2009 Forman Cabernet Sauvignon

Community Tasting Notes (36) Avg Score: 92.8 points

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  9/8/2023 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 94 Points

  One off ($99.99) from the big box wine store about 2 months ago. On the nose and palate, powerful notes of mentholyptus, forest floor, semisweet blackberries and red and black currants, cedar, mixed herbal bouquet (CF very present), anise, graphite, wet earth, exotic spice and lighter notes of tobacco, dark florals, blueberries and black cherries. Deep purple, medium to full bodied, thick legs. Medium+ tannins and acidity, no heat. Excellent complexity and intensity, VG+ persistence. This bottle presented very distinctively off the pour: a bit out of balance due to very prominent ripe, juicy and somewhat stewy fruit, but hardly a Smith-Venge style fruit bomb due to the fruits’ semisweet and savory character and the wine’s grainy quality. This steadily, but not completely, balanced, if not integrated, with a couple of hours of air, and more so, over the 2 nights I had it open so that the last glass on night 2 was, for my palate, best. Not a great match with deep dish pizza one night, definitely better with wagyu ribeye the next, this drank well on its own, as long as you understand that this isn’t so much a cocktail wine as something that demands you engage with it. I’ve had little Forman over the years—I’m currently sitting with 2 ‘13s and a chard—really just an odd taste here and there, since drinking some of Ric’s earliest Cabs at my first professional job 30+ years ago, where his wines were favored by a few of my partners. With my largely unformed palate at the time, what I remember was that they drank current vintages as PnPs, which didn’t seem to show the wines at their best, and if that memory is correct, it’s consistent with this tasting, as this wine, with 14 years of bottle age then significant air over 2 nights, seemed to be finding its best stride as it was being finished, always a bittersweet experience, although, if I had to choose, better than a wine that shows its best off the pour and progressively loses steam while open. I think that this is at most the start of its peak drinking window, and I’d expect it to have 5++ years at peak from here, but as mentioned elsewhere, my opinions of various wines’ longevity seem barely worthy of the space they take up in the digital universe. Even if I can’t say I *loved* this wine or that it was a steal at what I paid for it (the price seems about right), I can say that I liked it and that it fascinated me, and I think I might well like it even more in 3-5 years. I’ll keep my eyes open for more of Ric’s cabs, even if they’re not likely to take up the space of Larkmead LMVs, QCs, Ovids and Abreus in the collection. 93-94++

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  5/6/2023 - evanlyall wrote:

  Drinking nicely. Took a minute to open but still substantial out of the bottle. Only have a few left. Wish i had more.

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  4/30/2023 - thalver wrote:

  decanted and started drinking after about an hour and a quarter, at which point it was moderately expressive on the nose, with some fruit and mineral, little gravel or cedar, the tannins were clearly present but not obtrusive

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  10/7/2022 - Rick 4 Wine Likes this wine: 96 Points

  I love Ric’s wine at this age. Just delightful everything you expect of a Forman

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  9/10/2022 - marshalc Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Fine showing

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