2010 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley)

Two thousand twelve marks the debut of David Ramey's first pinot noir, which came about because, as Ramey put it, "the fruit was incredible and everybody thought that I did a pinot anyway, so why not?"We discussed vintage generalizations and he mused on the fact that in the Old World such variable years are celebrated, while in California people tend to use a broader brush."Just because something isn't great doesn't mean it's bad," he said, "but that's lost on a lot of people."The 2011 vintage is a prime example, he pointed out."Are there a lot of not-so-good or just plain bad wines?Sure.Is everything bad?No way."Such vintages are the ones where experience, hard work, sacrifice and great vineyards really pay off ("you may only be able to make a little wine but make it good"), he commented, "and that's what people should focus on."

I tasted through the new Ramey collection with assistant winemaker Cameron Frey this year as David Ramey had to leave town suddenly to attend to family matters.David told me, "he's worked with me for ten years now and knows the drill better than anybody."Two thousand and ten was an especially successful vintage for the Napa Valley red wines at Ramey, and I was struck by their suave blend of opulence and structure from top to bottom.The 2010 Claret is perhaps the best rendition of that bottling I've had to date and the big guns are must-buys for serious California cab collectors, with the depth and energy to age effortlessly.Frey told me that a particularly interesting aspect of the 2010 reds is that "they were charming from the get-go, without the sullen character that you kind of expect right after bottling."Will they shut down soon?"Most likely," he said, "but who knows, because they're playing their fruit off their tannins so nicely that they may not."(JR)

As David Ramey's winery continues to expand he has outgrown his downtown Healdsburg facility and recently set up another one, not far away and on the south side of town. Ramey mused about the market's (and wine critics') obsession with single-site bottlings, saying that it "detracts from and diminishes the fact that plenty of blended, appellation wines are made from incredibly high-quality fruit from the best sites in the region." The perceived exclusivity and assumed rarity of single-vineyard wines blind people to the virtues of the so-called little wines in the range, which Ramey believes is unfair. He told me that the longer he works with syrah, the more he realizes that it needs to be treated like pinot, not cabernet, which is how he used to look at the variety. "Cabernet is mostly about working with the tannins but syrah really needs a lighter hand to show its best."