|
Wine Type
|
Vintage
Name
Variety
Locale
|
Date
Posted
Score
Helpful
Comments
|
|
Red
|
2012 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
more
|
From a split.
Reticent Nose of Pencils and Black Currants.
Palate of Cedar, Black Cherry and Band-Aids.
Fair Finish—-
Note: MosDef, do NOT pour this side by side with a 2000 Chateau Margaux. Except to humble your friends (or enemies) at Darioush. For sixty seconds after opening, there is a whiff of similarity, then a cruel comedy ensues...
JD
|
|
Red
|
1997 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate
Napa Valley
more
|
Not ready yet. tight. Not as tasty as the dominus/dunns of this vintage. very heavy, dense. closed red/blk fruit, blk licorice? some herbaceous (pine, eucalyptus) notes but, this bottle, my first Monty, was far less interesting and less tasty than the fairly simple but luscious 97 insignia, to let alone dominus.
|
|
Red
|
2006 Hundred Acre Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Kayli Morgan
Napa Valley
more
|
Bright Ruby.
Nose of red raspberry and heat on pnp.
Bouquet evolves to ripe raspberries, cranberry nectar and fresh orange juice. The cran-raspberry is dense, intense and dominated the nose and palate for two hours plus. Expensive French oak in evidence. Not at all a bad thing. If wrong please comment.. (But I almost tapped Taranjou!)
Palate started with the same cran/raspberry and fresh squeezed orange but over a few hours swung into some cassis notes, and later seemed to shade rasp/blueberry and Meyer lemon. I tasted all these, but others arriving toward end of bottle demanded publication of — oh yeah there’s some verbena/hay here, and quite much chewy dry extract—the assertion of blueberry and lemon meringue pie.
Finishes 25-30 seconds. Extract/rasp.
Bright bouncy and tangy were ubiquitous comments.
Relative to the 2005 Thorevilos of last night, kay6 more red than blue. Thor 5 longer today than kayli 6. Kayli preferred by less vinous drinkers 2-1.
Yummy.
95.
|
|
Red
|
2002 Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard
Napa Valley
more
|
A bit short.
Possibly heat damaged.
In any case, this bot lacked lushness, life and luster.
|
|
Red
|
2010 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Red Rock Terrace
Diamond Mountain
more
|
If you ever walk into a tavern or hotel lobby, and someone is screaming “I AM THE BEST GODDAM WINE MAKER IN AMERICA!!” Then: either they are crazy, a krankl, turley or harlan, OR THEY WORK AT DIAMOND CREEK.
Just starting to open.
CLASS IN A GLASS.
96-97
OBTAIN!
|
|
Red
|
2007 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
Oakville
more
|
From a wood trio.
Worth the hype.
Sensational.
As good a flavor as all but one Cabernet I’ve ever had, and tannins the most silky I’ve savored. Ever.
I imagine it is what Margaux tasted like in the best vintage of the 18th C.
Worth the hype?
Yes.
Worth $3.5k
Um.
At least once, yes. After that, it really just depends how much cake �� you fucking have, buddy. It cost me.
Not a trace of whisper of a rumor of regret.
(The second of three sold yesterday.)
Enjoy it!!
|
|
Red
|
2008 Promontory
Napa Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon more
|
Sent over from Estate, (THANKS), and slow ox’d 3hrs.
Deep & Dark Ruby.
Unfiltered and Unfined.
TKO nose of wild blueberries, wildflowers, taranjou, purple sage and black muddy leather.
Perhaps a bit of venison or deer blood and granite, and
Something like grilled peaches and grilled strawberries developing with swirling air and time.
Delicious on the attack.
Brambly forest fruits, a blueberry note that exceeds that of any blueberry sold in this country since 1989, duff of cedarpine and dusty earth, expensive calfskin, vanilla bean and pain grillé.
(Aka: toast in Paris) (Which is complimentary.)
The fine French oak (I believe) detected upon the nose roundabouts out a midpalate which is best described as delicious. Except for the 1997, this wine is better than the few (1999, 2001, 2002, 2007) Harlans drunk by your scribe du moment. Abundant blue fruit, (ok: Harlan Senior’s 2001 is this wine’s equal, and I myself apologize for a slightly obvious, if odious inclination to side by side the wines. Look, the respective vineyards are reachable by Barry Bonds, It wasn’t meant as anything. All from the cuff here at The Cellar Outlier, you undrstand?), graphite, charcoal, burnt marshmallow, game and blood.
The finish is long and fine.
Or as my neighbors here at Solbar, who prefer Tamber Bay say, “Why doesn’t the flavor stop flavoring me?”
96-97.
This wine is still young.
This wine is underrated.
|
|
Red
|
2008 Promontory
Napa Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon more
|
Also Notions of Sage.
Needs air.
A beast.
Hold.
|
|
Red
|
1995 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Gravelly Meadow
Diamond Mountain
more
|
A lovely wine.
If Diamond Creek is the only wine which survives the apocalypse, dolphins �� and the space aliens �� from whom they acquire flipper-grips and other key tech will have a good understanding of Cabernet Sauvignon.
|
|
Red
|
2007 Lewis Cellars Cuvée L
Napa Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon more
|
Day 2: Emerging fat, full flavors of plum, pine sap, graphite and old pencils. Delicious. Drink/HOLD
|
|
Red
|
1994 Beringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve
Napa Valley
more
|
Not bricked. not bright. not tight. reddish purple. in it's peak, but wait a yr? good plum, leather, red frt? smoke. uncomplicated. the nose faded in a couple hours. very good wine, but doesn't merit another decade. does not match dunn h/insignia/dominus.
|
|
Red
|
2007 Lewis Cellars Cuvée L
Napa Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon more
|
Deep translucent purple to the rim.
Fruity and wafting nose of creme de cassis, BlackBerry pie, and wet cedar. Hints of loam, ash and toasted chestnuts.
A strong wine which is delicious on the PnP. A touch of heat blows off in minutes. Tastes immediately like a solid 100 buck Napa cab. (In 2001.) (Say 300.)
A people pleaser—except whomever has to vacuum up the silver wax -which is even on the cat. I think this wine actually has some upside, but
as has been noted, she is ripe to the rim. We did not get any prune, nor raisin/stewed elements in two chilled hours of enjoyment, ourselves.
Very nice. Tasty. 94-95pts.
|
|
Red
|
2007 Hundred Acre Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Kayli Morgan
Napa Valley
more
|
I feel obliged to confess that the second bottle out of a case, while delicious in the great extreme, had flavors which were a touch out of focus, as was suggested by a previous review in these pages.
|
|
Red
|
2012 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
Stags Leap District
more
|
Too early, but delicious. 95-96.
Hit like a freight train —or 2001/2013 Napa Cab.
No notes. Improved over eight hours.
|
|
Red
|
2005 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
Stags Leap District
more
|
Very tannic for this cuveé-- which was exactly why I poured it for Josh at Flatiron during a wine trade. (Just make it bitter; then the anti-Napa heads will rave about the "structure" and "complexity." This is entirely unfair, to both the wine and to Josh. But true enough among the Norcal Parker reactionaries to stay in print here.)
A very Delicious drink, with layers of fruit and savor-- blAck primarily. Some indecipherable red fruits and oak peeking out in tasty vanilla bean, crepe batter, etc...
Francophone has it about right, but I'd say this beauty peaks closer to 5-7 years. Hey: Otherwise ( at ten years) it will just be a "typical blockbuster Napa cab with no structure."
96-97
Hold a minute
|
|
Red
|
2012 Forman Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
more
|
Dark Ruby/Purple
Medium Heavy.
Nose of black currants, cassis, red (Fe) dirt, and cedar wood. (Splash 1/2 hour decant was too short and displayed heat)
Strong palate of cassis, cedar, soil, with toasted oak and blk truffle. Obliterated rich but meatless pasta.
Knocked out my hard-working date, and the half-glass she left was best when gulped 2 hrs after dinner.
Young beast.
A deal anywhere under a bill!
Hold.
|
|
Red
|
2007 Kelly Fleming Wines Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
more
|
I drank one glass on the property. Stunning! Just Stunningly good. I swear to god, I think Ms. Fleming must somehow engineer these (based on my first ever bottle): LUDICROUSLY LOW scores/empty reviews.
Q:: BUT WHY???
I had really wanted to ambush the maker before reporting this, with suitable cash and fair wine trades in hand, but it’s an injustice to THE TRUTH itself to not leave anyone looking here with a taste of reality. (Pardon)
We drank the other glasses over dinner at SOLAGE, where my not easily impressed vampire companion made big goggle-y bug eyes at sip #1.
Likewise the sommelier. Fleming is His workplaces’ neighbor. He asked for the bottle and tapped into his phone a changing priority...
And one sip to the not expressly vinous waiter got the same wide-eyed amazement. I had to chew (ample) sediment (in both the bottle and then in my pie-hole to find a taste anywhere NEAR 92 pts.
MAYBE ITS A SLEEPER.
WIDE AWAKE NOW, Bud.
Fabulous purity. Superb flavor. Beyond notes
Not a millimeter into stew, heat, flab or twilight.
97-98 points.
A::: MORE FOR THE CASA!
(Duh)
Am very truly and dead seriously contemplating this instant a run up to Calistoga with treats from my cellar to get more TODAY.
I’m going up.
Life is short.
Napa close.
|
|
Red
|
2007 Schrader Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon RBS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard
Oakville
more
|
A delicious wine which wants a bit more time.
Deep opaque ruby/purple.
On the second day, a glass which had been out for 18 hours was picked up by a beer person who exclaimed, “My god thats good, like black cherry and vanilla soda!”
I mumbled something about oak and— well, you get the idea. Very strong stuff. ‘My god that’s good’ works for me here...
|
|
Red
|
1987 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain
more
|
Early still. amazing concentration. wait 2.
|
|
Red
|
2007 Hundred Acre Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Kayli Morgan
Napa Valley
more
|
Im convinced that tanzer plays a conscious foil to the parker juggernaut. Otherwise, this wine has become “delineated” in the last 18 months...
Plums, raspberries and blueberry liquer dance, each spotlit, on a cocoa-dusted stage bathed in the deep golden light of a Napa sunset.
Is there more power in the soils of California than of France? Who knows. I only know that plenty of my French friends think so..
|
|
Red
|
2013 Viña Cobos Cabernet Sauvignon Bramare
Lujan de Cuyo
more
|
Minty cassis and cranberry inflected oak.
Some smoke n leather stirred into the red currants on the palate.
A pretty and nuanced drink with reasonable tannins of some smoothness and enough grip to handle her extraction.
Day two found sweet cherries prominent. Some petrol in must. Fruit will outlast tannin here, I think. (But some years til her flab approaches mine. Fsho.)
|
|
Red
|
2015 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection
Napa Valley
more
|
Ruby Purple. Medium Full body.
A bit hot out of the gate— blowing off some...
Vanilla extract, hot black cherries, alcohol, Frosted nuts, and some more subtle toasted oak on a sweet and clean finish. Shows some ganache with air. Tasty.
“Deliciously uncomplicated.” The ‘14 was better wine. Both gifts from non-winos. Congrats Camus on staying in the game.
Will update if warranted.
(Some distinct Notes of twizzlerz licorice/marzipan at the two hours mark.)
Happy Holies.
|
|
Red
|
2012 Promontory
Napa Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon more
|
Coming into its own, now.
X-chateau dropped at Solbar.
Red Violet with minimal fine sediment.
Lush juicy and inviting.
Promontory winery is one of the places at which I consider showing up with a carload of canned fish and weapons when the REAL virus washes the streets of the West in blood.
Cheerio!
Dillard
|
|
Red
|
2016 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Napa Valley
more
|
I'm with the boosters here.
Perfect bottle bought from restaurant cellar during the plague in Los Gatos...
Had it for the second time last night and it outshone a pair of more expensive vints from napa and spain. The profile has improved over the last 20 months---Cassis, plum, baking spices, toasty oak inflected topsoil.
If you can find a case of this around 65 per neck, it'll make a great house cab--I'm cleaning out a struggling resto right now with this in mind.
|
|
Red
|
1994 Abreu Cabernet Sauvignon Madrona Ranch
Napa Valley
more
|
From Perfect Magnum of Perfect Provenance:
CORKED! D’oh.
(if i hadnt had a bottle of Schultze Windy Oaks SC PN and glass of Beringer Cab on hand with two carafes with which to build my monster, i dont what i’da done! Bought at RETAIL?? [shudder])
DillaStien’s Monster Wine : 93-94 points, EZ..
|
