My recent trip to Napa Valley felt a lot longer than two weeks. Perhaps it was because we tasted almost 1,100 wines from the region and others such as Sonoma. Perhaps it was because our small house in St. Helena was packed with cases and bottles and people the whole time. Perhaps it was because we visited dozens of wineries in the area. Whatever the reason, it was a thrilling fortnight.
It also rained the whole time. It was dark, wet and cold. I had flashbacks to my days living in London in the late 1980s and early 1990s. You feel like a cave dweller after so much time in the dark and damp!
The bad weather and my slightly sullen mood didn’t affect my tastings nor those of my son Jack or senior editor Stuart Pigott. The 2016 vintage was just too outstanding to let such circumstances decrease the great quality in the wines. I joked to the winemakers we met that if the wines tasted so outstanding in such a context, they had to be really excellent quality.
The cabernet sauvignon-based wines from Napa Valley were particularly fantastic. So many bottles showed wonderful balance and structure. Many winemakers finally dialed in their terroirs by producing more tannin-driven and freshly structured reds instead of picking late to make fruit bombs. Stay tuned for my updated report on 2016 (and other years) following our earlier report in November 2018.
