KPB
Posts: 4649
Joined: 11/25/2012
From: Ithaca, New York
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The trouble with top Napa wines from 2014 is that you usually hold onto birth year case until your son or daughter marries, and then they may hold the bottles until a baby is born or a 50th birthday or something like that -- the specialness of the bottles kind of inhibits drinking them.
So if you do go that route, pick wines that won't come around for 20 or 25 years. Dunn Napa / Howell Mountain might work, or Caymus Special Select, or Ridge Montebello, or Mayacamus. One issue is that even these wines are made differently lately, vinified to be approachable earlier, but the risk is that they could seem very tired and sort of stewed as you get out beyond 20 years. I find Napa generally hit and miss in terms of aging: the majority of wines drink well on release and hold ok, but don't really age in exciting ways. The ones that do evolve sometimes evolve a bit quickly relative to birthyear wine goals. Among my favorites from 2014, I guess the Bond Vecina and Pluribus would be in a birthyear case if I was putting one together, and perhaps the Vine Hill Ranch VHR 2014. MacDonald's 2014 gets great press, but I haven't actually tried the wine. Verite has a rather stern 2014 in the lineup that could be an interesting option -- I forget what the name of it, but this is the cabernet dominated one (they also have one heavy on Merlot that can work).
Thinking back to France, this reminds me that Joguet's best Cabernet Franc wines (Cahors) are said to have some sort of mythic eternal aging profile. So his 2014 wines could be an option for you. But I'm trying to remember: was 2014 the vintage with all the flooding? Did that impact the wines from that year? Anyhow, you could consider Les Chenes Vert, or his other top offering. These can't even be approached for at least 10 or 15 years after the vintage, which works well in your situation!
I think if it were me doing this, I might focus more on Bordeaux, which is even more expensive, but I think less likely to disappoint when the wines are finally consumed. There is more of a tradition of longevity there, so at the high end of the market, the wines are made to be cellared for a long time.
_____________________________
Ken Birman
The Professor of Brettology
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