Tasting Notes 27 found

Wow, amazing juice. Hews toward the sweeter blackberry liqueur side of things, but superb balance. Fantastic with The Ranch Cowboy Ribeye in Anaheim. Even dad drank his entire glass instead of sliding it over to mom like he usually does! We could have drank two bottles of this easily if I had them. Last bottle. Sad. Decanted only about 3 hours. Perfect time to enjoy this and prob has 3 or 4 more years at peak. (2174 views)

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Just gorgeous in every way, really almost 97 pts, but hard to give it that when I can always mentally go back to my fav Schrader Old Sparky and get some perspective.

Stacy loved this too. It has shed baby fat, tannins, etc, and just become a smooth and elegant expression of a Cab (not sure of the blend). It's like Russell put on a pink tutu and danced around for us during dinner. Hee hee! Hope I don't get booted from the mailing list for that one.

We enjoyed this oh so slowly prior to the U2 concert at Rose Bowl last night. No formal notes, but it just had impeccable balance, no heat, all the black berry fruits you could want along with 70% dark chocolate and hints of brown sugar. Nothing could have paired better with the perfect cowboy ribeye!

Yikes, what a night.... Except for the technical snafus at the Rose Bowl entrance this was a perfect night, with perfect food, my perfect wife, and perfect wine!!!! (2565 views)

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See my last score from June 2014 dinner, and we had an interim score of 9.5- in Nov 2014. The wine is not as brash/tannic as it did in 2014 (it threw around 2 ounces of thick sludge this time). There was absolutely no alcohol burn anywhere. That made it more of a 200-lb ballerina that went well with, dang, everything from short rib to pork chops to chicken pot pies at Smitty's in Pasadena. Russel Bevan in a tutu! What an image!

Anniversary dinner with Scudieris and it made the evening very special. Glad I have one more bottle!

PS: 4-hour decant with a few swirls in between. I like to decant the wine, put the cleansed bottle in the freezer with plastic wrap over the top, then right before we leave for dinner I put the wine back in the frozen bottle and it comes to the right temp as we start the meal and throughout. Highly recommended. (4619 views)

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Infanticide, but at least it was just a small draw via Coravin. Consumed before it had time to breathe, and it was still just an amazing wine. Had all of the blueberry liqueur and cocoa powder and toasty oak you could want from start to finish. This is a real powerhouse. It needs about 3-4 more years, but if you decant it now for a few hours you won't be disappointed. (4983 views)

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No formal notes, but this was one of the best wine-food pairings I have had in a long time. The opulence, ripe red fruits and spices (cinnamon, clove) in this wine went perfectly with the glazed ham tonight. All of us agreed it was a perfect match. Sad this is my last bottle.

My note is lame, I know, but just read CSIM's note below and that guy/gal nailed it. Ditto! (1745 views)

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COLOR: Most cloudy white wine ever, more than an Aubert Chard even! Cloudy, light gold honey. Cloudy like a Louisiana bayou...

NOTE: Russell never does anything small, so why would his SB be any diff? I can just hear his staff telling him that the wine wont be stable without fining/filtering and him replying that he doesn't give a flying leap through a rolling doughnut hole (or something far more graphic and not fit for publication). Lovely nose of ripe pineapple, expressed lemon oil, and an almost savory topnote, like of rosemary or thyme, but very subtle. You can smell the raspiness of the lees, almost pine-like. Mouth is rich and round, not sleek/racy/sharp in any way (unlike many SBs). This is not your usual SB, as if you couldn't figure that out already. Mouth is full of ripe pineapple, papaya, mango, lemon, lime, kumquat. Finish leaves a lot of fruit behind in favor of creme brulee and a spike of acid+heat (13.4ABV now that I checked).

This SB breaks a lot of stereotypes. No cat pee, cut grass, limestone, etc. It's more of a full-bodied Chard-lovers SB, fat-bottomed girl of sorts. Prob wont work with your stupid oyster shooters and all that, but man it is great all on its own. Worked great in the Montrachet glass.

I still prefer my Merry Edwards SB, perhaps because of the Musque clone and the slight RS. But this is a close second for very diff reasons.

DECANT: PnP
GLASS USED: Riedel Montrachet
TASTE: 9.2+
COST: 37
VALUE: 6.5
TRY AGAIN: now - 2017
CORAVIN'D: n/a
PRE-POUR LEVEL:
PAIRING:
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Tasted this with Victoria and Josh. Amazing juice. Full on 9.5 and rising. Just slightly eclipsed by the EE in this vintage. (1485 views)

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--- Unbelievable Wine Dinner at our Home with Victoria and Sharon! ---
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This was another bottle that was GONE by the end of the night, so no formal tasting note. It was the first wine I tasted and it barely had any decant time. It was an extracted and concentrated brut with the sweet oak overpowering the fruit at all stages. Just give it 2-4 years and let all that goodness integrate. Man were we committing infanticide tonight and loving it!

9.3-
3rd place out of 5 CS/CF-based wines tonight. (2212 views)

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--- Unbelievable Wine Dinner at our Home with Victoria and Sharon! ---
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COLOR: Opaque purple w/garnet-purple rim
NOTE: This may have been a flawed bottle, not sure, so no rating. Also, it was just bottled a few months ago. The nose was overwhelmingly green stems/vegetal/oak, like under-ripe Cab Francs I've had. This bottle was still 2/3rds full after the evening and I rated it #5 out of 5 CS/CF-based wines tonight. Hopefully I can try it again in a few years and either get a good bottle or an integrated one. This wine didn't budge with a 24 hour decant.

DECANT: 0 - 24
GLASS USED: Bordeaux
TASTE: 8.0 if I had to put a score, but it's not fair to do that.
COST: 75
VALUE: n/a
TRY AGAIN: 2017 - 2023
CORAVIN'D:
PRE-POUR LEVEL:
PAIRING:
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--- Unbelievable Wine Dinner at our Home with Victoria and Sharon! ---
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No official notes because my in-laws hogged 80% of the entire bottle and it was gone before Stacy even got to taste it!!! Just sucked it right down like Armageddon was coming in the next 30 minutes.

I personally felt it was a bit disjointed and so scored it below the EE. It still came out as #2 on my list for the night. The density and purity were profound, so this might just need a couple more years and it could exceed the EE. (1609 views)

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--- Unbelievable Wine Dinner at our Home with Victoria and Sharon! ---
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COLOR: Dense/opaque black-purple, almost to the rim
NOTE: 1st out of 5 CS/CF-based wines tonight. The following note is after 24 hours in opened bottle:
This is like taking the best components of all Bevan CS wines and rolling them into one. I could just sit and smell this bad boy for days. With only the faintest whiff of heat, the nose is like blackberry liqueur poured on hot, cracked granite (reminds me of another winery's style I just love). And it comes with all the cocoa powder, tar, oiled leather, Saigon cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, whatever.... The nose is STUPID good in case you didn't catch that. This was also the best wine overall from the moment of PnP, and it's even more sublime after 24 hours.
It rolls across the tongue with smooth tannins and sweet black fruits, thick and voluptuous, fully gratifying all on its own or with food. This is sexy and complex. Finish is dominated by dark chocolate and baking spices, but the deep black fruits definitely linger for the last 30+ seconds as well. Amazing. So elegant... Everyone raved about it.

DECANT: 0-24 hours
GLASS USED: Bordeaux
TASTE: 9.5+
COST: 150
VALUE: 8.0
TRY AGAIN: now - 2025
CORAVIN'D: no
PRE-POUR LEVEL:
PAIRING:
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--- Unbelievable Wine Dinner at our Home with Victoria and Sharon! ---
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COLOR: Opaque purple with garnet-purple rim
NOTE: Placed 4th out of 5 CS/CF-based 2012's from Bevan. The following note is based on what was left of the bottle 24 hours later:
Lovely loam-driven nose, bourbon vanilla bean, complicated by dark chocolate drizzled over macerated boysenberries. Hints of cracked pepper, whiff of heat. My kind of dessert! This seems to be much more giving than the PnP yesterday, indicating a good 2+ years will benefit the wine.
If this is still CF-dominant then this is an excellent example of what can be achieved by this varietal in California.
And if the complement in the wine is still Merlot, then this should make Merlot snobs shut up and take notice.
The mouth is rich, sweet with glycerin (but not opulent), full of black cherry, boysenberry, 70% dark chocolate truffle melting in your mouth. The finish was a bit clipped yesterday (no duh, it was only bottled 3 months ago) but today is a diff story. That lovely loam element reappears, giving amazing depth/volume to the rich black fruit compote. Some noticeable heat at the end, but worth the price of such ripe fruit. Bevan - Oh thank Heaven! Victoria, Russell and Sharon are amazing. Most hospitable folks in the industry!!!

DECANT: 0-24 hours
GLASS USED: Bordeaux
TASTE: 9.3+
COST: 150
VALUE: 3.0
TRY AGAIN: 2016 - 2022
CORAVIN'D: no
PRE-POUR LEVEL:
PAIRING:
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--- Unbelievable Wine Dinner at our Home with Victoria and Sharon! ---
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COLOR: Murky Garnet with murky ruby-garnet rim
NOTE: Super tight on PnP, this needed 24 hours. That's when nice smokey pomegranate liqueur emerged, sweet rhubarb sauce, mountain strawberries, nutmeg and sage. This needs to be served on the cool side as the alcohol dominates at 70+ degrees. Mouth has nice medium+ weight, cola, cinnamon sprinkled on some more red fruits, fresh and snappy with acidity. Finish is a little sweet but turns fairly acidic.


DECANT: 24 hours!
GLASS USED: Bordeaux
TASTE: 9.1+
COST: 75
VALUE: 6.0
TRY AGAIN: 2016 - 2020
CORAVIN'D:
PRE-POUR LEVEL:
PAIRING:
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COLOR: Opaque purple w/med purple rim
NOTE: Very plum/prune-driven from nose to finish, like my first Cavus. Not my favorite CS style. Little leather in the nose. Mouth is rich and ripe, but still there go those plums! Finish is definitely over-ripe plum/prune even. Out of balance and the only Bevan wine I haven't just gushed over, but hey, I still drank it!

DECANT: 0-2 hours
GLASS USED: Bordeaux
TASTE: 9.2-
COST: 200
VALUE: 1.0
TRY AGAIN: now-2015
CORAVIN'D: no
PRE-POUR LEVEL:
PAIRING:
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COLOR: Opaque purple with medium-purple rim
NOTE: Nice Schrader-like nose of sweet fruit, dusty cocoa, rosewood, tar and leather. Took 6 hours of decanting before a vegetal note subsided (assuming this was from the Cab Franc component). But then it became this voluptuous beast, full of blackberry liqueur and herbs. Finish was rich and round, with black fruit dominating. Good stuff.

DECANT: 6+ hours!
GLASS USED: Bordeaux
TASTE: 9.3
COST: 150
VALUE: 3.0
TRY AGAIN: 2017-2023
CORAVIN'D: no
PRE-POUR LEVEL:
PAIRING:
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