The Rise and Fall of Cabernet

[wineglut]

My first instinct is to start posting here with a rant. But in that I am a newbee here and having reached an advanced level of maturity I think it would be better for me to save that for later. So a question for the board.

I have been bothered by an increasingly difficulty drinking Cabernets that are made in the new style. I have not had a “fruit forward” Cabernet or Claret that was much under 14% alcohol in quite a while. I’ve had many recently that exceeded 15% alcohol, one was 16.5%.

I drink a couple glasses and I don’t want anymore. Maybe it’s just self preservation, but they don’t seem to have any life to them. They are black in color, have a lot of fruit in the aroma, but show no varietal character, are monsters in tannin which is conveniently hidden by the high alcohol. (The headache is started just writing about them.)

I happened across an old notebook of mine in which I had kept reports I had written in the early 70’s summarizing sensory and chemical analysis of wines. Many of the reports were comparative tastings of hundreds of wines made in the late ‘60’s What struck me, besides how bad typewriters were back then and bad our tables looked, was the alcohol levels on these wines. (prices included just for fun)

1967 Beaulieu Private Reserve $5.25 11.1 %
1967 Mayacamas Cabernet $4.50 11.1%
1967 Inglenook Cask Cabernet $5.75 11.4%
1966 Ducru-Beaucaillou $5.99 11.9%
1967 Ch. Haut-Bataillay $3.70 11.8%
1967 Louis Martini Cabernet $2.50 11.2%
1967 St. Michelle Cabernet $2.69 10.7%

That was just one tasting from 1971. I won’t bore you with more, but isn’t it astounding where we were then and where we are today? I am actually describing varietal aromas and flavors in my tasting notes.

I yearn for the good old days when I could polish off a couple of bottles of wine with dinner and actually function the next day. Am I the only one that is bothered by this?

no ranting yet,
wineglut