Even though we won’t officially release this wine until 2011, I thought I’d share some musings about the decidedly decadent 2006 Tom Eddy Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. I say decadent because it’s just plain rich and tasty, without being overly pretentious or harboring gut-wrenching tannins. This wine is also a perfect example of why winemaking is so darn exciting. 2006 was a crazy and wild harvest year. The winter months were wet, and March was sloppy! I remember on New Year’s Eve the Napa River crested, flooded, and submerged most of the valley. Our party plans were cancelled, so just for fun, I drove my truck over the then extraordinarily dangerous road on Mt. Veeder to “rescue” our teenage daughter from boredom in Napa with friends, and deliver her (more boredom) to Calistoga, where we played UNO under candlelight! The precipitation that winter was record setting. Does that mean the wine tastes even better…of course it does! Subsequent months were moderate to warm to hot and by October, all maturity indicators revealed that the grapes had come into balance, and voila! we had a blockbuster wine!
The 2006 grapes bucked the storm, the season and the calamities to round out into a superb example of fine, long-lived, complex Cabernet Sauvignon. In order to take advantage of varied weather conditions and unique terroir aspects, we blended copious amounts of Diamond Mountain Cab with sprinklings of Mt. Veeder, Atlas Peak and Mount George. For an unusual twist, and not seen since the early 90’s, we threw in a splash of Merlot to add full-bodied red berry sensuality. Oh My! We think it’s a CLASSIC! It’s yummy, but that’s a term for jellybeans, so let’s just say delicious. The acid is bright and will age for many, many years, as is typical for our Cabs. Of course, as Kerry would say. (“yes, but if it’s an Eddy, it’s ready…). What she really means is that we TAKE BACK THE CAB, BABY! (that’s our style of winemaking) and we agree that we should aim not to make wines so overripe and alcoholic that they fall apart in two years… No way, we are here to lust and enjoy our TE Cabs!
In 2006 we made a whopping 1,390 six packs (half cases), or as our accountant knows, about 8,000 bottles (this is not a lot but enough for 14 soccer teams to drink one bottle each & every Friday night for a year. If you followed that it’s time for a well-deserved glass of wine!). Our vines work overtime (this is a good thing) as our mountain fruit crawls to the finish line each and every harvest, barely able to function, with just enough energy to burst forth at the end with the best of the best (don’t get me started on Grape Vine physiology..). Tom Eddy
