Time tested

While perusing my cellar oldies the other night I decided the time had come to drink the last of the 1999 Caymus Cabernet. When I am down to my last two bottles it is always hard to finish off the end of a vintage, especially a particular vineyard or vintage favorite. But I do have my ten-year California rule and am suspect that any 1999s will still be drinkable, at least not as drinkable as they would have been a couple years ago.

The 1999 looked good, the label was clean and wine was high on the shoulders. Without seeing the vintage date there would be no way of distinguishing the bottle from a 2007. Of course those are relatively easy tests compared to what came next... The cork came out with a very solid closure that showed no leakage over the past ten years, again no different than pulling a 2007.  The nose from the bottle was fine, therefore the wine was not corked or oxygenated. So far so good! The pour into my Reidel did not have the vibrant ruby colour one expects from a young California Cabernet; rather it showed a brown and rusty colour that would be typical of an aged Bordeaux.

I put the color scare out of my mind and gave the wine a first sip. Delicious! This highly rated bottle initially (back in the early 2000s) showed cigar box, cedar, tobacco, vanilla, mint, and nice bright fruit. My aged bottle still had fruit and vanilla as well as the cedar and tobacco. The tannins and oak have faded since my last taste and I certainly enjoyed the wine more a couple years ago but this is one of the more ageable California Cabernets I have experienced. If I could not see the colour in the glass I would have guessed the wine at five years old, not eleven. Great stuff, I do not know when I will dare to pop the last bottle.