wine library notes
vintages 1993–2006
Vertical Tasting Held on November 3, 2009
We always look forward to our annual vertical tasting, and we were very excited that Jon Bonné, the wine editor at the San Francisco Chronicle (you can visit his blog at: www.sfgate.com), was able to join us this year, along with Mike and Helen Kloepfer, who are long-time, loyal direct mail friends of ours! It was an educational tasting for us all, followed by a nice lunch at the Spottswoode Estate home. The following notes are a compilation of our comments. Lindy studies each of our notes and brings them together to form a cohesive description of each vintage. Fourteen of us participated in this year’s tastings—Jon, Mike, Helen, and the entire Spottswoode crew (Mary Novak, Beth Novak Milliken, Peah Armstrong, Lindy Novak, Jennifer Williams, Aron Weinkauf, Rosemary Cakebread, Tracey Skupny, Tiffany Minnick, Erica Wallenbrock, and Sue Cross).
The following notes reflect our collective impressions of our 1993–2006 Cabernets. As to the suggestions to drink, hold, or some combination thereof, please remember that if you do choose to drink a younger vintage, we recommend a rough (double) decanting prior to tasting, giving the wine an hour or so to open up in a decanter before serving. All young wines benefit from this experience, and though we might say “hold” in our notes, trying vintages in their youth allows you to track their evolution and development over time, which is among the great joys of wine!
Christie Dufault, Wine Director at Quince in San Francisco, decants the Estate Cabernet in the Spottswoode winery.
