1999 Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon Trailside Vineyard

It has been some time since I tasted a young Heitz wine. They don’t seem to make it to the UK, or if they do, they don’t swim past me. (On my recent trip to California, however, one of the most memorable wines – despite all those Cheval Blancs and Yquems – was a bottle of that classic Heitz Cellars, Martha’s Vineyard 1974 Napa Valley served blind. Complete and completely stunning still. All California Cab sceptics should taste this.) I saw from the notes on the Heitz website that this wine had a year in American oak hogsheads and then so long in French (Limousin!) barriques that it wasn’t bottled until 2003 – most unorthdox. The net result seemed to be a wine that is already at the peak of maturity but a very attractive drink now with an overlay of earthiness, or Rutherford dust, but no shortage of well balanced fruit. I thought it a very good wine but one that might have had a longer life with a different oaking regime. (I can hear the spirit of Joe Heitz grumbling, what’s the point of keeping it not drinking it?) (JR)

The deep-colored 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Trailside Vineyard exhibits minty, black currant fruit aromas as well as sweet fruit and roundness in the mouth, but it is dominated by austere tannin and a hard, chalky, earthy component. It should last for a decade. A 2004 Chardonnay was also tasted, but found to be simple and uninteresting. Tel. (707) 963-3542; Fax (707) 963-7454