“It’s bigger than any one chapter; if we do it well, the chatter will be about our wines being part of the lineage.”
Mayacamas winemaker Braiden Albrecht talks about the history of his employer (famously founded in 1889) with a kind of detached reverence. When we tasted three vintages of Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon spanning twenty years (via Zoom), Albrecht still seemed genuinely awestruck about Mayacamas’ 130+ year history, though he clearly has heard plenty of questions about it before. “It’s been pretty cool,” he noted, ” to respect that lineage, and work to improve it.”
Despite its history (see some previous coverage detailing that), Mayacamas’ position went through a period that, charitably, one would call precarious. Albrecht was brought on board in 2013, when the Schottenstein family purchased the estate; a few later, one of the partners in that sale (Charles Banks) would go to prison for defrauding retired NBA star Tim Duncan. Today, Mayacamas is 100% owned by the Schottensteins, who also brought in the services of legendary viticulturist Phil Coturri.
We tasted through three vintages of Mayacamas’ Cabernet Sauvignon: 2000, 2010, and 2020. The biggest difference between them? Sourcing. Mayacamas pivoted to organic farming in 2013, realizing that a good bit of the original estate planting decisions were made in a cooler climate and in a much different consumer market. Replanting the vines was “a bitter pill to swallow” at first according to Albrecht. “How we replanted has brought out different flavors, certainly, out of the Cabernet. Some of our core Cabernet vines [now] are planted on blocks that historically were never Cabernet blocks.”
The re-plantings have allowed Mayacamas to perform much more detailed picking and fermentation: in 2023, for example, they did over fifty picks and by-lot fermentations, trying to take maximum advantage of the block-by-block variations in aspects, soils, etc. Their cellar, despite being in an older facility where logistics are an old-school challenge, now has a more expanded toolkit as well, though they still use their 100+ year-old foudres (which Albrecht cites as allowing for longer aging without increasing volatility, and helping to tame their burly mountain Cabernet tannins gradually).
Overall, though, during his tenure Albrecht has seen a noticeable uptick in the quality of the fruit. “We want to be true [stylistically],” he mentioned, “but it’s also about making the best wines we can with what the vintage provides. It all starts with where we are.” A mildew-prone site, their estate, vines are naturally producing small Cabernet berries with thicker skins, more structure, and a “natural intensity” in a spot where the soils are described by Albrecht as “challenging,” with conditions on Mt. Veeder that he calls “extreme—Some of the blocks have 12-14 hours of sun exposure.” In the cellar, Albrecht says that they’re used to adjusting to the natural abundance of color, intensity, and tannins in their Cab (with shorter macerations and careful extraction).
None of this would matter, of course, if the wines sucked, which they haven’t, for decades…
2020 Mayacamas Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, $185
The style of their 2020 Cab was a function of the (very) dry vintage in Napa Valley: “you couldn’t really go after the redder fruits without being too green,” Albrecht explained. This red is certainly a rebellious youth compared to its two older siblings (more on those below), with a nose that’s concentrated with cocoa, baking spices, black raspberry, violets, and blue plums. The palate has plenty of acidic lift and structure, but the edges on the entry are rounder and more immediately alluring. At the end of the mid-palate, this mere babe of a Cab almost totally shuts down; not in an “I have nothing more to offer” way (because it does… the lengthy finish has plenty of subtle notes of blackberry, currants, and dried herbs), but in an “I have nothing more to say to you RIGHT NOW” kind of way. This one is going to be a very sexy beast after a few years of bottle age.
2010 Mayacamas Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, $300
Despite the age, the nose here is still on the tight side, coming off as taught and then slowly betraying complex and brooding aromas of dark berry fruit (blackberry, blackcurrant), toasty spices, dried violets, graphite, cedar, cinnamon, and leather. The mouthfeel absolutely shines; savory, buoyant, and deep, with plummy red fruit and raspberry action. There’s plenty of tannic and acidic scaffolding here to carry this for more time in the bottle, but it’s also plenty delicious right now (but would be even better with some lamb, I suspect). A lengthy finish of dried herbs, currants, and earth put a bow on the whole thing.
2000 Mayacamas Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, $650 (1.5L)
Dark earth for sure, dried herbs, baking spices, graphite, and also plenty of primary fruit aromas left (blackberry, blackcurrant, black plums) on this beauty. A hint of toasted walnut peeks out, too. The palate showcases redder currant fruits, with a tangy edge and plenty of freshness still. This has an elegant, effortless texture, staying deep and dark without ever once becoming tiring. It’s in an absolutely gorgeous drinking window right now. The finish carries concentrated red plum fruit, spice, and tinges of earth and funk, and seems to last forever. And I am only half joking here. It took literal minutes for the finish to finally fade, and it was delivering well-delineated aspects from the palate FOR THE ENTIRE F*CKING TIME. Epic. Available only in large format.
Cheers!