Michael Vaughan's Weekly National Post Feature

In Homage to Cabernet Sauvignon
Great Cabernet Sauvignon can last for decades
1970 Beaulieu Vineyard Private Reserve still a "King" of a Cab
© Michael Vaughan 2006
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
Saturday, March 18, 2006

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Today's Vintages' "Born to be King" release is supposed to be a celebration of Cabernet Sauvignon It features 29 reds, many of them blends, from ten countries. Widely regarded as the world's greatest red grape variety, Cabernet Sauvignon's acknowledged home and claim to fame is Bordeaux. Given this fact, it is ironic that there is nary a French product is to be seen on the Vintages' Catalogue cover, nor for that matter, on the inside jackets, which are festooned with new world Cab.

Talking about California, at a recent blind tasting I previewed 19 California Cabs being featured at upcoming April 10th California Wine Fair. Perhaps I was tired, but I was unmoved by even the most expensive entry: Heitz 2001 Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon at $225. In fact, one well-respected critic awarded it a meager 86 points.

It reminded me of what Time Magazine called the "Judgement in Paris" which was a blind tasting organized 30 years ago on May 24, 1976 by Steven Spurrier at his L'Acadamie du Vin Parisian wine school. Well-known French professionals attended the tasting, which pitted six California Cabs against four top Bordeaux. Apparently none of the wines being tasted were revealed prior to the event. The French were humiliated - California, and in particular Stag's Leap 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, emerged victorious.

A short time later, I mounted a similar more comprehensive comparative blind tasting here in Toronto as national wine columnist for the Financial Times of Canada. One of the additional wines I included was 1970 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It won hand's down, with California's '71 Ridge Montebello and '68 Heitz coming in second and third respectively. Readers can see my original article by clicking here and the American response by San Francisco Chronicle winewriter Hank Rubin by clicking here

The positive thing about such comparative blind tastings is that they can highlight winemaking achievements around the world. The serious weakness, however, is that the "winners" are based on a short and often arbitrary list of competitors. Many great wines are omitted. For instance, 1970 Beaulieu Vineyard Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 1970 Chateau Latour and 1968 Heitz were not included in the original Spurrier tasting. Nor were the tasters tested and the tasting results statistically scrutinized before being released. There was no accounting for any possible marginally defective bottles. There were no repeat tastings to check consistency of the bottles and/or the tasters. Given these considerations, it would be ludicrous to suggest that either Spurrier's "winner" (1973 Stag's Leap) or my top wine (1970 BV Private Reserve) is "the best" of what was produced. Rather, these fine wines simply turned out to be the winners in a small, but significant, sample at one moment in time.

Let me note that a detailed statistical analysis of Spurrier's results by Orley Ashenfelter and Richard E. Quandt reveals that the ranking, which was done by a simple averaging the scores out of 20 is flawed. In fact, there is no statistical difference between the two top wines: Stag's Leap 1973 and the real second place wine, which should have been 1970 Chateau Montrose. It seems that 1970 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, under more appropriate statistical scoring procedures, would have ranked third making it appear in the not far behind in the group of secondary choices. How many readers knew that Spurrier, who had prior knowledge of the wines being tasted (although not the order), tied his top four wines with 14 out of 20 points? Or that his lowest score of 8 points went to the fourth place wine 1970 Chateau Haut Brion? To see the statistical analysis click here

To address the French complaint that California wines won't keep; I also organized a comparative tasting of eight top wines from 1945 to 1949. Once again, legendary winemaker/enologist Andre Tchelistcheff's 1947 Beaulieu Vineyard Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon placed first, followed very closely by 1947 Chateau Latour. There was no statistical difference between these two top wines. It dispelled the myth about longevity and proved that truly great wines, new world or old world, can live for decades.

Following up on this longevity point, I recently revisited 1970 BV Private Reserve. Unannounced, I slipped a bottle into a tasting last Sunday night with a small group of serious wine fans. The blind consensus: the mystery wine was great - probably a classic, first-growth Bordeaux. When I revealed that it was a 1970, Alan Gardner, President of the Toronto Winetasters Society, hit the nail on the head by guessing that it was 1970 BV Private Reserve. He added that this was one of his top-four lifetime, 100-point reds, which must be tasted at least twice. And while this particular bottle was by all means superb, Gardner felt that it had slipped a bit due to aging from 20 out of 20 points, to the 19 point range. Keeping in mind that this bottle has rested undisturbed for over 30 years at a dark chilly 4° C, who knows how the next bottle of BV 1970 will show? While great wines can live for decades, the bottom line is that when it comes to enjoying it, timing is everything.

National Post readers wishing to receive the current March 2006 Vintage Assessments newsletter, which covers today's Vintages release, as well as March 4th (including exclusive current ISD reviews) along with Michael Vaughan's Summary Release Buying Guides can have it e-mailed today and receive a $20 discount - click here.

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Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada 2006
Prior written permission is required for any form of reproduction
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Contact Michael Vaughan at
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