Vinous Event: 2010 Napa Valley at
the NoMad Rooftop

I knew it the moment I first
tasted the wines from barrel. Two thousand ten had the potential to be a great
vintage for Napa Valley. It was so obvious. The wines had great color,
intensity, freshness and persistence, much of that the result of an unusually
cool, long growing season by Napa Valley standards. Heat spikes in the weeks
leading up to harvest gave the fruit a final burst of ripeness, but also caused
sunburn and over-ripening where canopies had been opened too much. The most
exciting wines combine the aromatics and structure of a cool year with the
exotic ripeness of a warm vintage.

This retrospective, set in the
NoMad Hotel’s dramatic Rooftop, provided a great opportunity to get a progress
report on a number of the vintage’s very best wines. Executive Chef James Kent
prepared a brilliant menu, while Wine Director Thomas Pastuszak and his team
did a fabulous job handling the wines. A few of the winemakers were in attendance,
which only added to the richness of the conversation.As always, the primary objective of Vinous tastings and events is education.&nbsp;I had a hard time
limiting the lineup to something manageable, as there were so many wines I
wanted guests to experience&nbsp;in this retrospective. The wines were arranged in five flights that opened
the door to some of the main themes that run through Napa Valley today. We just
scratched the surface, though, as these wines represent just the tip of the
iceberg when it comes to Napa Valley’s oenological riches.<img src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1433287748895-KWhiteetal.jpg" alt="">

Vinous’s Kelli White flanked by NoMad’s Ryan
Bailey and Thomas Pastuszak

The bottles were opened starting
around 5:00pm. I personally tasted nearly every bottle. Because of the inherent
structure of the vintage, most of the wines were double decanted, which means
on average they got between three to five hours of air. Two exceptions were the
Blankiet and Kapcsándy, which were so beautiful and finessed out of the bottle
that I was afraid to disturb them. Those two wines were simply opened and
allowed to breathe. Each flight was served ahead of food, so the wines could be
tasted both alone and with the cuisine.&nbsp;

We served magnums of Aubert’s
2005 Chardonnay Lauren with the hors d’oeuvres as guests settled in and
explored the stunning room and rooftop terrace at the NoMad Hotel. The 2005
Lauren is still in great shape, but on this night, from the big bottle, it was
truly spectacular.

<a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/allgrapes/articles/pdfs/000/001/146/original/2010_Napa_Booklet_Menu_Part_1.pdf?1433288165" target="_blank">View the full menu and wines</a>

What follows are brief
impressions of the wines. My full tasting notes are <a href="http://vinousmedia.com/wines?wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=1145&amp;sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=id" target="_blank">here</a> and describe the wines
over the time I was able to follow them, which means before service, during
dinner, and, in many cases, into the next day, as opposed to just how the wines
showed during dinner itself.

<a href="http://vinousmedia.com/wines?wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=1145&amp;sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=id" target="_blank">View the tasting notes (in the order in which
they were served)</a>

Where do you start with wines
like this? Flight One focused on
three reference-point wines from Yountville,
each stunning in its own right. Blankiet’s Proprietary Red was all finesse,
2010 Kapcsándy’s Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Vin State Lane Vineyard showed
tremendous depth and refinement, while the 2010 Dominus may in time turn out to
be one of the handful of the very finest wines of the year. I can’t imagine a
better way to start the evening.

<img src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1433287824502-KapcsandyGlasses.jpg" alt="">Getting the glasses readyFlight Two: Stags Leap and a Bit
of Mystery, was magnificent.
First, the 2010 Hillside Select was off the charts. It remains one of my very
favorite wines in this style. The 2010 is ripe and voluptuous, but also
possesses superb energy. It was also fabulous with the foie gras, with a touch
of sweetness that balanced the dish perfectly. What a match. The benchmarks of
Napa Valley are well known, but I also wanted to show a wine most people had
not heard of, much less tasted. MacDonald’s 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, from the
fabled To-Kalon vineyard, was utterly magnificent. I think I heard more than
one swoon in the dining room. What a great showing.

<a href="http://vinousmedia.com/multimedia/antonio-and-kelli-preview-2010-napa-valley-an-epic-vintage-apr-2015" target="_blank">Multimedia: Antonio and Kelli talk about the
wines</a>

One of the signatures of 2010 is
the interplay of structure from the cool year and ripeness from the late season
heat spikes. Those qualities came through loud and clear in the three wines in
our Flight Three: Valley Floor &amp; Benchland flight; the Corison Kronos,
Spottswoode and Larkmead Solari were all especially open and radiant on this
night, with the Spottswoode the most exotically ripe of the three. Spottswoode is a warm site in St. Helena, so I
was not totally surprised by how that wine showed, but I did not expect the
Corison Kronos to be so open. The Larkmead was the most backward of the three
and will require the most time, even though I expect it will always be virile
and imposing in style.<img src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1433287917028-FlightwithColginandBond.jpg" alt="">The wines have been tasted and are ready to go<div>Another theme on this night was
the concept of terroir, which is so fundamental in other parts of the world,
but, sadly, less understood and discussed when it comes to Napa Valley. For Flight
Four: Eastern Hills, we wanted to
explore the similarities and differences of three wines that almost
certainly originated from the same geological formation, starting with Ann
Colgin and Joe Wender’s IX Estate, on Pritchard Hill, the Dalla Valle, which essentially
sits mid-slope on the eastern edge of Oakville and then down to BOND’s St.
Eden, which lies on a gently undulating slope just across the Silverado Trail.
The IX Estate was the most exotic and sweet of these three wines, but once some
of the more mineral elements emerged, it was striking. The 2010 Maya was simply
stratospheric. There is not too much to add. Sadly, the 2010 St. Eden did not
show well. Perhaps it was the magnum format or maybe we caught the wine at an
awkward stage, but the 2010 wasn’t as expressive as I remembered, and I tasted
all three magnums we served. <img src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1433291731332-Glassesnomad3.jpg" alt="">Following the wines and watching them evolve&nbsp;over the course of the evening is fascinatingFlight Five explored the
Western Hills. Philip Togni’s 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon continues to blossom.
Of course it remains an infant, but I would be hard pressed to name another
2010 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that has grown in bottle as much as Togni’s
2010 has over the last few years. Diamond
Creek’s 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill was a bit perplexing, as I noted
some bottle variation throughout the course of the evening that I don’t recall
seeing previously in this wine. The best bottles were typical Diamond Creek of
the current era, which means a bit more accessible than in the past, but still
with plenty of structure. But a few bottles weren’t perfectly focused. Chef Kent’s beef with quinoa, asparagus and
Parmesan was utterly divine.
<img src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1433287948814-BeefEntree.jpg" alt="">

Beef Roasted With Quinoa,
Asparagus &amp; Parmesan

Flight Six: Howell Mountain brought the evening
to a rousing finish. I found the Dunn absolutely stunning, but part of that was
no doubt linked to a tasting the night before that featured a series of Dunn
Cabernets back to the inaugural 1979 that stimulated the imagination as I
wondered what the 2010 might develop into if given sufficient time. Forman’s
2010 Cabernet Sauvignon is another of the wines of the vintage. The style is a
bit pushed for Forman, but it all works so well. David Abreu’s 2010 Thorevilos
took things to another level in terms of its pure intensity. While a number of
the 2010s can be enjoyed now with some air, the Thorevilos needs at least
another handful of years to enter what will likely be a long plateau of
maturity.

<img src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1433287963594-LastFlight%2BCover.jpg" alt="">

A flight of
modern-day classics

I had a
chance to revisit a few of the wines at the end of the night, which only
reaffirmed what a magnificent tasting and dinner this was. Readers lucky enough to own any of these
wines are in for a real treat, although the 2010s will undoubtedly take a
number of years before they show us their full splendor.

-- Antonio Galloni</div>

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