I’m often asked what makes a winery great. The word ‘great’ is probably the most over-worked adjective in the wine journalist’s vocabulary, so greatness would seem to be a relatively easy commodity to define, bottle and sell.
I wish. We may be awash in very fine wine from across the globe, but greatness remains a rare commodity. Trust me, you’ll know it when you taste it.
I vividly remember my first sip of Meursault from Lafon, Grange from Penfolds, Pesquera from Alejandro Fernandez. But one great wine does not a great winery make. Producers at this level command the high prices they fetch because they’ve proven they can reproduce great wines vintage after vintage.
And now I believe another “great” winery has been born, albeit 11 years ago. Nickel & Nickel, located in the heart of the Napa Valley, was founded in 1997 with a very straightforward mission: Make single-vineyard wines that would showcase California’s most spectacular vineyards.
Only now, as I taste the wines (mostly Cabernet, Chardonnay and Merlot) and note their remarkable consistency and extremely high quality, I realize Nickel & Nickel has passed the test of time. As a benchmark for California wine quality, it is as good as it gets.
That is the subject of my Creators Syndicate column this week, where I discuss my most recent 100-point wine (the Nickel & Nickel 2005 Stelling Cabernet) and the impressive fact that I rated all four of the latest ’05 Cabs from Nickel & Nickel 95 points or higher.
The Nickel & Nickel wines are relatively expensive, although it’s certain you can pay more for a California Cabernet and come away with a lesser experience. These wines are made in small lots, making them rare (I know high-profile retail shops and restaurants that can’t even get their hands on a case) and precious.
The quality is very high. And the team at Nickel & Nickel (famed winemaker Dirk Hampson is one of the partners) has resisted the current fashion of sweet, jammy Napa Cabernet to produce wines that are in perfect balance.
They are, I dare say, great wines from a great winery.
8