My drive home from TWWIAGE on Tuesday evening was an interesting one - not fun, but certainly an experience. Nearly every other winery in the Napa Valley had closed early due to a major rain storm so, consequently, traffic was light, but it was dark and very, very wet. Come daylight, and on my commute to work yesterday morning, I could see that most valley-floor vineyards were under water. This photograph, of a rather waterlogged Groth Vineyards & Winery, was not an uncommon sight as I made my way across the valley.
Napa is officially at 171% of normal rainfall for the season: I think we've had enough. I know I certainly have.
6 comments:
As I've been preparing to post on the 2012 Groth Res. Cab, your photo of the Groth vineyard has been imprinted on my mind's eye!
A wine I deem a 'cult' wine at a premium price, as I also deem Dunn & O'Shaughnessy Howell Mountain cabs; I suppose they're 'beneath' high-flying screeching eagle types, but what's a poor boy like me expected to do? ;-)
NHW: Do you really think of Groth as a "cult" wine? I have always found them extremely, reasonably priced for an Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon. Surely a cult wine could/would command much more.
Cult wines are based on price?
I can understand that, but I must cut my own path and declare that a 'cult wine' (I'm just making this up as I go)is a wine that consistently scores in the WS's "Classic Wine" range of 95-100 points.
Because if it's not a cult wine in that range, it should be.
Okay, here's the 'official' definition of a 'cult wine':
"Cult wines are those for which dedicated groups of committed enthusiasts will pay large sums of money. Such wines include, for example, Screaming Eagle from California and Penfolds Grange from Australia, among many others."
I stand corrected, but I like my definition better; never want to presume that a reputation means value, and I suppose this means the classification is psychological and not exclusively quality founded.
Opus One is a 'cult wine, no? The 2011 has a wine searcher average score (I know, you hate that) of a whopping 90 points; is that value at approx. $300?
So cult implies psychology over value, at least in this case. I will extrapolate from this thus: Cult wines are those wines which psychology plays a dominant roll, and might I add: a bit of elitism; or maybe I'm jealous and need to repent.
Sorry I'm Rambling On, sort of like Led Zeppelin.
Ha ha ha ha ha! welcome to my life
Dennis less of the Zep, you know we are Ramones to the core here!
Post a Comment