2009 Napanook

I was deeply impressed with the wines I tasted at Dominus this year, including the spectacular 2006 Dominus, which I promptly went out and added to my cellar. But back to the present. Christian Moueix and the Dominus team headed by Tod Mostero have done a fabulous job with these wines. Mostero describes 2010 as a cold year, but with heat spikes in late August, September and October, which resulted in the loss of virtually all of the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. In 2010, the harvest started on October 4 and stretched all the way to October 23, much later than in 2009. The 2010s dark, tannic wines that are likely to require quite a bit of patience. According to Mostero, 2009 was a year of even temperatures, with no heat spikes or other traumatic events. The harvest took place between October 5 and 12.

The 2010 and 2009 Dominus Estate wines are quite different from each other, but probably less so than the original raw materials would have suggested. According to winemaker Tod Mostero, production in 2010 was extremely low owing to a very severe selection, with the quantity of flagship wine the lowest to date, and less than half that of 2009. "We had sharp heat spikes on August 24, September 2 and September 28, followed by three hot days from October 12 through 14," said Mostero, "and we practically lost our cabernet franc. The cabernet sauvignon grapes didn't really soften until the end. The 2010s are tannic and deeply colored, and for the flagship wine we selected out some of the more muscular lots. A lot of fruit that normally goes into Dominus went into our Napanook wine instead." The estate's 2009 is a much more spherical wine in comparison, noted Mostero. "It offers lovely balance and nuance, and no one element stands out today."

One of the privileges of being a wine critic is the opportunity for constant education. My visit at Dominus was very much educational. Winemaker Tod Mostero opened two bottles of each wine we tasted; the first was opened and double decanted 24 hours in advance, the second was opened one hour prior to the tasting. I tasted a wide range of vintages going back to 1996, but the biggest differences between bottles that had been opened a day before and one hour before this tasting were with the younger vintages. Ideally the Dominus wines should be cellared, but if that is not possible, generous aeration is a good substitute.

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.