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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.1 pts. and median of 91 pts. in 100 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by acyso on 11/6/2022 & rated 85 points: Vinetasters: Howell Mountain (Park Ridge, IL): Served double blind. Clearly and older wine with its slightly mulchy aromas make me think this is probably merlot heavy again. Coarse in texture and quite disjointed, this reminds me of the terminal stage of a Parkerized wine. Clearly some oxidation going on as well. My 9th, group's 11th. (1628 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 5/13/2022 & rated 91 points: ripe fruit, stewed prunes, cassis, smoky, grilled meats, and cedar notes. (1228 views) | | | Tasted by shafer1994 on 4/10/2022 & rated 91 points: My last bottle. No decant. Light redish color. Full ripe nose, reduced fruits, some sweetness, nice. On the palate some tannins but dominated by dark berries and a sweet medium finish. Not as good as previous bottles, the fruit is fading, but still remarkable. Drink up. (1264 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 11/19/2021 & rated 89 points: ripe, a little pruny, slightly dirty and chalky nose. Smoky with some leather. (1232 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 10/15/2021 & rated 90 points: served after 1½ hours in decanter. Stewed prunes, a little savory, with fragrant and woodsy notes. (1232 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 2/20/2021 & rated 89 points: minty, a hint of smoke, some stewed fruits. (766 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 2/4/2021 & rated 89 points: ripe, stewed prunes, smoky. (638 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 9/4/2020 & rated 90 points: smoky, a little dirty, minty, with stewed prunes. Actually still going strong, with plenty of fruit. (609 views) | | | Tasted by R2-D2 on 9/2/2020 & rated 94 points: Wednesday Wine Education #4 (Grapes & Grains, Temecula, CA): The final of my four bottles and, by far the best. This fully mature wine is a pure expression of Howell Mountain Merlot - Dried plums and berries, fig, violet, bay leaf, mint, truffle, coffee, cocoa, leather, tobacco, cedar, baking spice, and dried herbs. Some unresolved tannin is still prevalent on the long, long finish. Would recommend decanting only to remove sediment and to drink within 30-60 minutes. This fades quickly. (1889 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 7/31/2020 & rated 91 points: still drinking very well, actually pretty ripe and sweet, with a little more vanilla than expected. (606 views) | | | Tasted by TomTom on 6/14/2020: Wonderfully aged Merlot. A bit more tannin that I would have predicted, but that is providing nice structure to a dark fruit and cigar box finish. This wine does not appear to be losing its fruit or structure any time soon. (1889 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 5/15/2020 & rated 91 points: alcoholic, smoky, exotic sweetness, vanilla, and coconut butter. Very nice and fragrant. (605 views) | | | Tasted by WetRock on 2/16/2020: Very dense and tannic still. Fleshy and somewhat closed-ish on the first night. More interesting on night two when some complexities unfold. The fill wasn't fantastic being just above the shoulder but this seemed the youngest I've had of this wine. This bottle probably wanted more time. still comes off like something from a completely different era. Not sure I could blind this as not being Cab. (2439 views) | | | Tasted by BigBoy_Sonoma on 5/18/2019 & rated 93 points: Dried cherries, herbal notes, cedar, pepper, spice, Smokey oak. Acidity balanced and the fruit is in line with the mid-palate. A-/A (2633 views) | | | Tasted by R2-D2 on 4/28/2019 & rated 91 points: Mini-Cellar Diminishment Party & Blind Cabernet Bordeaux Blends (Temecula, CA): This was tasting fantastic on Sunday afternoon. Really gained a lot of complexity since I had it many years ago. Cedar, tobacco, vanilla and plum. Right at its peak. Everyone in the group was surprised to see a Napa Merlot hold up and mature so well. (2709 views) | | | Tasted by WetRock on 4/9/2019: Initially a little cigar smells give way to something more expressive within a half hour. Especially the palate which went explosive adding some rose petals to it's cedary deep plum and wood. It really grab me by the shirt and let me know it wanted my attention. Which was just fine because this was captivating. A touch of minerals on the nose was offset by a touch of warmth on the palate. This bottle is in some terrific window. Held up ok overnight under a "repour". It was all there just not as cohesive and expressive. (1989 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 12/31/2018 & rated 91 points: sweet, coffee, toasty and oaky, really smoky tobacco. (618 views) | | | Tasted by BrunelloBob on 12/25/2018: Auction purchase, two consistent bottles. A bit disappointing. Thinner and less fruit than i hoped for. Not in the same league as the cab. (1949 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 12/24/2018 & rated 89 points: pretty much par for the course, with some fruit, smoky, and oaky notes. (616 views) | | | Tasted by BigBoy_Sonoma on 7/25/2018 & rated 91 points: Earthy notes, cedar, minerality, herbal notes, pepper finishes with some smoky oak. A- (2255 views) | | | Tasted by WetRock on 7/19/2018: I originally popped this to decant it for a wine dinner. I noticed the fill wasn't great, being nearer the shoulder than not. There was enough madeirization on the nose to raise alarms and the palate didn't strike me like the last bottle. I gave it a few minutes with no improvement. So I made another selection for dinner and put this one in the kitchen fridge.
Revisited the next night and found a mixed bag. The fruit isn't gone but it does show enough madeirized notes to put some people off. It's certainly not like the last bottle that still had powerful, deep fruit. I enjoyed it as it was but this bottle certainly had some issue in the way of heat, storage or cork. (1732 views) | | | Tasted by WetRock on 6/4/2018: Lovely cigar box aroma over dark red fruits. Tons of fruit still present here. This is clearly in a secondary type of phase but the fruit doesn't seem to be receding much. Or it was so huge to begin with it's fading to a big wine. Seems to straddle those traditional Right Bank notes and California fruit in expression. Could use a bit more acidity but the fruit kinda makes you forget for a while. Terrific. Consistent over two nights. Lots of time left. (1880 views) | | | Tasted by Peech on 5/19/2018 & rated 87 points: a little musty at first, slightly overripe, with fragrant cedar notes. (619 views) | | | Tasted by BigBoy_Sonoma on 5/13/2018 & rated 92 points: Black fruit, candied cherry, red fruit, cassis, spice and herbal notes. Well balanced and aging gracefully. A- (1972 views) | | | Tasted by BigBoy_Sonoma on 2/2/2018 & rated 93 points: Black and red fruit, herbal notes, tobacco, leathery notes. A (2000 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, May/June 2000, IWC Issue #90
(Beringer Vineyards Merlot Bancroft Ranch Howell Mountain) Subscribe to see review text. | By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, May/June 1999, IWC Issue #84
(Beringer Vineyards Merlot Bancroft Ranch Howell Mountain) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Beringer Vineyards Producer websiteMerlotMerlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to be a diminutive of merle, the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color of the grape. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin.USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)Howell Mountain Howell Mountain |
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