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(e.g. 1970 Heitz or BV Latour, 1941 Inglenook Cask or BV Latour, 1955 Martini Special Selection -- these are my personal benchmark wines for California Cab -- nothing has come close to these wines at their peaks)

You really do know your wines! Back in the 1970's I used to go to these wineries about three times a year. The Inglenook Estate Cab and BV Estate Cab were among my all time favorites.

My wife and I used to stay at The Heritage House in Mendocino and have them open up a bottle about an hour before dinner. Then we would just enjoy ...

Brings back memories! I grew up in Sonoma County, 4th generation in a California wine family, stepped in the traditions, visiting the owners and winemakers all over Napa and Sonoma Counties with my grandfather and great uncles, being guided in my tasting by those who knew wine and those who made it from an age when most kids are still drinking pop and haven't even thought about drinking beer (or those execrable 'pop' wines of the 50's and 60's). It was great, you could really know just about everyone who was active in the business.

Did you ever go to Simi's tasting room when Isabelle Haigh was still around? The '35 Simi Cab was available and rationed at $25 a bottle (a lot of money in 1969), one per customer. But she liked my Dad (they'd known each other in the '20s) and me, so she'd slip severl bottles of the '35 into whatever case I was getting. A very great wine, but not quite at the level of the 41's, which to my Californian trained palate were comparable in quality (though not quite as refined) as the '28 and '29 Pauilliacs my grandfather used as benchmarks for post-phyloxera Bordeaux (he said the pre-1885 wines were really much, much better -- I don't know, I never tasted them)