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 This is about the vineyard husband (John Arns), the winemaker wife (Sandi Belcher) and the outrageously good wines they are producing.
But as the quest of anyone reading this Wine Discovery is the end-product, let's first wax poetic about the wine:
1998 Arns Napa Valley Cabernet
Don't let those digits 1-9-9-8 scare you off. That's a load of bunk about "all the '98 Napa Valley Cabs being lousy." That's like saying "all politicians are on the take." Okay, bad example, too many are. But you know what we're heading…
There is a reason the venerated Wine Spectator included Arns in a story called "An Undiscovered Dozen; New names in Cabernet to try before they're too hot." Arns wine, produced from an 8-acre parcel on a 120-acre property just below the appellation line where Howell Mountain begins, is, quite simply, mind-blowingly good.
On the nose, the '98 is smoke and dark cherry, evoking images of one of those dark-chocolate-filled bonbons with a real cherry inside. The wine is black-red-black in color. Call it Darth Vader black. On the sip, there is rapture; a succession of flavors, a chewy textured middle palate filled with blue, purple and black fruits; if you wait long enough, you will discover cola, cocoa and cherry on the finish.
This wine is NOT wimpy, wussy, or weak, so please move all that crap you read about "the lousy, mediocre '98s" to your Trash Basket. Now hit the Trash button.
This is gorgeous wine, reverential wine. At one half the price
other wines of this caliber are charging. Only 500 cases were
made.
This stellar wine is made by a talented front end/back end couple who have been farming their rolling hillside vineyard for decades. John Arns, 50, has only ever done one thing. And done it well; tend vines.
After graduating with degrees in viticulture and oenology, John took over the task of growing grapes on a property his family had bought in Napa Valley. The vines on his 400-800-foot elevation property are all Cabernet; the property is divided into nine blocks, some planted with different clones, some planted as densely as 2,900 vines to the acre. (That's the upper limit of commercial vineyards, though Mondavi is experimenting with a trial path planted with about 4,000 vines per care… some vineyards are planted with as few as 1,500 vines per acre.)
On the back end, Sandi Belcher takes these perfectly grown grapes and turns them into textbook-terrific wines. The grapes are hand-picked in small batches and lovingly crushed; Sandi applies techniques that she has learned from a career of winemaking; she has been winemaker, for example, at Long Vineyards for 23 consecutive seasons.
In her own right, Sandi is a talented vineyard manager, too. "I oversaw the experimental UC Davis 5-acre vineyard in Rutherford, Napa Valley, for 15 years, explains Sandi. " From 1979 to 1991, we conducted trellising experiments and made wine each year from the grapes. We poured this wine for students to teach them how different trellising methods produce different grapes… which produce different tasting wines."
Along the way, Sandi has worked at Chateau Montelena with Mike
Grgich, she worked at Freemark Abbey in its hey-day, and she
bottled the famed, near-mythological, near-perfect 1974 Heitz'
Martha's Vineyard Cabernet. These — and her achievements
at Arns and Long Vineyards — are the peak experiences that
would show up on Sandi's Winemaker All-Star Trading Cards, if
there were a winemaker-equivalent to baseball trading cards.
She's certainly a pro, certainly a veteran, and her RBI Average
is mighty high and impressive - Reds Bearing Intensity.
1998 Cabernet Sauvignon
Don't let those digits 1-9-9-8 scare you off. That's a
load of bunk about "all the '98 Napa Valley Cabs being
lousy." That's like saying "all politicians are on the
take." Okay, bad example, too many are. But you know what
we're heading…
There is a reason the venerated Wine Spectator included
Arns in a story called "An Undiscovered Dozen; New names
in Cabernet to try before they're too hot." Arns wine,
produced from an 8-acre parcel on a 120-acre property
just below the appellation line where Howell Mountain
begins, is, quite simply, mind-blowingly good.
On the nose, the '98 is smoke and dark cherry, evoking
images of one of those dark-chocolate-filled bonbons with
a real cherry inside. The wine is black-red-black in color.
Call it Darth Vader black. On the sip, there is rapture;
a succession of flavors, a chewy textured middle palate
filled with blue, purple and black fruits; if you wait
long enough, you will discover cola, cocoa and cherry
on the finish.
This wine is NOT wimpy, wussy, or weak, so please move
all that crap you read about "the lousy, mediocre '98s"
to your Trash Basket. Now hit the Trash button.
This is gorgeous wine, reverential wine. At half the price
other wines of this caliber are charging. Only 500 cases
made. |
ilovenapa.com Rating:
$50 |
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