1991 Hanzell Cabernet Sauvignon

Community Tasting Notes (7) Avg Score: 92.9 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View oldwines's profile
  • Report Issue

  9/18/2021 - oldwines Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Shane's 6th Annual Game Dinner - Game & Truffle (Chateau Lea, New Jersey): Decanted at Shane’s around 4:30pm and enjoyed at about 9:30pm with an Elk Rib Chop. This bottle was amazingly youthful and fresh from the start. It is a bright, slightly translucent dark garnet color. The nose is very fragrant, fruity but also showing some bell pepper, probably derived from the 11% Cab Franc in the blend. Extremely complex. Very fresh tasting for a 30 year old wine. Rich and with great depth and a very long finish. Fruits flavors include plum, red and black currant. Supremely well balanced. Absolutely perfect with the green peppercorn sauce that accompanied the Elk. This may have been my favorite wine of the night, several others seemed to agree.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comments (2)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View e-r.portzline's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/5/2019 - e-r.portzline Likes this wine: 92 Points

  No sediment, clearly aged, but not brown at the edges. Surprising fruit when opened, tames as it breathed in the decanter. Lovely cabernet, black tea, allspice, clove, mushroom, dried thyme, long finish. Really lovely cab and has aged very well.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View e-r.portzline's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/25/2018 - e-r.portzline Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Decanted. Small amount of large-crystal sediment. Beige at the edges, long and medium-quick legs. At first open, surprising fruit on the nose with olive, dark fruits, bramble, eucalyptus, and dried chervil. Tastes of mushroom, grass, dried currants and black tea leaves. After an hour or two in the decanter, the fruit and eucalyptus are gone, replaced with allspice, clove. It opens beautifully.
  
  This bottle appears to be past its prime, and we’ll look forward to opening the remaining one we have for comparison.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Francois Le Mouel's profile
  • Report Issue

  12/23/2018 - Francois Le Mouel Likes this wine: 93 Points

  My first Hanzell Cabernet - from the Lake Placid Lodge cellar. You never know what to expect from a 27 year old wine, but this one was in pristine condition. The colour was still kind of young in appearance and looked 10-15 years younger, without any orange nuances on the edge. The nose was very expressive, showcasing classic aromas of old school California Cabernet from the '80s (cedar, forest floor, minty notes...). Tannins were super polished and there was still a good amount of fruit on the palate. Perfectly balanced (this is probably why it lasted so long!) with a long finish. Had a lot of fun tasting this old Sonoma Cab.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View mflesh's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/12/2013 - mflesh wrote: 92 Points

  One of 14 wines experienced at a Back to the Future wine tasting at a Dallas TX steakhouse. I rated this wine a bit higher at first. The second visit was probably a little more realistic. The nose of this wine was still a bit smoky but not as much as the 91 Heitz Martha's Cab that was also in the lineup. Through the smoke, this wine had an aged blackberry nose but aromatics overall were slightly lacking to me. The first visit was a bit more fruit forward without the raisin note, and there was some aged black cherry and pomegranate. Middle and back is where this nice silky tannin started to show up, stiffening the jaw and finishing rather nicely. Palate on the second visit had what was noted above plus some plum and raisin. I think this wine might be over the hill a bit, but certainly is still drinking well with proper cellaring.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 7 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.