The 2011 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons at Age Ten

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | MAY 17, 2022

As the 2011 Napa Valley Cabernets reached the ten-year mark, revisionist thinking about the wines started to surface. Had the Cabernets of this much-derided vintage turned out better than expected? Absolutely not! The top 2011s were always gorgeous. Today, with the added benefit of bottle age, the best 2011s are showing especially well.

Let Me Know if You Need Anything, and Good Luck!

It just so happens that 2011 was the first harvest I witnessed firsthand in Napa Valley. At the end of 2010, Bob Parker asked me to take over the coverage of Napa Valley wines for The Wine Advocate. It was the first time Bob had given one of his key regions to another critic. I was fairly terrified at the awesome responsibility of following Bob in Napa Valley. 

A few weeks later, a small package arrived. It contained a book on Napa Valley someone had sent to Bob (I don’t remember whose) and his schedule of appointments from the year before, on paper of course, with addresses and phone numbers, but no emails. Typical Bob. A yellow Post-It was affixed to the schedule. It read: “Let Me Know if You Need Anything, and Good Luck! Bob.” That was it. That was my introduction to the job.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Bob invited me to taste the 2001s that May, but I will save that story for my upcoming 20-year retrospective. Back to Fall 2011. Not knowing what to do, I simply replicated Bob’s schedule. Exactly. I stayed in the same place and was even put in the same room, a room that Bob liked because it had a private parking spot. From there, I watched harvest unfold over sixteen days of non-stop tastings.

The fog inversion as seen on Pritchard Hill, October 2011.

The 2011 Growing Season & Wines