1994 Clos Pegase Napa Valley Cabernet

There are several explanations for this. First of all, the regular Cab bottling from Clos Pegase isn't that expensive (for instance: the '02 is selling *right now* for $22 on the Internet), so your price isn't really the bargain that it might appear to be. Secondly, it's now 12 years old. '94 was a very good year in CA for Cabs, but if this bottle hasn't been stored well for the past decade, it could be dead as a doornail (where has it been all that time? at the retailer's? or at a distributor's non-temperature-controlled warehouse?) It could be that someone in the supply chain is just trying to get it off the shelves, but as I said earlier the price isn't that cheap, really, so maybe not.

On the positive side, people who've recorded their impressions online using Cellartracker estimate that this wine will drink well to 2010, so if you can establish that it's been well stored all the while, you can get an aged Cab for not so much.

HTH Mark Lipton