Dalla Valle Cabernet Sauvignon 1999

Ladies and gentlemen... for this post I bring you my first aged Napa Valley cabernet! This wine is a whopping 13 years old. I've always heard about how Napa cabernets are world class when aged properly, and last night I finally got to experience what that meant first hand. Unfortunately, we forgot to decant the bottle before dinner (as we usually do,) so I don't think I was able to completely appreciate the wine. However, what I did experience was something totally new to me, considering I don't normally drink cabernet nor do I typically drink California wines all that often. So bare with me in this post, for this is generally uncharted territory for me.

In color, the wine was a deep and mature red. It had a black body and brick red rim. This is exactly what age does to the color of a well-kept wine. The body darkens and the redness develops more character. Upon a violent swirl, the wine displayed some gorgeous legs and the color figuration upon tipping the glass was almost completely uniform. This wine also threw some heavy sediment, which obviously comes with the aged-wine territory.

The flavor and nose of this wine also showed me some relatively new features to me. Cabernet is a fighter of a grape when it comes to aging, as described in the ever so romantic film, Sideways. I got some rich and unique black currant notes, drenched in a creamy french vanilla perfume. It had a powerful and relentless mouthfeel where I could literally feel the tannins (which I should note were soft despite being powerful and relentless,) beating down on my palate. The finish was oaky and dry, leaving me with a strong impression of what Napa Valley cabernets can accomplish when they're produced the right way.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, "Hey Mr. Wine Noob, this post sounds just like any other post you've written in the past- I thought that you said that this wine was something TOTALLY different for you than anything you've had before! You're slacking, BRO!" First of all, I'm not your "bro", pal. Secondly, the wine was something completely new for me despite the rather trivial description I wrote about it. Describing an aged wine in-depth is difficult, and considering I'm still pretty new to wine blogging, I think I've done a good job if you can pick up on the small characteristics that I reserve for phenomenal wines. Eventually I'll learn to do this a tad bit better, but for now I'm still The Wine Noob. This is what the wine was like, and it was pretty great. Thanks for reading, fellas!