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. I had a hard time limiting the lineup to something manageable, as there were so many wines I wanted guests to experience 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.

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.