Cal Cabs Thrashed In Decanter!

[misterjive]

A few things in life are certain: death, taxes, and the Tae Bo guy on every channel after 3AM. Another certainty is that every year, someone will slam California wines for not being ageworthy. This argument is made with all the authority of a Nostradamus, as the people who often espouse this opinion appear to think that they possess 20/20 foresight. My contention is that you never know what a wine will taste like in 10 years until you pop it in 10 years.

Granted, some Cali Cabs burn brightly and briefly, and others (priced just as high) are not even that bright. Like a lot of US stocks, a great number of California Cabernets are overpriced and overrated.

But the winemaking on the West Coast of the world's last mad empire (to quote Dylan Thomas) remains consistently innovative, and the vintages stay strong year after year (can anyone say the same about the Old World winemaking regions in the nineties?).

I had a talk recently with a very knowledgeable Frenchman, a once and future resident, in fact, of Bordeaux. I asked him what he thought about California Cabs, if they impressed him as often as they did me. He looked at me as if I had just launched into an explanation of my pet theory that the earth is really flat after all. He said that it would be silly for him to drink these Cabs when good Bordeaux was around. After all, in his manner of thinking, Cabernet Sauvigon is not a wine on its own, but a grape searching for a blend. (Then the question becomes whether or not the CA meritages can stand with the best of Bordeaux, but I am afraid this question, had I posed it, would have been met with great guffaws of laughter from the Frenchman).

I think it is stupid to slam wines by category. I think California in the post-WWII period got very big very fast in the world of wine, in the same way that New York got big in the world of art during this same period. Of course there is a backlash brewing and erupting from time to time. But even to put the conflict in these terms reaffirms a false dichotomy between Old World and New. Plenty of California Cabs are made in emulation of the great wines of Bordeaux, and as stated, plenty of French wines are averse to aging. Chauvinism on both sides of the Atlantic must be avoided like the plague.
I guess all of this is to say that I find value and ageworthiness all over the place, and I will keep laying down California Cabs along with my Bordeaux, Barolo, Brunello, etc.