November 4, 2022 - Still with good fruit, currants, cedar, mint and eucalyptus, soft tannins, good finish.
October 15, 2021 - Perfect cork. Wonderfully alive. Aromas of cigar box, charred green pepper. Palate is red fruited with raspberry and boysenberry. Sufficient acid; held up against a veal chop Parmesan. A wonderful time capsule.
January 10, 2020 - Another Year, Another Napa (aka Winter in Wineland IV); 1/5/2020-1/11/2020 (Napa/Sonoma California): From the 'vintage pour' at Press. This was great. First of all, not often that I get to do birth year wines and given the birth year not often when I do that they are actually good. But this was drinking very well. Old school Napa.
October 27, 2017 - No more like wine, plum juice rather. Late stage of life.
2018/2/4 This bottle is completely different story from previous ones. A bit over its peak when tannin is soft and smooth. The aroma and taste is not strong but integrated as old wine should be. 91
April 23, 2016 - HOT DAMN!!! Wine of the night hands down. So open and expressive with fruit and earth and barrels notes all on the nose. The palate was just alive with flavors and felt so young with wonderfully integrated tannins that still showed their presence and a tart acidic kick that lasted all the way to the end. Everyone loved it. Really the best thing I can say about this wine is the wife of one of the guys at the table just does not care for red wine. She will normally drink beer or a cocktail when we all get together. Out of curiosity and I guess open-mindedness, she halfway participated in the tasting, taking small sips from her husband’s glasses. After sampling the Mondavi she looked up and said, “Oh wow. That’s good.”
March 14, 2016 - From Double Magnum, decanted for 1 hour
a lot of dark and red berries, some mintiness, elegant, vibrant acidity, alcohol well integrated, middle long finish, ripe tannins
December 20, 2015 - Ruby, surprisingly youthful color. Nose of tart cherry, dried currant, leather, and dried herbs. Unlike the non-reserve '81 enjoyed on the same evening, this wine still shows primary fruit and is a lovely aged Napa Cabernet. On the palate, red fruit and earth, with nice acid and fully resolved tannins. Drink now, but this is certainly still open for business. Quite lovely.
November 24, 2014 - Nicely aged California cab. Not as good as the 84, 85, 86, but still a very good wine with plenty of fruit.
November 7, 2009 - Bottle was in near perfect shape. Corked crumbled a bit on extraction and the wine with quickly decanted to avoid the sediment and little cork bits. The color didn't show nearly as much age as I was expecting and there was only a very tiny amount of bricking at the extreme edge. Nice fruit on the nose with a touch of old leather. The wine was vibrant and alive and gave no sign of fading at all during the evening. This was a very good bottle. 92 pts.
June 30, 2002 - Deep and brooding wine, fully mature. Spicy nose, deep and autumnal, red fruit and cedar; dry, concentrated, blackcurrants, extracted, minerality; autumnal finish. Impressive.