Community Tasting Note

Magnum PI Likes this wine:

Friday, November 25, 2016 - Opened this bottle later in the evening without food. Decanted for an hour then drank over about two hours with Brookie. On the nose, mocha, plum, dark fruit, cedar. On the mid palate, more of the same, plus tobacco and leather. Brookie says she gets a scorched sugar/vanilla aspect. Ah Brookie.

This is a very decent, extracted Napa wine which needs some additional time to integrate the various parts. Okay finish, with just a very slight hint of pepper. Many different notes for a $30 bottle. Good enough for a holiday gift, and certainly worth cellaring for . . . . oh, say, another four years.

Rich, inviting, drink it with your gourmet hamburger to impress your pretentious friends. I would be willing to bet that a lot of "wine people" couldn't distinguish this from a $60 bottle in a blind tasting. I might be in that group. That's a statement on me as well as a lot of $60 bottles from Napa.

I recently drank a bottle of '04 Freemark Abbey and was very pleasantly surprised. This bottle is in the same price range and also from Rutherford. Freemark Abbey has merlot, which this bottle does not, so maybe there isn't as much fruit, but still, in an excellent vintage such as this, there might be equal aging potential. At the very least one could buy a half dozen bottles or even a case and start drinking one a year starting in 2018.

The petit verdot and and petit sirah add richness, power, and a velvety texture. Delicious, needs time, worth $30.

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