1978 was the last year of a drought in California.  The vines were stressed as were just about everything living in California then.  A massive fast-track water pipe project that took up lanes of the Richmond Bridge saved Marin from drying up.  Times were tough but when that vintage’s bottles were opened starting about 1980 we realized that the Cabs were real treasures.

Jordan's palacial estate winery above the beautiful Alexander Valley.

I especially like the Cabs from the Alexander Valley and around Gilroy and bought cases of them. Yes, in them thar days you could afford a case of Jordan or Silver Oak Cab and still have money left over.  There were no tasting fees even at Silver Oak.  It all existed in a galaxy far, far away.

I think the last time I had Jordan’s 1978 Cab was in a hot tub high above Napa Valley in the mid-1980′s.  David (David’s Jewelers in St. Helena) and I crawled under his house and found a broken case of Jordan 1978 Cab. The bottles were lying in the dirt and scattered about.  It was more of an archeological scene.  We headed to the hot tub to share it with our naked wives.

I noticed Jordan on Twitter last fall (@jordanwinery) and asked if they had an old bottle of their fabulous 1978 Alexander Cabernet laying around.  They still have a small stash of magnums in their library collection and had one left available for 2009.  $400.  Ugh, but I wanted to share it with my wife.  She has heard me bragging about Jordan 78 Cab for 15 years and she needed to try it.  I drove up to Jordan and bought it.

Our engagement anniversary is more special to us than our two weddings (Vladivostok, Russia and Anchorage, Alaska).  I proposed to Katya in front of the Parthenon in Athens then taught her how to sail through the Greek Islands on a charted boat for a week.  That’s another wine story but back to Jordan.

Our bottle of 78 Jordan Cab in Katya's table setting design with our Greek dinner.

For our 15th engagement anniversary on April 15 this year (special date, I was a CPA) we decided to open our precious bottle of 78 Cab.  Katya brought home a Greek dinner from a local restaurant and we sipped the Jordan Cab with it. The old spicy Cab was still there, beautifully preserved, but the tannins were softer.

We tasted the wine for the next three days and it was wonderful each time.  I injected argon inert gas into the bottle each day and that worked very well.  There was no sign of oxidation.

I’m telling this story because it is a decent story.  DO NOT BUY ALL OF JORDAN’S 1978 Cab and leave none for me!  Try some other years or just dream but don’t act.  Get it?

- jim

Winter Wineland is a Russian River Wineroad event for the Alexander, Dry Creek, and Russian River regions in Sonoma County, California.  There are well over 100 winery tasting rooms in these regions and the ambiance, and wine, is some of the best in the world.

Katya and I moved right along during the 5 hours a day open for event tasting and hit 16 wineries on January 17 – 18, 2009!  This was only a week after tasting at 7 San Francisco urban wineries.  What wonderful adventures to start the year.  We LOVE 2009 already!

There were about a hundred wineries participating. It was impossible to try them all of course so we narrowed it down to 16 over two days. That is a lot of wineries but we sipped and poured out the wines.  Most of the wineries were serving food with their wines so we were able to stay full the whole day.

The weather was sunny and in the low 70′s!  We were in short sleeve shirts before noon, in January!

This was the first trip for using our new breath analyzer, AlcoHawk from Amazon.com.  My highest blood alcohol level was .05 before a long dinner, well below drunk driving, but for driving I was at .03 or less. I’ve always suspected I was careful and it is comforting to have some proof.

Follow me on Twitter.com/winequester for live tasting room reports during our road trips.

We can not possible buy everything we like so we hit a few highlights.  Also, I rarely tell you what you will taste, just the wines that I think are unusual and interesting.  Everything about your context and physiology will be different than mine and affect the taste.

And the winners are:

Trentadue was a hit because I won a 1.5 liter bottle of 06 Alex Valley Zin as I walked in. Their polenta was nice but rather small. We purchased 05 Old Patch Red, 05 Cote del Leone, a blend of Petite Sirah, Syrah, Zin, and a dash of Carignane, and Chocolate Amore.  I wanted a barrel of Chocolate Amore but …

Truett-Hurst in Dry Creek Valley are the new kids in that area but producing top wines.  They are remodeling the old Martin Family property with big and very exciting plans for a biodynamic farming exposition and a picnic area by the creek that will be one of  the top winery picnic areas in the state.  They served BBQ tri-tip, a hit with Katya.  Purchased: 06 Old Vine Rattler Rock Zin and Stonegate Napa Valley 02 Cab.  (They purchased the iconic old Stonegate name and inventory.)

Alexander Valley Vineyards had a diverse tapas bar with some of the best food we found.  Nice prices at AVV.  Purchased: 05 Alex Valley Syrah, 07 Dry Rose’ of Sangiovese.

White Oak offered to-die-for pork sliders to pair with their Napa Valley 04 Syrah. This is such a beautiful Tuscan style winery!  Purchased: 04 Napa Valley Cab Sauv, 07 Russian River Valley Sauv Blanc.

Forchini is a tiny Italian family winery with a wonderful picnic area and view on the east side of Dry Creek Valley.  Purchased: 06 Papa Nonno Tuscan red estate grapes, 05 estate Cab Sauv Reserve.

Route 128 is a new little tasting room in Geyserville and VERY FRIENDLY. Vintner’s pour for you.  Purchased: 05 Syrah.  Their vineyard is in the Yorkville Highlands north of Cloverdale in Mendocino County on Route 128.

Mill Creek is an ALWAYS FRIENDLY (get it, that’s important, and unusual) family winery and served a killer chili (recipe on their Web site).  They have a picnic site beside a pond and a water wheel and another up the hill with a fantastic view toward Healdsburg.  Purchased: 99 Cab Sauv, 06 Dry Creek Valley Zin.

Everett Ridge was baking various pizzas in an outside stone oven to taste with their reds. They also baked a flat bread to dip in Dry Creek Olive Oil Company’s olive oil. Great view from their elevated view bar and deck!  Purchased: 05 Diablita red wine and 05 Diablita Zin.

Hawkes is a newish tasting room next to the Jimtown store in Alexander Valley. They served a nice macaroni and cheese.  Purchased: 04 AV Cab Sauv, 06 AV Chard.

Preston (no relation) was serving homemade pizza from a stone oven.  Purchased 07 organic Barbera.  I thought we had two bottles but the other must be lost in action.  Happens.

Hanna has one of the best views in the Alexander Valley and served a tasty chicken apricot stew.  Purchased: 99 Bismark Ranch Noir, a red blend from mountain grapes.

Bella has one of the few cave tasting rooms in Sonoma County.  They served a stunning Paella.  Their wines are a bit soft for us but most tasters would love them.  Great place to visit and picnic!!  Purchased: 06 Syrah.

Trione is new to the Geyserville area of Alexander Valley.  We’ve watched the construction of the new winery and remodeling of an old stone building for well over a year.  They served oysters, not my thing, but Katya went crazy for them and now loves Trione.  Purchased: 06 Russian River Valley Sauv Blanc and their Syrah.

We also tasted in Meeker’s tasting room in little Geyserville but it was too choatic to purchase wine.  We love to hang out in Geyserville so we’ll be back soon anyway.  When Chuck Meeker is in his tasting room it is always lively, and sometimes more.  This is California’s premiere tasting room for frivolity.

We tasted the very old vine Zins at Sausal but they seemed too soft and mellow for our tastes.  We expected more robust aromas and flavors.  Maybe it was just us.  We arrived at Amista late on Saturday and didn’t have a chance to taste about half their wines.  I know I want their Cab.  We expected to return on Sunday but never made it.

Such TREASURES!  I think I found all the wines we bought but Katya may have put some away that I didn’t spot.

What do I regret from the weekend?  That we couldn’t buy one of EVERYTHING we tasted.  I hate limits.  Try all or some of the above for a wonderful adventure!

- jim