Rush to Judgment

While it may take winemakers months to put together the perfect blend of vineyards, grapes and barrels, it doesn’t take nearly that long for wine writers to critique it.

In fact, in the case of the just-assembled Robert Mondavi Winery’s 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, a year ago this same wine--or a close approximation thereof--was already being tasted, evaluated and written about by many of the nation’s wine writers.

These critics feel compelled to rate a wine in the spring after the harvest, before the wine is blended from all its barrels into a whole. They ask wineries here and in Bordeaux to submit samples of wine--frequently only five months after the fermentation tanks have quit bubbling and as much as a year before the wine is ready to be blended and bottled.

The critics get special samples of wines that are mere approximations of what the wine might become, often from the very best barrels. The samples have not yet been blended, fined, filtered or aerated sufficiently to be distinguishable from alcoholic grape juice.

Yet, despite their frequently expressed distaste for this system, all of the Napa Valley’s major Cabernet producers (even tiny Grace Family Vineyard, which sells every drop they can make to a loyal clientele) send off infant juice. All fear being left out of the sniffing-and-spitting lottery, so they participate.

Tim Mondavi swept a hand across the Mondavi Winery tasting room, pointing out the 150 samples of wine facing his team, and said, “This is the 1990 (Cabernet). We still don’t know what blend it will be, and they’ve already ‘judged’ the 1991.”