Tasted from magnum. Very nice flavors of bread dough, citrus, Granny Smith apples, and some steely minerality. This was a fun bottle and a crowd pleaser for sure.

The nose wasn't very revealing except some dark fruit aromas and vanilla. The palate added chocolate, cherry and some brown spice flavors. Medium to full bodied with a very nice mouthfeel and a medium-long finish. Not too bad of a showing or only being 3 days off the truck... It was somewhat one-dimensional, but smooth. I think these will shape up with some time in the bottle.

Tasted blind. That bell pepper nose was been a pretty good sign that this was a Togni. Togni Bell Pepper is a good thing! I don't usually care for a strong green bell pepper up front in a Cabernet, but when it's a Togni, this style is really a nice change of pace. I don't drink a lot of old school styled Napa Cabs, but somehow Togni is able to make green flavors taste like they are not "un-ripe green flavors" to me. I didn't notice any brett in this wine like I had from a magnum that we tasted last year. Medium bodied with a medium-long finish. Really nice stuff.

Tasted blind. This was the first time that I had tasted the 02 Blankiet. I had enjoyed other vintages, but the 02 was a major disappointment. There was a lot of brett in this wine, and I was surprised that it was there. This did come across as more of a Bordeaux type wine, with some cedar, tobacco, and leather flavors accompanying the currants. Not at all what I expected from a wine made by Helen Turley. This wine probably benefited by being in the lineup behind the Togni. At any other slot in the tasting, and it would have been way out of place and would have probably scored even lower...

Tasted blind. The palate had nice mocha and dark cherry flavors. For some reason while tasting this blind, I was reminded of the 02 Cayuse Windowmaker that I just loved. I'll at least embrace the fact that I was WAY wrong on that guess... I enjoyed this wine even if I was way wrong about it.

Tasted blind. I don't think that any of us guessed that the Grand Ciel was from Washington until the clues started coming out. This one took a lot of guesses. I remember that we all noticed the new oak influence, but I didn't think it was overdone at all. I also thought that the fruit flavors were much darker than most Red Mountain wines. More on the side of blackberry/cassis than blueberry/violet... Guess that's why we were all stumped on the WA part - or at least I was for sure... This wasn't very complex, but it had a smooth mouthfeel and a medium-long finish.

Tasted blind. Wow - This was incredible! I don't remember spending much time with this in the glass without knowing it was Schrader, but i don't remember who called it. I loved the milk chocolate/cola note that was there. Just amazing purity of the fruit shining through as well, and great balance as well. Really amazing wine!

Tasted blind. This followed the 06 Schrader CCS - Tough act to follow for any wine. I can't help but think that it may have shown better if it wasn't right after the Schrader. The Kayli Morgan showed a dark chocolate note that was quite different from the milk chocolate note in the Schrader. That took a while to get used to... This wine had nice dark fruit flavors with the dark chocolate gaining in intensity through the long finish.

Tasted blind. This was inserted into a blind Cab tasting - it was late in the lineup and was there just to make sure everyone was paying attention... It took a few clues to guess Carlisle though. These are always fun. Great blackberry and cassis flavors with some smoky BBQ like notes. Very smooth mouthfeel and a long finish.

This was a really wonderful end to a great Cab tasting. Great honeyed apricot and mango flavors with a very thick and rich mouthfeel and a super long finish. These SQN stickies are just incredible wines and really fill a room up with smiles.