Vintage Retrospective: The 2007 Napa Valley Cabernets

BY STEPHEN TANZER | MAY 23, 2017

Napa Valley’s 2007 Cabernets were
extoled from the start, owing to a textbook growing season without temperature extremes, fully ripe but
rarely roasted fruit, the glossy
texture and mostly refined tannins of the wines, and their overall balance. Consumers
and critics alike raved and, as is usually the case, too many of these wines
were consumed in the year or two following their release. But in the past five
or six years, several revisionist articles on the 2007 vintage have criticized
the early praise as excessive, describing the wines instead as “monochromatic,”
“monolithic,” “hollow,” “too ripe,” “too powerful,” even “less good than either
’06 or ’08.” So it was with more than my usual interest that I conducted an
extensive horizontal tasting of the nearly ten-year-old ‘07s in March at Napa
Valley Vintners in St. Helena.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1495544583088-2007+Napa+Cabs+copy.jpg"> 

My verdict: not to worry. The better
‘07s are beautiful, sleek Napa Valley examples with outstanding density, glorious
fruit and excellent equilibrium. Yes, the wines are ripe and powerful, but as
they absorb their baby fat they are gaining in shape and definition. And they
are evolving very slowly. I seldom make gross generalizations about vintage
quality and then only under duress, but 2007 certainly numbers among Napa
Valley’s top four or five vintages of the 21st century. That said,
lesser producers have the uncanny ability to underperform even in the best
years, and there were many disappointing wines in my 2007 tastings. I should
note that my previous horizontal tastings (of vintages 2005, 2004, 1995 and
1994) were by invitation only, but this year all member wineries of Napa Valley
Vintners were eligible to participate. The larger group of wines included a few
real discoveries but also explains why I tasted more than three dozen wines
that did not make the cut for this article (i.e., I rated them lower than 85
points). And to my palate, more of these disappointing wines were unpleasantly
green, bitter-edged, overextracted, excessively tannic, clumsily acidified,
oxidative, volatile or dried by oak than chunky or over the top.

A Brief Look Back at the 2007 Growing Season

Following a very cold November through
February, the weather warmed up in March. Rainfall was well below average
through the winter months with the exception of February and virtually stopped
at the beginning of March. In fact, the Oakville weather station recorded a
total of just three inches of rain between the beginning of March and end of
September; 2007 was the first of two consecutive drought years. Budbreak for
Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa Valley took place in and around the second week of
April and the flowering occurred in late May. There were more days with
below-average temperatures than above during the moderate, even slightly cool,
summer months and only a few mostly short heat spikes, the most significant of
which were in mid-June and at the end of August and beginning of September. The
summer witnessed relatively few 90+-degree days—much less 100.

Following a few very hot days at the end
of August and beginning of September, much of September was quite cool, and
this turn of events slowed down the final stage of ripening and resulted in a later Cabernet harvest than had
been expected. Another few very
warm days toward the end of the month helped to finish off the ripening process
in most sites without causing a serious drop in acidity, and most growers were
able to pick at their leisure. Cool,
showery conditions in the second week of October caught some mountain fruit
hanging, but by then the valley floor had mostly been harvested. Even the later
pickers mostly finished under good conditions, and for the most part the
precipitation did not swell the berries.

The 2007 Wines upon Release

Early on, the 2007s were so fleshy and
seamless that their substantial ripe tannins seemed to melt into their
compelling fruit. So even some of the heftiest wines gave early pleasure. But it
was also clear from that outset that the better ‘07s had the tannic structure,
healthy pHs and material for a long and positive evolution in bottle. In fact,
although—or perhaps because—the better wines were balanced from the start, they
are evolving slowly and will once again prove what a pity it is to drink
California’s top reds too early.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1495544742307-Helms+Vineyard+at+Dana+Estate+in+Rutherford+copy.jpg"> Helms Vineyard at Dana Estate in Rutherford 

Although the flowering had been
successful, ultimate quantities of fruit were moderate as the dry conditions
reduced berry size. Alcohol levels in the 2007s were typical by modern Napa
standards for a ripe year, which is to say that a majority of wines are in the
14.4% to 15% range, with some even higher than that.&nbsp;

The Wines Ten Years Later

As my extensive tastings this spring
demonstrated, the better 2007s are still very deeply colored and developing at
a leisurely pace. Aromas and flavors tend toward primary black fruits; the
wines are still tightly wound and energetic and the better bottles still have
some softening up to do. They are frequently fleshy but rarely heavy; they
possess considerable power and some of them still come across as a bit chunky.

While relatively few wines were overtly
jammy or overripe, the more expensive wines are mostly in the lustrous modern
style of New World Cabernets, whose makers go to great lengths to avoid green
aromas and flavors through, in theory at least, precise harvesting at ideal
ripeness. Some ‘07s struck me as a bit port-like in their density, medicinal
black fruit intensity and structure, but the best examples in this style have enough
supporting material and life-affirming acidity. And many wines show the kind of
tobacco leaf and herbal elements that add lift and bring future complexity.

Still, I tasted too many bottles that
did not capitalize on the ripeness of this lovely vintage. The lesser wines
generally fall into one or more of the following categories: too green, weedy,
lean, hard or dry; overwhelmed by oak; bitter-edged, in some instances due to
clumsy acidification, in others to underripe fruit; oxidative; high-toned; too
tannic, sometimes owing to excessive extraction during vinification; porty and
overripe, but just as often showing and overripe/underripe quality due to a
wide range of fruit ripeness; and simply gritty and unrefined. Many bottlings
were unacceptably herbal or peppery, or finished with underripe tannins. And of
course there were wines with off aromas, whether due to bad oak, brettanomyces,
careless topping-up of the barrel or other factors. As I mentioned above, I
tasted more than three dozen wines that were disappointing, if not virtually
undrinkable.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1495544597575-more+2007+Cabernets+copy.jpg"> A Few Notes on My Notes

To provide broader context, I have included
a few outstanding wines made from California vineyards not in Napa Valley. My
tastings this spring, most of them conducted under perfect conditions at Napa
Valley Vintners in St. Helena in March and the rest chez moi in New York City, also included numerous Bordeaux blends
and a few wines based almost entirely on Merlot or Cabernet Franc. In addition,
I have included notes on the five 2007 Bond wines, which I tasted in March at
the winery in the course of a spectacular vertical tasting of all of the wines
released under the Bond label to date (notes on this event will be published soon
on Vinous). However, during my full day of sensory overload at Bond, I forgot
to ask to taste the 2007 Harlan Estate, which I rated 97 points the last time I
tried it several years ago.

I also added notes on a couple
additional ‘07s that I tasted in the course of my numerous vertical tastings in
2016 and 2015 but did not have the chance to try again this spring. One
additional note: Two wineries that hosted extensive vertical tastings for me
this spring (Seavey Vineyard and Bryant Family Vineyard) also sent samples for
my horizontal tasting, so my notes in this article are based on different
bottles. Finally, I decided not to publish a note on the 2007 Dunn Howell
Mountain as my single bottle of this wine was clearly not right.&nbsp;

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