We discovered Twenty Bench Cabernet on the menu at one of the
hot (and tasty!) new restaurants in San Francisco - Piperade,
a delicious Basque-themed restaurant on Battery St. - for $29
a bottle, or $8 by the glass. (Put the restaurant on your Must-Try
list next time you're in San Francisco!)
We found the wine to be food-friendly, sublimely rich for
the price, and wonderfully well made. "Hmmm," we
hmmmed to ourselves, "we'll have to check this out when
we get back to Napa Valley."
We did. And the story is as good as the wine. Winery owner
Jim Regusci (whose own wines are in the ilovenapa.com program)
purchased 20 tons of exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon grapes
from a vineyard that he planted and manages for a close friend.
He crushed the fruit and set the juice apart from his own.
Jim asked his wine maker, Charles Hendricks, to make and age
this wine separately.
The lot became known as "Twenty Bench" because
there were about 20 tons picked from a slight rising bench
on the vineyard.
Enter James Harder and Jim Gill, two bright wine marketers
who actually oversee the sales and marketing of Jim Regusci's
wines; they'd told Jim long ago that if he ever came across
a mother lode of miraculous juice, they'd love to bring it
to market under their own label. You get the picture….
What no one saw coming was James' philosophy: "Our goal
is to make the best possible $15 Cabernet. We want to be able
to do this year after year. No one is making an under $20
Cab with this much body or flavor." No kidding.
In many respects, this wine could also be called The Chameleon
as it changes flavor profiles in the glass about four times
while you're sipping.
It could also be called The Chameleon because the composition
of the wine itself will change each year as Harder, Gill and
Hendricks blend different varieties to optimize the flavor
of Twenty Bench.
The 2001 blend is a Napa Valley mixture of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon
and 15% Syrah.
Little of this wine is seen in the local retail environment,
but if you look hard, you will find some. Much is gobbled
up by winemakers who live in Napa Valley and by fine restaurants
where it is largely poured by the glass.
This much is True: You are NOT going to believe you are drinking
a $15 Cab.
2001 Twenty Bench, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon
It has the aroma of a much more expensive wine;
lots of forward ripe fruit, due in part to the presence
of 15% ripe Syrah. Aromas take a Michael Jordan leap from
the rim and actually tweak your nose with raspberry, blackberry
and framboise notes.
It has the mouthfeel of a much more expensive wine;
lots of rich middle-palate texture that coats the tongue,
doesn't acidulate or attack it as so many inexpensive
wines do. This is a pleasurable wine. How novel.
It has the taste of a much more expensive wine;
rich, ripe berries — rasp- and black — and
lots of sweet vanilla. A medium-length finish. A maximum
dollar/taste ratio.
How do they do it?
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ilovenapa.com Rating:
$15.00 |
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