Introduction

Introductory notes by tasting organizer Ross Bott:
Most of Duane Cronin's career was spent at IBM after getting a degree in electric engineering at Iowa State in 1967. However, soon after buying a house perched in the foothills on the eastern side of the Santa Cruz Mountains near Woodside in 1975, he began making wine in his garage. After making some outstanding Chardonnays in the late seventies and winning several awards in home winemaking competitions, he decided to bond his winery in 1980 and begin production for selling to the public.

Cronin never moved his from his Woodside garage, so his production never grew beyond a thousand or two cases. He continued to work at IBM to supplement his income, but his focus and passion was increasingly on producing great wines. His wines often received critical raves. Richard Nalley of Food & Wine magazine in 1999 said of Cronin "Retired computer consultant Duane Cronin may be just the most talented small winemaker in America. His wines have Old World balance and proportion coupled with beautiful Santa Cruz Mountain fruit."

Cronin's style has always favored understated elegance over power. His wines almost never exceeded 14% alcohol, but they had a structure and depth which allowed them to age gracefully for many years. Cronin's first loves were the Burgundian varietals, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. However, he experimented with many other varietals, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Pinot Blanc, and even Rhone blends.

Beginning in the late 1990s a long time liver illness began to sap his strength, he decided after the 2000 vintage that he could no longer produce wine at the high standard that he set for himself, so that became the winery's final vintage. Las year he passed away at the age of 61. Many of us were friends of Duane's, having seen him at wine trade events and his open houses, and many others were avid followers of his wine.

Tonight, we'll have the last of our three part look at Cronin's wine legacy. In the first two parts, we covered his Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. In this part, we'll look at a collection of his Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux blends. Dwayne typically blended his Cabernets with small amounts of Merlot and sometime Cabernet Franc. He also produced a separate varietal Merlot when he ran into great sources for them. In the lineup tonight, we'll have a Cabernet and two Bordeaux blends from one of his favorite vineyards, Robinson Vineyard in the Stag's Leap area. We'll also have two Cabernets and a Cab-Merlot blend from grapes closer to his winery in the Santa Cruz Mountain foothills, plus a Merlot from the San Ysidro area. Here's the lineup:

1985 Cronin "Robinson Vineyard", Napa Valley (12.5%)
1990 Cronin "Concerto - Robinson Vineyard" Stag's Leap District, Napa Valley (12.5%)
1993 Cronin "Concerto - Robinson Vineyard" Stag's Leap District, Napa Valley (12.5%)
1994 Cronin, Santa Cruz Mountains (12.5%)
1996 Cronin, Santa Cruz Mountains (12.5%)
1986 Cronin "Shaw and Cronin Cuvee", San Mateo County (12.5%)
1998 Cronin, Merlot, San Ysidro District, Santa Clara County (12.5%)
Plus there will be one additional Cronin Cabernet Sauvignon

Flight 1 - My TNs and group rankings (8 notes)