What Was The Single Greatest 1970s CA Wine?

The 1974 Heitz ‘Martha’s’…
What say YOU?

1976 Joseph Swan Pinot Noir

1973 Stag’s Leap Cab

I have not personally had the wine, but it is what got Napa and California worldwide attention.

This one.

Diamond Creek Lake and Volcanic Hill 1978

Easy one for me Phelps Eisele Vineyard 1974, drop the mike!

I stand corrected, it was indeed the 75. [swoon.gif]

Hmmm…Cellartracker gave this an ‘89’. :wink:

Great choice, but I never thought that the eucalyptus edge was an improvement in Cabs. I preferred the Mayacamas.

1975 Eisele

I thought about the '75 Mayacamas as my top wine. I prefer it to the '74.

1971 Eiesele, Phelps or Ridge…take your pick, if you can find one.

74 mayacamas or 78 diamond creek volcanic hill. Both incredible wines

I believe the ‘74 Eisele was made by Conn Creek and the first Phelps was the 1975.

Both great.

Here’s my post from another board from 5 years ago(includes pre '70 wines):

Note: These were all tasted between 1975 and 2008. Never tasted the BV PR '51.

1)BV PR 1958: Had several times over the years as it’s my wife’s birthday year and it was always amazing. Had every decade since the '70s.

2)Heitz MV 1969: Joe’s favorite and mine as well. While the '68 and the '70 were bigger wines, this had impeccable balance and a terrific cross between Calif and French winemaking. Last tasted early '00s.

3)Yverdon Cask 88 - 1970: The best wine from a great year. A shame it’s little noticed. Tasted 3 times last in the '90s.

4)Inglenook Cask F-6 - 1959: First year for the Cask Series (I believe) and rich and powerful. Tasted once in the early '80s.

5)Ridge Eisele - 1971: Great wine in a so-so year. Prefer it to the '70 MB. Tasted a number of times last mid-2005.

  1. Hallcrest 1958: A stunning wine I had in the late '80s. Got it for free because the wine shop owner thought it was to old to drink. Wrong! Tasted once (thanks!) mid-80’s.

Never cared a whole lot for the '74s. Had a bunch of early to mid '60s and most were drying out by the early '80s. The wines from the '50s have actually held up better.

A little info on the Ridge.

1971 Ridge Eisele Vineyard Cabernet

By Ridge Vineyards on May 2, 2009 • ( 2 )

To borrow a phrase from Paul Draper, “We have had several requests for information on the 1971 Ridge Eisele Vineyard Cabernet.” Some strange zeitgeist afoot, to say the least! This has come up recently in e-mails, on the blog, and in the tasting room as well. Anyhow, as with many of these requests about rare back vintages, I like to go directly to the source for some “inside” insight, and again, Paul has very kindly offered some information:

“We have had several requests for information on the 1971 Ridge Eisele Vineyard Cabernet. This was the first commercial bottling of the Eisele, a vineyard now owned by the Araujo family and so named.

By 1970, we had replanted all the vineyard parcels, abandoned during prohibition, on the Monte Bello land we owned at that time. As the vines we planted were not yet mature, the Monte Bello was made entirely from the vines on the land that had been replanted in the 1940’s and the quantities were limited.

We felt that our use of traditional methods (naturally occurring yeast, no processing, no chemical additions except minimal S02) had historically made the finest wines. We wanted to make a wine from the Napa Valley where more technical winemaking was typical in order to see what level of quality we could achieve with our traditional techniques. We looked around and in 1971 Milt Eisele offered us the grapes from his small parcel of vines near Calistoga. At 25° Brix the grapes were riper than anything we had yet harvested in our cool region. I fermented them in small, one ton fermentors with the cap held submerged by a grid. To make sure the wine would be full and intense, I did not press until the biblical “40 days and 40 nights” had passed and the caps had fallen to the bottom of the fermentors. The wine was very structured but with time it integrated fully and has shown beautifully over the years. We will open a bottle this next week to see how it is doing.

Paul”

And that’s the scoop on the 71! And by the way, regarding the conversations around whether there was a ’73 Eisele, I’m wondering if the confusion might have to do with bottling dates and tasting notes? Although the ’71 was the only vintage made, the wine was in fact bottled in 1973, and this is also when Paul wrote the first tasting notes, which are featured on the original label (see below).

https://blog.ridgewine.com/2009/05/02/1971-ridge-eisele-vineyard-cabernet/

Only based on Wines I’ve tried…74 Heitz Martha’s and 74 BV Private Reserve.

Tom

There are thousands of California wines made in the 1980s that I have not tasted, but of the ones I have tasted I will go with 1978 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill and Gravelly Meadows. I will give honorable mention to 1974 Sterling Cabernet, 1978 Chateau Montelena Sonoma Cabernet and Chateau St. Jean 1978 Belltaire Riesling Individual Dried Bunch Selected Late Harvest (essentially TBA). The sweet wine did not age that well but it was spectacular when young.

Anyone try the 1978 Mt Veeder Reserve Bernstein Vineyard? I’ve heard wonderful things about it and have a bottle.
The Mayacamus was my favorite of the 1974’s

I have not had that Mt Veeder but I have had the regular 1978 Cabernet a couple of times. The first time I had it the wine was in the early 80s and it was truly horrible. Not just closed or anything but with flavors I perceived at my level of experience at the time as really off. Then, I had it about 10-15 years later (both times from the same friend who bought the wine) and it was really good. Would be interested as to whether the wine has survived over the years.

This is one of the very best.