Time Flies...or Crawls, when you are enthusiastic

Posted 01/31/2008 at 03:14 PM by Dirk

Far Niente is releasing its 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon on Saturday. There will be lots of wine lovers, friends and believers in our caves enjoying their first encounter with this special wine.

It feels as if it was only a few months ago that we were so thrilled with the grapes and the fermentations that we couldn't wait to tell everyone and have them try this incredible vintage.  It also feels as if we have been suppressing this enthusiasm for so long that the day would never arrive. (Kind of like waiting for Christmas Day when you were six years old.)

Face it, wineries, and even wine regions, love to hype the latest vintage. (It's the one that is for sale.) Bordeaux has managed to create a feeding frenzy over its 2005 vintage that has investors, speculators and even some wine enthusiasts bidding up the prices to where a bottle of a first growth is going for more than my first car. (That car happened to be French too...there is a reason the wine is worth more.) I think that 2005 is already the second vintage of the century for Bordeaux...in the first decade of the century.  I would hate to think it could only be downhill for the next ninety years. This may be the tenth "vintage of the century" since I have been making wine. (Does that make me a thousand years old...or is this just new math?) 

The conclusion has to be that each of us must take the hype with a grain, or a shaker, of salt. With that official disclaimer in place, you don't want to miss the 2005 Far Niente Cabernet (trust me). Mother Nature, Aaron (our viticulturist), Stephanie (our winemaker), and all of the team in the fields and cellar got this one right...really right.

I am not going to try to describe the flavors of this wine ( thankfully, I lost my thesaurus just in time) or give it points (I don't believe in awarding scores to paintings, architecture, friendships or wines.) I do know that this is a Cabernet that has brought a smile every time that I have tasted it. It is a wine that has the ability to touch each of us in a way that leaves us knowing that everyone else wishes he could be enjoying what we are drinking.  It is wine that makes it obvious that sharing it is a gift for all present. What more can you want from a wine?

I have been trying to control myself because I have been known to get ridiculously enthusiastic about some vintages and wines (I still have to face Greg about my obsession with the 1995 Dolce.) On Saturday, I think that the enthusiasm from all who are present will be infectious and we are going to have a great time introducing the 2005 Far Niente Cabernet to the world. Hope we see you there, or, that you get a chance to taste what all the fuss is about.

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