My last Tasting Room 50 ml :-(. Nose: Medium expressiveness, dark flowers - violets, dust, spice, plum, and blueberry. Palate: Medium bodied, this is in it's prime drinking window as the tannins are integrated nicely, sweet dark fruit attack with spice and earthy undertones, nice acidic mid-palate presence, smokey appearance in the back-end. Finish: Medium-plus length sense of sweet, smokey, and spicy dark fruit.
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I upped the score a point since last year as it had most of the components of a decent Cali-Cab like dark berries, cassis and spice but it still has a vegetal note that my wife also picked up without me mentioning it. Tannins still firm so will hold last bottle for a few years.
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A little different than many Calistoga wines. This one hails from the base of Mt. St Helena, technically Calistoga I guess, but the fruit seemed to be a little generic. Uncorked to some kind of dark apricot colored sludge on the other side of the cork. Cork was not compromised. The wine was poured into glass and was slowly consumed. The second glass I will say right now was much better than the first, so I'll go to that one. This is a dark red pour, medium to full bodied, good fruit but very expressive and almost punchy fruit up front. Blackberry was kind of THE theme of the tasting. Very good fruit expression and occurred early, but it kind of killed the expression of the mint and leather in the mid-palate. The finish showed some oak, but a lot of spice was really here. I don't really expect this one to hold beyond a couple of years. Although it was a good wine, it just doesn't have the complexity. It did have that traditional Calistoga lip smacking spice on the finish that was probably its saving grace. Although I enjoyed this wine, mostly for its finish, I'm glad I don't have more of this...to me it's not much of a QPR winner eiher. Drink by 2015.
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This was splashed into a decanter and consumed immediately. Could of used some time as the first glass was firm and spicy with a bit of green vegetable notes. There was a good core of fruit and the last glass was getting better. Will hold 2-3 years on the next bottle.
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12/29/2014 - pjbeans wrote: 88 Points
Very good wine, amazing nose of cherries, menthol, vanilla. A little out of balance on the palate with a little too much red fruit for my taste
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8/4/2014 - Cgallivan Likes this wine: 90 Points
Tasted with North Carolina mustard based ribs.
The wine has a great nose, a little deceptive in fact! Good fruit with a decent finish. A good mixture of dark fruit and earthiness.
This is a great winery to order from directly.
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3/23/2014 - prasm Likes this wine: 90 Points
My last Tasting Room 50 ml :-(. Nose: Medium expressiveness, dark flowers - violets, dust, spice, plum, and blueberry. Palate: Medium bodied, this is in it's prime drinking window as the tannins are integrated nicely, sweet dark fruit attack with spice and earthy undertones, nice acidic mid-palate presence, smokey appearance in the back-end. Finish: Medium-plus length sense of sweet, smokey, and spicy dark fruit.
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12/23/2013 - wineotim wrote: 89 Points
Deep and dark, with oaky nose, more oak and cassis, spice and clove on the palate. Tasted at WF Tampa.
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11/16/2013 - Tonythefish wrote: 88 Points
Lots of sediment in bottle. Nice wine but still quite tannic. Little tight but opened to earthy notes. Less of a finish than 2004 version
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10/4/2013 - LFCHALA wrote: 91 Points
Delicious wine whose major memory I have is a delicious aroma of white truffles. In the mouth, round.
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8/23/2013 - Arch57 wrote: 89 Points
I upped the score a point since last year as it had most of the components of a decent Cali-Cab like dark berries, cassis and spice but it still has a vegetal note that my wife also picked up without me mentioning it. Tannins still firm so will hold last bottle for a few years.
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6/24/2013 - mflesh wrote: 87 Points
A little different than many Calistoga wines. This one hails from the base of Mt. St Helena, technically Calistoga I guess, but the fruit seemed to be a little generic. Uncorked to some kind of dark apricot colored sludge on the other side of the cork. Cork was not compromised. The wine was poured into glass and was slowly consumed. The second glass I will say right now was much better than the first, so I'll go to that one. This is a dark red pour, medium to full bodied, good fruit but very expressive and almost punchy fruit up front. Blackberry was kind of THE theme of the tasting. Very good fruit expression and occurred early, but it kind of killed the expression of the mint and leather in the mid-palate. The finish showed some oak, but a lot of spice was really here. I don't really expect this one to hold beyond a couple of years. Although it was a good wine, it just doesn't have the complexity. It did have that traditional Calistoga lip smacking spice on the finish that was probably its saving grace. Although I enjoyed this wine, mostly for its finish, I'm glad I don't have more of this...to me it's not much of a QPR winner eiher. Drink by 2015.
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8/19/2012 - Arch57 wrote: 88 Points
This was splashed into a decanter and consumed immediately. Could of used some time as the first glass was firm and spicy with a bit of green vegetable notes. There was a good core of fruit and the last glass was getting better. Will hold 2-3 years on the next bottle.
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