March 25, 2024 - Coravin taste of last bottle. Pretty muted. Either over the hill or needs air. Decant when opening it
December 25, 2019 - Still perfection. Elegant Napa Cab.
August 8, 2019 - Brought to Char for dinner with Jan. Decanted for about an hour while we had appetizers and drank a Barolo. This was hitting on all cylinders and was right in my wheelhouse for Napa cabs (I have old-school leanings for Napa). Classic cab fruit, medium weight, enough acidity to keep it lively, and lovely herbal notes to balance the fruit. Drinking extremely well, and just fantastic with the steaks at Char. Have one more of these and look forward to it. Great stuff!
June 10, 2019 - Tasted at the winery from a nearly full bottle that I assume was just opened but did not verify. Aged like all the Corison Cabs in 50% new French oak and 50% one-year-old barrels. Medium, slightly translucent garnet. Nose is a bit funky with distinct “broom closet” and “wet sock” notes that blew off in a few minutes. Low to medium, mostly integrated tannin with still bright acidity. Palate and aromas of chocolate, cedar, leather, dusty earth, chocolate, tea and blackberry. Long layered and complex. Needs a LOT more air...I would say several hours in a decanter and this will shine. Score reflects the lack of breathing but I think it would “pop” with more depth of flavor and be 94+ with a good amount of air.
July 21, 2018 - From magnum. Darker color than other vintages. Dark berry fruit, earth. A touch of surmaturité indicates that this is on the downside of it’s life. This should be fresher for only 19 years old based on other Corison vintages, but apparently this was a tough year. Still a very good wine but not up to the quality of other years. All that being said, it was a good wine, and quite well regarded by the people at dinner. Good, but time to drink.
May 26, 2018 - At first I wondered if this was corked. It may have been on the edge, but it retained a fairly youthful fruit and nice spice complexity. Not the best bottle of Corison I've had, but nonetheless a solid bottle.
February 25, 2018 - Deep dark red/purple color. Licorice, black currant and black fruit. A hint of dirt and graphite on the finish. Decanted for about one hour. Amazing how much fruit is still present with this wine. Smooth and elegant. Paired perfectly with a ribeye.
October 30, 2017 - Dark classic nose; Beautiful; Bricking; Very balanced; Fades relatively quickly in the glass
August 10, 2017 - Corison Winery Tasting (St Helena California): A beautiful red garnet color with a nose full of leather, lavender, cherry and other dark red fruits. The taste was very balanced. The age on this wine allowed it to present with multiple layers of flavor. The wine was soft and elegant on the palate with mild tannins and some acidity. The flavors consisted of dark red fruits (cherry) and other fruits like blueberry and plum. I also found that there were some medicinal undertones on the finish, which was quite nice. This wine should be had over the next 5 years. Very nice! Score 92
July 7, 2017 - Brought to Char for dinner with K. Beautiful right from the get go. The nose was gorgeous with red fruit, forest floor, and other herbal notes. On the palate, this was mid-weight and silky smooth. Still plenty of fruit and the tannins are pretty tame. With a nice steak, it was really singing. Kudos to Benchmark Wine Group for the provenance of these bottles. They were in pristine condition, looking brand new when they arrived. And the wine inside confirms that they were very well stored. These were a steal at $59, and wish I had bought more.