Wine of the week: Katherine Goldschmidt, 2016 Crazy Creek Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Nick Goldschmidt, a New Zealand native, arrived in Wine Country in 1990 with a backpack and $200. But what he lacked in financial resources, he made up with ingenuity.

This year marks Goldschmidt’s 20th vintage of his namesake winery in Healdsburg, and the vintner is also a “flying winemaker,” traveling the globe to produce wine. His exploits include far-flung places such as Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and Canada.

“My wife Yolyn and I have been able to put this together,” Goldschmidt said. “It hasn’t been easy, but very rewarding. I would never have been able to do this in New Zealand.”

The vintner is behind our wine-of-the-week winner - the Katherine Goldschmidt, 2016 Crazy Creek Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at $24. It’s an impressive cabernet that’s a steal for this caliber of cab. It has firm tannins and yet it’s juicy with generous fruit. It has aromas and flavors of blackberry, cassis and black cherry, with notes of smoke and forest floor. The cab is full-bodied with a seamless texture and well crafted.

“I like wine that is full and fleshy in the mouth but then after being there, it gradually melts away,” Goldschmidt said.

The vintner named the bottling after his daughter Katherine, now 20, the middle child of five. She’s studying to be a veterinary assistant in Sacramento but comes home every weekend to work with her father in the vineyards.

What gives this cabernet the edge, Goldschmidt said, is that he has crafted wine from the same site for nearly three decades. The winemaker began his career at Simi Winery in Healdsburg in 1990, and back then the vines were producing fruit for the Simi Reserve Cabernet.

“Most winemakers haven’t made wine for 20 years, let alone from the same place,” he said. “I have seen this vineyard in all types of seasons.”

Goldschmidt, 56, worked at Simi until 2003 and then for the global company Allied Domecq/Jim Beam until 2008. That year he became self-employed, opening Goldschmidt Vineyards, where he said his titles include “tractor driver and hose dragger.”

Making cabernet is Goldschmidt’s forte because he has a lot of experience with the varietal, and he loves to drink cab.

“I am splitting hairs to make it better every year,” he said.

Farming the land without herbicides, Goldschmidt said, has made a huge impact as of late.

“The vineyards feel alive when I walk into them,” he said. “I think the wines reflect it in juiciness and vibrancy.”

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com.