Old California Wines with Francois Audouze

Francois Audouze, a well known collector of old (some are really old) wines was in California for some exotic tastings. He graciously agreed to be a guest at a dinner in San Francisco where about 27 wine enthusiasts showed up to share some bottles of older California wine.

The event ended up being a bit of a madhouse, but all of the inhabitants were friendly, sharing and having a good time. It would have been nice to have had fewer wines and to follow them over an extended period during a more formal dinner, but then we wouldn't have had the opportunity to taste some really rare and legendary California wines. There were more than sixty bottles opened and I think I managed to taste nearly thirty of them. The wines below were my favorites.

• 1979 La Crema Vinera Chardonnay Winery Lake Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa / Sonoma, Carneros

  Pale gold color with a nose of citrus fruits. Palate shows glorious mellow fruit with tart acidity in perfect balance. It seemed like a six-year-old Chablis. Is this The Chardonnay that will last forever? Grapes from the "Winery Lake Vineyard" were highly sought after, and were sold to three startup wineries for the 1979 vintage: Acacia Winery, Kistler Vineyards, and La Crema Vinera. The winemakers, respectively, were Mike Richmond (now at Bouchaine), Steve Kistler, and Rod Berglund (now at Joseph Swan). Berglund was clearly a wine-making prodigy as it is his wine alone that has lasted all these years, and given the evidence of this tasting, it is likely to live on for quite a while.

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• 1977 Stony Hill Chardonnay 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Another one of the Un-Dead Chardonnays! I had just tasted the 1979 La Crema Vinera Chardonnay Winery Lake Vineyard when someone suggested the bottle of 1977 Stony Hill was better. Surely, I thought, this fellow has had too much to drink. But I tasted it, and he may have been right! Stony Hill is one of the oldest Chardonnay producers in California. Their vines were planted in the late 1940's and they have been making Chardonnay commercially since 1952. With this kind of evidence, one begins to suspect that the there is much to be said for the traditional ways of doing things! The wine had a tremendous nose of ripe California fruit and the color, was a still a pale gold. From those two clues, no one would have ever guessed the age of the wine, but had they tasted it, they might have supposed it was five or six years old! It had the richness characteristic of Calif chardonnay plus some minerality acting as a foundation; being more fruit-forward than the La Crema, the acid wasn't as noticeable, but the wine was unbelievably bright and fresh, and the fact that the fruit was still so lush after all of this time was nothing short of jaw-dropping amazing. The La Crema was more like a Chablis, and the Stony Hill was more New World, but they are truly a Dynamic Duo, the Chardonnays that will live forever.

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• 1970 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Deep red color starting to show some age. Showing a super nose of tobacco and cedar, it smells exactly like aged Bordeaux. Tannins have melted into velvet and have merged with the fruit and acid in perfect balance. This doesn't quite have the complexity of the greatest Bordeauxs, but it is still going strong and it a really nice wine. After tasting it, I immediately poured a sample for a visting French wine collector, and the look on his face from the shock of recognition, and the shock of how good it was, was really fun. Mondavi's 1969 was regarded as a benchmark, and the '70 was the first "Unfiltered" which became the "Reserve" in 1971.

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• 1970 Joseph Swan Vineyards "Gamay" Sonoma County 97 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  Deep, purple/black color and so dense it looks like printer's ink. It has a vibrant nose of black fruit and meats. Sitting in the glass, it looks like primal wine. The palate is amazing, mouth-coating isn't exactly right.. more like exposed tissue coating! It tastes like raspberry jam, except that it is not sweet. It has depth and intensity like a Shiraz, but it doesn't taste stewed or overripe. The finish goes on forever. The label reports 13.6% alcohol, and sure enough it proclaims "GAMAY" in big black letters. This is a legendary wine and now I know why. A 1975 review suggested decanting for three hours before drinking. The secret to this wine appears to be that "Napa Gamay" of circa 1970 is actually, Valdiguié and it was picked fairly ripe. Swan only made one other "Gamay"—in 1971 and it was a pale imitation of the 1970, reportedly because the grapes were picked too soon. Most "Napa Gamay" has been pulled up, and the odds of anyone ever seeing a wine like this again is quite slim. I saved the empty bottle as a trophy. Wow.

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• 1974 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha's Vineyard 98 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville

  I got a small taste of this and was very impressed. It had a gigantic nose of mint and eucalyptus plus cigar box. The color was a deep and dark red, still solid out to the edge. The palate showed silky tannins, plus enough ripe fruit and acidity to allow this 30+ year old to masquarade as a youngster. Had I tried this blind, I would have guessed it was from 1990 or 1991. It is a tremendous wine which I feel honored to have tasted. I did a bit of research later and found that this is a legendary wine and that my small (less than an ounce) taste was worth about $30. I don't know who brought this to the tasting, but whoever you were, may the angels smile upon you!

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• 1974 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosché 94 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Rutherford

  More proof that 1974 was a magical year for California Cabernet. When the cork on this 32-year old wine was pulled, ripe and vibrant aromas spilled forth. This nose didn't require swirling and coaxing, you only had to be within 3 feet of the open bottle to know something special was happening. The color was deep red, looking remarkably youthful. The palate was chewy with the still vibrant fruit perfectly balanced by juicy acidity. The tannins may have faded some over all of this time, but you wouldn't know it by the long and lingering finish. This lacked, perhaps, some complexity of bouquet and palate, but WOW, what a wine. Of all the wines from the 1970s opened during this dinner, this was the youngest. I've added an extra point to my score to celebrate the Don Juan Ponce de Leon effect.

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• 1972 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Martha's Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville

  Excellent example of aged California Cabernet. Good nose of fruit with a bit of cedar. The color is still a deep red almost to the very edge. The palate is lush and smooth with fully integrated tannins and a long finish. This wine is not a bit tired, and gives a great amount of pleasure. Heitz was making some great stuff in the '70s. This wasn't up to the heights of the 1974, but it was right up there with the best wines of the evening. Alas, my only bottle. I'll be looking for more.

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• 1953 Martin Ray Cabernet Sauvignon Estate California 89 Points

  USA, California

  The bottle (see picture) looked absolutely pristine. Given Martin Ray's reputation for bottling from the barrel and refusing to use SO2, there was some doubt as to whether this would be drinkable. Visiting collector Francois Audouze took charge of removing the cork and found it welded in place, which probably accounted for the high fill level. Some expert work with an Ah-So cork puller finally extracted the cork, which was plainly original, stained with Cabernet only in the lower quarter-inch. And, it smelled like wine! There was a muddiness to the nose, but there was real fruit in there, not vinegar or some maderized ghost. The wine was left uncorked for about three hours to "Audouze" it, or allow slow oxidation. Poured into the glass, the color was a brick red, with only minor lightening at the edge. The muddiness had subsided some, and with time in the glass eventually blew off completely leaving a nose of long ago ripe fruit and touch of tart acidity. The palate showed a medium body with the acid starting to overtake the sweet fruit. Tannins had softened leaving a smooth texture and layers of flavors built up over the years. It was a wine of elegance and wisdom; it wasn't Gerald Depardieu, it was Maurice Chevalier. Like many of the wines opened during this event, it seemed somehow incorrect to pass it around giving out 25ml tastes. It would have been preferable to savor it over time to see what it would reveal with various courses of food. How to rate such a wine? Normal considerations of fruit and glycerin and finish seem out of place, perhaps even rude. Do we expect our grandfathers to run in marathons? No, we listen to them and cherish the stories they tell us.

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It really was a once in a lifetime event. Fine California winemaking was just getting started in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The 1970 Ridge Cabernet, the 1970 Mondavi Unfiltered, the '53 Martin Ray Cab, the '70 Swan "Gamay" and the '74 Heitz Martha's are some of the best wines ever made in California. I love history and having the opportunity to taste these wines was a real honor. I wonder how many wines being made today will show well thirty or more years from now?