There are many wonderful annual major wine events in Napa Valley, to which I look forward, including February’s Barrel Auction and June’s Wine Auction.
But sweet, smaller, perfectly orchestrated wine events are no less compelling.
In particular, I look forward to Spottswoode’s late summer garden party, held each August on the front lawn of the family’s estate.
I’m actually embarrassed to say how many times I’ve attended and written about this event, but if you search the napaman.com archives, you’ll find numerous references and alluring photos.
Orlando Torres serves gazpacho shots, offered to guests at the lawn party. This year, Knickerbockers’ Catering, from St. Helena, provided tasty salads, cheeses, and breads to soak up the many poured wines.
My two favorite wines of the afternoon were the 1998 Spottswoode Cabernet, poured from 6-liter bottles, and the unctuous, memorable 2003 Spottswoode Cabernet.
Two of the cheeses served to winery guests
Commenting to one of the winery’s team about the 13.5 percent alcohol in the 1998 Cabernet, I mentioned how wonderful it was to drink a wine with such low alcohol. I added that I miss those days of lower levels of alcohol.
By contrast, today’s Napa Valley fruit-bomb Cabs often have more than 15.5 percent alcohol, which diminishes their food friendliness, as well as how much of them you can drink at one sitting.
One of the winery’s staff told me that there is a move afoot in the valley, and certainly at Spottswoode, to make wines with lesser amounts of alcohol.
“We are making an effort to get the alcohol down,“ I was told. “The fact that (wine critic) Robert Parker has handed over the reins from personally rating California Cabs to his associate Antonio Galloni, means that wines will now be praised for their balance, not their bombastic imbalance.”
In short, Parker loves large, fruit-forward, higher alcohol, scratch-out-your-eyes wines from the new world. Galloni, by contrast, who rates the wines of Italy, Chablis, Champagne and Burgundy is thought to have a palate that enjoys – and scores more highly – wines of balance, and lower alcohol.
We’ll have to see. But a universal truth is that winemakers everywhere will bend their winemaking ways to achieve high Parker scores, so if the new kid on the block likes them more sotto voce, that’s likely the way producers will try to make them. Nothing sells a wine like a good Parker rating.
If you want to be invited to Spottswoode’s next late summer garden party, you’ve got to become a good, and regular, customer, as I have been for the past nearly 20 years.
Poured today:
The 1998 Spottswoode Cab is at the top of its game. It will not get any better, so if you have some in your cellar, drink up. This is a truly tremendous wine from a cantankerous vintage. 94 points.
The 2003 Spottswoode Cab is, in a word, gawjus. What a stunning beverage, filled with ripe fruit and mature grape flavors. The wine exhibits a glorious middle palate of many flavors and an equally engrossing texture. 96 points.
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