2004 Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Sauvignon Copper Streak Vineyards ***

After tackling Girard Winery last week, it only made sense to take on another big name in Napa, Far Niente (pictured above in 1979), which should also be celebrating its 30th birthday this year. But when you think of Far Niente, you really have to think of three separate and distinct operations: the main campus/vineyard just west of Highway 29, the Nickel & Nickel brand, located on 42 acres in Oakville, and Dolce. These wineries are collectively, "owned by longtime friends and partners Larry Maguire, Dirk Hampson, and Beth, Erik and Jeremy Nickel."

What sets them apart? Far Niente produces only Napa Valley cabernet and chardonnay. The cabernet is an untypically elegant Napa Valley wine, with dusty, tight tannin and dried flowers on the nose, (ala St. Julien?). The chardonnay is usually big and fruity. Nickel & Nickel produces single vineyard wines from Napa and Sonoma counties. I have had mixed feelings about these wines recently. They are generally good, but occasionally too big, sweet, and robust for my taste. Dulce is a stand-alone dessert wine. It is consistent year in and year out, but perhaps because of a little help from science. (The winemakers [may] spur the production of noble rot in order to guaratee a crop.) It's fair to say that all of these wines tend to be good to very good - notwithstanding the typical $50-$100 price range - but none of the wines produced by any of these companies every wowed me like the 2004 Nickel and Nickel Copper Streak Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ***

This is the kind of wine that you will drink the whole bottle of and then tip over for the last drop to come out, and you will stand there looking down into its murky green depths, confounded, and you will say, "Is it already gone?"

According to the website, the "Copper Streak Vineyard is located in a protected hollow at the base of the palisades in Stags Leap District. The soils are composed of Perkins gravelly loam mixed with red, copper-like streaks, which is how the vineyard got its name. The vines receive a western exposure and are of moderate size, yielding loose clusters with small berries. The climate in Stags Leap is very warm, however, midafternoon breezes sweep in to cool things down, allowing for excellent ripening. Nickel & Nickel Copper Streak Cabernet is produced from seven of the vineyard’s 30 acres."

The 2004 Copper Streak reminded me initially of Araujo's 2005 Eisele Vineyard, with more vanilla. Whereas the latter wine has fully absorbed a 100% new French oak treatment, the Copper Streak caberent, aged in 45% new French oak, is still quite oaky. But that is the only fault I can find with this wine. Wonderful blueberry jam notes with mellow frozen strawberry and mild spices, the wine is both concentrated and elegant, with soft, sweet round tannins, no hard edges, perfect symmetry, and a dependable, if not necessarily persistent, finish. Without question one of the best wines I have tasted from Napa Valley in 2004. Drinking perfectly now, this will no doubt live for another decade in the cellar, although I doubt that it will ever quite shed the overt vanilla top note.

Previously reviewed:

2005 Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville **

2004 Far Niente Napa Valley Chardonnay **/***

2005 Nickel & Nickel Manzana Vineyard RRV Pinot Noir *
2005 Nickel & Nickel “Bonfire Vineyard” Zinfandel *