Vertical Tastings

At a recent get together with friends, the topic of vertical wine tasting came up.  They were intrigued about what it meant to do a vertical wine tasting and why you would do them.  In my effort to find more reasons to drink wine and educate my friends we will examine some of the reasons to age wine.  We will discuss the history of Simi from Sonoma County, California and examine the Cabernet from their Landslide vineyard.

What is a vertical wine tasting and how do you do them?  A vertical wine tasting is simply a wine tasting of wines all from the same vineyard but of different vintages.  You then taste the wines in vertical order from oldest to youngest.  You taste the  oldest wine first and not last because it will be the most delicate and subtle.  The youngest wines will be Bolder and harsher.  If they were tasted first they could mask the flavors of the older wines.

To understand the merits of a vertical wine tasting, you must first understand why you would age or cellar a wine.  When my friend asked me this he wanted to know what happens to a wine as it ages; does it taste different?  The short answer is yes.  In the same manner that most wines are different from one vintage to the next; they are equally different as they age.  Imagine if you will the conversation you might have with a 6 year old, and then again talking to the same person in their 20's, 40's and 60's or even older.  As the person ages, the conversation gets more complex, more elegant.  Wine evolves in much the same way, and just like the person it too eventually dies or turns to vinegar.  Well how do I know how long to age a wine?  If only we had crystal balls, this would be an easy question to answer.  Some people prefer conversation with the 20 year old, and some the 40 year old and so on.  My best advice is to find a reviewer who's tasting notes or style you agree with.  Then follow their cellaring advice as well until you find a median age or style you enjoy.  Or you can buy several bottles of the same wine and keep opening them in 6 month intervals.  Take careful tasting notes and compare them over the life of your collection.

So now we circle back to the same question; why cellar wine?  Have you ever gone to a restaurant, looked at the age of some of the bottles and then looked at the prices?  Don't they usually get more expensive the older they get?  If the wine didn't get better. why would they bother to keep it for so long? Reason #2 for aging wine, they increase in value.  Why then are some wines made to be drunk young and some wines made to age?  Sometimes it is because of the type of grape used in making the wine, other times it is due to the quality of the juice used to make the wine.  How the winemaker handles the grapes is also a factor.  The longer the winemaker leaves the grape skins in contact with the juice during the fermentation process, the more tannins are extracted from the grapes.  In turn, the higher the ability of the wine to age.

The wine we chose for our vertical tasting was Simi Landslide Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Landslide Vineyard is a 170 acre vineyard in the southern Alexander Valley.  The Landslide Vineyard has numerous soil types and microclimates that were created by an ancient volcanic landslide from nearby Mount St. Helena.  This diversity of soil type and topography result in a varying bud break, flowering, veraison and harvest times in the different vineyard blocks.  Along with these complexities, Simi has planted nine different clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and small amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot and Malbec.  To see how these factors translate into the bottle, please read our tasting notes. We tasted a 5 year vertical from the Landslide Vineyard starting with the 2001 vintage.  We then tasted the 2005-2008 vintages.  My friends were quite shocked to taste how different each vintage was.  This was a true testament to the diversity of the vineyard site and grape selections

Simi Winery has a long and varied history as well.  Started by Giuseppe and Pietro Simi, two immigrants brought to California from Tuscany, Italy by the gold rush.  By 1876 they had settled in San Fransisco and started Simi Winery.  When they discovered Sonoma County it reminded them of home.  In 1881 they moved their winemaking operation to Healdsburg in northern Sonoma County. In 1890 they completed construction of Simi's first stone cellar; built into the hillside from native basault for natural insulation.

Early success led them to double the size of their cellars in 1904.  Tragically both brothers died shortly there after within four months of each other; leaving Giuseppe's daughter Isabelle to take over management of the winery at the age of 18.  Isabelle Simi married banker Fred Haig, together they ran the winery until Prohibition began in 1920 forbidding them to sell wine.  Although they were forced to sell most of the vineyard property to save the winery itself; they continued to produce and cellar their wines for the 15 years Prohibition lasted.  When Prohibition ended December of 1933 they were ready with a large stock of perfectly cellared wines to sell.  They celebrated by planting a grove of redwood trees around the winery that still stands today.

Isabelle established Simi's first tasting room the following year out of a 25,000 gallon Champagne tank.  Isabelle continued to run Simi Winery until 1970, when she retired and sold the winery at the age of 84.  Simi returned to it's beginings in 1982 by acquiring the Landslide Vineyard in Alexander Valley.  In the following years Simi continued to acquire estate vineyards in both the Alexander Valley and Russian River Valley.  These changes have in part lead to the critical acclaim today that is Simi Winery

Tom Cook

"wine is sunlight held together by water"

              Galileo Galilei



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