Napa’s Magical 2013 Vintage Continues to Dazzle

Napa Valley continues its roll with the 2013 and 2012 vintages making amazing reds, particularly cabernet sauvignons, Bordeaux blends, and merlots. I tasted another nearly 200 reds about two months ago in Napa Valley after I already rated about 400 wines at the beginning of this year, and I was amazed with the quality, especially the wines from Schrader, Abreu, Kapcsandy Family Winery, Dana Estate, and Diamond Creek. 

I found three perfect wines this time around: Abreu Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Cappella 2012, Kapcsandy Family Winery Napa Valley State Lane Vineyard Roberta's Reserve 2013, and Schrader Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Schrader 2013. My last tasting report included seven perfect wines, all from the 2013 vintage. 

Of course, some of the wines I tasted were much less interesting than they should have been considering the greatness of the 2013 and 2012 vintages. Reds that were overdone with too much alcohol, too much wood or too much residual sugar were rated lower. Check out a recent article I wrote in Asia Tatler on how the fashion for big reds with residual sugar seems to be on the wane in the world. 

Click here for my first report this year on Napa 2013 and 2012. 

I continue to prefer the 2013 Napa reds to the 2012, but both vintages produced superb wines. And don't forget the beautiful 2014s coming on-line soon. The 2013s have slightly better tannin backbone and structure than the 2012s. 

Perhaps this was due to 2013 being slightly cooler than 2012 at the end of the growing season and harvest? But the wines certainly shows less opulent, ripe fruit character than most of their counterparts in 2012. I like the way some Napa winemakers say that the 2013s show more blue fruits and firm tannins while the 2012s have more red fruits and round tannins. They are indeed different expressions of great Napa reds, yet equally captivating. 

"The 2013 is the best vintage we ever had," admitted Fred Schrader, the owner of Schrader Cellars, who made some of the best wines of the vintage. "These are the finest wines we ever made. This is as good as it gets." 

I heard the same thing from so many winemakers and vintners in Napa this year after visiting the valley three times, and the hundreds of outstanding, even perfect, wine produced in the vintage prove their point. 

Below are wines I tasted in March in Napa. I will taste a few more in June and the rest of the year.

Photos: Robert Mondavi bottle; tasting at Spring Mountain; Inglenook bottles; Futo bottle.