2000 Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker Tony Soter's commitment to winemaking in California has been reinvigorated by the recent purchase of Etude by Beringer (Soter also spends considerable time making pinot noir and sparkling wine in Oregon). Under Soter's direction, Beringer will bud over 12 acres of merlot vines to a dozen heirloom clones of pinot noir in a promising rocky site on the northwest fringes of Carneros adjacent to Durell Vineyard. Soter will thus eventually have a wealth of raw material to draw from in creating his special Heirloom bottlings of pinot.

Tony Soter's wines don't always track conventional wisdom on California vintages (recall the highly successful cabernet-based wines he made under the Etude label and for his client wineries in the difficult 1993 growing season), and so it came as no surprise that Soter considers 1999 pinot noir in Carneros "a bit over the top, a bit too hedonistic due to some shrivelling of the grapes." Accordingly, there will be no special Heirloom pinot in '99. Soter likewise believes that his 2000 Etude cabernet offers a bit more finesse than the "more husky, concentrated" 1999, but I was knocked out by the '99. In the near future, thanks to new vineyard sources, there will be additional vineyard-designated Etude bottlings from clonal selections of Bordeaux varieties covering a wide range of Napa Valley sites.