Event Report: Wagner Family of Wines at the Boston Wine Festival
At the seminar we tasted through six Caymus Special Selection Cabernets from 1990-2009. Here are my notes on the wines: 1990 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Wine Spectator Wine of the Year 1994 Perfume, florals, caramel, toasty oak, super-well integrated. Slightly skunky - strange. Reminds me of the smell of oak in a cellar. Aged in 100% French Oak 2-3 years. 90/100 WWP: Outstanding
1994 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon Sour cherry, plum. Easy drinking. Cellar oak. Lots of sediment. 90/100 WWP: Outstanding
1997 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon Huge jump in style here from the 1994. "A stellar year in Napa." Cinnamon. Pleasant. Right in the middle of the age spectrum. 92/100 WWP: Outstanding
2002 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon Nice initially but falls off a bit on the mid-palate. Pretty nose, but I don't know if I like it enough to see how it's a $100 wine. Substantial sediment. 90/100 WWP: Outstanding
2005 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Cola, black currant, vanilla, and dark fruit. Really nice stuff. Like this one a lot. This is at the 7 year mark Wagner mentioned and I love it. 94/100 WWP: Outstanding
2009 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Fresh and inviting. Lively young primary fruit. Cream soda. Quite sweet. Absolutely delicious but this is pushing it even for me. Wow - it's tasty though. This is so utterly different from the 1990 it's almost hard to compare. 92/100 WWP: Outstanding
The trend here for me is similar to what I've experienced as I've tasted other aged Napa Cabs: There are diminishing returns after 10 years. I agreed with Joe Wagner's preference that the wine was showing at its best 7 years post-vintage. The wines are good upon release. They change substantially in the next couple years. Then they begin a slow progression into a very soft and less substantial presence than they had on release. I discovered something interested as I was pulling the Spectator ratings for the plot above. I found that James Laube had re-tasted these wines with regularity as part of retrospective tastings. Notice in the plot below how all of the re-tastings were lower than the wines were rated on release. It makes me think twice before saving this style of wine for special occasions in the distant future in hopes that the wines improve significantly with age.
Conclusions and Next Steps It was a treat to taste through these wines and get a feel for how they've evolved stylistically and aged. They're reliably delicious special occasion wines. I brought a bottle of 2008 Special Selection on a recent Disney Cruise we went on. It was gorgeous. Couldn't believe how quickly that bottle was drained. (Full review of the cruise here if you're interested) The Caymus brand is a staple at nicer restaurants, regularly featured alongside Cakebread and Silver Oak. See how it fared in this Steakhouse Cab Blind Tasting. Further Reading: The second half of this evening where we tasted the rest of the Wagner Family of Wines paired with dishes from Chef Daniel Bruce. I'd love it if you subscribed to the Wellesley Wine Press to keep in touch. Disclosure: I attended the event on a complimentary blogger pass. Question of the Day: What do you think of Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon? What's your rule of thumb in terms of aging Napa Cab for maximum enjoyment?
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