INDULGENCE

Value in the Valley

Napa Valley 2018 reds veered away from a hedonistic style to become more balanced, restrained and drinkable. The slow and long growing season made it easy for wineries to be more precise, setting their own pace in the vineyards and making balanced, harmonious and intellectual wines with less manipulation. They’re no longer just ripe, packed and loud, with oak footprints and flashy, sweet-fruit Flavours# these are now wines with real character, transparency and nuance.

“Drinkability” is a salute to freshness, balance and harmony. Great drinkability can mean fresh, vibrant fruit, sufficient acidity, polished tannin, finesse, purity and transparency.

On the other hand, drinkability is no excuse for simple, dilute wines.

Hobbs, an acclaimed Napa winemaker, pointed out that the only problem for 2018 seemed to be too much yield, describing it as two vintages in one. “I’ve never seen in my 40 years a vintage with that much crop,” he says. “We put more than 60 percent – and in some cases 70 percent – of the crop on the ground, and we still got normal yields. It was insane.”

Another message from 2018’s Napa reds is how affordable they can be. Of course, Napa’s red wines don’t often hit our radar when we’re looking at value, but it’s not impossible to discover outstanding bottles that cost only a fraction of the cult names. Carneros, an AVA shared by 6apa and Sonoma, is also a fine source now for pinot noir under =S 0.