1970-1981 Mayacamas Cabs (Tasted blind)

Tom's house in Palo Alto, California
Tasted Wednesday, July 3, 2013 by europat55 with 945 views

Introduction

Notes from the event organizer:

Mayacamas Vineyards was founded in 1889 by John Henry Fisher, a German immigrant from Stuttgart who engraved swords for a living there. It consists of 52 steeply sloped acres on top of the Mayacamas mountain range between the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and circles an old volcano now mostly covered with redwoods. The winery was simple and small and featured a gravity-fed design to minimize the need for pumping between barrels.

During the Prohibition, the winery fell into disuse, although it was occasionally used to make grappa to be sold through informal channels. In 1940, the winery was bought by the Henry Brandlin (whose family is still a major vineyard holder in Napa), and in 1941 he sold it to Jack and Mary Taylor, a British family. They planted the Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay vines which formed the basis of the first modern day Mayacamas wines.

In 1968, Robert Travers both the winery from the Taylors, and Bob and his wife Elinor moved to the winery to live for the next 40+ years. Travers was a chemical engineer from Stanford, who later worked with Joe Heitz and Heitz Winery, where he lived in a cottage on Martha's Vineyard. His style was to produce hand-made wines with minimal intervention, capturing the intensity of the mountain grown grapes on volcanic soils; he and Randy Dunn share a lot of similarities in their approach. Over the years, he's had a procession of famous wine assistants who got their first training making wine under Travers' tutelage -- Philip Togni (Togni Vineyards), Bob Sessions (Hanzell), Lore Olds (Sky), Randal Johnson (Hess Vineyards), Bruce Neyers (Neyers Vineyards), and even Kermit Lynch worked there as vineyard manager for his first job in the wine business.

Many feel that Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignons are as close as California gets to First Growth Bordeaux

Flight 1 - Pre-Tasting Flight (2 Notes)

Flight 2 - Main Flight (9 Notes)

Closing

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