Dear friends of my folks, upon hearing of our love of things Napa, sent us home from their beautiful Massachusetts lake house with this bottle of red last summer.  Our host pulled me aside, saying “The V.G.S. stands for ‘very good shit'” and advising that we break out this Cabernet Sauvignon for a special occasion.  We held this in check for the better part of a year before deciding to open in conjunction with our Valentine’s Day (which we celebrated on Friday the 15th instead).  It flat-out blew me away!

Chateau Potelle 2005 V.G.S. Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, USA

By no means is my nose or vocabulary for wine worldly, but I’ve had enough grapes to know this was the real deal.  So smooth and easy, it vaulted immediately into my all-time top five wines, trailing a Bordeaux or two and some Pinots of particular note.  You can look up its “points” some other place; just know you’d crawl across broken glass for just one more good pull from the V.G.S.  We had it with a combination of four-cheese and spicy ravioli, and every bite was almost…odd.  I usually love this pasta but on this occasion it was just a distraction keeping me from more of the killer Cab.

“Nine different soil types high up on Mt. Veeder, sustainable farming, natural yeast fermentation, unfiltered bottling, and gentle traditional winemaking shape these mountain wines with great personality.”  That’s straight from the winery, which produced just 895 cases of this heavenly stuff.

I sometimes wonder if I’ve learned any damn thing after all these bottles, but if I look closer the lessons are more easily discerned.  (I find lessons all the time by bottom’s up.)  The V.G.S. taught me–or at least restated in loud, proud lettering–that sometimes it is the opening of a good wine itself that is the cause for celebration.  A big thank you to the Lewandowski family for the amazing gift/memory!