A good bottle wine, but not as good as previous bottles. Showing more acidity and not as expressive, lacking useful energy at this stage. Off bottle, perhaps? Starting to fade? I have a few more bottles in the cellar, so we’ll see. 94/ 94+ Points.
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At 350 main Park Cityas hedonistic as it comes- and even with 8/9 years of age- still very enjoyable but more as a dessert wine than the main event. Crazy how palates change over time.
For those that love the big bold in your face Napa Cabs, this is stellar. Was stellar upon release and is now but in a different form. Old me- this is still a killer wine even with the reduction in primary fruit and oak. New me, still fun but more dessert centric than intellectual. All dark fruits (black hole fruits a thing?), milk chocolate, sweet cream coffee, loads of vanilla, sweet earth, and candy profile. More milkshake than Austin Hope or Caymus 40th 1L bottle concoction.
Regardless super fun, simple and delicious - when the mood calls for a double milk chocolate Frappuccino- hold the coffee bitterness.
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A fabulous Cab that may have lost a tad of its luster, but just a tad. Dark cherry and berry fruit, cassis, plum with some tobacco. Drinking well, perhaps an off bottle or time may be catching up with this vintage. I still have a few in the cellar so we'll see if that's the case with my next experience. 94/95 Points
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No notes. There is a reason I stopped buying Mike Smith wines as my palate no longer appreciates dessert flabby wines as it once did. These wines are made to be drunk early or they become one dimensional which this is on its way to now with the short bitter oak finish. This was great a few years ago- should have finished them up then. Drink up if you have.
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An exceptional, palate pleasing Cabernet that scores 96+ points as a pop and pour and probably better?
Day 2 There is notable improvement. The wine is open and fully on display. Full bodied with dark berry fruits, impeccable extraction and rich full flavors. Dark cherry, crème de cassis, plum with some tobacco. A stunning Cab that’s bold with a lingering finish. 97 Points.
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This is a beautiful Cabernet, 95+/ 96 points with half a bottle remaining for tonight. This vintage has shown better but in all fairness, this was a pop and pour with no decanting. Dark blue black berry fruits, cassis and some oak. Despite no decanting, this wine is excellent.
Day 2: Air has been very agreeable with this wine. The depth and structure are more apparent. On the palate the fruit is glowing with cassis, black currant, dark cherry and black licorice elements. This one is lively, full of energy and there's a nice nuance going one with one. The only drawback could be that it a little sweet, but this is a very good wine in my book. 96-96+ Points.
BLIND REDS - Bordeaux varietals (mostly Napa and BDX) - Over/Under $100: Ah ha! My gorgeous gothic beauty! Where have you been? I have missed you so. It’s been a hot minute since I last had this wine and yet again, I just can’t help but fall in love with it. Black fruit. Black rock. Black everything. I super dig this profile here, and am quite frankly a little shocked at how deeply pitched and mineral-driven this wine is. Of all the Scarlett Reserves, this is SO my wine. The chiseled focus is so on point, heightened even further by a critical (almost severe) frame that makes you believe it’s going to be just too hardcore. But it perfectly threads the needle between the strict (both in acidic tension and mineral frame) and the savory. Finishes super serious. Distinct and delineated. A wine to have when you feel like embodying David Beckham’s jawline.
Badmonkey nails the current state of this wine... currants, black cherry, blackberry delivered with purity and spice with a rich, round, charming, sweet singular mid-palate. It's a bit more sweet than the 2016 Carter Three Kings I had last night but still under control. For me the sweetness complements the overall roundness of the wine and doesn't drift anywhere close to the jammy label. 96 score and down to my last bottle of this old friend.
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Dark red and black fruit - dark cherry, blackberry, and currants. Really smooth with a beautiful purity and nice depth/concentration. Nice rich flavors of dark berries and some spice/licorice. Fairly long finish. Popped/poured but drank out of a decanter for a couple hours. Not much improvement with time but at a nice drinking point. Drank next to the 2014 Scarlett Rutherford cab and I would give a slight edge to the 2015 Reserve which was a little smoother/purer and showed a little more depth/concentration but was also richer/sweeter. Once again, the 2015 Reserve is borderline over the top for me in regards to richness/sweetness but a really well made wine nonetheless - I can more than understand how others might rate it higher. In my opinion, right in the middle of the 93 to 95 rating from WA/Parker. 100% cab.
Decanted for 2 hours and Bam (can I type that or is that a trademark)? This is drinking back to its sweet spot. Yummy deliciousness, no other words needed. Boom!
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Beautiful wine but not delivering the same goods as it did a year plus ago. Not sure if it’s becoming disjointed or if this is a drink early wine. Hmmm will have to revisit. Regardless still very enjoyable.
All I keep thinking about is how much toilet paper I could have purchased with $125 bucks-what a sweet mess. Love the label, especially on this reserve, but that's about it.
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Still exhibits more sweetness on finish that I’m very conflicted about, but the wine itself goes on and on in mouth for minutes. Juicy, dusty, red and black berry fruit, some licorice, clove and confection that keeps it unique to other Cali cabs. This has revved up since last bottle - I gave it 4 hr slow ox and consumed over 2 days. Very good wine.
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Eeeeeeesh... What happened to my precious prefect Scarlett?!?!?!
Super saaa-weeeeeeeeeeeet blackberry pie muddled in a pile of chocolate Caymus-meets-See's brown sugar buttercream and pureed with a fistful of purple Gobstoppers and the suntan oil of a sweaty southern Iberian pool-boy with a thyroid issue. Plush the way that mud in the Everglades is plush. Like nothing I've ever had from the Scarlett Reserve lineup before. I'm gonna go out on an easy limb here and call this flawed..... as in, A LOT flawed......
Hubbah hubbah. Has all the good qualities of the regular cuvée plus this jagged kind of spine that suggests its finer qualities will come out in 10 or 20 years. It's amazing now, went very well with ribeyes, but it's going to be ridiculous later. High acids after it was open 3 hours, but it could stand up to the marinade accordingly.
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Checked in on this old friend and can confirm that, for me, its personality and charm are undiminished. It always seems to take this wine a half hour or more in the glass to really get going, but it's still getting down and finishing long!
It's a singular wine in many ways, especially the smooth, round, dark, expanding mid-palate that delivers some really unique and layered flavors.
Wife dragged me to Diana Ross at the Wynn- admittedly a great show. Damn at 75 she still has it. Ate at Mizumi- probably the best spicy tuna roll I have ever had. Gorgeous views of the waterfall. This wine is like soft cashmere velvet caressing your insides. Was that a wine-gasim? Might have been. This is not the most complex intellectual wine but it puts out like a sophisticated hooker at a Harvard party- juxtaposition, fluxtaposition who the hell knows but this was amazing juice. I may do the walk of shame in the morning but enjoyed every minute. All cassis and velvet. Not sure about the longevity as it has a subtle acid and tannins component but who cares- drink it and love it. It wants to be held now!
And to be clear this is NOT caymus, Rumbauer Zin or Austin Hope or other wines made for Joe Public (don’t get me wrong love to pop those as my gateway wines for unexpecting friends) which may be sluty as well but those are one dimensional sugar sweet fruit bombs- this is not that it all. Perfect for the night! This would be what Frank the Tank would drink.
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Beautiful wine but this time it didn't deliver as nicely as my last experience. Dark fruit, extracted black and blueberry fruit, cream de cassis, black licorice and some oak. This is a big fruit monster with energy, nice firm tannins and really delicious, but this time slightly off and less impactful. 96.5 points. P.S. I'm not afraid of monsters.
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"Forced" into opening this bottle with my buddy CSIMM lavishing praise all over it. Would have really enjoyed having it at like a 92, just for the sake of messing with him, but this is definitely showing extremely well. Quality wise, it reminds me of the 2016 Myriad GIII from Mike Smith. Just extremely well constructed and a bargain at $125 on release. Too bad from what I hear the 2016 edition is not following in its footsteps.
Cassis, black currant, dark cherry, spice box and spring flowers emanating from the glass on PnP. First sip and I am really happy, because this has lost some of the jammy and sweet characteristics it showed a bit earlier in its life. Still, this is super full bodied and wonderfully integrated, cascading waves of dark chocolate and blackberry fruit over the pallet in wonderful layers. The fruit is pure, the structure is quite impressive and it is showing more complexity than I would ever rightly expect from this wine. What was mainly a wonderful fruit bomb has become a bit more cerebral. The mid pallet is full and plush, and it transitions quickly to a very, very long and satisfying finish that even manages a lot of mineral like qualities. Not a hard edge to be found. Not quite a perfect wine for my pallet, but definitely a real treat.
One of my Napa Cabs of the vintage, and a consistent standout every time I pop the cork. This wine simply lays waste to a whole mess of wines when in comparative tastings or as a stand-alone. The complexity here is absurd, with a dark mineral-inflected core that actually speaks less to Rutherford and more toward LPV or Steltzner/Stags Leap sites (so I guess I should ding it down 0.427 points for not accurately representing its proper terroir - So, 99.573 rounded-up is 100 last I checked).
Frame, speed, grip, precise flavor expansion on the mid-palate, viscosity, depth, texture/mouthfeel ... You can go ahead and check all of your little sommelier boxes on this phenomenal specimen. What really draws me in here is how focused this biooootch is. I’m not sure how it achieves such a well-honed and complex delivery of flavors while still kicking down crazy awesome on the savory front. It has personality and a sharpened intensity I love.
The flavors themselves are, as before, a trifecta of black berry, black rock, and bad assery. This was a PnP, and it performed great right from the pull. Air helped to broaden the blackberry and obsidian notes in a way that was perfectly governed both in weight and in speed. I’m not sure what the finish was like really because it went on forever and I was already taking another sip before it actually ended... whenever that was exactly... the next day perhaps.
My only issue with this wine is that I didn’t buy 5 cases of it. And of course... I don’t see it on Wine-Searcher anywhere, even in some random place like Hong Kong, or London..... or Azerbaijan.
Alas, the trials and tribulations of first-world disappointments: “...If only I could find and kidnap my favorite wine so as to tuck it away in my precious cellar like Gollum’s ring or some Silence of the Lambs Buffalo Bill wackamo.”
No notes. Shared with SC in Atlanta at Capital Grill. Proper decant- this bottle was much more in line with other ratings/experience. Previous bottle might have been an off-bottle.
Dark fruit, great attack, middle and long finish. Great wine and very good QPR considering almost comparable to 1.5-2x.
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Hour decant. No notes. Maybe needed more time? Surprised I am rating this much lower then the rest of the group. Well made yummy wine but feels like there is something missing/sour note for my profile. Not sure what it is but have a bunch left to figure it out. Could also be a phase. Will dog in and get to the bottom of it. 93/94
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Decanted 2 hours and drank over the next 2 hours with great friends with steak and sushi. Big nose and taste of fresh red and black berries, including raspberries and blackberries, with cedar, chocolate and syrup. Great balance of tannins and acidity. Medium plus body. Really nice. About 94.
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My first Scarlett Reserve. Decanted for 3 hrs and drank from decanter over the next 4 hours. This wine is a mouthful. Red and black fruit fills the mouth with a touch of sweetness. Very smooth. An gorgeous Mike Smith creation. If this was the only wine I had to drink for the rest of my life, I'd be ok with that. Thanks to Csimm1161 for the recommendation.
This wine is developing into a thing of beauty. Popped and poured, but this beauty needs air in order to kick out it's depth and real inner beauty. Initially and as I have mentioned in previous, lovely dark color, ripe but initially restrained blue black berry fruit that desperately called for air. After about an hour plus, Boy O Boy, this baby came to life! Dark fruit, perfectly extracted black, blueberry and cream de cassis along with a bit of oak. A big, fruit forward wine that's polish, nice firm tannins and approaches perfection by my standards. Parker rates it 95 Points and he (or Lisa) got this one wrong. This is a 98+ wine in my estimation right now, an absolute delight.
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Get together with some friends: 2015 Carter Beckstoffer OG cab, 2015 Carter Weitz cab, 2015 Scarlett Reserve cab, 2015 Becklyn Missouri Hopper cab, 2015 Hall 1873 cab, 2015 Lewelling cab, 2015 Scarlett cab, and 2009 Quivet Kenefick Ranch cab.
Dark red and black fruit - blackberry, dark currants, and dark cherry. Really smooth coupled with nice depth/concentration and purity of fruit. However, once again the fruit is quite rich/sweet and extracted. Fairly long finish. Popped/poured but drank out of a decanter for a couple hours. Improved a little with time. Quality fruit but the richness/sweetness and extraction is a little over the top for me. 100% cab.
Decanted 3 hours. Needed more time to hit its stride. Not as sweet as the non-reserve bottling, which is fine by me. Has more staying power and restrained dark fruit. Touch of oak here. 2nd glass better than the first in terms of mouthfeel. Got softer, obviously, as time went on. Would not say "plush" on this. Some barrel spice but not intrusive. Hold.
Coming along really well, and better than before. Beautiful nose and deep, energetic purple color. On the palate, dark ripe fruit, adequately extracted black and blueberry and cream de cassis. This is a big wine, a thing of beauty that with big dark fruit, it's full with perfect extraction. 97-98 points this time around and destine to improve over the years. So pleased that I have about a half dozen more of these beauty's in the cellar.
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Napa Cabernets + SQN + others (Home): All of my previous notes on this wine apply. I’ve written on and on about my adoration for the 2015 Scarlett Reserve. The best Scarlett ever. The best McGah ever. One of the best Mike Smith wines ever. And with a relatively awesome QPR when compared to any other wine in its league, this thing is just a great bottle of juice that I could drink every night. This showed best after about an hour of being in the glass and getting some much needed air. The initial PnP pull was a little fat and boozy, but that tapered off, leaving some extraordinarily complex dark fruit, rock, and spice flavors. Great energy and intensity. Ideally, I’d still hold for another year.
Too sweet and too much rs for my taste. Good nose, touch of heat, huge swirls of berry and mocha. White choclste, vanilla, raspberry and Moreno cherry jam, almost port like. Very good length. Must like this style or you’ll be turned off.
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All my previous notes apply, although this time I am not quite as enthusiastic in my endorsement. It was super, super rich and jammy tonight, despite a nice 6 hour decant. This is always a wine that is pushing the line on extraction and being overdone, and tonight I think it stepped over a bit. Still enjoyable and fun with all the deep, rich quality fruit showing. Great concentration, super full mid pallet and big fat finish. This is still a big, chubby baby. If you drink it now, you may hit it just right, or you may find it is just too extracted and modern. It has all the stuffing to be exceptional, and hopefully a little age will calm it down.
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It's amazing how wine can change and evolve over time. I coravin'ed a glass 3 months ago and it was too fruit forward for my palate. After only 3 months in bottle, this reserve has come together.
This is a modern, full-bodied and rich Cabernet. The smell is incredible, the coloring is dark purple and red. Notable fruits are blackberry, black cherry and plum. Tons of earth notes mid-palate and on the finish, including mineral and asphalt. A really nice and long finish. This comes from 2 blocks from 2 vineyards and is all clone 7.
For those who like big wines, this dark brooding beauty will be a great surprise. And the QPR is solid. 97-98 points.
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After trying the Scarlett a week ago my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try the Scarlett Reserve , knowing full well the wine is purported to be years ahead of its optimal drinking window. After a four hour decant the wine was silky smooth with a long, complex finish, soft tannins and layers of distinctive flavors. Though young and not quite ready for prime time, I enjoyed the notes of raspberry jam, menthol and graphite. Highly extracted and definitely on the sweet side, I agree with other CT members that it is way too early to drink this wine. 95 now, but definitely a point or two upside with patience.
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Originally I was planning to let this vintage rest for another year as recommended by the winemaker, however, I'm considering buying more to lay down but wanted to check it out first. Dark purple fruit - blackberry, blueberry, dark currants, and dark raspberry. Smooth mid-palate coupled with nice depth/concentration, however, more of a big/rich/extracted fruit style. Nice vibrant/full flavors of dark berries, chocolate, and a little spice. Fairly long finish but again quite rich and a little sweet. Decanted for two hours and drank over another two. Improved a little with time but drinking pretty well after the decant. However, letting this vintage lay down for another year or two as recommended by the winemaker makes sense to let the fruit soften and open-up a little more. A nice cab but I have to be in the mood for this style. For me, their entry level cab is on the border of being too rich/sweet and the Reserve rachets it up to another level. As stated by Parker "the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon McGah Family Vineyard Reserve is even richer, fuller and denser with more glycerin extract and length." In my opinion, more or less in line with Parker's 93 to 95 rating, however, I can understand how others would enjoy this wine more because the quality of fruit is clearly there.
It looks like I'm in the minority on this one, but this wine presents - to me - as too young and too sweet to be truly great. It's a lot of fun, but it's not ready for prime time, at least not yet. I'm a bit surprised, since I adored the 2015 Myriad GIII, but this seems like more of a work in progress at the moment (in my humble opinion).
Dark garnet in color, full in body, pungent nose of blueberry, graphite, and rock candy. Tastes of blueberry pie, red licorice, Hershey’s chocolate, and vanilla (lots of vanilla), with a sweet, almost saccharine finish. 14.9% alcohol. I let this open up over a few hours, but it just couldn't shake the sugary, almost candy-like taste profile.
I love rich modern Cabernet (e.g., Bevan, Carter, Realm), but this just seems a bit jammy and tawdry at the moment. I drank this next to a 2013 Realm Farella, which completely destroyed this wine - the Realm was just as ripe and lush, but it was far more complex and integrated.
Although the 2015's seem to be drinking well early, I think this particular wine would benefit from another year (or two). Obviously Mike Smith knows what he's doing, but I don't think this wine is anywhere near its peak. (Of course, everyone has a line on ripe and sweet fruitiness, and this crossed it for me.) To be clear, the Scarlett has huge potential - and comes at a very agreeable price - I would just counsel against early drinking.
Same as my notes from earlier this month. Wild and concentrated flavors, with a mid-palate that is incredibly intense. This and a '13 Tusk were tied for WOTN. The Tusk was much smoother (after about 2 hours) and showed a little bit more as a "complete" wine, but the Scarlett was an exciting wine with some rambunctious and powerful flavors that really held interest. It was fun to have both wines side-by-side and notice the different reasons I equally enjoyed both wines. The Tusk came off more sophisticated; the Scarlett was a more captivating wine due to its intensity and whirling array of flavors.
98-99+ points for the Scarlett. Hold for another year+.
Blind wine tasting of 2014 Realm Absurd, 2015 Carter GTO, 2015 Scarlett Reserve, 2013 Tusk and 2015 Vice Versa Magnificent Seven. Eight total raters. Wine decanted for approximately 8 hours prior to consumption.
This was both my and the group #3. That said, this wine and the Tusk probably showed the biggest variance, with some putting this wine as high as #2 and others as low as last. Where all the other wines were $300-$400, this wine was $125. I loved it so much when I first tasted it I figured it would be fun to throw it in this group. It did not disappoint.
Nearly black in the glass. A somewhat high pitched nose of licorice, black fruit, cloves, cedar and stark minerality. This is a huge, dense wine, with tons of chocolate and black fruit overtaking the pallet. It is decadent, nicely layered, and shows and earthy quality I didn't find in the other bottles (other than Tusk). Like most of these wines, it is super powerful with a huge finish. I was surprised to find the quality of fruit here to stand up to the Beckstoffer vineyards.
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Got some good intel from CSIMM1161 that this wine was special, so of course I had to coravin a glass. First off, let me say that having had the regular bottling a couple days ago, this is light years better (and I liked the regular bottling quite a bit). Significantly darker fruit profile than the regular cab. Super expressive nose of fresh cut flowers, blackberries, cassis fruit and forest floor. Unbelievably rich, concentrated and powerful on the pallet, without being sweet or cloying. A bit of jam from being so young. Super polished mouthfeel. Blackcurrant, vanilla, a hint of oak and some earth driven notes, this monster just keeps on churning out amazing flavors, layer after layer. It is full bodied, has a huge mid pallet and finishes very, very long. It reminds me in some ways of the 2015 Myriad GIII, but with better delineation. This is fantastic juice. 97++
Incredible black fruit notes, with asphalt, blackberry, black currant, super black raspberry, dark cassis, and a floral note that reminded me of a 2016 Vice Versa Dr. Crane I'd had recently. Unreal concentration, power, viscosity, depth, and complexity. After three hours in the decanter, I was totally in love with this wine. Some really interesting minerality and gravelly earth notes emerged as well.
Mid-palate was extraordinarily intense (reminiscent of a 2014 Outpost True), with a finish that went on for eons. The combination of focus and flavor was insane. My favorite McGah wine ever. 98-99+ points, with likely an easy slip into a perfect score after another year or two+ in the bottle. You can drink it now with a decent decant, but I think patience will reward even further.
I was curious about this Reserve Cab and I like to get an early preview of how this label is showing, should I buy more while it is available or not? Is it too early to drink, or will it show as powerfully as some of the other 2015's Cabs that I have drank and enjoyed? This was a pop and pour and immediately, out of the bottle this wine exhibits a beautiful nose with an intense, lively purple color. Thickness or viscosity is prominent with this vintage as legs are clearly visible as the wine slowly oozes down the sides of the glass. On the palate, dark ripe fruit, highly extracted black and blueberry and cream de cassis. There is the presence of oak, which doesn't bother me in the least, kind of nice, to me anyway. All in all, this is a big wine that is fruit forward, full and rich with nice extraction and viscosity on the palate, quite tasty. Parker gives it 95 Points and I would agree with that assessment, for now anyway. It will be several weeks before I open another, I think?
1/21/2024 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 94 Points
A good bottle wine, but not as good as previous bottles. Showing more acidity and not as expressive, lacking useful energy at this stage. Off bottle, perhaps? Starting to fade? I have a few more bottles in the cellar, so we’ll see. 94/ 94+ Points.
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1/2/2024 - LiteItOnFire wrote:
At 350 main Park Cityas hedonistic as it comes- and even with 8/9 years of age- still very enjoyable but more as a dessert wine than the main event. Crazy how palates change over time.
For those that love the big bold in your face Napa Cabs, this is stellar. Was stellar upon release and is now but in a different form. Old me- this is still a killer wine even with the reduction in primary fruit and oak. New me, still fun but more dessert centric than intellectual. All dark fruits (black hole fruits a thing?), milk chocolate, sweet cream coffee, loads of vanilla, sweet earth, and candy profile. More milkshake than Austin Hope or Caymus 40th 1L bottle concoction.
Regardless super fun, simple and delicious - when the mood calls for a double milk chocolate Frappuccino- hold the coffee bitterness.
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9/7/2023 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 95 Points
A fabulous Cab that may have lost a tad of its luster, but just a tad. Dark cherry and berry fruit, cassis, plum with some tobacco. Drinking well, perhaps an off bottle or time may be catching up with this vintage. I still have a few in the cellar so we'll see if that's the case with my next experience. 94/95 Points
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4/1/2023 - LiteItOnFire wrote: 89 Points
No notes. There is a reason I stopped buying Mike Smith wines as my palate no longer appreciates dessert flabby wines as it once did. These wines are made to be drunk early or they become one dimensional which this is on its way to now with the short bitter oak finish. This was great a few years ago- should have finished them up then. Drink up if you have.
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8/9/2022 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 97 Points
An exceptional, palate pleasing Cabernet that scores 96+ points as a pop and pour and probably better?
Day 2 There is notable improvement. The wine is open and fully on display. Full bodied with dark berry fruits, impeccable extraction and rich full flavors. Dark cherry, crème de cassis, plum with some tobacco. A stunning Cab that’s bold with a lingering finish. 97 Points.
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9/19/2021 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 96 Points
This is a beautiful Cabernet, 95+/ 96 points with half a bottle remaining for tonight. This vintage has shown better but in all fairness, this was a pop and pour with no decanting. Dark blue black berry fruits, cassis and some oak. Despite no decanting, this wine is excellent.
Day 2: Air has been very agreeable with this wine. The depth and structure are more apparent. On the palate the fruit is glowing with cassis, black currant, dark cherry and black licorice elements. This one is lively, full of energy and there's a nice nuance going one with one. The only drawback could be that it a little sweet, but this is a very good wine in my book. 96-96+ Points.
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9/9/2021 - csimm wrote:
BLIND REDS - Bordeaux varietals (mostly Napa and BDX) - Over/Under $100: Ah ha! My gorgeous gothic beauty! Where have you been? I have missed you so. It’s been a hot minute since I last had this wine and yet again, I just can’t help but fall in love with it. Black fruit. Black rock. Black everything. I super dig this profile here, and am quite frankly a little shocked at how deeply pitched and mineral-driven this wine is. Of all the Scarlett Reserves, this is SO my wine. The chiseled focus is so on point, heightened even further by a critical (almost severe) frame that makes you believe it’s going to be just too hardcore. But it perfectly threads the needle between the strict (both in acidic tension and mineral frame) and the savory. Finishes super serious. Distinct and delineated. A wine to have when you feel like embodying David Beckham’s jawline.
Not blind.
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5/5/2021 - GQG Likes this wine: 96 Points
Badmonkey nails the current state of this wine... currants, black cherry, blackberry delivered with purity and spice with a rich, round, charming, sweet singular mid-palate. It's a bit more sweet than the 2016 Carter Three Kings I had last night but still under control. For me the sweetness complements the overall roundness of the wine and doesn't drift anywhere close to the jammy label. 96 score and down to my last bottle of this old friend.
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4/3/2021 - Badmonkey wrote: 94 Points
Dark red and black fruit - dark cherry, blackberry, and currants. Really smooth with a beautiful purity and nice depth/concentration. Nice rich flavors of dark berries and some spice/licorice. Fairly long finish. Popped/poured but drank out of a decanter for a couple hours. Not much improvement with time but at a nice drinking point. Drank next to the 2014 Scarlett Rutherford cab and I would give a slight edge to the 2015 Reserve which was a little smoother/purer and showed a little more depth/concentration but was also richer/sweeter. Once again, the 2015 Reserve is borderline over the top for me in regards to richness/sweetness but a really well made wine nonetheless - I can more than understand how others might rate it higher. In my opinion, right in the middle of the 93 to 95 rating from WA/Parker. 100% cab.
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12/22/2020 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine: 94 Points
Decanted for 2 hours and Bam (can I type that or is that a trademark)? This is drinking back to its sweet spot. Yummy deliciousness, no other words needed. Boom!
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10/15/2020 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine: 93 Points
Beautiful wine but not delivering the same goods as it did a year plus ago. Not sure if it’s becoming disjointed or if this is a drink early wine. Hmmm will have to revisit. Regardless still very enjoyable.
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5/16/2020 - greekwineaux wrote: 88 Points
All I keep thinking about is how much toilet paper I could have purchased with $125 bucks-what a sweet mess. Love the label, especially on this reserve, but that's about it.
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4/8/2020 - dclaggett Likes this wine: 93 Points
Still exhibits more sweetness on finish that I’m very conflicted about, but the wine itself goes on and on in mouth for minutes. Juicy, dusty, red and black berry fruit, some licorice, clove and confection that keeps it unique to other Cali cabs. This has revved up since last bottle - I gave it 4 hr slow ox and consumed over 2 days. Very good wine.
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1/27/2020 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 96 Points
Much like the last bottle and perhaps its backed off just a tad (see previous notes), non the less an excellent bottle of wine.
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1/26/2020 - csimm wrote: flawed
Eeeeeeesh... What happened to my precious prefect Scarlett?!?!?!
Super saaa-weeeeeeeeeeeet blackberry pie muddled in a pile of chocolate Caymus-meets-See's brown sugar buttercream and pureed with a fistful of purple Gobstoppers and the suntan oil of a sweaty southern Iberian pool-boy with a thyroid issue. Plush the way that mud in the Everglades is plush. Like nothing I've ever had from the Scarlett Reserve lineup before. I'm gonna go out on an easy limb here and call this flawed..... as in, A LOT flawed......
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1/1/2020 - ledocq Likes this wine:
Hubbah hubbah. Has all the good qualities of the regular cuvée plus this jagged kind of spine that suggests its finer qualities will come out in 10 or 20 years. It's amazing now, went very well with ribeyes, but it's going to be ridiculous later. High acids after it was open 3 hours, but it could stand up to the marinade accordingly.
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12/6/2019 - GQG Likes this wine: 97 Points
Checked in on this old friend and can confirm that, for me, its personality and charm are undiminished. It always seems to take this wine a half hour or more in the glass to really get going, but it's still getting down and finishing long!
It's a singular wine in many ways, especially the smooth, round, dark, expanding mid-palate that delivers some really unique and layered flavors.
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8/16/2019 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine: 95 Points
Wife dragged me to Diana Ross at the Wynn- admittedly a great show. Damn at 75 she still has it. Ate at Mizumi- probably the best spicy tuna roll I have ever had. Gorgeous views of the waterfall. This wine is like soft cashmere velvet caressing your insides. Was that a wine-gasim? Might have been. This is not the most complex intellectual wine but it puts out like a sophisticated hooker at a Harvard party- juxtaposition, fluxtaposition who the hell knows but this was amazing juice. I may do the walk of shame in the morning but enjoyed every minute. All cassis and velvet. Not sure about the longevity as it has a subtle acid and tannins component but who cares- drink it and love it. It wants to be held now!
And to be clear this is NOT caymus, Rumbauer Zin or Austin Hope or other wines made for Joe Public (don’t get me wrong love to pop those as my gateway wines for unexpecting friends) which may be sluty as well but those are one dimensional sugar sweet fruit bombs- this is not that it all. Perfect for the night! This would be what Frank the Tank would drink.
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8/11/2019 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 97 Points
Beautiful wine but this time it didn't deliver as nicely as my last experience. Dark fruit, extracted black and blueberry fruit, cream de cassis, black licorice and some oak. This is a big fruit monster with energy, nice firm tannins and really delicious, but this time slightly off and less impactful. 96.5 points.
P.S. I'm not afraid of monsters.
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3/21/2019 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 97 Points
"Forced" into opening this bottle with my buddy CSIMM lavishing praise all over it. Would have really enjoyed having it at like a 92, just for the sake of messing with him, but this is definitely showing extremely well. Quality wise, it reminds me of the 2016 Myriad GIII from Mike Smith. Just extremely well constructed and a bargain at $125 on release. Too bad from what I hear the 2016 edition is not following in its footsteps.
Cassis, black currant, dark cherry, spice box and spring flowers emanating from the glass on PnP. First sip and I am really happy, because this has lost some of the jammy and sweet characteristics it showed a bit earlier in its life. Still, this is super full bodied and wonderfully integrated, cascading waves of dark chocolate and blackberry fruit over the pallet in wonderful layers. The fruit is pure, the structure is quite impressive and it is showing more complexity than I would ever rightly expect from this wine. What was mainly a wonderful fruit bomb has become a bit more cerebral. The mid pallet is full and plush, and it transitions quickly to a very, very long and satisfying finish that even manages a lot of mineral like qualities. Not a hard edge to be found. Not quite a perfect wine for my pallet, but definitely a real treat.
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3/17/2019 - csimm wrote: 100 Points
One of my Napa Cabs of the vintage, and a consistent standout every time I pop the cork. This wine simply lays waste to a whole mess of wines when in comparative tastings or as a stand-alone. The complexity here is absurd, with a dark mineral-inflected core that actually speaks less to Rutherford and more toward LPV or Steltzner/Stags Leap sites (so I guess I should ding it down 0.427 points for not accurately representing its proper terroir - So, 99.573 rounded-up is 100 last I checked).
Frame, speed, grip, precise flavor expansion on the mid-palate, viscosity, depth, texture/mouthfeel ... You can go ahead and check all of your little sommelier boxes on this phenomenal specimen. What really draws me in here is how focused this biooootch is. I’m not sure how it achieves such a well-honed and complex delivery of flavors while still kicking down crazy awesome on the savory front. It has personality and a sharpened intensity I love.
The flavors themselves are, as before, a trifecta of black berry, black rock, and bad assery. This was a PnP, and it performed great right from the pull. Air helped to broaden the blackberry and obsidian notes in a way that was perfectly governed both in weight and in speed. I’m not sure what the finish was like really because it went on forever and I was already taking another sip before it actually ended... whenever that was exactly... the next day perhaps.
My only issue with this wine is that I didn’t buy 5 cases of it. And of course... I don’t see it on Wine-Searcher anywhere, even in some random place like Hong Kong, or London..... or Azerbaijan.
Alas, the trials and tribulations of first-world disappointments: “...If only I could find and kidnap my favorite wine so as to tuck it away in my precious cellar like Gollum’s ring or some Silence of the Lambs Buffalo Bill wackamo.”
99.573-100 points.
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1/2/2019 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine: 95 Points
No notes. Shared with SC in Atlanta at Capital Grill. Proper decant- this bottle was much more in line with other ratings/experience. Previous bottle might have been an off-bottle.
Dark fruit, great attack, middle and long finish. Great wine and very good QPR considering almost comparable to 1.5-2x.
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12/28/2018 - LiteItOnFire Likes this wine: 93 Points
Hour decant. No notes. Maybe needed more time? Surprised I am rating this much lower then the rest of the group. Well made yummy wine but feels like there is something missing/sour note for my profile. Not sure what it is but have a bunch left to figure it out. Could also be a phase. Will dog in and get to the bottom of it. 93/94
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11/18/2018 - RockyII Likes this wine: 94 Points
Decanted 2 hours and drank over the next 2 hours with great friends with steak and sushi. Big nose and taste of fresh red and black berries, including raspberries and blackberries, with cedar, chocolate and syrup. Great balance of tannins and acidity. Medium plus body. Really nice. About 94.
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11/7/2018 - melsdad wrote: 99 Points
My first Scarlett Reserve. Decanted for 3 hrs and drank from decanter over the next 4 hours. This wine is a mouthful. Red and black fruit fills the mouth with a touch of sweetness. Very smooth. An gorgeous Mike Smith creation. If this was the only wine I had to drink for the rest of my life, I'd be ok with that. Thanks to Csimm1161 for the recommendation.
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11/3/2018 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 98 Points
This wine is developing into a thing of beauty. Popped and poured, but this beauty needs air in order to kick out it's depth and real inner beauty. Initially and as I have mentioned in previous, lovely dark color, ripe but initially restrained blue black berry fruit that desperately called for air. After about an hour plus, Boy O Boy, this baby came to life! Dark fruit, perfectly extracted black, blueberry and cream de cassis along with a bit of oak. A big, fruit forward wine that's polish, nice firm tannins and approaches perfection by my standards. Parker rates it 95 Points and he (or Lisa) got this one wrong. This is a 98+ wine in my estimation right now, an absolute delight.
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10/27/2018 - Badmonkey wrote: 94 Points
Get together with some friends: 2015 Carter Beckstoffer OG cab, 2015 Carter Weitz cab, 2015 Scarlett Reserve cab, 2015 Becklyn Missouri Hopper cab, 2015 Hall 1873 cab, 2015 Lewelling cab, 2015 Scarlett cab, and 2009 Quivet Kenefick Ranch cab.
Dark red and black fruit - blackberry, dark currants, and dark cherry. Really smooth coupled with nice depth/concentration and purity of fruit. However, once again the fruit is quite rich/sweet and extracted. Fairly long finish. Popped/poured but drank out of a decanter for a couple hours. Improved a little with time. Quality fruit but the richness/sweetness and extraction is a little over the top for me. 100% cab.
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10/10/2018 - Mech-E Likes this wine: 95 Points
Decanted 3 hours. Needed more time to hit its stride. Not as sweet as the non-reserve bottling, which is fine by me. Has more staying power and restrained dark fruit. Touch of oak here. 2nd glass better than the first in terms of mouthfeel. Got softer, obviously, as time went on. Would not say "plush" on this. Some barrel spice but not intrusive. Hold.
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9/18/2018 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 98 Points
Coming along really well, and better than before. Beautiful nose and deep, energetic purple color. On the palate, dark ripe fruit, adequately extracted black and blueberry and cream de cassis. This is a big wine, a thing of beauty that with big dark fruit, it's full with perfect extraction. 97-98 points this time around and destine to improve over the years. So pleased that I have about a half dozen more of these beauty's in the cellar.
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6/2/2018 - csimm wrote: 99 Points
Napa Cabernets + SQN + others (Home): All of my previous notes on this wine apply. I’ve written on and on about my adoration for the 2015 Scarlett Reserve. The best Scarlett ever. The best McGah ever. One of the best Mike Smith wines ever. And with a relatively awesome QPR when compared to any other wine in its league, this thing is just a great bottle of juice that I could drink every night. This showed best after about an hour of being in the glass and getting some much needed air. The initial PnP pull was a little fat and boozy, but that tapered off, leaving some extraordinarily complex dark fruit, rock, and spice flavors. Great energy and intensity. Ideally, I’d still hold for another year.
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5/1/2018 - dclaggett wrote: 92 Points
Too sweet and too much rs for my taste. Good nose, touch of heat, huge swirls of berry and mocha. White choclste, vanilla, raspberry and Moreno cherry jam, almost port like. Very good length. Must like this style or you’ll be turned off.
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3/23/2018 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 94 Points
All my previous notes apply, although this time I am not quite as enthusiastic in my endorsement. It was super, super rich and jammy tonight, despite a nice 6 hour decant. This is always a wine that is pushing the line on extraction and being overdone, and tonight I think it stepped over a bit. Still enjoyable and fun with all the deep, rich quality fruit showing. Great concentration, super full mid pallet and big fat finish. This is still a big, chubby baby. If you drink it now, you may hit it just right, or you may find it is just too extracted and modern. It has all the stuffing to be exceptional, and hopefully a little age will calm it down.
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3/9/2018 - #1Winelover Likes this wine: 95 Points
It's amazing how wine can change and evolve over time. I coravin'ed a glass 3 months ago and it was too fruit forward for my palate. After only 3 months in bottle, this reserve has come together.
This is a modern, full-bodied and rich Cabernet. The smell is incredible, the coloring is dark purple and red. Notable fruits are blackberry, black cherry and plum. Tons of earth notes mid-palate and on the finish, including mineral and asphalt. A really nice and long finish. This comes from 2 blocks from 2 vineyards and is all clone 7.
For those who like big wines, this dark brooding beauty will be a great surprise. And the QPR is solid. 97-98 points.
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2/18/2018 - TXRDW wrote: 95 Points
After trying the Scarlett a week ago my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try the Scarlett Reserve , knowing full well the wine is purported to be years ahead of its optimal drinking window. After a four hour decant the wine was silky smooth with a long, complex finish, soft tannins and layers of distinctive flavors. Though young and not quite ready for prime time, I enjoyed the notes of raspberry jam, menthol and graphite. Highly extracted and definitely on the sweet side, I agree with other CT members that it is way too early to drink this wine. 95 now, but definitely a point or two upside with patience.
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2/5/2018 - pdemaio wrote: 95 Points
Lovely, full bodied with great fruit.
PDQ94+
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12/2/2017 - Badmonkey wrote: 94 Points
Originally I was planning to let this vintage rest for another year as recommended by the winemaker, however, I'm considering buying more to lay down but wanted to check it out first. Dark purple fruit - blackberry, blueberry, dark currants, and dark raspberry. Smooth mid-palate coupled with nice depth/concentration, however, more of a big/rich/extracted fruit style. Nice vibrant/full flavors of dark berries, chocolate, and a little spice. Fairly long finish but again quite rich and a little sweet. Decanted for two hours and drank over another two. Improved a little with time but drinking pretty well after the decant. However, letting this vintage lay down for another year or two as recommended by the winemaker makes sense to let the fruit soften and open-up a little more. A nice cab but I have to be in the mood for this style. For me, their entry level cab is on the border of being too rich/sweet and the Reserve rachets it up to another level. As stated by Parker "the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon McGah Family Vineyard Reserve is even richer, fuller and denser with more glycerin extract and length." In my opinion, more or less in line with Parker's 93 to 95 rating, however, I can understand how others would enjoy this wine more because the quality of fruit is clearly there.
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11/28/2017 - msuwine wrote: 94 Points
It looks like I'm in the minority on this one, but this wine presents - to me - as too young and too sweet to be truly great. It's a lot of fun, but it's not ready for prime time, at least not yet. I'm a bit surprised, since I adored the 2015 Myriad GIII, but this seems like more of a work in progress at the moment (in my humble opinion).
Dark garnet in color, full in body, pungent nose of blueberry, graphite, and rock candy. Tastes of blueberry pie, red licorice, Hershey’s chocolate, and vanilla (lots of vanilla), with a sweet, almost saccharine finish. 14.9% alcohol. I let this open up over a few hours, but it just couldn't shake the sugary, almost candy-like taste profile.
I love rich modern Cabernet (e.g., Bevan, Carter, Realm), but this just seems a bit jammy and tawdry at the moment. I drank this next to a 2013 Realm Farella, which completely destroyed this wine - the Realm was just as ripe and lush, but it was far more complex and integrated.
Although the 2015's seem to be drinking well early, I think this particular wine would benefit from another year (or two). Obviously Mike Smith knows what he's doing, but I don't think this wine is anywhere near its peak. (Of course, everyone has a line on ripe and sweet fruitiness, and this crossed it for me.) To be clear, the Scarlett has huge potential - and comes at a very agreeable price - I would just counsel against early drinking.
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11/23/2017 - csimm wrote: 99 Points
Same as my notes from earlier this month. Wild and concentrated flavors, with a mid-palate that is incredibly intense. This and a '13 Tusk were tied for WOTN. The Tusk was much smoother (after about 2 hours) and showed a little bit more as a "complete" wine, but the Scarlett was an exciting wine with some rambunctious and powerful flavors that really held interest. It was fun to have both wines side-by-side and notice the different reasons I equally enjoyed both wines. The Tusk came off more sophisticated; the Scarlett was a more captivating wine due to its intensity and whirling array of flavors.
98-99+ points for the Scarlett. Hold for another year+.
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11/11/2017 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 97 Points
Blind wine tasting of 2014 Realm Absurd, 2015 Carter GTO, 2015 Scarlett Reserve, 2013 Tusk and 2015 Vice Versa Magnificent Seven. Eight total raters. Wine decanted for approximately 8 hours prior to consumption.
This was both my and the group #3. That said, this wine and the Tusk probably showed the biggest variance, with some putting this wine as high as #2 and others as low as last. Where all the other wines were $300-$400, this wine was $125. I loved it so much when I first tasted it I figured it would be fun to throw it in this group. It did not disappoint.
Nearly black in the glass. A somewhat high pitched nose of licorice, black fruit, cloves, cedar and stark minerality. This is a huge, dense wine, with tons of chocolate and black fruit overtaking the pallet. It is decadent, nicely layered, and shows and earthy quality I didn't find in the other bottles (other than Tusk). Like most of these wines, it is super powerful with a huge finish. I was surprised to find the quality of fruit here to stand up to the Beckstoffer vineyards.
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11/5/2017 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 97 Points
Got some good intel from CSIMM1161 that this wine was special, so of course I had to coravin a glass. First off, let me say that having had the regular bottling a couple days ago, this is light years better (and I liked the regular bottling quite a bit). Significantly darker fruit profile than the regular cab. Super expressive nose of fresh cut flowers, blackberries, cassis fruit and forest floor. Unbelievably rich, concentrated and powerful on the pallet, without being sweet or cloying. A bit of jam from being so young. Super polished mouthfeel. Blackcurrant, vanilla, a hint of oak and some earth driven notes, this monster just keeps on churning out amazing flavors, layer after layer. It is full bodied, has a huge mid pallet and finishes very, very long. It reminds me in some ways of the 2015 Myriad GIII, but with better delineation. This is fantastic juice. 97++
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11/4/2017 - csimm wrote: 99 Points
Mike Smith Tasting and Wine Dinner - Carter, Myriad, Scarlett, Quivet, Becklyn, Patine... & a SQN for fun! (San Francisco): Among 15 wines (12 of which were Cabernets/Cab blends), this was the hands-down best wine of the night. Almost all of us gravitated to this wine over and over again until it was quickly consumed. The first wine to disappear among all the others (which tells you something right there).
Incredible black fruit notes, with asphalt, blackberry, black currant, super black raspberry, dark cassis, and a floral note that reminded me of a 2016 Vice Versa Dr. Crane I'd had recently. Unreal concentration, power, viscosity, depth, and complexity. After three hours in the decanter, I was totally in love with this wine. Some really interesting minerality and gravelly earth notes emerged as well.
Mid-palate was extraordinarily intense (reminiscent of a 2014 Outpost True), with a finish that went on for eons. The combination of focus and flavor was insane. My favorite McGah wine ever. 98-99+ points, with likely an easy slip into a perfect score after another year or two+ in the bottle. You can drink it now with a decent decant, but I think patience will reward even further.
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10/15/2017 - Yack Man Likes this wine: 95 Points
I was curious about this Reserve Cab and I like to get an early preview of how this label is showing, should I buy more while it is available or not? Is it too early to drink, or will it show as powerfully as some of the other 2015's Cabs that I have drank and enjoyed? This was a pop and pour and immediately, out of the bottle this wine exhibits a beautiful nose with an intense, lively purple color. Thickness or viscosity is prominent with this vintage as legs are clearly visible as the wine slowly oozes down the sides of the glass. On the palate, dark ripe fruit, highly extracted black and blueberry and cream de cassis. There is the presence of oak, which doesn't bother me in the least, kind of nice, to me anyway. All in all, this is a big wine that is fruit forward, full and rich with nice extraction and viscosity on the palate, quite tasty. Parker gives it 95 Points and I would agree with that assessment, for now anyway. It will be several weeks before I open another, I think?
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