While Premier Napa is taking place in what I might wishfully regard as my home away from home, I thought it only fitting that today I might share with you all a piece I wrote for the latest edition of Food & Spirits magazine centered around wines that were popularized in the Napa Valley, many of which were made there. After a positive response last year, I decided to make the “Great American Cab Sauv Review” an annual thing. I love Cabernet Sauvignon, and while I’m learning to appreciate and identify a lot of other varietals and styles as well, I think there’s always going to be something special to me about a robust, fruit-forward, chewy domestic Cab Sauv. It’s six in the morning, and I’m making myself salivate over wine.

This past year I tried a few hundred different takes on the varietal, many from Napa and Sonoma, some from places you’re less likely to suspect, such as Minnesota and South Dakota. The great thing is that while they’re all so different, even those that hail from adjoining AVA’s in Napa, yet they are all so easy to appreciate and serve to reinforce my interest in and love for the varietal.

Because I sold the article, I won’t directly republish the content in my blog. Please see the link below to a PDF of Food & Spirits issue 29, which features my article, “The Great American Cab Sauv Review 2017”, beginning on page 35.

Link: FSM_29_FINAL LORES

I hope everyone is having a terrific weekend. It’s cold here in Nebraska, but we’re a hearty people (most of us anyway). If you’re somewhere nice and warm, like in Napa for the event or perhaps Cuba, where I’m hoping to go soon, send me a postcard and enjoy the weather! And if you’re somewhere a bit more similar to my frigid hometown, well then maybe a glass of Cabernet is just the thing to warm us all up. If you get the chance to try any of those that I wrote about in the article above, please let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts on my favorite Cabs of 2017.

Cheers,