Cab is king: Our tasters bowto these
There are two kinds of wines that are always in season in these parts: rosés because of our climate and cabernets because of our unapologetic taste-bud predilections. The late Bear Dalton, Spec’s longtime wine buyer, spoke frequently about how Houston has a “regional palate,” and he was right. We do. Above all, this is cab country because it’s beef country, too. Nothing pairs better than a perfectly cooked steak.
Today, I’m saluting the best cabs that I and several of my fellow Chronicle tasters have sampled in recent weeks. Not surprisingly, many of Napa Valley’s heavyweights made the cut. After all, there’s no better terroir on the planet to grow Bordeaux’s signature Left Bank varietal, Bordeaux’s Left Bank included.
You’ll note that most of the famous AVAs are represented: Rutherford, Oakville and St. Helena on the valley floor, plus Mount Veeder, Howell Mountain, the Stags Leap District and Atlas Peak on the surrounding slopes. But Alexander Valley to the west in Sonoma County is represented, too, although one of its wines, the 2014 Alexander Valley Vineyards Cyrus, is an outlier.
Though this red blend is only 62 percent cabernet, the wine’s intensely bright fruit flavor and velvety tannins make AVV’s flagship a brother from a different mother to the others and, supporting Dalton’s contention, helps explain how it could be chosen, by mostly local judges, as the Grand Champion Best of Show four times in the 18-year history of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo’s International Wine Competition.
At just over $50, the Cyrus is quite the bargain, too, and is now in retail distribution in Houston.
Note that our unofficial “class champion,” price be hanged, is the 2016 Shafer Hillside Select Stags Leap District, earning a quality score of 9.8 points. (Three prominent critics gave it 100-point scores.) Alas, it’s not a wine for anybody on a budget. A bottle sells for $310.
2014 Alexander Valley Vineyards Cyrus: 19.4 (9.4 for quality, 10 for value). Decanter awarded a 97, calling the rodeo champion red blend “a stunning wine.” Alcohol: 14.3 percent. $48.37 at Spec’s
2016 Louis M. Martini Napa Valley: 19.3 (9.3 for quality, 10 for value). Describing the wine as “silky and harmonious,” James Suckling scored it a 93. Alcohol: 15.1 percent. $29.87 at Spec’s
2017 Turnbull Oakville: 19.3 (9.3 for quality, 10 for value). The wine, which has a little cab franc and a tiny bit of malbec in the blend, earned scores of at least 90 from six national critics. TheWine Enthusiast (93) says it offers “outstanding value for the quality.” I agree. Alcohol: 14.2 percent. $44.99 at Spec’s
2018 Robert Mondavi Napa Valley: 19.2 (9.2 for quality, 10 for value). TheWine Spectator awarded a 91, praising it for being “ripe and fresh.” Alcohol: 14.5 percent. $32.97 at Spec’s 2017 Charles Krug Napa Valley: 19 (9 for quality, 10 for value). Merlot and petitverdot make up 10 percent of the blend. Wine.com’s WilfredWong says it “sails smoothly with bright red and black fruit aromas and flavors.” Alcohol: 14.1 percent. $28.97 at Spec’s
2018 Decoy Limited Napa Valley: 19 (9 for quality, 10 for value). A step up from Duckhorn’s high-value entry-level Decoy line, the fruit is sourced from a variety of Napa AVAs and is “on point as an excellent example of a well-made Napa Valley cab,” Wong insists. Alcohol: 14.5 percent. $27.99 at TotalWine 2017 Stags Leap Napa Valley: 18.6 (9.1 for quality, 9.5 for value). TheWine Enthusiast, which awarded a 92, liked it for being “thick in tannin and bright in red fruit.” Alcohol: 14.3 percent. $39.99 at TotalWine 2016 Jordan Alexander Valley: 18.5 (9 for quality, 9.5 for value). Wong, who awarded a 93, praised it for “exemplifying beauty, elegance and balance.” The 2016 represents Jordan’s 40th-anniversary vintage. Alcohol: 13.8 percent. $52.59 at Spec’s
2014 J. Moss Rutherford: 18.3 (9.3 for quality, 9 for value). Owner/winemaker James Moss, whose wine passion began while he was working for a distributor in Dallas, used only cabernet grapes from a variety of Rutherford microclimates. Alcohol: 14.4 percent. $74.99 at Spec’s
2017 Amici Napa Valley: 18.2 (9.2 for quality, 9 for value). Suckling, scoring it a 93, called the wine “a fantastic red for the vintage.” Alcohol 14.5 percent. $59.99 at Kroger in the Heights 2016 Shafer Hillside Select Stag’s Leap District: 17.8 (9.8 for quality, 8 for value). The Wine Advocate, Vinous and Jeb Dunnuck all awarded 100 points with Dunnuck describing this all-cabernet masterpiece as “pure perfection.” Vinous: “In a word, magnificent!” Alcohol: 15.5 percent. $309.97 at Total Wine
2017 Spottswoode Estate St. Helena: 17.6 (9.6 for quality, 8 for value). Five critics scored it between 95 and 97. Describing it as “very refined,” Suckling (96) liked the “pretty tension of fruit and tannins.” Cabernet and petit verdot are in the blend. Alcohol: 13.7 percent. $228.94 at Spec’s