2002 Dominus Estate
Community Tasting Note
BillyT wrote:
Friday, September 3, 2010 - Having mediterranean lamb tonight. Opened and decanted toward a 2 hr decant as recommended by Izzy. Poured some into a glass for tasting. Color is dark purple, venous blood like, but somewhat translucent from center to edges. Legs showing moderately at this point. Immediate nose of bell pepper, dark fruit, and reminds me a great deal of some of the better vintages of Jordan which exudes the pepper when first opened. This wine is exclusive to the Napanook vineyard in Yountville which I don't have much experience with. While the pepper dominates, the alcohol doesn't and there is a nice balance between the pepper, leather, tobacco, earth, chocolate, very herbal at this point, pencil lead, slate. After several minutes a sweetness emerged with vanilla and honey. The beautiful thing here is the lack of 'over oakness' common in many California Cab blends. Velvet on the tongue with a pepper and spice quality I really like settling into finely intergrated tannins with nice balance of fruit and acidity. Medium to full bodied at this point. I will stop here and return with notes in a couple of hours after which I will score the wine.
2 hours in. Mellowed greatly. Pepper on the nose is minimized, color deepened, legs became bold and structured. Fruit began to present with dark chocalate, honey and cream. Well it would have been nice to let this open for several hours but alas we couldn't contain. We left just enough to taste tomorrow.
Day 2 absolutely wonderful. Tannins smoothed nicely and the wine retained its elegant velvety mouth feel without loss of fruit or structure. All gone now, sorry! One final note about the comparison to Jordan. In its day it was equisite and this exceeds any Jordan I have ever had in the last decade of vintages. Truly this wine stands in a class by itself, just ask Izzy :-)
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