2006 California Cabernets

Vintage reports are more interesting if they come with a story, and this one does.

When members of the Rutherford Dust Society – growers and winemakers in the Rutherford appellation of Napa Valley – broke ground in July at Quintessa winery on a $4.5 million Napa River (seen here in spring) restoration project, they ended seven years of environmental studies and governmental hoop-jumping to truly begin the transformation.

With the first turn of a shovel, the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team (RDRT, or 'our dirt') began restoring a 4.5-mile stretch of the Napa River and its watershed, which flows through the...