WTN: 1994 & '96 Jarvis Napa Estate Cabs

[geo t.]

I’m a little surprised that I don’t see more notes on Jarvis, considering the quality of their wines. Maybe it’s because they’re not steroidal oak and fruit bombs, or maybe it’s just that they fly beneath a lot of people’s radar. We tasted these two at a wine tasting disguised as a birthday party this past weekend, and I was mucho impressed, having only tasted Jarvis Cabernet once before; here are my Saturday Snapshots.

1994 Jarvis Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, 13% alc.: Dark garnet, with no rust to speak of; dusty cassis and black currant nose. Flavors echo very nicely with a dry Bordeaux-like character, rather than Napanese, and a little tree bark on the back end. Smooth and lovely, and still not at its peak, and drinking very well right now. Richer and more delicious as it opens, or as my friend Karwyn Abrams put it, “gooder and gooder!”

1996 Jarvis Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, 14% alc.: Deep, dark garnet, with a subtle perfume of cassis and black currant, with a perfect kiss of oak in the background. Flavors echo and expand with a note of tobacco in the corner; this is another one with a more Bordeaux-type personality than Napanese, and it too is still on the way up. So smooth, so fine, so delicious.

Reporting from Day-twah,

geo t.