Cellar Dwellers from Heitz Produce Some Surprises
Posted on June 16, 2009
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When a friend at work recently said he needed to start drinking some wines he’d been aging, my mind was drawn to two bottles of Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignons that I’d been keeping for probably way too long. One was a 1982 Martha’s Vineyard, and the other a 1984 Bella Oaks. When I bought them, they were legendary Cabs, back in the days before Hollyweirdos started buying up property in Napa Valley.
Taking a cue from my coworker (whose wines were about five or so years old), I vowed to finally sample–drink whole, actually–the two bottles. I opened the 1982 Martha’s first. Initial sign of trouble: the cork was worn out and my corkscrew merely created a hole in the cork without ever removing it, so I was forced to filter the wine while pouring it. Second sign of trouble was the rust color that made it appear that the wine may have been beyond its time. My first sip sort of confirmed that it may have aged too much, so I chilled the bottlea bit. The result was a much more pleasant and balanced wine, but still one on the edge.
The 1984, however, had no cork or aging problems and was a pleasant little fellow to spend the rest of the afternoon with. I never did finish the Martha’s, but the Bella Oaks I gobbled up in the course of the afternoon.
Conclusion: Both wines I probably kept too long and should’ve enjoyed sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s at the latest.
I desperately wanted to e-mail the winemaster for his opinion (not knowing if this person would be the same one who did the 1982 and 1984 Cabs), but Heitz doesn’t provide a contact method on its Web site, a grievous mistake from a marketing/Web presence perspective, but one that no doubt lets them go about crushing and fermenting grapes without weirdos like me asking dumb questions.
» Filed Under Food News Tags: Tags:Bella Oaks, Cabernet Sauvignon, Heitz Cellar, Martha's Vineyard
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