Community Tasting Note

tastefuldrop Likes this wine:

Friday, September 1, 2023 - A prime example of a classic Cab Sauv from Napa: menthol, fruit forward and huge tannins. At a shooting range, this would be a 9mm. Unnecessarily heavy, a little problematic to handle and arresting of too much attention. Similarly, this wine is just a bit too big for me.

One of the reasons for that are the tannins. They are not hard, they are not green and they are not bitter. But they are gripping and strong. As a result, the wine does not play well with food. Seems like this will need a good decade before a leg of lamb can support it. The taste of my duck with white porcini just got obliterated next to this wine.

Apart from its size and tannins, this wine is quite a charmer. The menthol lift emanates from the glass. Slightly off balance in the fruit’s favour, it still has some acidity and of course, lots of structure. Perhaps leaning on the sweet side was the intention in 2017, as every little bit of density is welcome in this dilutive vintage.

The long, sweet taste of overripe blackberry makes me think of how great this will be in ten years’ time and, better yet, how great the 2019 will be!
Drinking at 90 pts, potential probably 98, so scored here for the Ace of Base year ;)

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