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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.4 pts. and median of 89 pts. in 20 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by T.H.E. on 5/13/2018 & rated 90 points: Still has some oomph after 20+ years. I decanted it about an hour before consuming. It accompanied grilled lamb chops which made for a delicious pairing. I still have a few bottles left in my cellar and will likely drink them over the next few months. I doubt this will will improve with further ageing but I was pleasantly surprised at how it has held up. (1770 views) | | | Tasted by kstackle on 11/18/2016 & rated 92 points: After reading the past few notes, we decided to pull this one off the shelf to see if it really was past it's time. Well, this wine was outstanding. Full fruit - long lingering finish. Too bad it was our last one. (2510 views) | | | Tasted by Coachron13 on 11/25/2014 & rated 88 points: At the end of its life. Started a little earthy, then evolved into a soft muted wine. Not a lot of fruit left. Drink them now. (3444 views) | | | Tasted by SimonG on 6/29/2013 & rated 88 points: Opened four hours before drinking. Upon opening, quite light with ripe and quite sweet fruit. A touch of plum and Christmas cake. This stuck out from hype 96 left bank clarets and seemed almost slightly southern Rhone-like in comparison. Pulls together to show a more fit bank character, not not but ripe and quite sweet fruited. Lacks some depth and complexity cf the others in the flight but a respectable showing and signs of it being really rather a nice wine, though possibly in slight decline now. *** (4474 views) | | | Tasted by howardn on 2/27/2013 & rated 90 points: Amazing at this age! Still lots of structure, taste and fruit. Nice! (4534 views) | | | Tasted by aimandel on 7/12/2012: This is listed as past it's prime, but it still has several years left in it. Black cherry, blackberry, granite, leather and a little cigarbox. (3953 views) | | | Tasted by BDofMSP on 11/15/2011 & rated 89 points: Delicious and drinking very well. Obviously very soft, but still has beautiful fruit. It just brought me back to the way wines used to be before "overripe" and "extracted" were required adjectives. (3641 views) | | | Tasted by winemaker on 4/5/2009 & rated 90 points: This was still drinking well on day two. Not bad for a 13 yo California Meritage. (3109 views) | | | Tasted by Partenaire on 1/25/2009 flawed bottle: C'était notre dernière bouteille de ce vin exceptionnel! Dommage!!! (2395 views) | | | Tasted by Salute on 11/18/2008 & rated 90 points: Very good bottle - cork fell apart, so we decanted. Good thing as there was sediment, and this wine is much better after opening up a bit. (2259 views) | | | Tasted by Combee1 on 10/26/2008 & rated 89 points: 2008 Epcot F+ W Vertical tasting: Medium garnet in glass with bricking toward edges and loads of sediment. Nice nose of plum, spice, earth. Medium bodied with smooth soft well integrated tannins. Nice plum/prune fruitto cmplement the velvety mouthfeel. Slightly hot on the finish. Very nice wine, drinking very well. (B-). (2095 views) | | | Tasted by jrsobeck on 6/4/2008 & rated 89 points: Drank on 5/30/08. Little earthy but opened up after 20 minutes. Lots of ripe fruit, smooth on the mid palate and finish. (2150 views) | | | Tasted by Partenaire on 3/10/2007 & rated 94 points: Quel beau vin! De la classe!
Nez aromatique, charmeur, fin et distingué. Viande, cèdre, fruits rouges presque confits et arômes tertiaires s'entremêlent. Bouche fondue et soyeuse, très équilibrée, sur la finesse. Ce vin est en quelque sorte un hybride entre la classe d'un bordeau et la finesse d'un bourgogne. Il pourrait battre des bourgognes et bordeaux vendus beaucoup plus chers.
À boire sans attendre. Fort recommandable! (2618 views) | | | Tasted by SadEdjo on 12/31/2006: ruby red. cassis & lead pencil. subtle mouth feel. thinning ('receding fruit-line'): drink soon (2052 views) | | | Tasted by chris_3 on 11/15/2006 & rated 85 points: Nicely light flavor and balance. Not great but nicely aged interesting flavor (2265 views) | | | Tasted by biegs on 6/11/2006 & rated 89 points: We enjoyed this wine very much, was nice on the fnish. (2900 views) | | | Tasted by EyeDoc on 8/14/2005: Last bottle gone. Bought several cases on the cheap (30 dollars) . A good QPR for Cali meritage. This is representative of the 96 vintage with some good tannin albeit a little bitter on the finish. 89 pts. (3115 views) | | | Tasted by JWA on 3/5/2005 & rated 88 points: Full bodied, fruit forward, medium long finish. Tannins were strong but not overpowering. The best score in a blind tasting party with Al and Diane. Tasted against a 2000 Matanzas Creek Merlot and a 1995 Ch. Meyney Bordeaux (St. Estephe) (3141 views) |
| Franciscan Estate Producer websiteFranciscan Estate MagnificatMagnificat is one of the original Meritage blends in California, a wine Franciscan has proudly produced since 1985. Named for J.S. Bach’s masterpiece, it is crafted to be as seamless and harmonious as its musical namesake. Starting with over 200 small lots of red wine, Magnificat is created to showcase our finest Bordeaux blend of the vintage. Carefully assessing each lot as it ages in barrel, we create the blend with repeated trials and blind tastings. Pre-fermentation is with a cold soak of 4 days to enhance color and body. Fermentation and maceration average 22 days to build structure and integrate mouthfeel. Depending on how the varieties express in a given year, the composition will be different, always shaped to provide consistency of style. The wine is founded on Cabernet Sauvignon, but true to Meritage, uses other Bordeaux varietals to give roundness, structure, and rich complexity.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.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)Napa ValleySt. Helena |
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