Community Tasting Notes 115

• Wamrod wrote:

  May 23, 2023 - Despite careful cellaring, this has now passed its prime spot. However it still evolved in the glass - on opening, dark and rich to the eye, but more red than its original only purple. Excellent nose. On the palate, the fruit has faded and heavy oak and creosote dominated at first. After a half hour in the air, this balanced out a lot more, and the fruit became more apparent. If you still have any of these, drink up - but make sure to give it plenty air to get the best of what’s left

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• z_willus_d wrote: 91 points

  November 15, 2021 - This wine is probably over the hump of its greatest days, but man was it a joy to taste over a three day period. A real dynamo, by which I mean the wine presented quite an assortment of complex flavors and facets over that period. At first, I questioned whether this was smoke tainted, it had such a mesquite con creosote laden nose and palate. But this was more likely the oak regimen employed, and the wine certainly didn't suffer for these facets, particularly into a 2nd glass and as the bottle aerated. Into day2 and day3, the wine mellowed out and added more fruit alongside the many tertiary components. It seemed to gain weight on day3 in the last glasses. There's a lot to interest a CA Syrah lover in this wine, and I can really see how it beguiled me some years back. I should aim to drink my remaining bottles over the next five years tops.

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• z_willus_d wrote: 92 points

  November 21, 2019 - Only 170-cases of this were bottled back in '06, and I got one of them. Right off the pop to glass, this exudes a super powerful aroma of fire, smoke and hickory -- the sum total reads pure and simple frying smoked bacon to my olfactory senses. There's never been a truer form of liquefied essence of bacon than expressed in the bouquet of this wine. You'll find some tart smelling blue and red berry fruit notes laying on floor beneath all the smoke and vaporized bacon grease. I know John used to partially age these Syrah in 100% new Hungarian oak, to which I suppose one might attribute this profile; but I've never found a truer, more appetizing example of liquid bacon than this wine is showing tonight. On the entry, one's palate is almost nonplussed to find there's no semi-crunchy, semi-chewy, grease laden bacon strip that lands; rather a nicely balanced array of spicy, sweet-n-sour, and creamy berry fruit gushes through to a smokey, still semi-tannic finish. This is incredible wine, and probably my favorite of the line-up from back in those days decade plus ago. Does anyone know if John Cabot is still making or releasing wine like this? If not, when last did he, and what happened to the home-ranch?

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• Badfish Likes this wine:

  November 15, 2018 - These wines are so good, I should have been purchasing more Cabot wines over the years. Certainly ripe but obviously from a cooler climate. Purple fruits with complicating notes of violets, olive tampenade, spices. Great balance at this stage with the tannins beginning to resolve and the fruit and acid matching well. No signs of slowing down at age 12, I would not hesitate to age these wines substantially longer.

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• Peter Kleban Likes this wine:

  September 17, 2017 - **
  
  Ox-blood red. Spicy. meaty and fairly interesting. Notes of dark fruits and leather. Good length and balance but somehow a bit weak. At it's peak, I'd guess.

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Pro Reviews 3

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2006
• Type Red
• Producer Cabot Vineyards
• Varietal Syrah
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Aria's
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion North Coast
• Appellation Humboldt County

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 5 (1%)
• In Cellars 60 (16%)
• Consumed 312 (83%)

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