If You Are Buying Cult Cabs, You Should Be Tasting What They Can Become

This is true, and worth thinking about:

“Ludicrous on-release prices for some so-called cult Cabernets are now so high that they exceed prices for historic wines from the past that are still seen at wine auctions, like Cabernets from the 1970s and 1980s.

“I got the pre-release notice from (an iconic Napa Cab producer) and they want $650 a bottle. I can buy 1970s Cabs for less than that.”

This is a quote from long-time California wine collector Chris Clever as relayed in writer Dan Berger’s recent article that casts high-end California (read: Napa Valley) Cabernet as in the midst of a long-term downturn that is harder and harder to sell every day.

A key point made throughout the article is that today’s Napa Cabs are made in a style that deters the wines from aging well and instead are built with their soft tannins, high alcohols, and high pHs to drink most exuberantly on release and within a few years, but not far down the road. This seems intuitively correct to me, but I’ve not done extensive tastings of the 2008 to 2010 Napa cabs to assess if these same styled wines from that era are in fact so far along their way as to not justify forgetting about them for another ten or twenty years.

For me, the more interesting question is whether Mr. Clever is correct about having access to 40-50-year-old Napa reds for less than the cost of the release prices of many current Napa cults.

And he’s correct.

For this task, I turned to WineBid, which has a frequently rotating, wide selection of wines at their weekly auctions. WineBid’s detailed search engine allows me to search only for individual 750ml wines with a vintage from 1970 to 1990 and only made from Cabernet, proprietary reds, and red blends from California. Two Hundred twenty-three lots were identified. (Click here to do the search)

It’s not hard to define a cult wine. But it is a bit difficult to come up with an average price for a Napa cult. For the sake of argument, let’s say Mr. Clever’s $650 bottle is on the high side. Let’s say that $500 per bottle is a better average price for a Napa Cult Wine on release.

You could spend a good deal more than $500 for well-aged CA reds from the 1970s and 1980s. In the current WineBid auction, for example, there are a good number of mid-70s Heitz Vineyards wines that are well above that price. On the other hand, consider these wines currently available from this week’s WineBid Auction:

1984 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon: $425
1976 Heitz Fay Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon $390
1975 Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon $315
1977 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars SLV Lot 2 Cabernet Sauvignon $235
1974 Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon $185
1974 Beaulieu Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon $170
1978 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon $165
1981 Jordan Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon $135
1990 Freemark Abbey Bosche Cabernet Sauvignon $96
1989 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon $81
1987 Sterling Vineyards Three Palms Vineyard Red $45

If you don’t believe the price on the last lot on this list, just click through. It’s real and practically irresistible at $45.

I have no idea if any of these wines are still drinkable. Frankly, I’d be shocked if the majority of them didn’t give considerable pleasure from their aroma and taste to their texture and longevity. But the question is really, who wants to drink these wines. More to the point, do the folks buying cult cabs at $500 a pop on release want to drink these wines? Will they be so foreign in their aroma and taste as to disappoint on principle?

Ninety-nine percent of Americans don’t drink wine more than 5 years out of vintage. I don’t know what the average age is of the wines drunk by those who spend $500 or more for Cult Cabs on release. I doubt, however, that 45 years is the average. Based on Dan Berger’s description of Mr. Clever and his collection of wines, my guess is that he is the kind of guy that would drink older wines. But others should too, particularly those folks on the Cult Cab mailing lists.

For the cost of a single bottle of $500 Cult Cab, you could get three wines at WineBid from highly reputable, if not classic, Napa wineries that range in age from 50 to 30 years of age. Certainly, it would be nice to know what these high-priced Cults could taste like decades after their release.

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