1978 Inglenook Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Limited Cask

Community Tasting Notes (11) Avg Score: 92.7 points

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  4/10/2024 - Asull2k Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Double decanted about 1 hr before serving, which is needed since this fully clogged the strainer with massive black sediment. Medium tawny garnet bricked color. 75% cork seepage.
  👃🏻 barnyard funk, mushroom, cherry, hint of menthol (very Bordeaux-like)
  👅 bright red cherry, leather, smooth with 40 sec finish
  Fascinating to see how old style Napa wines age so similarly to aged Bordeaux. Delicious piece of history and paired well with bolognese pasta.

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  2/5/2023 - Cailles wrote: 96 Points

  30x California 1978: So many wines from this great Californian vintage at the age of 45 certainly qualifies as a “once in a lifetime” event. A few observations: 1) The quality was very high (almost all my ratings above 90pts). And only four faulty wines (2x corked, 2x over the hill/flawed, sadly those two were the Ridge Monte Bello and the Phelps Insignia). 2) The wines are ready to drink, the tannins have melted but the tension and freshness remain high - across the board. 3) There is still lots of fruit left and I was surprised how most wines didn’t show lots of tertiary aromas (find me the Bdx 1982 without tertiary aromas!). IMO, more than a handful of the wines could continue to improve for a few years. 4) Style wise, these are obviously quite different from today’s Napa wines with much less ripeness and more mineral accents. But hardly any wine we had would be mistaken for a Bordeaux in a blind tasting (unlike 80s/90s Dominus). 5) Best reds: Inglenook Limited Cask, Beaulieu GDL Reserve, Stags Leap Cask 23 4.5l (all 96pts), Heitz Bella Oaks, Simi Reserve, Stag’s Leap Cask 23 0.75l (all 95pts). The best wine overall, however, was the magical Late Harvest Riesling from Phelps (98pts).
  
  TN: Intriguing, expressive nose with dried fruit and honey, malt, rocks and herbs. Exact same aromatic profile on the palate which is usually only found in great 50, 60 year old Bordeauxs. If that honey/malty profile is combined with a good fruit core and some minerality and mushrooms, like in this case, it’s magical. The structure is holding up very well here too, good freshness and tension. A silky texture. Superb wine.

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  1/28/2023 - G_H wrote: 93 Points

  1978 California Cabernet Horizontal: Mushrooms, leather, nice sweetness, mushrooms also in the palate with a nice density.

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  1/28/2023 - sirpat00 wrote: 93 Points

  California 1978 (Zunfthaus zur Waag, Zurich): Grand tasting of 1978 California wines, mostly from Napa. Main takeaways: i/ surprisingly high quality on average for wines that were not intended for such long-term aging with plenty of primary fruit left, ii/ but within the detail nonetheless a broad range with the worst few suffering from clear signs of fatigue while the best showed hardly age, iii/ top wines were Phelps Cab Sauv (97), Firestone Cab Sauv (95), and Beaulieu George de Latour Private Reserve (95). Full list sorted by score included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Sweet berry fruit, leather and wet, turf-like earth. While this started sweet and sexy with strawberry candy notes, with time in the glass some soy notes started to emerge. The palate, however, still with a firm structure, tangible tannin and a long and leathery finish.

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  10/29/2021 - MC2 Wines wrote:

  I really want to like 70's Napa and yet I find that when I try most of them they're always just a little bit less vibrant than you would think given the underlying new world fruit. This was totally fine. In a similar style to old Mondavi. Somehow just feels a bit tired.

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