Opened with friends at Q restaurant in Portland, Oregon. A nice aged California Cabernet - the color is still great, fruity but also savory as it sat in the glass. It’s probably a good idea to drink soon.
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There is no better, mature, classic California Cabernet Sauvignon for the money than these older La Jota Anniversary wines. The wine is concentrated, round, and packed with mouth-filling layers ripe, blackberries, dark red fruits, tobacco leaf, smoke, herbs and scorched earth. The character-filled finish has staying power. I am sure there is at least another decade left in the tank here.
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Much darker Then expected, even for HM. Looks more like something from the early 2000’s. Only a hint of lighting at the edges. The nose eventually developed, after a couple of hours into a fairly powerful bouquet of red fruits that went from more sweet (think cherry rhubarb pie with mint) to more savory and slightly darker fruited as it aired with notes of burnt embers/pain grille, high class pipe tobacco, cassis and earth. Palate ended up fairly smooth and balanced after it opened, where as it started out a bit acidic. The finish was long and detailed. What a couple of hours can make. It it went from a semi-boring singular typical Cabernet to a highly complex detailed expression of what Howell Mountain can do at its best.
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This wine was good from the moment I pulled the cork and it just got better. Lots of cassis Cabernet character, graphite, sweet fruit but very pure and not at all jammy. Clearly from a noble vintage, this could be Pauillac if tasted blind - and a good one at that. No sign of it tiring either. Delicious.
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WTDS at The Kenwood With Some Older Gems (The Kenwood, Mpls, MN): VEry dark red/purple color; drank 1+ glass over 90 minutes. This started off a bit slow, actually it seemed youthful, and picked up a tremendous amount of steam over 20 minutes or so. The nose just explodes and showed some old world character and depth along with classic mountain black and blue fruit of cassis and boysenberry. The palate has great acidity that bouys the nice blueberry, cassis, and black cherry fruits, with minerals and oak, tangy, earthy, long and well integrated. While this was youthful, it clearly is ready and performs so well. Loved it. 93+ to 94pts.
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While not in the stratosphere great this did not disappoint. Double decanted shortly before leaving for The Kenwood. Left cork in after arrival and drank around 8:30PM. Classic CA BDX blend that even drank a little young???? Loved it. Paid $125 four months ago from HDH.
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Intense tobacco-edged nose and palate. Holding up quite well for a 22 year old wine. Good acid and still some tannin. Tight upon opening and took at least an hour to open up to the extent it did. Was then lovely but a tad astringent and not really complex.
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Summer cabin weekend; 8/8/2014-8/9/2014 (Cleveland, GA): Decanted 75 minutes and followed over the next two hours. Elegant, very polished, Barolo-like nose leads with black cherry and red currants. There's a subtle creaminess and smokiness to the nose that carries over to the palate. This bottle had much better expressiveness than one tasted in March, with perfectly mature fruit playing against good acidity. This was more feminine but equally as good as the '97 Phelps Insignia, and it crushed the '92 Dunn Howell Mountain, which needs more time. Drink now-2017.
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Another Saturday at Knightsbridge - mostly blind (Northbrook, IL): Tasted double blind. Plum and black cherry with very charming spice, some tobacco. Good firmness, good length, perhaps not so finessed. I thought it actually Bordeaux, but considerably older than 20 yo.
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Decanted 2.5 hours. Strong graphite and smoky chocolate aromas on the nose. Mature palate, layered red currant and wild red berry. Somewhat austere acidity on midpalate, finishes firm and leathery. Could have more expressiveness, although this improves glass to glass. Seems to be toward the end of maturity.
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Served the '92 La Jota against '92 Dalla Valle...both were spectacular and each will be fine for several more years. In fairness I have cellared them at 55 degrees since their release and last night was a just reward. Decanted 2 hours before dinner and served with grilled leg of lamb. Upon first taste the Dalla Valle was a little more open and fruit forward while the La Jota displayed vegetal notes, was lighter and more "French" in style. Most of us preferred the Dalla Valle while my son was La Jota all the way. An hour later the La Jota showed its stuff and most of us switched our allegiance. Both were perfect with the lamb and roasted red peppers and next year I expect both to still be drinking perfectly.
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Decanted 2 hours Nose - Really nice. Ample fruit. Ready after 2 hours decant. Palette - Also delicate and complex. But still abit tannic. Needs afew years. 94
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Decanted 1.5 hour before blind tasting. Definitely old world style with great nose and fruit. Had tobacco taste... very refined. This is drinking perfectly now.
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A magnificent wine that revealed many different facets over the course of the evening . Fruit driven, in a sweet, ripe but not overblown style, with cassis, blueberries and violets most prominent in the flavour spectrum. Perfectly ready for drinking. I wish I had more!
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Brooding and powerful with balanced and long lasting waves of flavor - dried cranberries, cherries, bitter-sweet chocolate, pencil lead, creosote. Exceptional wine at its peak and no sign of decline. 1992 Napa is a great vintage and this was a wonderful wine to celebrate my own 1992 vintage son, who graduated high school today.
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Pop and pour. Brilliant dark ruby red. Slight bricking. Hesitant nose at first. Let sit an hour or so in the glass. Then classic tobacco, incense, fruitcake, plum, grape confit. Very thin, dry, dark bitter chocolate oriented palate gives way over time to a behemouth of very dry, rich, dark fruit-oriented incredible array of flavors - over-ripe almost cooked currants and plums, cedar, spicebox, smoke, graphite, fruitcake. Very, very, dry. Depth, power and richness allied with great complexity and class. As noted below, much better with time, air and warmth. At peak now. This bottle beginning to oxidize at about 4 hours, but not really at peak drinking until about the 2.5 hour mark. A 61 Haut Brion of a Cab.
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Just amazing depth and power. This is so concentrated and still so young it is shocking. This is truly a cab lovers cab with dryness off the charts. No bricking yet. Just great stuff. What happened to La Jota?
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This is as good as it gets. I cannot believe the minerality, the structure and the youth of this wine. Top five of all the wines I have tasted. Massive fruit, fantastic texture, just an amazing glass of wine.
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Just outstanding. The only reason this is not a hundred in my book is it might need a couple of years still. Let it get room temperature, this wine in particular shows itself much better on the warm side. Great depth, structure and that cabernet power that merlot drinkers must envy. A great California Cabernet is tough to beat. So glad i have 4 more of these!
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Decanted 2.5 hours in advance. Ruby with garnet shades. Some darkness at center. Some lightening at rim, just a bit. Reticent nose of spicebox and incense with a hint of gamey, chocolatey, dark berries. Great ripe cab flavor. Dryish, even a bit acidic at first, with a big attack on the front palate. Then, shifting to subtle, but great and long. Breed. Currant and cigar box. An hour later: Nose gushing with graphite, deep plum, almost grenache, overripe blueberries. Deep Welch's grape jelly. Palate awash with pure ripe fruit, cigar box, lead pencil, and telltale spicebox incense. Great secondary elements exquisitely balancing the big fruit. Yum! Beginning to crack up after 2.5 hours into the tasting, acidity beginning to poke through. Great, spicy mature cab. At peak now, but may hold like this another 5 years. Maybe I'm being stingy with 97 points. Second best nose on a cal cab, after the 91 Dominus, but this had better overall balance. I loved it!
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Massive, dark, bewildering intense concentration. This wine is still almost too dense to pick apart all its complexity. Quite a bit of sediment in the bottle. I have 3 more of these and I will probably wait 5 years to try another one.
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The color is a very dark purple, almost opaque. The nose sports a perfume of blackberries a slight blueberry note, cassis, spice, coffee, menthol, vanilla and oak. The wine offers a dense, full bodied, chewy texture. On the palate, the wine displays blackberry liqueur, pepper and black cherry flavors and a long finish. This will age well.
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96-98 -- Wow! Amazing Stuff! Cooked fruit on nose. Strong tannins, but also concentrated fruit; very long finish. Almost perfect, except I had a sedimented pour.
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8/6/2022 - jc510 wrote:
Drinking really well, still integrated and little signs of aging.
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8/5/2022 - Grangelady Likes this wine: 92 Points
Opened with friends at Q restaurant in Portland, Oregon. A nice aged California Cabernet - the color is still great, fruity but also savory as it sat in the glass. It’s probably a good idea to drink soon.
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9/22/2020 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
There is no better, mature, classic California Cabernet Sauvignon for the money than these older La Jota Anniversary wines. The wine is concentrated, round, and packed with mouth-filling layers ripe, blackberries, dark red fruits, tobacco leaf, smoke, herbs and scorched earth. The character-filled finish has staying power. I am sure there is at least another decade left in the tank here.
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5/23/2020 - jordanj Likes this wine: 95 Points
Same as last note.
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4/5/2020 - jordanj wrote: 95 Points
Much darker Then expected, even for HM. Looks more like something from the early 2000’s. Only a hint of lighting at the edges. The nose eventually developed, after a couple of hours into a fairly powerful bouquet of red fruits that went from more sweet (think cherry rhubarb pie with mint) to more savory and slightly darker fruited as it aired with notes of burnt embers/pain grille, high class pipe tobacco, cassis and earth. Palate ended up fairly smooth and balanced after it opened, where as it started out a bit acidic. The finish was long and detailed. What a couple of hours can make. It it went from a semi-boring singular typical Cabernet to a highly complex detailed expression of what Howell Mountain can do at its best.
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1/14/2018 - ledwards wrote: 93 Points
Youthful and expressive nose. An outstanding showing as it remains in a long drinking window.
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8/17/2017 - Dossross Likes this wine: 95 Points
This wine was good from the moment I pulled the cork and it just got better. Lots of cassis Cabernet character, graphite, sweet fruit but very pure and not at all jammy. Clearly from a noble vintage, this could be Pauillac if tasted blind - and a good one at that. No sign of it tiring either. Delicious.
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9/1/2015 - rocknroller wrote: 94 Points
WTDS at The Kenwood With Some Older Gems (The Kenwood, Mpls, MN): VEry dark red/purple color; drank 1+ glass over 90 minutes. This started off a bit slow, actually it seemed youthful, and picked up a tremendous amount of steam over 20 minutes or so. The nose just explodes and showed some old world character and depth along with classic mountain black and blue fruit of cassis and boysenberry. The palate has great acidity that bouys the nice blueberry, cassis, and black cherry fruits, with minerals and oak, tangy, earthy, long and well integrated. While this was youthful, it clearly is ready and performs so well. Loved it. 93+ to 94pts.
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9/1/2015 - chablis28 wrote: 93 Points
While not in the stratosphere great this did not disappoint. Double decanted shortly before leaving for The Kenwood. Left cork in after arrival and drank around 8:30PM. Classic CA BDX blend that even drank a little young???? Loved it. Paid $125 four months ago from HDH.
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10/4/2014 - Dennis Graves wrote: 89 Points
Intense tobacco-edged nose and palate. Holding up quite well for a 22 year old wine. Good acid and still some tannin. Tight upon opening and took at least an hour to open up to the extent it did. Was then lovely but a tad astringent and not really complex.
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8/8/2014 - Giggs wrote: 97 Points
Summer cabin weekend; 8/8/2014-8/9/2014 (Cleveland, GA): Decanted 75 minutes and followed over the next two hours. Elegant, very polished, Barolo-like nose leads with black cherry and red currants. There's a subtle creaminess and smokiness to the nose that carries over to the palate. This bottle had much better expressiveness than one tasted in March, with perfectly mature fruit playing against good acidity. This was more feminine but equally as good as the '97 Phelps Insignia, and it crushed the '92 Dunn Howell Mountain, which needs more time. Drink now-2017.
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4/19/2014 - Burgundy Al wrote:
Another Saturday at Knightsbridge - mostly blind (Northbrook, IL): Tasted double blind. Plum and black cherry with very charming spice, some tobacco. Good firmness, good length, perhaps not so finessed. I thought it actually Bordeaux, but considerably older than 20 yo.
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3/22/2014 - Giggs wrote: 94 Points
Decanted 2.5 hours. Strong graphite and smoky chocolate aromas on the nose. Mature palate, layered red currant and wild red berry. Somewhat austere acidity on midpalate, finishes firm and leathery. Could have more expressiveness, although this improves glass to glass. Seems to be toward the end of maturity.
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2/8/2014 - Old Vino Likes this wine: 94 Points
mature may be slightly past peak of prime drinking window. Shadowed by '92 Colgin
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7/7/2013 - northbridge wrote: 97 Points
Served the '92 La Jota against '92 Dalla Valle...both were spectacular and each will be fine for several more years. In fairness I have cellared them at 55 degrees since their release and last night was a just reward. Decanted 2 hours before dinner and served with grilled leg of lamb. Upon first taste the Dalla Valle was a little more open and fruit forward while the La Jota displayed vegetal notes, was lighter and more "French" in style. Most of us preferred the Dalla Valle while my son was La Jota all the way. An hour later the La Jota showed its stuff and most of us switched our allegiance. Both were perfect with the lamb and roasted red peppers and next year I expect both to still be drinking perfectly.
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6/11/2013 - Jhcwine Likes this wine: 94 Points
Decanted 2 hours
Nose - Really nice. Ample fruit. Ready after 2 hours decant.
Palette - Also delicate and complex. But still abit tannic. Needs afew years.
94
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4/5/2013 - JR512 Likes this wine: 96 Points
Decanted 1.5 hour before blind tasting. Definitely old world style with great nose and fruit. Had tobacco taste... very refined. This is drinking perfectly now.
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1/17/2013 - wineamateur wrote: 96 Points
A magnificent wine that revealed many different facets over the course of the evening . Fruit driven, in a sweet, ripe but not overblown style, with cassis, blueberries and violets most prominent in the flavour spectrum. Perfectly ready for drinking. I wish I had more!
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6/16/2011 - babnik Likes this wine: 95 Points
Brooding and powerful with balanced and long lasting waves of flavor - dried cranberries, cherries, bitter-sweet chocolate, pencil lead, creosote. Exceptional wine at its peak and no sign of decline. 1992 Napa is a great vintage and this was a wonderful wine to celebrate my own 1992 vintage son, who graduated high school today.
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4/5/2011 - HenryW wrote: 92 Points
Red fruits and graphite on the nose. Palate has a savory note and a chalky earthiness. Firm tannins.
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3/28/2011 - yotaiwan wrote: 91 Points
still strong, smells of alchohol when opened, extremely deep and drying tannin, should have left it longer, but very stron gand powerful.
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6/8/2009 - burgcamel wrote: 96 Points
Excellent wine and is a good example of how some CA wines can age. This wine is drinking beautifully now and I see no reason to wait.
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3/21/2009 - mutlynch wrote: 95 Points
Decanted for about 2 hrsn before heading out for dinner. An absolutely wonder cab in its prime.
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12/30/2008 - sawira wrote: 96 Points
Pop and pour. Brilliant dark ruby red. Slight bricking. Hesitant nose at first. Let sit an hour or so in the glass. Then classic tobacco, incense, fruitcake, plum, grape confit. Very thin, dry, dark bitter chocolate oriented palate gives way over time to a behemouth of very dry, rich, dark fruit-oriented incredible array of flavors - over-ripe almost cooked currants and plums, cedar, spicebox, smoke, graphite, fruitcake. Very, very, dry. Depth, power and richness allied with great complexity and class. As noted below, much better with time, air and warmth. At peak now. This bottle beginning to oxidize at about 4 hours, but not really at peak drinking until about the 2.5 hour mark. A 61 Haut Brion of a Cab.
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4/14/2008 - nob8dnkr wrote: 95 Points
a touch of bret but this wine is all muscle. dark red fruits, slight bricking. I would not call this a dinner wine, it would crush most foods.
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3/13/2008 - cgrimes wrote: 89 Points
Skinner Spring Auction Reception (Boston, MA): Purple. Nose of briary fruits. Dense fruit on the palate with some wood and earth. Seemed a bit off balance to me.
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9/27/2007 - nob8dnkr wrote: 98 Points
Just amazing depth and power. This is so concentrated and still so young it is shocking. This is truly a cab lovers cab with dryness off the charts. No bricking yet. Just great stuff. What happened to La Jota?
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2/1/2007 - nob8dnkr wrote: 99 Points
This is as good as it gets. I cannot believe the minerality, the structure and the youth of this wine. Top five of all the wines I have tasted. Massive fruit, fantastic texture, just an amazing glass of wine.
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12/11/2006 - nob8dnkr wrote: 97 Points
Just outstanding. The only reason this is not a hundred in my book is it might need a couple of years still. Let it get room temperature, this wine in particular shows itself much better on the warm side. Great depth, structure and that cabernet power that merlot drinkers must envy. A great California Cabernet is tough to beat. So glad i have 4 more of these!
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10/30/2006 - MRichman wrote:
Chateau Latour vertical at Danube (Danube restaurant in NYC): Sweet with a dark core. A bit syrupy on finish but not over the top. Smooth & beautiful.
A
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8/9/2006 - sawira wrote: 97 Points
Decanted 2.5 hours in advance. Ruby with garnet shades. Some darkness at center. Some lightening at rim, just a bit. Reticent nose of spicebox and incense with a hint of gamey, chocolatey, dark berries. Great ripe cab flavor. Dryish, even a bit acidic at first, with a big attack on the front palate. Then, shifting to subtle, but great and long. Breed. Currant and cigar box. An hour later: Nose gushing with graphite, deep plum, almost grenache, overripe blueberries. Deep Welch's grape jelly. Palate awash with pure ripe fruit, cigar box, lead pencil, and telltale spicebox incense. Great secondary elements exquisitely balancing the big fruit. Yum! Beginning to crack up after 2.5 hours into the tasting, acidity beginning to poke through. Great, spicy mature cab. At peak now, but may hold like this another 5 years. Maybe I'm being stingy with 97 points. Second best nose on a cal cab, after the 91 Dominus, but this had better overall balance. I loved it!
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7/10/2006 - PathDoc wrote:
Massive, dark, bewildering intense concentration. This wine is still almost too dense to pick apart all its complexity. Quite a bit of sediment in the bottle. I have 3 more of these and I will probably wait 5 years to try another one.
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12/5/2003 - Jeff Leve wrote: 94 Points
The color is a very dark purple, almost opaque. The nose sports a perfume of blackberries a slight blueberry note, cassis, spice, coffee, menthol, vanilla and oak. The wine offers a dense, full bodied, chewy texture. On the palate, the wine displays blackberry liqueur, pepper and black cherry flavors and a long finish. This will age well.
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1/1/2003 - Octavius wrote:
96-98 -- Wow! Amazing Stuff! Cooked fruit on nose. Strong tannins, but also concentrated fruit; very long finish. Almost perfect, except I had a sedimented pour.
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