We’ve said before that today is an era of many mega-priced, sticky-sweet California reds. It’s easy to forget that the state’s reputation for superlative Cabernet Sauvignon didn’t begin in lavish tasting rooms or with exorbitantly priced real estate, but rather in garages and basements of normal everyday people. We hopped on the phone with Val Ahlgren after becoming infatuated with this bottle, and it turns out the Ahlgren’s story is as inspiring as their wine. 

In the early 1970s Val Ahlgren was a community college instructor and her husband, Dexter, was a civil engineer in what would eventually become Silicon Valley. In her off hours, Val developed an interest in fermentation and was soon making small batches of mead and elderberry wine in mason jars. One mason jar lead to larger glass “carboy” fermenter, and soon the Ahlgrens were receiving their first ton of wine grapes at the driveway of their modest house at the base of the Santa Cruz mountains. It quickly became apparent that Dexter Ahlgren possessed an equally gifted palate and a natural acuity for the more mechanical aspects of winemaking. 

This was still the very beginning of the California artisan winemaking movement. Val notes that when the Ahlgrens produced their first vintage, in 1976, there were only 13 bonded wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains! Forty years later, Val is full of incredible stories. My favorite involves her recollection of how most local wineries were using decommissioned, and sometimes decrepit, domestic brandy barrels to age wine. She described driving to a shipping depot in a caravan of pickup trucks with original Ridge winemaker, Dave Bennion, to sign for their first delivery of Wisconsin oak barrels. Of course, these were the same American oak barrels that help make Monte Bello one of the most prized Cabernet Sauvignons on Earth, and helped define the character of Santa Cruz Mountain wine for decades to come. 

Of course, wine is not made by great barrels and talented winemaking alone. Val says: “In many ways we’ve never been sophisticated winemakers. We’ve just always started with great grapes.” Val and Dexter hopped on at the ground floor with the Bates Ranch vineyard after it was planted in the early 1970s. Today, followers of SommSelect will recognize Bates Ranch as the celebrated vineyard of origin for Cabernets from classic producers like Santa Cruz Mountain Winery and contemporary sommelier favorites like Ghostwriter, but the Ahlgrens have spent the last four decades mastering this hillside vineyard. Val says that, for her, Bates Ranch is a special site for Cabernet Sauvignon for a variety reasons. First, in the early days it was one of the very few locations in the appellation that could fully ripen the variety. Next, Val stresses that the Bates Ranch vineyard has never been irrigated and and the now four decades-old vines sit at an impressive 2,000 feet elevation. They are hard-wired to produce modest yields and optimal concentration. She says, “If you get three tons per acre in a vintage, you praise the Lord!”

In the cellar, Val and Dexter are as straightforward as when they started in the 1970s. Grapes are fermented in old, open-top tanks. Punch downs are performed by hand until the wine is transferred (using a classic bladder press) into stainless steel tanks for settling before aging in neutral American oak barrels. Val stresses that she and Dexter have always used mature but extremely clean and well-maintained barrels. This process avoids sticky, oaky aromas in their wines while protecting against the funk and flaws that give older barrels a bad reputation for some contemporary winemakers. Val says she still prizes neutral American oak as she did in the 1970s because it preserves the purity of the Bates Ranch terroir. She says barrels are used not to add aroma or texture, but to gently soften and guide the wine toward maturity. “Oak barrels act as filter between the wine and the atmosphere in our cellar.” As with many of my favorite producers, the final and perhaps most important step in the process is time. Val and Dexter are known and respected for sitting on wines for years until release, and this 2009 is no exception. 

The 2009 Bates Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon has a gorgeous dark garnet red core that quickly moves to slight orange reflections on the meniscus showing a bit of age. The nose is pure and clean yet overtly old school, evoking Bordeaux as much as it does classic, 1980s-styled California Cabernet. Notes of preserved red and black plums, red currants, wet violets, damp forest floor, red tobacco leaf, and raw cacao all integrate with the perfect, subtle oak spice. These aromas are everything I seek in Santa Cruz Mountains AVA Cabernet. The palate is medium-plus in body with delicate and well-integrated flavors which mirror the nose. Decanting is optional, but not necessary. Simply pull the cork on this bottle an hour before serving at roughly 60-65 degrees in Bordeaux stems. To showcase it best, keep the food pairing simple: a well-charred grilled ribeye ought to do the trick nicely. Enjoy!