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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 93.3 pts. and median of 94 pts. in 290 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Philip67 on 5/2/2024 & rated 94 points: Still young. Good restrained red and black fruit. Stylistically this is more Boardeaux than California. There is real depth and length here. There pleasing notes of tar, earth and leather, along with cedar and hints of cake spices. The acidity is quite high and the tannins and firm and grippy. There is some complexity here. Drinking now but will be better in 10 years. (323 views) | | | Tasted by evanlyall on 4/26/2024 & rated 94 points: Excellent. Drink now! (296 views) | | | Tasted by cubswinws on 3/29/2024 & rated 92 points: Very nice fully mature cab with nice finish. Seems at peak so I would drink sooner at this point. (560 views) | | | Tasted by Volleyball on 3/20/2024 & rated 95 points: Still excellent. Enjoyed on the beach in Mexico with some good steak.
A couple of years in, this is showing a more savory character, with more floral and vegetable flavors than fruits with noticeable eucalyptus and menthol. It’s actually more savory than I would prefer but an excellent wine nonetheless. Very very long finish. (687 views) | | | Tasted by glou.sf on 3/9/2024 & rated 93 points: Intense nose with lots of fruit, dark berries, cassis, blackberries, tobacco, and earth. Medium acidity with quite a bit of tannins, black cherries, and more blackberries and tobacco on the palate. Finish is quite long. This is a rich, ripe, and big wine but it's actually quite balanced. Still, it feels much too young. I would hold for another 10+ years. 93+ (744 views) | | | Tasted by LNLeeV on 3/1/2024: Gifted to Menlo School auction (810 views) | | | Tasted by Hanibal on 2/11/2024 & rated 92 points: Still young (931 views) | | | Tasted by mxfnck on 11/25/2023 & rated 98 points: Bucket List tasting at Wijnkoperij Okhuysen: The other winner of the night. Surprisingly colorful.
The nose started out with spices, smoked meat, mocca, a hint of eucalyptus, pencil. After a few minutes, a stunning fruitiness started to emerge. A hint of cassis at first, building and building, until it was imbued with gorgeous forest fruit, a bit of jam, while underneath there was all this tertiary complexity. It took me a long time to even consider taking the first sip.
The tannins were utterly refined and vibrant, soft acidity and a tiny bit of chocolate-bitter.
Then another evolution when aromas of black olive and undergrowth started to develop. So much going on, and all so integrated. Really really refined and delicious.
In its perfect drinking window right now. No decanting, just followed it in the glass. (1490 views) | | | Tasted by Alexander Smith on 10/5/2023 & rated 89 points: Brief tasting note:
Two bottles of this wine were opened the first one seemed a little Bretty but maybe that is just how the wine is? The second one had this sweet and sour texture, nearly BBQ meet in terms of flavours. Not sure which was good which one was not, disappointing. (1724 views) | | | Tasted by d'Artagnan on 10/4/2023 & rated 96 points: Dégustation Spottswoode avec Beth Weber Novak: Après une première bouteille bouchonnée, notre ami Daniel en produit une seconde, qui s'est avérée magnifique malgré le peu d'aération.
Belle droiture, un vin racé, enrobé et gras, avec une vague parenté bordelaise, mais le côté résolument hédoniste de la vallée de Napa. Puissant mais raffiné, très bonne longueur. Grand vin et un des meilleurs Dominus que j’ai pris. 96 pts (1716 views) | | | Tasted by VinDeVie_1 on 7/4/2023 & rated 98 points: 2002 Dominus Estate. Despite being the oldest napa wine I've had in the last couple of months, this may have been the freshest/youngest wine of the whole lot. This wine could easily rest five more years and not miss a beat. Very austere and Bordeaux at times. I think I even commented, "You can take the maker out of France, but you can't take the France out of the maker." The only tip off to me was the higher fruit character and lack of the cedar/leather/cigar box note that would be present in a true left bank wine. 97-98+ (1900 views) | | | Tasted by Nontaco on 4/14/2023 & rated 95 points: Smooth and supple and drinking beautifully now. Long session and enjoyed the communion with the wine. This is all muted dark fruits and a walk through the forest and easy drinking. Pleasure. Lacking certain dimensions and I have to say I thought once or twice why not just drink a good Bordeaux w some bottle age to have that dialogue with the terroir rather than a facsimile (all relative re QPR). Still a really nice bottle and favorite Dominus to date. (2116 views) | | | Tasted by Cailles on 3/12/2023 & rated 95 points: Tasted double blind. My guess was right bank Bordeaux from a ripe vintage. While not as classic Bordeaux-esque as the 80s and early 90s Dominus, this still is on the good side of things in terms of ripeness and earthiness – even in a hot, ripe vintage like 2002. A great wine and thanks to the powerful fruit and ripeness it did show well even after 20 wines and with an almost numb palate.
TN: Intense but not overly precise bouquet displaying dark berries and truffles at the core. On the palate loads of herbs, minerality, perfectly complementing the ripe dark fruit core. The structural frame was quite good with melted tannins, high tension, good acidity and an overall wonderful balance.
Decanting: Not decanted, no extensive decanting needed (2412 views) | | | Tasted by Collector1855 on 3/12/2023 & rated 96 points: Blind tasting dinner. Much better than 10 years ago when I had this wine the last time. Beautiful and mature, ripe but the ripeness is well integrated now, forest floor. I guessed Bdx from a warm vintage and not Napa. (2102 views) | | | Tasted by La Sprezzatura on 3/10/2023 & rated 95 points: dominus simply delivers everytime at almost every vintage.
on the nose it reminded me a lot of bordeaux, just a touch more light and fresh. elegant and full of pleasure and high drink flow.
characteristicly this had a touch of vegetable aromas followed by some pepper and paprika.
would profit from decant.
my style, id almost say that i lile this even more than a ripe bordeaux. the freeshness is unmathed. (1260 views) | | | Tasted by shafer1994 on 10/30/2022 & rated 92 points: Reluctant wine, more French than Californian. Deep color, elegant nose. After some time and a lot of air: Blackberries and red currant, espresso. Medium finish. More elegance than fruitiness. All in all very conservative. (2425 views) | | | Tasted by MC2 Wines on 10/22/2022: NY Wine Experience 2022; 10/20/2022-10/23/2022 (Marriott Marquis): So very young. Lots of big fruit. Almost no age here (at least could tell the '06 had had 16 years - this feels almost like it could have been released last year). Perhaps a bit less depth to it. Wonder how it will evolve longer term. (2727 views) | | | Tasted by lomartin@protonmail.com on 7/31/2022 & rated 83 points: Although it still shows s characteristics one expects of Dominus, this is now past its prime. Drink “yesterday”. (2474 views) | | | Tasted by JS199 on 2/13/2022 & rated 97 points: Decanted for 30 minutes and consumed over 4+ hours. Beautiful nose of Bordeaux, herbs, and earth. Palate was seamless, well built, no slowing down to the finish. Elegant, subtle, French oak well integrated, slight chocolate on the finish. Absolutely gorgeous. (3260 views) | | | Tasted by hoservin on 1/1/2022 & rated 95 points: Decanted for one hour. Nose of blackberry, currant, cedar, anise and forest floor. Ripe blackberry, currant, cedar, leather, licorice and crushed rock on the palate. Very long, layered finish with excellent depth. Medium to full bodied. This was exquisite. Drinking very well. Served with beef Wellington. (3090 views) | | | Tasted by Frank Murray III on 12/15/2021: Served blind. I was all over the place with my guesses. But we had some smart red wine palates at the table who helped center this to Bordeaux, left bank. Wrong! This showed a cool mix of what to me seemed like a new/old world marriage of flavors. The California sun reflected in the wine, with some ripeness that was integrated and showing very well. Yet, there was cedar, pencil shavings and one remark about olive. Overall, this was drinking great for me and remaining fresh and balanced, along with aging well at almost 20 years. (3264 views) | | | Tasted by mclanew on 10/30/2021 & rated 97 points: Decanted two hours. This is stunningly good. Ripe black currant and cherry, tobacco and herbs comes through. This is a little riper than this wine usually is but it works as it still shows some of its trademark bordeaux character. Very elegant with silky tannins and a long satisfying finish this keeps giving and giving. This will be excellent for at least the next ten years (2921 views) | | | Tasted by Jeff Leve on 10/3/2021 & rated 95 points: Ripe, round and luscious, with layers of deep, dark red and black fruits, opulent textures, and waves of ripe, juicy, sweet fruits in the finish that continue through to the back end. If I was being picky, a touch of heat intrudes in all the sweet, fruits and licorice that linger in the finish. This is really showing well. Perhaps 30 minutes of decanting works here, but as it is about to hit 20 years of age, the wine is developed and ready to go. (4437 views) | | | Tasted by Volleyball on 10/2/2021 & rated 95 points: Decanted this for about 7 hours before drinking. No lightweight, but more elegance than power, which was surprising but very enjoyable. This is very good drinking at the moment, but still pretty early in the development of its tertiary characteristics. I think I’ll save my other bottles for a little while …
Fairly deep russet color, showing its age a bit, but not too much.
Quite a pronounced nose of blueberries, earth, tobacco, flint and asparagus. Clearly a complex wine.
Higher acid than expected (M+), with mounth filling and persistent, but soft tannins. Full body and a good long finish. Still plenty of fruit - blueberry and black currant - balanced by just a little vegetable (the asparagus) and mint with tobacco, leather and truffle on the finish. (2165 views) | | | Tasted by Cailles on 9/19/2021 & rated 96 points: Mini Dominus Vertical 87/95/02/15. No notes taken. This is my first 2002 Dominus and it met my high expectations. Very expressive with layers and layers of ripe but pure fruit, lots of earthy notes, minerality, herbs, spices and first tertiary notes of tobacco, wet earth and truffles. The structural frame is impeccable with a wall of fine tannins, a high and well-rounded acidity, a nicely creamy texture, no excess weight and a long and expanding finish. This is a masterpiece in the making but I guess this will at least need another 10 years to reach its peak, lose some more baby fat and develop more tertiary aromas to balance the sweet fruit core. The 96 pts today reflect all that greatness but if I would have to choose one bottle to drink on my own today, it would be the 1995 (rated 95 pts) and the 1987 (rated 94 pts) as too much of the 2002 might be overwhelming.
Decanting: This needed a bit of air to settle down. My guess is that 1-2 hours in the decanter will do the job. (2868 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Dominus Producer website2002 Dominus Estate
__Dominus 2002__
Our wine is made solely from grapes grown on the historic Napanook vineyard in Yountville, California.
The 2002 vintage is a charming wine that will age gracefully in the style of other great Dominus vintages. With small yields, the fruit flavors of this vintage are particularly intense. This wine is harmonious and balanced, exhibiting complexity, depth and elegance. Barrel regime: 18 months in French oak barrels — hand racked every three months
Percentage of new oak: 40%
__Vintage Summary__
Rainfall in November and December was well above average at 9 inches and 15 inches respectively. The remainder of the winter and spring was rather dry, followed by an average rainfall in May. The winter and spring saw unsettled temperatures; a cool May and warm June affected the bloom, naturally reducing the crop size early in the growing season. Temperatures in July were average, followed by a slightly cooler August and normal September. It was a beautiful summer, without excesses. The season ended with morning fog which assured the last of the grapes to mature gently.
__Fact Sheet__
Beginning date of harvest: 09/09/2002
Ending date of harvest: 10/16/2002
Average days of Cuvaison: 19 days
__Blend__
85% Cabernet Sauvignon
8% Cabernet Franc
4% Petit Verdot
3% Merlot
Red Bordeaux BlendRed Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and rarely Carménère.Today Carménère is rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carménère vines. As of July 2019, Bordeaux wineries authorized the use of four new red grapes to combat temperature increases in Bordeaux. These newly approved grapes are Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Castets, and Arinarnoa.
Wineries all over the world aspire to making wines in a Bordeaux style. In 1988, a group of American vintners formed The Meritage Association to identify wines made in this way. Although most Meritage wines come from California, there are members of the Meritage Association in 18 states and five other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel, and Mexico.EstateIn the United States, "Wines with “estate bottled” designations must: a) also designate an appellation of origin or an AVA, and both the vineyards and the winery must be located there; b) the grapes must come from vineyards owned or controlled by the winery; and c) the wine must have been produced, from crush to bottle, in a continuous process without leaving the winery’s premises."
- WINE LABEL FAQS: A QUICK SUMMARY OF LABEL DESIGNATION RULES" by David E. StollUSAAmerican 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)Napa ValleySt. Helena |
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