Winemaker Tom Eddy Hits the Road to 'Take Back the Cab'
CALISTOGA, Calif., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Winemaker Tom Eddy is sick of the propaganda and the hyperbole associated with over-priced and overbearing wines, and he's spending most of August on the road visiting wine retailers and restaurateurs to extol the virtues of balanced, age-worthy wines.
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"After 35 years of making wine I still can't tell the difference between a 91 and a 92 score, but I can tell the difference between a balanced wine and an overripe, raisined Cabernet with 16% alcohol," says Eddy. "Come on, if I really wanted the alcohol, I'd rather have a Cognac; it's time to cut back the alcohol and get back to balanced winemaking," he says.
Eddy believes that many New World wines, particularly some from California and Australia made to appeal primarily to critics instead of consumers, are short-changing oenophiles because they don't age well. In a recent issue of Wines & Vines magazine, a story by Tim Patterson called this early-appealing style, "nouveau California," characterized by higher pH, lower acid, and relatively higher alcohol.
"Those kind of fruit-bomb wines may taste great upon release," says Eddy, "but out of balance pH and acidity, exacerbated by high alcohol, is not the formula for a long life."
When he stops in Boston this month, Eddy will host a vertical tasting of his Cabernet Sauvignons at the Boston Wine School, going back to the 1991 vintage.
Eddy has been making wine in California since the mid-1970s and started his own Napa Valley brand in 1991. He recently planted a small vineyard on his property in Calistoga, and hopes to begin construction on his new winery in the fall. Aside from Boston, his August travels will take him to Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Washington and California to rant about the benefits of balance in long-lived Cabernet Sauvignon.