K&L's Ralph Sands

I never thought I would, but I'm very glad I did!

Last weekend I invited two young couples and one wonderful Aunt, who are all good customers of mine and passionate wine lovers, over for a pre-holiday dinner. Both of these couples traveled with me to Bordeaux in 2005 and they were excited to share some of their finest wines with my wife, Kim, and me; I was also excited to pour them something special. Kim is a great cook, so I stay out of her way as far as the menu goes most of the time, but sometimes she forgets that I have orchestrated hundreds of meals and menus in my 30 years here at K&L. I have many single bottles of wine in my collection at home, but for this meal I told Kim I was going to serve a magnum to go with the Santa Maria Tri-Tip I was in charge of grilling.

On my lunch that day I went through my wine locker at K&L looking for the right magnum. It did not take me long to realize that all my magnums were real good wines, but just a bit too young. A little frustrated and not wanting to spend a bunch of money a bell went off in my head. I knew I had a great one at home, but it was my most prized possession. I decided that since these people, like me, were true wine geeks/lovers, and they would truly appreciate the gesture (providing the wine was still any good). I have had the wine a few times and I was sure it would still be alive since I had stored it perfectly from the time it was given to me as a gift. Just like a picture, every wine has a story...

It was a rainy, winter Monday in 1984, and a customer and I were visiting a few estates after a nice lunch. We had saved my favorite estate for our last visit. When we walked in there were two couples tasting with the lady behind the tasting bar, which was just two wine barrels with a wood plank on top. The cash register was old school—a tray with slots for the bills and change— with just a few blank invoices next to it. While I was chatting with my companion, one of the men shuffled over to me on his way out and, almost in a whispering voice said, "You sound like you know your wine pretty well." I said, "Yes, I do."

He proceeded to tell me that he was on vacation from Ft. Worth, Texas and would like to buy the best wine in the area, where should he go? I told him, you are standing in the exact place! He said he liked the wine he tasted here very much but he thought there may be better ones. I told him to go back to the lady and order the Special Selection—they weren't pouring it—that 's the wine you want.

Both couples bought a case, thanked me, and off they went. The lady behind the plank immediately sprung to her feet and said, "Who the heck are you? You just sold two cases of our best and most expensive wine and we don't sell that much wine in some months!" She was pretty excited. Then she blurted out, "I'm going to get my husband, stay here!"

She came back with a man covered in mud who said, "You sold two cases of Special Selection? What can we do for you?" I explained that I worked at K&L Liquors (one of our old names) and that I was a big fan of his and his father's wine, and that I've collected all his wines back to 1976. But he reiterated, "What can we give you in thanks?" I said how about that poster on the wall, which was a reproduction of the estate's label with the vintage date of 1980, I also asked him to put his muddy handprints on the poster, he shook his head no and went to wash his hands, came back and autographed the poster neatly and thanked me again. I was thrilled and just as we were driving away he came running out of the winery yelling at us to stop. I rolled down my window and he said, "I want you to have this bottle of the 1975 for your collection. It is signed by my father and we only made 12 of these bottles; we have kept them here at the winery and now we have 11." I still remember how sky high I was on the ride home and how special the experience was for me. The wine business is a business of passion, and not many people get rich in the traditional sense of the word, but these incredible moments in life, shared over a good glass from the vine with people that share the same passion is, as they say, priceless.

I have tried to keep you in the dark, but I'm sure that many of you have figured out by now that we were at Caymus Vineyards in the Napa Valley. The wine the people bought was the 1982 Caymus "Special Selection," which sold for a whopping $28.00 a bottle in 1984. The muddy man was Chuck J.Wagner and the wine he handed me was the 1975 Caymus Napa in the 2/5-gallon bottle (Special Selection was not made then) and the signature was his father's, the legendary Charlie F. Wagner. I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie a few times and he could be a little tough and grumbling, but I vividly remember him shaking his head in approval and smiling because the young men in standing in front of him loved his wine, knew it well, and were dressed in our best on a visit to his winery.

At that time I was studying wine day and night, tasting everything I could. Of course I respected Mondavi, enjoyed the elegant cabernets from Stag's Leap and Clos du Val, and the rich and heady cabernets made at Montelena, but after tasting them all I was a Caymus man all the way!

Last Saturday evening was the night for the 1975. I carefully decanted the wine about an hour before serving and I knew immediately it was perfect. I had everyone at the table taste the wine before the beginning of the meal, when our palates were clean and fresh from the Champagne. The wine was stunningly bright and in perfect condition. And since I hadn't told anyone what we were drinking, the guesses started flying. Being the Bordeaux expert, my guests presumed it might come from the Médoc peninsula, suggesting maybe it was a wine of Ch. Lafite-Rothschild. I told them their guesses were very good because the wine was very Lafite-like in many ways. My notes say the following...The purple/blue fruit has developed, but is still absolutely shining in appearance. On the nose it was effusively bright and amazingly fresh with hints of blueberry and blackberry, very spicy cabernet, direct and masculine, perfect integration and without any hint of wood! The impeccable balance in the wine rivals the greatest clarets from Bordeaux. Textbook, outstanding claret—but from California!

My friends were stunned, California wines are not supposed to age like this or taste like this! I told them that this is exactly the type of wine that made Napa Valley the famous place it has turned into. California shook the entire wine world to its core with wines like this, and the wines from Beaulieu Vineyards—BV's Georges de Latour in '58,'64,'68 and '70 and 1968 Hietz "Martha's Vineyard." All those wines actually continue to live today because they were harvested ripe, but not overripe, and had good backbones of acidity and tannin. This combination, and good winemaking, made wines that were balanced from day one—a far cry from the popular style of wine made by most in Napa today. The most expensive wines are made from grapes that are far too ripe, turning out goopy-flabby wines with no acidity, freshness or definition/balance, topped off with a ton of new oak. Yikes! Believe me, I tell people every day, coast to coast, that wine is a subjective form of art; so if you love that style of wine, that's great. But whatever you do, don't age those wines a long time without keeping close tabs on their development.

I can only hope that while the Napa Valley continues to get dissected into smaller parcels that small production winemakers and owners will do some homework on the history of the wines that made the place famous to begin with, and that they will consider making wines with more freshness and acidity. Alas, no matter what style or varietals of wine you prefer, the bottom line is to share your best wines with your best wine friends!

Our Menu:

Appetizers: Mini Shrimp and Crab cakes with Thousand Island dressing, Crostini and goat cheese topped with pear, pecan, blood orange and lavender honey sauce served with Gonet's Brut and Rosé Champagnes.

First Course: Carrot Almond Soup served with 2002 William Fevre Chablis.

Second Course: Santa Maria Tri Tip with mashed potato and Swiss chard terrine and mushrooms sautéed with shallots and butter served with 1999 Pride Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and 1975 Caymus Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.

Dessert: Chocolate Pudding cake with vanilla bean ice cream. Served with Fonseca 1970 Vintage Port.

Cheers! Ralph Sands
Senior Wine Specialist
Bordeaux Expert
K&L Wine Merchants, Redwood City, CA