Community Tasting Note

csimm wrote:

Monday, June 27, 2022 - Saturday get-together: A quartet of VHR wines side-by-side (among 20 other wines that night):
2018 VHR
2018 VHR Extended Barrel Age
2019 VHR
2019 Arrow & Branch VHR

TN: Black cherry, dark cassis, blackberry, vanillin chocolate, spicy caramel cedar (almost like a wider-grain Hungarian oak influence in a heavier flavored Petite Sirah), and cardamom notes all rush to the palate in come-hither form, with a ripe and semi-sweet profile that instantly triggers the Yum factor and sends all of the senses into instant flavor orbit. Finishes with a cedary clip that is both vanillin sweet and slightly bitter, which brings the massive fruit into proper focus but also clips the tail ever so slightly. This wine has a “second finish” on it as well, where the fruit comes back into play and saturates the palate, which does well for the overall mouthfeel of the wine. This was probably the most gluttonous-showing of the Cabs we had that night. A very Bevan-esque showing, but with extra refinement kicked up to the ceiling.

Some in the room found this to be a more enhanced version of the 2018, while others were slightly divided on the differences, benefits, or even any difference between the two 2018s, and then also amongst the greater four VHRs on the table. I was somewhere in the middle of the pack I think, where I certainly found this to be a compelling wine but also wondered if the extended barrel aging had done much to improve the wine in any way, mainly because I thought the 2018 VHR on its own was a fabulous wine. The extended barrel aging certainly made for some slight differences between the two 2018s that were noticeable and noteworthy, but I found my style preference leaning toward the “standard” 2018 VHR due my perceived impressions of freshness, tension, focus, and purity of fruit that seemed slightly more masked by the wood in the extended barrel aged version. Preference aside, the wood (as fine and tasty as it is) was certainly more at the forefront than the 2018 with the standard barrel program.

GENERAL: In the end for me, in this small sample and even smaller window of time, the 2019 VHRs rule the roost as far as I am concerned… and no, this is not one of those, “the newest vintage is the best vintage,” type of thing. Though I have generally found 2019 in Napa to be a notch up from the 2018 vintages, the difference in intensity and concentration between the two 2018 VHRs and the two 2019 VHRs in this particular sampling window was palpable, with the 2019s ticking the one-up meter on essentially every aspect of wine exhibition: complexity, depth, energy, focus, acidity, and tannin refinement. I mean, all four VHRs were all worthy of devoted tender and heaps of demonstrative gushing, with only wine-geek splitting hairs and miniscule squabbling to be had as to the preferential doting on one wine over another.

A super generous contribution from bsumoba to add to the VHR lineup!

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