Pyang on the Wine Spec board organized this dinner for the Napastravaganza attendees at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville, CA.

Attendees included: the Davidns, the Brent Nulls, the Wineismylifes, the Winetexes, the Bresslers, the Pinot Envys, the Brians, VitisVinifera, Pyang and Gigondass. Everyone ordered from the French Bistro menu.

Pyang suggested that we do a 1997 CA Cab horizontal so this guided our choices for the wines we brought. There were two bottles of each of the wines as well as some special European wines.

1995 Staglin Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Togni Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Viader
1997 Ridge Monte Bello
1997 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Dominus
1997 Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (from mag and probably corked)
1997 Stag's Leap Cask 23 Cabernet Sauvignon

1993 Frescobaldi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva (from mag)
1995 LAN Rioja Grand Reserva

Tasting notes on the way on these wines. We had a great time as is customary at these events. After tasting through all of these wines I came to the following conclusions:
1. Good-quality 1997s seemed to be still babies and need more cellaring to fully mature. Decanting made the difference with these wines. The wines that showed the best were decanted. There were two tables with identical wines and each table had different opinions on their WOTN.
2. The bad boy cabs beat up on the Europeans. The Brunello and the Rioja were good wines but would be better without the comparisons.

We took a poll on the wine of the night and at Table #1 the majority of the people chose the Stag's Leap Cask 23. Table #1 had no decanters. At Table #2 with the decanters the majority liked the Togni with the Ridge MB close behind. Very interesting results.

Good food, great wines and lovely company. Thanks to all for bringing the great wines. And thanks to Pyang for great organization. Having everyone taste the same wines was a nice call.

Winetex...

You are my new hero!!!

Sorry, anthonyiez.

Your Napstravaganza notes are killing me!
Wait til next year (dammit)!

i agree. i want to be winetex when i grow up. or at the very least mr. winetex

Sounds like a great dinner, thanks for posting Winetex It was great seeing everyone at the closing dinner last night.

This was a wonderful dinner with fantastic people. Many thanks to pyang for organizing the dinner.

Here are my wines in order or preference:

1997 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Ridge Monte Bello
1997 Viader Cabernet Sauvignon
1995 Staglin Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Stags Leap Cask 23 Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
1997 Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvingon
1997 Chateau St. Jean Cinq Cepages
1997 Dominus
1995 LAN Riojo Riserva
1993 Frescabaldi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva
2001 Gaui di Daui
2001 Testarossa Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay

All of the 97 Cali Cabs were babies. Don't be afraid to let them sit a little while longer.

I'd say the Beringer PR was the most approachable at the moment.

WineTex hit it on the nose; the decanters made a big difference IMO. That helped the Togni and Ridge really open up.

One extra note. I expect this list to change. Eventually I see the Cask 23, Viader and Montelena to blow some of these guys away. Too young to properly evaluate IMO. Good upside potential.

Being at table #2 with the decanters... pouring myself a bit of the Togni early in the evening and letting it sit (with occasional swirling and nosing) for over an hour. My WOTN!

Close behind was the Viader with the Cask 23 and Montebello neck and neck for third.

One complaint about the dinner; the table needed to be bigger

My favorite dish of the night: Steak Tartar. I ordered one for the table and passed it around to the willing carnivores. Yum-yum-yummy!

i love steak tartar. um, um good. david, i need to come out cali and go to dinner with you. i am sure we could run up one hell of a food tab

*also posted on WS--I'm lovin' copy & paste today!

First of all, I think the '97 Ch Montelena was an off bottle, poured from a mag, we had differing views at our table. A couple of us detected slight levels of TCA while others just thought it was quite young and not drinking well at present. Bummer!

The '97 Stags Leap Cask 23-my WOTN, well, okay, maybe WOTW. Simply a beautiful full-bodied balanced cabernet and drinking so well, yum!

1997 Togni, this is where the opinions started to vary, our table felt this was good but not showing as well as we were anticipating. The other table, this was almost unanimously the WOW wine, go figure.

1997 Rdige Monte Bello, I am a huge fan of Ridge and have great affection for Monte Bello, need I say more, this wine demonstrated everything there is to love about Cab. My #2 for the evening but in close competition with.......

1997 Viader, how good was this?! Let's just say my syrah loving husband who of course knows all to well of the Viader Syrah kept asking for another pour of this cab, robust yet elegant.

1997 Dominus, massive, huge. It's Dominus, what did you expect --c'est bebe!

1997 Beringer Private Reserve, let me preface this by saying I was prepared not to like this wine. I hate when I do this! But, lo and behold, this one shocked me, drinking better than I thought it would, lots of good fuit and yummy straight out of the bottle. Drop the price another $10 and I just might get me some
Cost Co now offering at $54

In Togni's defense, that is very very young for that wine. I talked to Togni & his wife personally about the '97 in particular. He makes the wines to go 15+ easy. He says don't even touch then. The '97 & the '01, 20+ @ least he says.

I had the '92 last year. Only after about 2.5 hours, it opened up somewhat. Of course, it was just about all gone by that time.

And don't forget the table that loved the Togni had decanters and you guys didn't.