Napa Cabernet 2021

There's a lot of excitement about this vintage, in which conditions were relatively calm and temperatures stable through summer. Ongoing drought reduced yields but intensified flavours, but it means quantities are down and you may need to act fast to secure top wines. Our Napa correspondent selects 60 great wines from more than 500 that he tasted, with many very high scores

- JONATHAN CRISTALDI

The low-yielding 2021 crop of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in Napa Valley delivered astounding wines of total intrigue and authenticity that can border on the flirtatious, with captivating complexity and staying power designed to build impressionable nuance over long-term cellaring. So, if you stopped reading this report right here and set about buying up as many bottles as you can find, you'll be thanking us in the years to come. But read on to understand why this is such a terrific year.

Stylistically, smaller berries and lower yields imbued the 2021s with ample mid-palate concentration, fruit density and more (see 'vintage rating' box, p68). The name of the game is patience when it comes to the best 2021 Cabernets, of which there are many - and those can cellar for decades. Early enjoyment requires letting the wines breathe before pouring.

"There was a massive sigh of relief coming off the back of 2020,' says consultant winemaker Nigel Kinsman. 'So much so that I remember being ecstatic as the fruit was being weighed, seeing what we had and counting our blessings."

According to almost every grape-grower and winemaker throughout Napa, 2021 was an ideal - a gift following the 2020 wildfires and widespread concerns of smoke taint. As Atelier Melka's Maayan Koschitzky puts it: '2021 was a dream vintage.'

TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES

Dreams aside, '2021 was definitely a drought year, says consultant winemaker Celia Welch. 'And many of the challenges revolved around ensuring that the vines stayed balanced, with shorter shoot lengths, smaller canopies and an overall smaller crop. Welch acknowledges that the 2021 wines are bound to be scarce due to the reduced crop size, but encourages consumers to seek them out for 'their flavour intensity and concentration, [which] will give the fruit essences great durability'.