’s most famous wine critic at the time, Robert Parker. He loved extra-ripe, smooth, higher alcohol wines and awarded them higher points. And when you had as much singular power in the wine world as Parker did, if he gave great scores to certain wines they’d sell out immediately, but if he gave poor scores they’d mostly go unsold and collect dust. So many wineries began to abandon the classic Cabernet style they had become famous for and began pandering to Robert Parker’s over-ripe palate and increasing their sales with the help of his high scores.

There’s a lot more to it than just that, but we’ll discuss it during Saturday’s Zoom tasting. That’s just a taste of the politics that have went into shaping a region’s flavour profiles. But this week we have a nice mix of wines to showcase these styles. As such, they’re a little pricier, but it’s worth it. And come on, it’s lockdown, what else do we have to do?? Treat yourself with a couple of these Cali Cabs and grab a nice rib eye to BBQ with some epic California Cabernets for Saturday’s 7pm Zoom tasting! Just email me if you’d like to join!

LYETH, CABERNET SAUVIGNON
$28 from Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, or $24.99 x12 from Lifford Wines
Chip Lyeth founded Lyeth Winery in 1982 following a life changing visit to Bordeaux 10 years earlier. It inspired him to purchase property in Alexander Valley and go to UC Davis to learn winemaking. He was a visionary and was even a founder of the Meritage Association. Fun fact: most people assume Meritage is a French word that refers to Bordeaux Blends, and they pronounce it in French. While it does refer to Bordeaux blends, it’s not a French word and was coined in California by a group of winemakers (including Chip) that was a portmanteau of “Merit” and “Heritage”, creating a new American category of wine that celebrates the Bordeaux tradition. Historially, Chip’s wines were classic and Bordeaux-esque, but in the last 10 years they gained popularity with a riper modern style. This has been a staple Cali Cab by-the-glass offering at many great restaurants over the years and it’s the perfect example of what a well made, inexpensive, big modern, smooth California Cabernet toady. Look for ripe notes of blackberry, raspberry, violets and cedar. With soft, smooth tannins and a velvety finish.

JOSEPH PHELPS, ‘INNISFREE’ CABERNET SAUVIGNON
$60 at Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, or $54.99 x12 from Lifford Wines
Along with the aforementioned 2nd generation giants of California winemaking like Robert Mondavi and Joe Heitz is Joseph Phelps. Phelps was never a winemaker, he was in the construction business, but loved wine. He took his father’s local Colorado construction company and built it into one of the largest construction companies in the US. And he used his company to build Joseph Phelps Vineyards in the early 1970’s. He pushed to innovate change in the California wine industry and created the first proprietary red blend, called ‘Insignia’ in 1974. It’s $450 per bottle now, but you can Google it to see why it’s so special. Suffice it to say, his wines are all super expensive these days, seen as some of the lynch pins of classic California upper crust wine. But there’s a little secret wine that not everyone knows about. It’s called Innisfree and it’s a blend of younger grapes from the estate, as well as parcels or barrels that didn’t make it into the top Insignia or Estate Cabernet…but at 1/3 of the price. These wines see less new oak but are still treated with the refinement that all Phelps wines see. Expect full bodied dark fruit, licorice, savoury dried spices, chocolate and clove. Full bodied with firm but well integrated tannins and nice long finish.

Heitz Cellars, cellars. Chandeliers and all.

HEITZ CELLAR, ‘NAPA VALLEY’ CABERNET SAUVIGNON
$135 from Byward Wine Market and Pan Chancho, or $124.99 x6 from Lifford Wines
Heitz wines draw a crowd like none other that I’ve seen. When we used to do the California Wine Fair in Ottawa or Toronto, as soon as the doors would open, people would literally race to the Heitz table to lineup and get a taste of these super famous wines. The top wine is their ‘Martha’s Vineyard’, but with those running $550-650 per bottle these days, the ‘Napa Valley’ blend is plenty legit. Heitz Cellars only uses their estate owned vineyards for all its wines and this ‘Napa Valley’ blend includes several of them put together. It the annual quintessential Heitz wine and has long been a top symbol of California winemaking heritage. While it is expensive, yes, I can’t say enough about this wine as a great value for California Cabernet. When you consider that the rest of the wines made by Heitz are $250-$650, and other wineries on their level are even more…that $135 is a deal, relatively speaking. It’s a powerful yet elegant wine with a dense core of fruit but nice balancing acidity framing layers of blackberries, leather, dark chocolate, dusty earth, and minerality. Very much begging for a nice thick rib eye, generously seasoned and grilled to medium rare with potatoes and some roasted root vegetables. That’s what my plan will be for Saturday!

BONUS WINE!!

If there’s anyone out there feeling particularly baller this week, or if anyone has some friends they want to split something extra special with, we do have 3 bottles of 2017 Diamond Creek ‘Gravelly Meadow’ Cabernet at the Byward Wine Market. I hesitate to suggest this for this week’s tasting, as this wine definitely would be best served with at least 5 years in the cellar, if not 10 or 20, but would be outstanding either way.

DIAMOND CREEK, ‘GRAVELLY MEADOW’ CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2017
$399 from the Byward Wine Market
I’m not going to waste space writing a long glowing review about Diamond Creek here, so I’ve done it on a different page lol. It ain’t cheap, but for my money it’s about as good as it gets. I’ve been lucky enough to have several bottles of this over the years spanning back to the 1980’s and they’re that always much more interesting when 10+ years old. The older the better. To me, this is the pinnacle of Cabernet Sauvignon in America. Click here for more on Diamond Creek.

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The Byward Wine Market is fully open for in person shopping, as well as online orders offering curbside pickup or local delivery within Ottawa. And just a reminder that the order deadline for Friday case deliveries is Wednesday before 9:00am. Reach out if you have any questions, and check out the archive of past FEATURES if you’re interested in other recommendations. Lastly, please feel free to forward this to anyone in Ontario who may be interested in home wine delivery and follow us on Instagram for daily wine content at @bywardwinemarket and @capitalwine.ottawa!