Whence Reserve?

California wineries have long recognized quality differences among various lots of wine and some, as early as 1933, began releasing bottles with special designations to indicate a higher quality.

Bear Creek Vineyards of Lodi released “Green Label” wines distinguishing them from the “regular” white label. Beringer Brothers Inc. developed a premium brand called “Private Stock” to distinguish it from its less-expensive brand “Los Hermanos.” California Grape Products, which had vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley and Mendocino, developed “Victor Super Fine Gold Stripe” as its premium brand in the late 1930s. “Victor Select Red Stripe,” was its lower-priced brand.

Some companies actually used different brands for their top-of-the-line wines in those years. Cameo Vineyards of Fresno marketed “Rubaiyat” as its top wine. Colonial Grape Products used the term “Cordova.” Cresta Blanca made a reserve wine that was called “Chateau Cresta Blanca.”

But most of these early products were mere marketing gimmicks compared to the high quality and attention to detail that went into Beaulieu Vineyards’ top Cabernet Sauvignon “Georges de Latour Private Reserve,” which first appeared in 1938. It was blended from special lots of grapes and generally was richer and fuller-bodied than BV’s normal Rutherford-designated Cabernet.

Other wineries, attracted to the notion of marketing a higher quality, higher-priced wine, followed suit, though the word “reserve” was far from the only title bestowed upon such wines. In the 1940s, Charles Krug Winery labeled its best Cabernet “Vintage Select” and in the 1940s and 1950s, Inglenook Winery released a series of selected wines designated by the numbers of the cask they came from. In the 1950s, the Louis Martini Winery held back a few barrels of certain wines for further aging and called them “Private Reserve.” Robert Mondavi Winery’s first reserve wine, made in the 1960s, was labeled “Unfiltered.”

By the ‘70s, the practice became commonplace. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars introduced “Cask 23” label for certain lots of its Cabernet Sauvignon. Buena Vista Winery used the term “Special Selection” for a few years, then changed to “Private Reserve” and, starting with the 1988 vintage, will change again to “Carneros Grand Reserve.” Villa Mt. Eden and Kendall-Jackson Vineyards also call their top-of-the-line “Grand Reserve” (in addition, Kendall-Jackson claims a “Vintner’s Reserve” that sells for less than $10 a bottle). Burgess Cellars calls its Cabernet “Vintage Selection”; Caymus Vineyards uses “Special Selection.”

Some wineries have even more exotic names. Shafer Vineyards uses “Hillside Select” because its best wine comes only from hilly slopes. Fisher Vineyard’s, owned by Fred Fisher of the automotive family, calls its wine “Coach Insignia.” Kenwood Vineyards prefers “Artist Series”--each label has a painting by a famous artist. Christian Brothers, even before it began vintage-dating wines, had “Brother Timothy’s Selection,” after their beloved winemaker. Rutherford Hill Winery has used “XVS” for its top wine; Rombauer Vineyards calls its best red wine “Le Meilleur du Chai,” French for “best of the cellar.”