Cabernet Sauvignon (1978)

About this wine

This 1978 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Charles Krug shows the kind of graceful, fully mature profile you only get with real bottle age. The nose leans classic and savory, with Black Currant, dried cherry, Cedar, and Tobacco Leaf coming through first, then hints of dried rose as it opens. On the palate it reads more red fruited than many modern Napa Cabernets, with Red Currant and dried cherry up front, plus Plum Skin depth and a touch of Baking Spice. The texture is smooth and gentle, with the tannins feeling more like a soft frame than a grip, and the finish echoes cedar and tobacco. You still get that recognizable Napa stamp, but in a quieter register, more about nuance than power. Charles Krug is one of Napa Valley’s founding names, established in 1861 and later stewarded by the Mondavi family, and bottles like this are a reminder of how Napa Cabernet used to speak in a lower voice.

About the grape

Cabernet Sauvignon originated in Bordeaux where it became prized for its thick skins and high tannin, traits that helped it travel well to California in the 19th century and take hold in Napa Valley. At Charles Krug the Mondavi family had been focusing on Bordeaux varieties since they bought the estate in 1943, and by the 1960s the winery was already using imported French oak to shape its Cabernets, a practice that would have influenced the 1978 bottling. In the 1970s Napa Cabernet was still evolving, growers often supplied fruit from older, valley floor plantings and from several Napa sub regions, so Charles Krug wines from that era typically reflect blended sources and the viticultural limits of the time. For the 1978 release the winery would have relied on these traditional vineyard sources and cellar techniques, using Cabernet for its structure and aging potential while integrating it with the estate winemaking practices developed under the Mondavi family.

Quick facts

• 🏛️ The 1978 Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Napa’s oldest continuously operating winery, an estate founded in 1861 that still shows original 19th‑century touches in the tasting room.
• 👪 This bottle is a product of the Mondavi era at Charles Krug, made while Peter Mondavi was running the estate after the family’s 1943 purchase, so it reflects the family’s post‑war modernization efforts.
• 🕰️ 1978 in Napa produced relatively restrained, lower‑alcohol Cabernets compared with modern vintages, so this bottle often tastes like a time capsule of old‑school Napa balance rather than the riper style common today.
• 🔧 Because Charles Krug pioneered cellar innovations in the 19th and 20th centuries, a 1978 bottling may show winemaking touches handed down from those early experimental techniques and family practices.
• 🍷 A 1978 Charles Krug Cabernet is unusual on the secondary market today because Charles Krug historically made larger, more widely distributed releases, so surviving bottles are interesting survivors from a once‑common everyday Napa Cabernet era.

Palate profile

Producer

Charles Krug Winery, established in 1861 by Prussian immigrant Charles Krug, is recognized as Napa Valley's first commercial winery. Krug, a pioneer in California winemaking, introduced innovations such as using a cider press for grape pressing and selecting specific rootstocks and vineyard sites. In 1882, he opened California's first public tasting room, revolutionizing wine tasting experiences. In 1943, the Mondavi family purchased the winery, marking their entry into fine winemaking and continuing its legacy of innovation and quality.