2011 Juslyn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Spring Mountain District Napa Valley 750 ml

Juslyn Relents — The NYC Marathon Revisited

In early March, as you may recall, we conducted an exhaustive tasting of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons from 2011, far and away the coolest growing season in recent history. Prior to release, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate encouraged buyers to be selective. If that advice was heeded, with the much-ballyhooed 2012s on deck, there were bargains in the making.

Parker’s protégé, Antonio Galloni, was far more emphatic, writing that “the best (2011 Cabernets) are absolutely beautiful.”

Why did we devote so much time to a 2011 tasting? Simple. While release prices of the 2012s were yet to be set, given the short harvests of 2008-2011, we were all but certain that the Napa Valley elite would be raising prices to the sky. We also assumed that the Parker and Wine Spectator 2012 vintage reports would cause collectors to systematically pass over the 2011s.

Of the 125 Cabernet Sauvignons and Proprietary Reds tasted, 65 were of little interest. But seven top-shelf wineries and one Napa Valley superstar performed beautifully. The following morning, we went to work, contacting all eight. By the end of the week, Elyse, Coho, Parallel, and Cornerstone had agreed to our terms. Not surprisingly, the superstar was budging.

Winemaker Craig MacLean first spotted the impossibly steep slope at the base of Spring Mountain in 1994. At the time, MacLean was the head winemaker at Spring Mountain Vineyards, and had come to know the mountain like the back of his hand. But the soil composition on the hillside that he found so intriguing spoke far less of the mountain than it did of the rockiest parcels of St. Helena and Oakville, with one salient difference: The grade of the slope he was eyeing was 30 degrees!

MacLean soon made it a point to walk the hillside at least once per week, imagining a Cabernet with To Kalon-like richness, braced by mountain backbone. Two years later, Perry Butler and his wife Carolyn bought the property. A few months later, a vineyard crew arrived with spades and shovels, jabbing sticks in the ground, carving Cabernet Sauvignon plants into the backbreaking hillside.

When they were done, and Juslyn Vineyard was planted, Perry Butler called Craig MacLean.

Robert Parker likes to compare Napa Valley with Bordeaux, speaking of “First Growths” and “Super Seconds.” Napa’s First Growths include Harlan Estate, Screaming Eagle, Bryant Family, Colgin, and Schrader. Among the Super Seconds, Juslyn has been one of the most consistent performers since 2004.

The 2011 Juslyn Cabernet Sauvignon Estate stomped the field at our NYC Marathon, but up until now, with the winery holding firm at $125/bottle, we saw no reason to mention that showing. Instead, we tucked our tasting note in a neat little folder on our desktop and entered monthly notifications in Google Calendar, alerting us to reach out to the winery in case there was a change of heart.

On the 26th of every month from April to November, we reached out, only to be politely rebuffed. But on the day after Christmas, on our last call of the year and for reasons we still don’t fully understand, Juslyn finally relented, agreeing to the terms we’d first suggested on March 26th!

The 2011 Juslyn Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is saturated purple in color. Gorgeous, seductive aromas of crushed black and red fruits, dark plum, and violets, complicated by licorice and graphite. Rich and pure on the attack, silken in texture, showing impeccable balance and the kind of elegance that’s so unique to the top 2011s. Drink now-2025. This is a terrific effort from winemaker Craig MacLean.

$125 on release, and still the best price in the country — until today. $50/bottle. Shipping included on 4. 1,200 bottles remain at the winery. We took them ALL.