April 25, 2024 - Decanted for 3 hours, but it needed at least twice that. Young and loaded with black fruit aromas and flavors. Notes of violets, graphite and licorice. Grippy tannins, and needs time in the cellar to evolve.
April 17, 2024 - Two hour decant. Very deep dark intense ruby color. Ripe blackberry, dark raspberry, chocolate ganache, granite, and subtle dried mushroom. Smooth, dry palate, with good, satiny acidity. Plush and robust tannins on the longish finish.
Absolutely terrific Napa CS. This kept improving over an hour of drinking. Again, my lady friend would have gone even higher with the score. She said some other things I cannot repeat in this forum when describing her enjoyment. ;)
February 2, 2024 - One hour slow ox. Definitely one of the more approachable ‘18 Napa reds at this point. Tannins fairly mellow, will continue to improve but very good now with some air.
August 26, 2023 - Napa 2023 - The Sequel; 8/23/2023-8/28/2023: The most tannic of the wines, it was also the most black fruited. Delicious in its own right, suffered from being served next to older vintages and the seemingly more wide open 19s. Seems to have a lot of potential with more age or an extended decant.
February 1, 2023 - Insanely smooth
September 5, 2022 - Three hour decant. Deep dark electric magenta color. Blackberry, sugar plum, pumpernickel, meringue, watermelon, and toast on the nose. Smooth, dry, full bodied palate, with satiny, tongue coating acidity. Lots of fruit on the palate as well. Firm, full, medium intensity tannins on the long finish.
This already has nice complexity, with the various notes floating in and out. It’s both muscular and sultry. It will certainly keep improving for 2+ years. My wife would give it 97 points, but I think it’s just barely in it’s drinking window. It could get there in another year or two.
June 18, 2022 - Napa day trip (Arrow & Branch, Harlan) (Napa): Clean and dark red currants on the nose, with clean earth, tree barks, twigs, and soft chocolate notes with some time. Flavors of luscious red fruits, soft earth, softly spiced oak and dark minerals. There are nice curves on this and the lusciousness thins out a bit with some time, in a good way.
May 3, 2022 - Splash double decant. Deep dark magenta color. Blackberry cobbler, blueberry, cacao, and subtle burnt graham cracker on the nose. Smooth, dry palate, with great tongue coating acidity. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish.
There’s just a hint of potential built into my score. With a 4+ hour decant this may just barely be at the front end of its drinking window. This was wine of the night for me at MJP’s A&B tasting. Paired beautifully with his expertly prepared flatiron steak.
December 7, 2021 - Epic Napa Trip - Day 3: Tasted at Arrow & Branch - Nose showed dark fruit and slight perfumed flowers with a little spice. Palate was black and red fruit, mostly cassis, red currant and dark cherry, with notes of graphite and oak. A nice drinking cab at a reasonable price point. Nice QPR for a Cali fruit forward cab. 92 points and seems built for more immediate drinking (within the next 5 years).
December 7, 2021 - Napa trip day 3 (Napa): Drank a small glass over 45 minutes at the winery's tasting house. This is a nice enough cab, not particularly interesting. Unscored.