2008 Dominus

As the challenges of difficult growing seasons fade with time, two things happen. First, in the memory of winemakers, rain events magically become less extreme: the actual torrential rainfall that plagued a harvest shrinks to moderate precipitation and eventually to a vague recollection of moisture. Freakishly cool or brutally hot harvest weather or damaging hail storms are virtually forgotten, as the body has a short memory for pain. At the same time, as the wines themselves mature and are transformed, they reveal themselves to be less extreme after all, until at some point it can be next to impossible to find the insanity of the vintage in the bottle. I’ve seen these patterns play out again and again in temperate wine-growing areas like Bordeaux, Burgundy and northern Italy—and even in normally hot, bone-dry growing regions. Two thousand eight was such a year for California’s North Coast.

Winemaker Tod Mostero was quick to point out that although 2008 was tough from a viticultural standpoint, it was relatively easy from a winemaker's point of view. Yes, there was variation in the flowering, but the berries were small, the summer was warm, and the estate finished the harvest relatively early. "The vinifications were fast and easy, both alcoholic and malolactic, we got good fruit purity and soft tannins, and there's little in the way of herbal or tea flavors in 2008," he explained. Two thousand nine was very different from 2008, with late rains into May, a mild summer without many extremes, and a slightly longer vegetative cycle than 2008. "Bud break, bloom and veraison all came suddenly," he went on. "September was warm but not excessively hot and there was no need to rush. And then the fruit ripeness came quickly between October 5 and 12. We picked on eight consecutive days and were lucky to get our fruit in before it rained 4.5 inches on the night of the 12th. Incidentally, following the substantial planting that has taken place here in recent years, there is no longer any merlot on the property.

Within two years, Christian Moueix will have replanted all the vines of the historic Napanook Vineyard in Yountville, mostly to cabernet sauvignon. The malbec is now gone, and little merlot remains. Mouiex, who was in NapaValley at the time of my visit, noted that production in 2008 was the smallest ever, due partly to the very dry and erratic growing season but also to the fact that the property is now at the low point of production due to the replanting program. Moueix views the 2006 Dominus as a powerful wine but with suave tannins, while 2007 shows the "finer side of the vintage." The 2008 vintage is actually higher in polyphenols than 2007, said winemaker Tod Mostero, "but the tannins are soft and round, as we are now using much less press wine." Incidentally, Moueix recently purchased the Schmidt Ranch property a mile north of Dominus and will offer a new cabernet-based wine from the 2009 vintage.