Cade's Superb New Cab

The 2006 Cade Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is the exciting new wine from Gordon Getty's Cade Winery

By Nick Passmore

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Gordon Getty seems to me the quintessential dilettante, though I hasten to add the I use that term in its original, 18th century meaning as one deserving of admiration as a knowledgeable and discriminating connoisseur, not its more recent derivation as a mere dabbler.

Its roots are the Latin delectare, to delight in something, particularly an area of study like the arts, so to refer to someone as a dilettante was to compliment a man on his refined sensibilities.

I am, of course, biased, because one of those arts so assiduously pursued by Getty is the making and enjoyment of fine wine.

An heir to the Getty oil fortune, he has spent his time in the pursuit of some of life's more civilized pleasures. An opera buff, he has composed and performed his own work, and as a philanthropist he's a major supporter of classical music organizations. He is also a Shakespeare fan and a wine lover. These two enthusiasms come together in the PlumpJack investment group, the owners of, among other properties, the extremely successful PlumpJack Winery, named after Shakespeare's famous buffoon, that knight in decidedly tarnished armor, Jack Falstaff.

The group's latest viniferous venture is the stunning new Cade Winery located high on Howell Mountain in Napa Valley. They released their first wine, a Sauvignon Blanc, two years ago, and it was a delight. Now comes their pièce de résistance, their star turn, the Cade Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 ($68).

A deep, opaque wine, it shows intriguing hints of earth and spice on the nose. The initial rich, dark fruit flavors—blackberries and plums, perhaps—on the front of the palate quickly give way to a lingering, dry finish tinged with hints of dark mysteries that will evolve with time, for this is surely a wine for the decades.

After two hours of decanting the Cade had softened, and somewhat surprisingly begun to show red fruit flavors—think raspberries and strawberries—perhaps because of its extreme youth.

This superb wine has a dazzling future before it, and rather like Shakespeare, Cade offers both intellectual and visceral pleasures, pleasures that will only grow with time and the application of patient attention.

The wine is available from the winery.

When to Drink: Over the next 20 years.
Breathing/Decanting: Decanting is essential
Food Pairing: Rich, red meat dishes.
Grapes: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Appellation: Howell Mountain
Region: Napa Valley
Country: U.S.
Price: $68
Availability: From the winery
Web Site: www.cadewinery.com

See more wines at www.nickonwine.com.

Nick Passmore is an independent wine writer and consultant based in New York. For five years he contributed a widely read monthly wine column to Forbes.com, in addition to which his work has appeared in such publications as Forbes, Discover, Town & Country, the Robb Report, the Wine Enthusiast, Saveur, Sky, and Golf Connoisseur. He is currently Artisanal Editor for Four Seasons magazine and contributes the Nick Passmore: Wine of the Week column to BusinessWeek.com. He is also a judge at the widely respected annual Critics' Challenge wine competition.

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