Jon Bonné Lifestyle editor • Profile

Napa’s current incarnation as a wine-soaked Disneyland makes it hard to remember the early days.

The valley’s reputation was sealed, lest its promoters allow you to forget, by
the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris competition at which California wines beat out France's best. But prior to that, Robert Mondavi’s famous mission-style winery was an extravagance — the exception, not the rule. Many of Napa’s biggest names were still family operations not yet targeted by corporate America.

When the 30th anniversary of the Paris tasting was marked in late May with retastings of the original wines, California was equally triumphant: Its reds occupied all five top slots, with Napa accounting for four: Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973, Heitz 1970 Martha’s Vineyard, Clos du Val
1972 and Mayacamas 1971. (For recent releases of California and Bordeaux, the decision was notably more split.)

But if the beauty of the original Napa wines was unchanged, the place itself is barely recognizable. Its fame, built on the backs of such names as Heitz and Clos du Val, has been commandeered by cult favorites like Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate. Its rustic origins have long since been trumped by soaring property values and the extravagances of high-end tourism.

And yet many of the original standard bearers, their reputations long since secured, continue to churn out their trademark wines.

With pedigree comes a steep price tag. The perennial complaint about Napa Cab is that it traffics at unreasonable prices, dictated more by land costs, finances and market economics than true value. It is not impossible to find Napa Cab under $30, but serious players generally enter the field well above that. Eyes no longer pop at price tags above $100.

How well have Napa’s best-established names held up? Fathers of a certain age are the target audience for such wines, partial to labels they’ve enjoyed for two decades or more. With Father’s Day coming, it seemed like the right time to answer that question.

The old pros
For a survey, we tried to limit ourselves to wineries with at least 25 vintages under their belts. A quarter-century hearkens back to 1981, the year before the Napa Valley appellation received federal recognition.

Of interest were Napa cabernets made either from Napa Valley fruit or from a specific vineyard or district — primarily Oakville or Stags Leap. Price tags started at $30, with many soaring past $50 to a $115 price cap. (That limit excluded such venerable wines as Joseph Phelps’ Insignia and Heitz’s Martha’s Vineyard.) Of the six California wineries whose reds were featured in the original Paris tasting, we included bottles from four: Clos du Val, Freemark Abbey, Heitz (the Bella Oaks and Trailside) and Stag’s Leap.

For help with tasting, I turned to Phil Pratt, wine director of The 21 Club in New York, a venue as all-American as Napa, with an equally impressive 76-year history.  Its wine cellar has attained near-celebrity status of its own, with a 5,000-pound door built into the foundation wall — a Prohibition-era foil to hide booze from the Feds. Its private stock is labeled with familiar names: Elizabeth Taylor, Ivan Boesky, Richard Nixon. Pratt’s 1,200-label list pays homage to Napa in styles both old (Chateau Montelena) and new (Harlan).

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My father joined us as a guest, not only to fulfill our Father's Day quotient but also because his own memories of Napa stretch back to the early 1970s, when he traveled California, putting together winery deals.

The good news is that most wines we tasted seemed to reflect their well-established roots. They revealed a solid structure, well-managed tannins and balanced fruit, and avoided many of Napa’s pitfalls: overripe, cooked flavors, too much alcohol and manipulation. It was an indication, Pratt said, “that they’re still true to their style.”

But were they worth it? In a few cases, absolutely. Standouts could be found among both familiar names (Clos du Val, Montelena) and lesser-known contenders (Flora Springs). Others pleased, but had made concessions to Napa’s modern style. The soft, approachable Rubicon 2002 was clearly tailored to serve a drink-young market.

“You could feel safe ordering any of these wines, and some of them you could get really excited by,” Pratt said.

At the same time, several seemingly bulletproof names failed to impress, names such as Silver Oak, Cakebread and Robert Mondavi’s venerable Oakville bottling.

“They rely too much on their brand strength,” Fred Dexheimer, wine director of the BLT group of restaurants and one of our tasters, later suggested, “and they’re not putting enough in the bottle.”

When I later called my dad, he was even less charitable, especially when I disclosed the price tags.

“There was an awful lot of the stuff that wasn’t really good value,” he said, comparing the Napa offerings to an $8 bottle of montepulciano he’d opened the night before. “Maybe this was all California Cab hype.”

True to form
Yet experience has its virtues. Clos du Val in particular stood out for its freshness and complexity. Founded in 1972 by businessman John Goelet and French winemaker Bernard Portet, the Silverado Trail winery stands with Robert Mondavi, Montelena (whose chardonnay, made by Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, was the top white in the 1976 Paris tasting), Stags’ Leap and a handful of others as the names who helped put Napa on the global map.

After the tasting, we compared Clos du Val's Stags Leap bottlings from 2002 and 1989, and found in both the same mineral structure and supple fruit density. The ‘89 had retained its brightness, and added layers of herbal and brandied fruit notes. At times, Clos du Val’s adherence to a more Bordeaux-like style has cost it critical praise. But its ability to evolve over time is a sign of the best of what old style Napa can offer.

As it turned out, my father had paid Portet a visit during his early-‘70s travels, and brought home a small bottle of the 1972 cabernet, given as a gift before the winery’s first commercial release. When we opened it a couple of years ago, its freshness and complexity after more than 30 years was stunning. The same qualities were evident in Clos du Val’s new releases.

That isn’t to say brand dominance is always deserved — Cakebread is the most popular label in U.S. restaurants, according to Wine & Spirits magazine’s 2006 list, yet surfaced at the bottom of our results.

But those who call for Napa cab by name can occasionally find good reason to fork over their money. And if your dad is the sort who cherishes these bottles, rest assured that at least a few of Napa’s old warhorses will still please him.

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