Over the recent holiday season, I spent some time at my father's home in Los Angeles.  He has always enjoyed the Jospeph Phelps Cabernets, and had quite a bit of it remaining in his wine collection.  He had 1992's, 1993's and 1994's.  All were good vintages for Napa.  The question was:  how well would these wines hold up over a decade later.

Many of us are familiar with Phelps' fancier bottlings (i.e. Phelps Insignia and Phelps Backus Vineyard).  Both are fine to be sure, and capable of aging for over a decade without a problem.  But what about the standard offering?  We put multiple vintages to the test over the Christmas 2005 season.

My father said he had had some bottles that were starting to lose their steam, hence the motivation to drink up the remianing bar stock.  Who was I to turn down the offer to help in that regard?  I sampled wine from all three vintages, and in all cases the wine was still fresh, with the softening of tannins that one would expect from a 10 year old cabernet.  The wines were still dark purple in color, with blackberry and cassis on the nose, and still a fresh fruit saturated mid palate.  The finish for all vintages was smooth, and the tannins were as soft as can be imagined.  I thoroughly enjoyed all three vintages.

It goes to show that the good wine producers who have stood the test of time have done so for a reason.  For those who want to endulge in the super-premium offerings like Insignia from these wineries, it goes without saying that they will be richly rewarded.  But for those who need to manage their wine budgets with slightly less extravagance, it is reassuring to know  that one can still find excellent California cabs with wonderful aging potential in the under forty dollar category as well if one sticks to the standard Napa bottlings from these producers.  Although these wines, in my opinion were solid 3.5 star wines in their youth, they were all approaching 4 star elegance with the benefit of maturity.  A thoroughly enjoyable holiday treat these wines proved to be. 

I have not had the benefit of comparing the standard Phelps Napa cab to the Phelps Backus cab, but I have a 1990 and 1995 Backus that I plan on opening soon, and it will be interesting to see how much better, if at all, these fancier bottles will be than the standard offering reviewed herein.  I will surely let you all know.  If any readers have had experience with the Phelps family of wines, please add your comments to the Blog.

 

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