2008 Terra Valentine Cabernet Sauvignon Yverdon Vineyard Spring Mountain District 750 ml

Sam Baxter’s Phenomenal 2008 Vintage: Up From the Cellar at Terra Valentine

While dining at Jean-Georges in New York City in April, we were treated to a glass of Terra Valentine Cabernet Sauvignon. That massively proportioned yet wonderfully pliant Cabernet took us back six years to the early summer of 2010, and a series of unforgettable tastings at the top of Spring Mountain Road.

Four Spring Mountain estates dominate the valley, all perched well above the fog line between 1,600 and 2,100 feet in elevation. Each consistently turns out some of Napa’s richest and most intensely concentrated wines, even as the likes of Pride, Vineyard 7 & 8, Keenan, and Terra Valentine face a common challenge — how to balance the small-berry intensity of their Cabernets with the hard-tannin structure that’s intrinsic to mountain fruit.

In warm years, berry size tends to be tiny on Spring Mountain. Skins are thick. The risk of blistering and desiccation is high. Growers tinker fastidiously with canopies, nursing seeds to ripeness before sugars become unwieldy, hoping to keep those sturdy tannins in check.

But as we were reminded in June of 2010, growers have no such concerns in textbook, cool growing seasons up on Spring Mountain. When a cool spring impacts fruit-set initially, if consecutive months bring about ideal weather conditions — as they did in 2008 — the Spring Mountain elite don’t have to drop fruit aggressively. Instead it’s a game of keeping sugars in check so that the precious remaining crop develops firm acid and tannic structure — if they succeed, it’s a payday of exceptional quality.

Following our dinner at Jean-Georges, we called Terra Valentine. We hadn’t visited the winery since the summer of 2010, but asked if we could stop by to taste with winemaker Sam Baxter on our way to Keenan. Recognizing that our request was falling on deaf ears, we went for the gusto. We spoke of our evening on Central Park West, how much we’d enjoyed the pairing of estate-grown Terra Valentine Cabernet Sauvignon with Chef Vongerichten’s 28-Day Dry-Aged Ribeye. Then we did one better. We played our WineAccess calling cards. Sam Baxter, one of the most brilliant mountain Cabernet Sauvignon-makers in Napa Valley, agreed to host us.

If you’re a mountain Cabernet Sauvignon enthusiast and you’ve never spent time tasting with Sam Baxter, you’re missing out. The winemaker who knows Spring Mountain and Atlas Peak like a New York City cab driver knows the backstreets of Battery Park led us through a jaw-dropping tasting of back vintages. As always on the mountain, and even more so at Terra Valentine, the nuances of each growing season were evident in each wine. The 2007 was big and brawny, still showing the firm tannins of the vintage. The 2010 was deep and darkly concentrated, reined in, slow to unveil its black-fruit underpinnings. The 2012 was gorgeous, round and supple, powerfully built yet wonderfully juicy and inviting. But far and away the wine of the day came from the 2008 vintage, drawn from the 25-acre Yverdon Vineyard high atop Spring Mountain at 2,100 feet in elevation.

As Baxter explained, the spring of 2008 started on time, with nice warm weather slowly coaxing the buds to break. Suddenly, there was a cool spell and frost threatened the vineyard twice in two weeks. Fortunately most of Spring Mountain was spared, as the natural movement of air on the slopes of Yverdon limited frost formation on the vines. Later on, traditional summer heat spikes arrived, although fewer than in previous years. The fall cooperated with nice warm sunny days — not too hot — and only a few sprinkles, allowing full flavor development and perfect sugar levels to accumulate. The call to harvest came on September 25th and anxiety subsided. The results were extravagant.

Up from the cellar, the 2008 Terra Valentine Cabernet Sauvignon Yverdon Vineyard is opaque purple to the edge, displaying a lavish bouquet of winter mint, anise, and black licorice, intermingling with sweet cherries and dried figs. Sweet and expansive on the mid-palate, loaded with a mix of blackberries, black raspberry preserves, and red currant with remarkable depth, pliancy, and a hint of sweet oak.

Most of the remaining cases are ticketed for the winery mailing list. The last are earmarked for WineAccess. Initially released at $90/bottle. Just $49.99/bottle today, shipping included on 4