CORISON WINERY

Vol. 2, No. 3 August 14, 2003
Wine Spectator Weekly

The very best wineries are able to produce excellent wines even in an off year. Yields will be lower than they are in a great vintage, and more work and attention is required, but disaster can be averted. Successful vintners paid excruciatingly close attention to crop loads, were highly selective in which grapes they picked, right down to individual berry selection, and then were just as choosy in the cellar in deciding which wines to sell under their primary label.

This week, James Laube examines California wineries that produced good to great Cabernet Sauvignon in the difficult 2000 vintage. If you want to be drinking millennium Cab and Cab blends in 10 years' time, start looking for these wines.

Corison Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2000 90 points $55.00 3,200 cases made

Supple and harmonious, it wins points with its sense of understatement, with spicy currant, black cherry and plummy notes, that are well-balanced and rich without being too powerful. Fine-grained tannins make it easy to enjoy now. Drink now through 2010.

May/June 2006
Issue 126

Cathy Corrison continues to pick her cabernet grapes in the moderate 24˚ to 25˚ brix range, while many of her colleagues in Napa Valley routinely wait until sugars reach 27 or 28, at which point some raisining of the berries normally has occurred. “Ripeness is when the green thing dissipates,” Corison explained. “If there’s still a green thing over 26˚ brix, then there’s a problem in the vineyard.” Corison described 2003 as an even year except for heat spikes before and after the veraison.

2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Kronos Vineyard Napa Valley ($90): Ruby-red. Red cherry, currant, plum and a floral note on the nose; this struck me as rather Burgundian. Supple, fresh and sweet, with juicy flavors of plum, cherry, mint and flowers. Offers enticing complexity and cut. Finishes with very sweet, fine-grained tannins. The 35-year-old vines here typically yield just a ton and a half of fruit per acre. This benchland cabernet produces ripe flavors and ripe tannins early, but the St. George rootstock helps to slow down sugar accumulation, notes Corison, who added that this wine has less than 14% alcohol. 91(+?).

2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($60): Moderately saturated ruby-red. Blackcurrant, cherry, plum, graphite, smoke and a whiff of tobacco on the nose. Rather tightly wound but juicy, with an edge of acidity giving shape to the sweet currant fruit. Lacks the flesh of the 2002 Kronos bottling. Today this is a bit hard, as the firm tannins and brisk acids have not yet come into harmony. 89 (+?).

2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Kronos Vineyard Napa Valley: Ruby-red. Black raspberry, blueberry and a floral element on the nose. Sweet, broad and captivating, with complex hints of flowers, spices, chocolate and minerals lifting the dark berry flavors. Finishes with dusty but fine tannins. Fresh for the vintage and developing slowly. The old vines and tiny crop levels have given this wine superb vinosity and thrust. 90-92.

2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley: Good red-ruby. Black cherry and blueberry dominate on the nose. Juicy and firm in the mouth, with excellent vinosity giving the dark fruit flavors a penetrating quality. No shortage of texture or density here, but this tight wine is even less evolved than the Kronos. Finishes with sneaky persistence. 89-92.

Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar

Corison Winery 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley $60
90 points “Outstanding”

“Bright ruby-red. High-pitched nose reveals cassis, violet and licorice...Brisk, juicy and youthfully tight, but possesses good density and sweetness. Flavors of dark berries, boysenberry, licorice, mint and leather. This should age slowly and well. ”

The Wine Cellar Rating Scale suggests that wines rated 90 or better are “highly recommended additions to your cellar”.

Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar

91 Corison Napa Valley 2002
This wine unfolds to reveal loads of very keen fruit layered with caramel, cocoa and vanilla and is accented with a touch of distinctive Cabernet loam. Its precise flavors live up to billing with a like-minded mix of deep fruit and lovely oak, and those flavors extend well past the nominal tannin than minimally roughens its finish. All the more remarkable, the wine does not call upon blatant ripeness or sinewy extracts to achieve its ready richness, and it gets high marks for poise and real style as well as depth and complexity.

- Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine, April 2006

The Buyer's Guide TO
75
of the Best California Wines

California has a reputation as a place where anyone can prosper and anything can grow. Yet while there are plenty of ambitious winemakers, there are only a few grapes that can produce world-class wines. F&W executive wine editor Lettie Teague, senior editor Ray Isle and frequent contributor Richard Nalley tried hundreds of wines made from these grapes to find the 75 best.

Cabernet Sauvignon
By RAY ISLE

CLASSICS
2001 Corison Kronos Vineyard ($90) Veteran winemaker Cathy Corison creates this vividly aromatic, cassis-scented Cabernet from low-yielding 30-year-old vines surrounding her winery, off Napa Valley's famed Highway 29 between Rutherford and St. Helena.

2001 Beringer Private Reserve ($100) Beringer's top bottling, a blend of fruit from six different Napa vineyards, has been a benchmark for California Cabernet since "winemaster" Ed Sbragia made its inaugural vintage, back in 1977. The black currant–packed '01 effortlessly carries on that tradition, and should age gracefully in a cellar for many years to come.

2002 Dalla Valle ($100) Seamless and profoundly elegant, with soft tannins and a touch of Cabernet Franc that adds a faint herbal note to the nose, this remarkable Napa Cabernet (made by star consultant Mia Klein) comes from Dalle Valle's estate vineyards tucked away on the east side of Oakville.

2002 Quintessa ($120) Biodynamic viticulture and meticulous attention in the cellar from winemaker Aaron Pott have helped make Quintessa, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, one of California's top reds. The polished '02, saturated with smoky black plum and black currant flavors, may be the most impressive Quintessa produced to date.

2002 Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow ($175) Visionary owner Al Brounstein started bottling Napa Cabernets from specific terroirs on his Diamond Mountain property as early as 1972. Gravelly Meadow, a cool, stony five-acre plot, produced this refined, ageworthy bottling with a compelling scent of anise and red cherries.

94 - Corison 2001 Kronos Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

This single vineyard beauty is Corison's cellar bet. Tasted beside her regular '01 Napa Cab, it's much deeper, darker and more brooding. It's also far more tannic. It's a big, flavorful wine, packed with plums, blackberries, currants and mocha, as well as a coating of sweet oak. This classic Cab should begin to soften in a few years and will drink well through 2012.

91 - Corison 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon

Napa veteran Cathy Corison has crafted a blended wine of beauty and power. Compared to her Kronos bottling, this Cab is for immediate consumption, although it should hold well for some years. It's lush and gentle in tannins, with upfront flavors of blackberries, cocoa and green olives, and possesses great balance and charm.

- Wine Enthusiast, December 1, 2005, Steve Heimoff

2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Kronos Vineyard Napa Valley
( aged in 50% new oak; made from a ten-acre parcel of 30-year-old vines next to the Corison winery on Highway 29, at the south end of St. Helena):

Good full ruby. Brooding aromas of black raspberry, minerals, violet and bitter chocolate. Sweeter, denser and fatter than the 2003 and 2002 Napa bottlings, with claret-like notes of leather, smoke, cedar and graphite. Here the acids are more obviously integrated, but there's still a bit of tarry oak to be absorbed. Finishes with lovely length and lingering sweetness. The yield, always low in this vineyard, was just 1-1/2 tons per acre. 91(+1).

Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar

California Cabernet 2002
THE BEST OF 2002

Following the highly regarded 2001 vintage, 2002 is a vintage that many winemakers believe will turn out to be a sleeper for Cabernet Sauvignon. After tasting through as many 2002 Cabernet Sauvignons as we can get our hands on, I believe 2002 will not be a secret for too long. It reminds me of 1991, which also started out as an overlooked, slow-to-evolve vintage that followed an ultra-ripe, flashy year.

In fact, 2002 may change the way many international wine lovers think about California Cabernet Sauvignon. The finest and most typical wines avoid that juicy-jammy opulent style that is so obvious but often lets you down in the finish. Every now and then a vintage comes along in California - and I am reminded of 1985 and 1991 - that shifts the style of Cabernet Sauvignon towards muscular and balanced wines with good acidity.

The best 2002s have more acid balance, firmer structure, and a sense of grip that is rarely encountered in California Cabernet. They are also fragrant with floral and cedar notes accompanying the usual blackberry, cherry and berry character. The most positive news was that there are few jammy, overripe wannabe blockbusters.

**** Corison Winery, Napa Valley
Cassis and blackberry, soft grained tannins, multilayered, classic structure. 4-10 years. Norm Roby; April, 2005 Decanter four-star rating- Highly recommended.

Weekend Journal
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2005

Tastings

On the Wine Trail

Napa

A very different fun stop along the same route is Corison Winery, which is charming because the tasting area is actually right inside the winery, with those wonderful smells, and it offers several small-production, hand-crafted wines to taste