2012 Carter Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Weitz Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (10) Avg Score: 94.4 points

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  11/6/2020 - winestlouis Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Warm and inviting deep red and purple. Absolutely glass staining after 8 years. Nose is bright fruit still, red fruits. Something about the nose is not my favorite, but not offensive or flawed. On the palate: lots of good acidity in here, med plus body, medium tannins linger and provide plenty of texture, super well balanced wine. Some dark fruit, plum, not over extracted. This can go several more years but is a blast to enjoy now.

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  5/29/2020 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Well......having experimented with these older Carters......I am majorly underimpressed. I don't see any way possible that either the '10 or '12 fruit/wines drink any better than they were on release and probably only worse. I am re-thinking my past theories and now saying everyone out there should drink any Carter you have in the first 2-6 years if you bought them for their big, juicy fruit tendencies. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is, to me, based on these recent trials. Don't get me wrong, I love aged wines, but it seems these big Napa fruit bombs just age differently and are not in a sweet spot for me personally.
  
  Day 2 addendum: Need to make amends. Didn't realize last night but I think cork shrinkage from poor storage is to blame. Cork slid right out by hand today, seems narrowed and shrunken on the wine end, so probably this bottle has been micro-slow oxing for years from poor storage conditions. I only picked it up a month ago at auction from Brentwood so buyer beware, there have been a lot of Carter's showing up there recently and if they've not been stored well, then......? Having said that I find a lot of what I found in my previous bottle of the '10 OG on Day 2, also from Brentwood. Rich cassis/graphite nose, almost liqueur like fruit concentration, a little better balance to the acid and tannins but also a little more whiff of alcohol, too. It's actually just a tad hot in the back of your throat after swallowing. The fruit is beginning to llighten at the rim and there is the faintest hint of raisin and other tertiary flaovrs developing. This is better put together than the '10 OG was. I found Day 2 of this to be 2 points better than last night, so a 94. This '12 drinks like it may be an '01 and I would certainly blame that on storage issues and the micro-oxing due to the cork shrinkage.

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  2/28/2020 - msuwine wrote: 94 Points

  This wine has opened, matured, and faded in the three years since I tasted it last (12/16 - 96 points). This is now a more red-fruited, earthy, and restrained wine, without the buoyant ripe and chocolatey notes of its youth. To be sure, one person's mature wine is another's aged wine, and I confess to not being sure which is which here. I like it, but not as much as I liked it in 2016 - something that may say as much about me (now or then) as it does about the wine (now or then).
  
  The wine is less intense than I remember it, with a lighter red color and a more medium-bodied profile. The aromas now include warm gravel and rosemary, without the licorice notes from years ago. The flavors, too, are more earthy, with notes of blueberry tart, black cherry, anise, and mushroom, with a more grainy and rustic finish. 14.8% alcohol.
  
  This has aged with balance: no alcohol or tannin or acidity poke through at the eight-year mark. Still, I think this is a few years past its sweet spot for me, though others will surely enjoy its more Old World, savory profile. I find it tasty, but too subdued. For my palate, I'd drink in the next few years.

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  2/18/2020 - Quiet Lion Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Decanted one hour. Beautiful mix of classic style and Napa fruit with full body, pure cassis, lovely balanced acid. Quite a typical high-end Napa cab and drinking great now.

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  4/8/2018 - csimm wrote: 95 Points

  It has been a year-and-a-half since I last had this wine. A two hour+ decant did this well, as the initial PnP was a bit hot. Medium-to-full bodied, with beautifully energetic purple and dark red core fruit. Black cherry, black raspberry, cassis, purple plum, black currant, and slate.
  
  A little more red-fruited than the Materium (from the same site), and a little less ripe, the Carter rewards with a good balance of pure, lively fruit, noteworthy grip, and significant drive. The experience of acidity and alcohol stayed a little on the higher end, so holding another year or two in-bottle is advised. Try again after 2020. 94-95+ points.

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