Judging Young Cabs

[Innkeeper]

Dan Berger, a sometimes contributor to this board, had an excellent article in his newsletter this week (Dan Berger's Vintage Experiance, Vol V, Issue 39, Nov 16, '00). Title "Cascading Praise" it is primarily about Washington State wine, and secondily about aging wine. The point he makes is that acid is the key to aging highly tannic wine. Without it, forget it. He maintains that cool weather growing of the big reds is the key to producing acid. He thinks the Washington folks have the edge on this, but cool microclimates in California would have the same advantage.

Have heard over the years all sorts of theories about what happens during aging. The prevailing current thought seems to be that the "other stuff" in the wine work on the tannin in a sort of biologic osmosis. The problem with this is sediment. Sediment is the byproduct of a chemical reaction. The chemical in wine that can produce such a reaction is acid. So, the key to aging California Cabs is know that they were vintified "big" and have the acid to handle the bigness.