Back to the Future: Axios

Axios Cabernet Sauvignon

by Tom Hyland, tnapawine@aol.com

Even with the struggling economy these days, there is no shortage of “cult” Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa Valley. Many of these wines have a lot in common, with the most usual trait being that they are super-ripe, oaky and, over-the-top. In other words, these are not wines that will be celebrated for their finesse.

A new bottling recently passed through our offices, however, and it made us sit up and take notice. It is called Axios and it displays rich fruit and wonderful concentration with toned down oak and moderate alcohol levels. In other words, it is a wine that showcases the wonderful purity of Napa Cabernet in a balanced package—ta wine that made us remember fondly some of the great Napa Cabs that were produced before the advent of show wines and the cult of “physiological ripeness” that seems to have resulted in an oak and alcohol arms race. Could Axios be at the vanguard of a trend back to winemaking sanity in California?

It is, after all, a $100-plus bottle that is under 14-percent alcohol and doesn’t even have 100% new oak. Who would buy such a thing these days? Lots of people it would seem as the first vintage sold out in a flash and the second is just about gone as well. Perhaps we are not the only ones that have grown tired of over-the-top, formulaic, me-too show wines.

The force behind Axios is Gus Kalaris, the owner of Constantine Wines, a fine wine distributor on the East Coast. Kalaris boasts one of the best collections of Napa Cabernets to sell, including Harlan, Dunn and Pahlmeyer, to name a few. Having made frequent trips to Napa and getting to know the principals behind these estates, Kalaris admitted he “got the bug” and decided he would produce a high-end Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.

He produced his first wine from the 1999 vintage, releasing a total of 375 cases (750 six-packs) at a cost of $125 a bottle and sold out in one months’ time! Great writeups in the press helped out and the current 2000--with a production of 550 cases--is enjoying similar sales success.

Kalaris sources his grapes from two vineyards in prime Napa Cabernet territory; one in the Eastern Rutherford Hills and another at a higher elevation near the Howell Mountain appellation. He recruited the well-respected Robert Egelhoff as his winemaker. Egelhoff, whom Kalaris came to know from his days as winemaker at Harlan Estate, is currently a consulting winemaker for six other clients, with the best-known being David Arthur Vineyards.

Kalaris wanted to make sure that his wine would stand out from the crowd, so he sought balance in the wine. “We took a restraint to oak,” he states. Even with 70% new oak for 23 months, Kalaris achieved his goal. “I don’t want to over-oak, as I want true balance with soft-grained tannins.”

What is most impressive about the wine is the flavor profile. There is plenty of ripe blackcurrant fruit, but is does not lean toward the jammy, plummy end of the spectrum. Most prominent is the subtle herbal presence, with notes of oregano, tobacco and oak. While this has the forward fruit of a Napa wine, the rest of the wine could be mistaken for one of the finest offerings from Graves.

The wine is sold via the website (www.axioswine.com) and in a few major markets such as Chicago, New York, California, and Virginia with Massachusetts set to come aboard soon. He plans to top out production at 1,500 cases, as he really doesn’t want to make more than that. His reaction so far to his early success? “I’m pleased, I’m really jazzed with how far we’ve come so quickly.”

Understated—tjust like the wine.

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