A Chapter Laid on the Table: Why We Wait for Cabernet
By Eliza Hess
Earlier this fall, we did something we had never done before at the winery.
At the request of longtime club member and Cabernet enthusiast Cal Rodway, we agreed to host his private, invitation-only vertical tasting of Tangles – Heather’s former Cabernet Sauvignon project. Cal brought the wines himself, all from his personal cellar. He wanted a place, a table, and the chance to taste through a decade of Cabernet with the woman who made it.
So we set up the tasting room.
Twenty places at the table. Ten glasses per setting. Two hundred glasses catching the afternoon light. Bottles lined up in chronological order, stretching across years of Heather’s life and work. No rush, no distractions—just time, space, and attention.
As the first corks were pulled, it became clear this wasn’t just a tasting. It was a rare opportunity to slow down and look carefully at a body of work—vintage by vintage, decision by decision.
Tangles was never about volume or market trends. It was Heather’s personal exploration of Cabernet Sauvignon after decades of winemaking at Robert Mondavi. She planted her own vineyard in Coombsville, farmed it organically, and made every decision—from pruning to harvest to barrel aging—with intention. The wines that came from it were thoughtful, restrained, and unapologetically patient.
Sitting beside Heather as each vintage was poured was unforgettable. In front of her lay nearly ten years of work—each bottle a snapshot of who she was at that moment as a winemaker and a farmer. Some vintages reflected confidence, others challenge. One was nearly lost to frost.
What struck everyone in the room was how alive the wines still were.
Some bottles were more than twenty years old and yet continued to evolve in the glass—aromatics unfolding, structure softening, balance revealing itself slowly over time. They weren’t tired. They weren’t fading. They were still very much in motion.
Heather spoke candidly as we tasted—about what she learned, what she might do differently now, and how Cabernet, more than any other variety, demands humility. It doesn’t conform to schedules. It doesn’t reward shortcuts. It teaches patience, awareness, and restraint.
That afternoon we got to experience Heather’s opus, laid bare on the table—not protected or polished, but purely exposed in the best way possible. And it reinforced something we’ve always believed at the Lucas Winery: time is not an obstacle to great Cabernet—it’s an essential ingredient.
Everything Heather learned over decades at Mondavi, and over ten deeply personal years making Tangles, informed the way she approached the 2021 Lucas Cabernet Sauvignon. Just as importantly, she passed that knowledge on. During the 2021 vintage, I was there alongside her—listening, watching, and helping at every step. Vineyard decisions, harvest timing, cellar choices, conversations about structure and balance—all of it was shared deliberately, and in real time.
Our 2021 Lucas Cabernet Sauvignon is resting quietly in our cellar now for the same reason those Tangles wines aged so beautifully: it needs the time. It’s still knitting together, still finding its balance, still becoming itself.
What we tasted that day was proof that patience isn’t a burden—it’s a commitment. And when you eventually open your bottle of the 2021 Lucas Cabernet, my hope is that you’ll taste not only the wine, but the years of knowledge, care, and mentorship that shaped it—because some wines are worth waiting for.
