Peju Cabernets: Outstanding Wines That Grow Better With A Little Time

Post Summary

1. Why did it take me so long to review these wines? (AKA, you gotta know when to hold 'em)
2. A Cool Story of the American Dream...Hopping Continents, Blind Dating, and Moving to Napa: The Pejus
3. How the Pejus Changed Marketing In Napa for the Better
4. The (awesome) wines

I'm sure by now Herta Peju, owner and founder of Peju Winery, thinks she wasted some fine wine by sending six bottles to me over a year ago. I know I'll prove her wrong in this post, but I do owe her an explanation and by way of it I think it will do some good for the rest of us! Let me tell you the story...

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Why did it take so darn long to review the wines...?

You can imagine my utter shock and delight when the owner of one of Napa's revered boutique wineries, a standout among a lot of the overly commercial and over-rated, in many cases, wineries on Napa's main road -- Route 29 -- sent me an email and said she'd be sending me some wines because someone had mentioned the blog to her! Very cool!

I'd been to Peju before. The property is beautiful and the wine-filled truffles insanely delicious. But the only thing I could really recall wine-wise was the Rosé, which I remember thinking was very tasty. I didn't have a sense for the Cab, which was what they sent, and honestly was concerned that I didn't remember it. My memory for a great wine is pretty long!

Then, I realized why I didn't recall the Cabernet.  I uncorked the first batch shortly after Mrs. Peju sent them. And they weren't that great. They were tannic, not-so-fruity, and just meh. They weren't at all what I expected. But I felt like they had some potential. So rathering than writing, I decided to withhold judgement and sit on the wines for a while. Peju very wisely sent me two bottles of the three Cabernets that I'll talk about below so I had the luxury of time.

The Kenny Rogers "Know When to Hold 'Em" strategy worked beautifully. With more time to compose, these wines were amazing. As I suspected, they were stressed out. They just needed some time to relax in the bottle and come together. Whatever happened in the year in my wine fridge, it was something good. 

Unlike a lot of Napa wines, which are best within about 5 - 7 years, these need an extra year before they really shine. It's worth the wait. Peju's Cabernets are special and after getting up to speed on their story, it's clear why...

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Hopping Continents, Blind Dating, and Moving to Napa: The Pejus

Peju has been around since 1982 and was established by Anthony and Herta Peju. Their story is pretty cool.

Anthony, originally from Eastern Europe/Central Asia (near the Caspian Sea), went to LA to become a film director, but like everyone else in LA trying to make it big, he wound up doing a bunch of other jobs. 

After meeting Herta, an Austrian who grew up in Venezuela, on a blind date, the course of his life changed. Like any good woman in a kind of scattered yet smart man's life, Herta got her beau to focus on his passion for plants and flowers. Anthony become a florist and flower grower. His interest in and skill with growing stuff, and frustration in finding good land outside LA for a flower farm landed him and Herta in Napa.

After a few years of looking for a rural property, the Pejus hit the jackpot with a 30 acre block in the Rutherford district on Napa 29, complete with a 19th century farmhouse and acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, which were being sold to prestigious, neighboring wineries. The Pejus had room to farm here and given Anthony's interest in agriculture and what seems like an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, he decided to go to UC Davis to learn how to make wine.

It didn't take the guy too long to figure out that the vines he had purchased were something unique. There was a 5.5 acre block with old Cabernet that made wine unlike anyone else's in the Valley. The vines were old (they don't know just how old), the flavor bold, and when the murderous serial killer bug, phylloxera, affected the vineyards and forced Peju to replant with new, bug-resistant roots, he decided to graft all his Cabernet vineyards with cuttings from these grapes. Peju, to this day, uses a clone of Cabernet Sauvignon that few if anyone in Napa Valley has.


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The Pejus Shingle: Marketing That Changed Napa

The Pejus made wine and sold it out of a converted garage on their property (you can still find places like this in Sonoma and Paso Robles in the Central Coast of CA and sort of in Napa). People went nuts for their wines.

And another thing happened. In selling this hardly under-the-radar wine (it was pretty popular) direct, it ticked some people off. Peju's makeshift "wine tasting" sign outside the garage wasn't enough, so argued Napa County. They needed a real winery to sell wine. 

After a bunch of legal challenges, the Pejus won and changed the landscape in Napa -- if you grew grapes, you could sell wine, even without a tasting room. Chalk one up for the little guy. Good for them and good for all of us who want to find those smaller producers who may still be out there in Napa.

Peju is still a family run operation -- daughters Lisa and Ariana are heavily involved in the business. The building is beautiful (with amazing gardens, as you can imagine) and the vibe more friendly than haughty, a refreshing thing on the main drag of Napa.

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An Apology and the Wines

So it's with apologies to the Pejus that this took so long, but with great gratitude to them for sending two bottles of each wine so I could give them their proper due:

Wine #1: 2008 Peju Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Price: $45

Alcohol: 14.5%

Grapes: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot (remember in the US, only 75% of what's in the bottle has to be the grape that they name the wine after)

Where it's From: Napa Valley, California

Color: A rich, dark cherry or maroon color, this looked like it came from VERY ripe grapes that had lots and lots of pigment in the skins. The gloppy, thick legs were a dead giveaway of the higher alcohol content.

Smell: Black currant, dark cherry, black plum, and like a cake at Christmas -- allspice, nutmeg, and fruit combined to give it a sweet tang. This wine is aged in 40% new oak, which is very pungent, and 55% of the oak is American, also very strong-smelling, so the pine and cedar smells I sensed were easily explained.

Taste: Completely true to the color and smell, this wine was like ripe black cherries, plums, and black currants. It had a dried fruit note to it -- like prunes or dates and definite cola/Dr. Pepper taste that was pleasing (I don't like this in Pinot Noir but in Cabernet, I'm ok with it). The tannins were kind of chewy -- they stuck around my mouth -- and even though the alcohol is high, it was balanced by the fruit, so the wine didn't feel hot/burning.

Drink or sink?: Drink. This is a great medium-style Napa Cabernet. It had terrific balance of plummy flavors with oaky, spicy ones, and the tannins, acid, and alcohol all played off each other well. A great one for sipping or pairing with mushrooms or meat.

Wine #2: 2004 Peju Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Estate Bottled

Price: $40

Alcohol: 15.6% (holy snap! This is HIGH, high, high!)

Grapes: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 1% Merlot

Where it's From: Napa Valley, California. This one mostly comes from the Peju's Persephone vineyard(named for the Greek Goddess who is responsible for summer and winter) in northeast Napa. 

Color: A crimson color with brown around the edges and (no surprise) thick, gloppy legs from the high alcohol.

Smell: To quote my notes "Damn, that's good!" This one smelled like Christmas time also-- pine, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel, and vanilla. It was so savory! I got a little bit of pencil smell (from the oak. 30% of the barrels were new but the oak was French so its influence is much more subtle) hiding behind the plummy, fruitiness too.

Taste: Black currant, and the flavor of the chocolate orange thing that is sold at Christmas (I just can't get off the darn holiday, can I?). That chocolate-orange note really set this wine apart for me. There was a warm spiciness that made me want to drink it in front of a big stone fireplace on a cold night. The tannins were great, the acidity helped lighten the heaviness of the dark fruit, and the flavors were superb.

My only criticism: although it was completely dry, it gave a strong impression of sweetness because of the high alcohol. I wish it was a little lower in alcohol.

Drink or sink?: Definitely drink. For $40 this is one of the best Cabernets I've had in a long time. You normally have to pay a lot more for a wine to get this kind of quality. It's complex, rich, powerful, but still has some subtlety and is very nicely balanced. An amazing value for the money.

Wine #3: 2005 Peju Napa Valley Estate Bottled Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve

Price: $105

Alcohol: 15.3% (Again, really high)

Grapes: 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 1% Cabernet Franc (more like a Bordeaux blend).

Where it's From: The Rutherford District of Napa Valley, California. Peju farms some of its vineyards organically and this wine is from their Rutherford Vineyard, which is certified organic. (link is to a post on organic wines if you want clarification on what that means!).

Color: Like a dried red rose -- a little ruby with brown around the rim of the wine.

Smell: Oooo this was great. Blackberry, violets, spearmint, coffee, and chocolate... all the great things a California Cab has to offer.

Taste: So much going on. Softer fruit -- ripe plums and dark cherries but not a flavor that hits you in the face. Coffee, earth (wines from the Rutherford district are always a little earthy), and a little bit of mint were balanced by medium tannins, and again -- the wine has high alcohol but you barely notice because of all the other fruit and textures.

Drink or sink?: DRINK!! This is a wonderful special occasion wine. It's soft, elegant and full of bright fruit but low, earthy smells and flavors too. I think this one was really amazing, and a standout -- it's not like everyone else's high tier wine. This is something special. 

I shared it with a friend who immediately ordered a few bottles to keep on hand for a special occasion -- it's the kind of wine that inspires you to do that (if you've got the cash : ).

Thanks again to Peju for the wines. If you've tried them, let me know what you think by dropping a comment below or on Facebook or Twitter!