Freemark Abbey has a lot of history – for a Californian winery, anyway.
It’s located between St. Helena and Calistoga in Napa Valley. I’ve been past it on a previous visit to CA but didn’t have time to visit.
At the 1976 “Judgment of Paris” tasting organised by the late Steven Spurrier, who was my colleague and friend for nearly 20 years, top Bordeaux and Burgundy wines were pitted against Californian wines.
Freemark Abbey’s 1969 Cabernet Sauvignon performed credibly, with one judge placing it as the second best red wine of the tasting.
Fast forward to 2011, from which vintage this Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon sprang.
It was wet wet wet in Napa in 2011. There was up to five inches of rain in May and June, then an atypically cool summer, and more rain during the October harvest. (Probably it would have felt pleasantly warm to a pale Englishman 😎.)
The vintage was written-off by people who read weather reports instead of tasting the wines, which were widely considered to be listless.
But some of them – like this 2011 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon – are nice examples of a more understated Napa style of red wine.
There’s plenty more where this came from so please drop us a line if you’d like to give it a go.