Pipeline blocked by $50+ Cabs

As drizzly, foggy mornings and mild (75–85 °F) afternoons continue to delay the 2010 grape harvest in California by as much as three weeks, there is a stall of another sort occurring in the release of Cabernet Sauvignons to the market.

Shipments of samples to wine critics are as good an indicator of sales trends as any, and my receipt of California Cabernet Sauvignons in the past two months indicates that many producers are bogged down by slow sales, still marketing 2005 and 2006 wines when a 'normal' sales year would have had them introducing their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignons by...