In The Glass: Nine Points Meritage 2008

I’ve never been a fan of Stag’s Leap. While obviously a defining winery in the Napa Valley, their wines today are wickedly expensive, heavily oaked, tannic to a fault, and sold long before they’re ready, but proudly so. “At its peak in five years” really isn’t a selling point for me. “Ready to drink tonight and will knock your ass over” means a lot more as who out there can really age a wine adequately for five years?

And so we come to Nine Points. This brand is an offshoot of Stag’s Leap, apparently mainly made for the Safeway grocery stores. This wine is fantastic and it’s what Napa should be making more of. Immediately approachable right out of the bottle, it also stands up to an hour of decanting and develops a lovely, full-bodied structure that I remember in Napa estate wines from 15 years ago that would cost $30 a bottle and up. The cost of this? $12, or less. Needless to say, if you see it for less, buy it.