Here at Graileys we pride ourselves in our ability to find great wines at every price point. Through countless tastings-blind and open, we seek the best in category for classic fine wines from around the world. With ever more wines in the marketplace and the rise of wine marketing overload, a service that I enjoy providing my clients is the random email/text request: “What your best Cali Cab @ $40-I have a (bbq/party/camping/sporting event) next week an need some good juice.” or “I am looking for a$150 Cab for half the price-what do you have?” In these instances real service is provided in the world of wine and I enjoy that part of the day. I was thinking about that after drinking these 2 excellent 2009 Napa Cabs with outstanding Price to Quality Ratios or QPRs. I like this method for thinking of wine purchases or drinking-how much relative wine “bang for my buck” am I getting? It is me and my wife? us and another couple we like? A larger dinner with strangers? Providing booze for a book club event? Each scenario presents a different QPR requirement as well. Oh the nuances of wine…
The first Cab was the 2009 Casa Piena “Our Gang” Cabernet Sauvignon from Yountville. This is from an adjacent vineyard to the modern classic Kapcsandy Family and their State Line Vineyard. This was the core of Beringer Private Reserve Cab for 30+ years. This is a modern day classic in the making. This would be the “second label” meant for earlier drinking to the Grand Vin Case Piena. Thomas Rivers Brown mans the helm here with grapes from the always wonderful Jim Barbour. If you love the smooth, hedonistic side of Napa Cab, this is a pop & pour Cab that shows wonderfully! This wine is saturated and dark purple in color with a nose of violets, coffee bean, vanilla, creme de cassis, crushed black raspberries, toast and ripe blackberries. The palate is riveting with round, sweet supple fruit tannins balanced by black raspberry acidity and very generous toasty, sweet spice and chocolate oak notes and lush dark fruits. The wine is seamless, pure and generous and every drink makes you want to inhale another. All this for less than $80. Bravo TRB and Jim-a wine to slurp down without guilt!
Next one of my “go-to” Napa Cabs, 2009 Five Vintners Cabernet Sauvignon from Saint Helena, rocked at always for an insanely low price. The ultimate party Cab for friends! This is literally the fifth generation of vintners in the Napa Valley making great wine from a small estate vineyard in Saint Helena. They make phenomenal QPR wines like Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc and this Cab. Krisi Raymond can trace her family roots back to Jacob Beringer in 1876. Her husband Kirk Wrede makes wine at Raymond now and it a young talent to watch. This is my ultimate baby Cakebread Cab. It is loaded with blue, purple and black fruit with violets, cocoa and sweet tobacco and creme de cassis. The oak is coffee bean, dark chocolate, and smoke framing the lush blueberry, blackberry and dark plum fruit. Violets, pipe tobacco, a lightly tugging velvety smooth tannin adds length to this wonderful wine. This is a wine to keep a case sitting around of. It is always fantastic.