I’ve often acknowledged that my blog entries on Thirsty Reader comprise only what I find time to mention, and that they account for only a small portion of my excursions into wine country. I happen to enjoy wine tasting, so I’ll visit dozens of wineries within a month, just for my own education. But even if I had the time and the energy to deliver notes for all of the wines I taste, there would still be hundreds of wines left uncovered. Even the Wine Spectator, which rates tons of new wines in each issue, tells only a fraction of the story.
My approach to blogging has evolved as I’ve come to realize the utter futility of trying to be comprehensive. I’ve scaled back my efforts this year, as I’ve adopted a Michelin-style approach to food and wine criticism: the good places receive their due shine, while the forgettable places are mercifully omitted. After all, exhaustive accounts are tedious to write and boring to read, so what’s the point in all that wasted effort? If I’m going to bother with things such as grammar, diction, punctuation and spelling, I’d much rather highlight a gem than rehash a sub-par experience.
The reason why I mention this approach is because I have quite a few drafts in my queue at the moment. I have recent visits to Elizabeth Spencer and J Vineyards that I would like to detail, and I will try to get to them as soon as possible. But there is one wine that deserves to be mentioned before all of the others: the 2005 Lokoya Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon. I tasted this wine at Cardinale last week (winemaker Chris Carpenter oversees both the Cardinale and Lokoya labels, as well as the La Jota label), and the profound depth of the wine has remained with me.
The 2005 Lokoya Mount Veeder offers dark expressions of violet and blueberry, which linger on the palate. The wine is smooth, integrated and balanced. Totally spot-on, and a rare combination of power and finesse. For me, this wine easily earns a place among my top 10 Napa Cabernets, and perhaps a spot in the top five. It’s serious juice.
