Different Sides of the Prism: Cain and Renaissance

There are few more satisfying wines than a bottle of California Cabernet that has been well-farmed and given a chance to sit quietly until it is truly ready to drink. After all, despite its ubiquity in the world of commodity wine, great California Cabernet is special. We forget it's a variety sensitive to site and climate, which is why a Cabernet from Napa is so different from one grown in Alexander Valley or the Santa Cruz Mountains. Cali Cab is not a monolith and today's offer is a testament to that.

The first of the wines available today needs no introduction. Cain Winery on Spring Mountain in Napa was founded in 1980 and in the forty years since it has become known as a true benchmark for mountain Cabernet. Its flagship is Cain Five (so named because it includes all five of the classic red varieties of Bordeaux. Cain Five has been farmed organically for more than twenty-five years, fermented with indigenous yeasts and the oak is always well-judged. In my early restaurant days, this was always on the wine list. I had little wine experience at the time but I remember being impressed the first time I tasted it. However, a few years afterward I tried a bottle of 1995 at a trade tasting that really stopped me in my tracks. What I've always loved about Cain Five is the sense of understatement. I had a chance to taste the 2007 with Cain's co-GM Katie Lazar and at almost fifteen years old the wine was only just starting to show maturity. It was beautiful, finely textured and stately without feeling staid.

The next wine on offer today is known as "Taken From Granite," at least according to the label. However, frequent visitors will likely know it better as Renaissance Winery. Renaissance is referred to as "the cult wine," because it was created by an actual cult. The Fellowship of Friends is a "non-denominational religious organization" based in Yuba County north of Sacramento since the 1970s and in 1982 they planted more than 150 acres of vines on their winding hillsides and began making wine. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, these wines were made by our dear friend Gideon Bienstock, who now owns and operates Clos Saron Winery just across the road from Renaissance.

Originally Swiss, Gideon is one of most brilliant and idiosyncratic winegrowers working in the United States, farming his remote vineyards biodynamically and making no adjustments except for the smallest amount of sulfur. He cut his teeth in the wine world tasting with the late Steven Spurrier at his Paris wine shop in the 1970s. (Spurrier in turn sent him off to Burgundy and the Rhône to meet and taste with such luminaries as René Lafon, Michel Lafarge and Auguste Clape and the sale of the collection Gideon built during those years would serve as his seed capital to build Clos Saron). A few years back, I had the good fortune to visit Gideon with a small group. He took us through the garish Hellenic gates of Fellowship of Friends and drove us up to the hilltop to give us a feel for the landscape. The soils in this part of Yuba are fine crumbling granite and the slopes are winding and steep. It feels very far from the manicured valley floor of Napa.

Some years ago Gideon was given the opportunity by Renaissance to purchase from their cellar the wines that he was responsible for that he loved most. It is these wines that he labeled as "Taken From Granite," and today we have two of his favorite vintages available. Along with the brilliant 2007 Cain Five, these are unique expressions of Cabernet in California. Don't miss a chance to drink these great mature wines.

Sam Ehrlich