Community Tasting Notes 17

• Nanda wrote: 95 points

  May 1, 2024 - 69/70/74 flight. Gorgeous aromatics which are uniquely laced with an intense, intriguing black tea note. Tons of complexity and life here, if less concentrated than the epic 1969.

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• acyso wrote: 95 points

  May 1, 2024 - To Tony (La Grange Park, IL): A fat better bottle of this than the one from a few years back. It's quite distinctive with its sappy, dark fruit. Whereas the 1969 and 1970 showed a mix of red and black, this showed far more black. Interestingly, there's an accent of American oak here -- whether this actually was done in American oak I've no clue. This was somewhat tight and ornery at the start, but a modest amount of air made this much more perfumed and floral. A modest touch of pyrazine here.

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• G_H wrote: 98 points

  February 9, 2024 - From a perfectly stored 0.75l bottle with an into neck level. This was an absolutely stunning bottle of wine. This, to my knowledge, was the last vintage made by Philipp Togni.
  
  Initially the hallmark Togni notes shine through: This herbacious, green, dense tannin structure and quite a chunky wine. With 30 minutes of air in the decanter, this opened up beautifully and the phenomenal vintage started to show. It became much broader, developed a beautiful sweetness and had such a multi-layered elegance with a dense body and long finish.
  
  When you ask "do these wines ever fully mature", the answer is yes, you just need half a century.
  
  We drank this over the course of a long dinner and once the wine hit that sweet spot, it just stayed there for hours.We had it side by side with a 1978 Shafer and the juxtaposition was striking. On one hand you have this Bordeauxesque beauty and on the other the fully or even slighty overripe Shafer that is a bit of an anticipation of what happend in Napa in the 90s. Both fantastic wines.
  
  With pristine bottles like this I still see decades of life ahead.

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• acyso wrote: 90 points

  September 18, 2022 - Pausing for the Cause 2022 (Part 2) (Chicago, IL): Others liked this more than I did (I preferred the 1977 Heitz Fay). Herbal but not particularly pyrazine-like notes, with lots of matured cabernet aromas as well -- leather and dried sweet fruits being quite prominent. On the palate, this definitely feels quite light, but at the same time I can't help but think it's thinning out a little. Probably a good time to drink up, if you happen to have any.

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• MountainwineFTW Likes this wine: 95 points

  September 12, 2022 - Absolutely stunning to taste a wide that still have excellent vibrancy and color. The wine had beautiful red fruit and a bit of dried plums and cherries. After an hour in the glass the wine slowly revealed red cassis, dried thyme, bell pepper, and red licorice. Obtained this from an estate sale and could not be happier this wine turned out excellent. I’m happy to have had the opportunity to taste this wine and it’s associated history. Wonderful to see how a good wine can age so beautifully.

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Pro Reviews 3

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1974
• Type Red
• Producer Chappellet
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Napa Valley

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 1 (1%)
• In Cellars 109 (70%)
• Consumed 45 (29%)

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