[Our regular WRO contributors will be naming their selections for Wine and Producer of the Year between now and December 31, so check this space daily through the holidays. Michael Franz]
I am an avowed Pinot Noir fan. I make no bones about my love for any wine made from the Pinot Noir grape. So imagine my surprise when I went back over the wines I had reviewed this past year and noticed that I had favorably reviewed about four times as many Cabernets as Pinots! Not only that, but the majority of the Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux-style blends based on Cabernet Sauvignon, were rated Outstanding or higher, with three I thought were Superb.
My dismay was compounded when I discovered that I had only considered three Pinot Noirs as Outstanding and one lonely 
Pinot, a lovely Sea Smoke Sonoma Coast “Ten” Pinot Noir 2006, as Superb. Yikes! I have to start drinking more Pinot Noir.
But give credit where it is due. Throughout the past year, I tasted 25 Cabernet Sauvignons or Cabernet-based wines, mostly from California, that I liked well enough to garner 90 points or more. For me, that’s high, for California Cabernet. But it got me to thinking that there has been an impressive upgrade of quality in Cabernet Sauvignons that I haven’t been paying close enough attention to. Apparently my impression of New World (a.k.a.: California) Cabernet Sauvignon is still locked into high alcohol and over ripe fruit. Certainly, the alcohol levels on far too many California red wines are breathlessly high, but an encouraging number of the wines I tasted are more conscious of out-of-control alcohols and jammy flavors.
There is a lush seductiveness in Pinot Noir that is hard to resist. On the other hand, Cabernet Sauvignon, especially when it is given enough time to mature properly, is more angular, muscular with hidden fruit when young; the very antithesis of Pinot Noir. Give Cabernet Sauvignon time, though, and it is a glorious drink, with lovely dark-fruit flavors and often a measured hint of dried herbs, carefully balanced by long fine tannins and good acidity. Drinking a well-aged Cabernet Sauvignon, Meritage or Bordeaux rouge is one of life’s great pleasures. Examples of this personal paean to Cabernet are two California Cabernet Sauvignons that were among my top wines of 2008:
Shafer Vineyards, Napa Valley Stags Leap District “One 
Point Five” 2005 ($70): The name One Point Five is derived from the family partnership of John and Doug Shafer, father and son who started Shafer Vineyards. Using grapes from Shafer’s hillside vineyards, Winemaker Elias Fernandez fashioned a sumptuous Cabernet Sauvignon with a hint of Petit Verdot, aged for 20 months in French and American oak barrels. This is a wine of depth and complexity, with its richly hued purple-ruby color, layered nose of dark chocolate, black currants and dried herbs and supple choco-berry flavors, supported by ripe tannins. The finish is long, dry and complex. Shafer Cabernets stand at the front of a distinguished line of Stags Leap District wines. 95
Spottswoode, St. Helena Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 
2004 ($110): Winemaker Rosemary Cakebread went with Cabernet Sauvignon and just 3% Cabernet Franc for this elegantly structured 2004 wine. Barrel aging was in French oak, with 70% new oak. The wine has a brilliant medium ruby color, forward dark cherry aroma with hints of cedar and anise. It has an excellent oak-fruit balance, good structure and plenty of ripe fruit that lingers through the finish. This is an opulent Cabernet with elegance, and a respectable 14.3% alcohol; an excellent example of this powerhouse vintage. 95
Still, there’s that seductiveness of a young Pinot Noir….
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