Date: May 12, 2010 @ 2:27 PM

Great Futures

You have to be about my age to remember the classic line from “The Graduate”: “The future is plastics.” That may be true if you are talking about toys that come with your Happy Meal, but we have determined that Great Futures actually is about wine—and blue teeth.

This weekend is the official start of the Nickel & Nickel 2009 Futures, when we taste the latest vintage of our single-vineyard Cabernets from barrel.

They are young—maybe even immature (in a “leave me alone,” teenage sort of way). They are tough—but irresistible (in a young Marlon Brando, “On the Waterfront” sort of way). They are full of promise and personality (in a “should this taste this good now?” sort of way).

Futures remain a fun way to learn about these single-vineyard wines. Yes, they will quickly turn your teeth blue. Young tannins do that. (And with the cellar lighting, it gives everyone a bit of a Dracula charm.) Tasting wine that young can be a little overwhelming, but I believe that if you like it now, you will like it even more as it ages and harmonizes in the barrel.

Of course, it can take a few tastes to narrow the choices down to what fits your palate best. In 2009, we harvested about a dozen Cabernet vineyards. I expect that this year, as in years past, we will have visitors who find each Cabernet is a favorite. (Don’t you love a quiz where there aren’t any wrong answers?)

So, yes, the big wine club tasting is this weekend. I hope you can join us Saturday—or, if not, call to reserve your own Futures. (With three boxes or more you get a wine thief—pictured above in action—and the ability to come barrel taste a couple of times as the wine ages in barrel.)