2014 Chappellet Merlot

Community Tasting Notes (15) Avg Score: 89.7 points

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  1/1/2022 - mflesh wrote:

  I notice that the average score of this wine continues to climb overall. A lot of the tough love with the ratings here belong to people who likely popped and poured this one and consumed it WAY too young. This. Wine. Needs. Time. And I wasn't sure if I was making a mistake or not opening it up with 7 years of age BUT....it turned out ok! Was hoping initially to pair this with beef fajita and Cilantro sausage with the NY2022 lunch (with black eyed peas and cabbage of course!). After bottle decanting for an hour, I was getting a mouthful of acid and a weird shoe bottom with band aid and a semi-Luden's cough drop (and that's it)....SOOOO....this one was recorked and put back in the chiller and opened up 5hr later to a MUCH IMPROVED bottle. Poured a dark dusty dark rusty rose color. Nose of ashy raspberry, smoky, black cherry, with a deeper huff revealing graphite, tobacco and a little bacon fat. The palate is dirty black cherry with good acidity. Not too much or little. Leather, tobacco, smoked figs and ashy character. Mid-palate and finish gains a smoked meat note and is a tiny bit tannic with a little bit of black pepper. QUITE an improvement. If I had known what I know now about this, I probably would have kept this in the cellar until 2025. If you're going to enjoy one of these, I highly recommend an 8 hr full decant before even touching it. Their cabernets from the '80s are still locked up FWIW, so...GIVE.... THESE.... TIME! Another beauty from Chappellet!

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  11/19/2019 - Kate Cabernet Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Very nice for the price. Just enough complexity, but still friendly. Drinking nicely right now. We had with Italian, and it worked out great.

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  11/18/2019 - comlaw Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Decanted for 45 minutes. Essentially the same as previous bottles. See previous notes.

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  11/14/2019 - MRonan83 Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Drank very nice for pnp. Good amount of fruit with a smooth texture. Medium to low tannins and balances everything out well. Drinking great now and will finish off the rest of this vintage in a year or so.

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  2/18/2019 - rougeamore Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Had a blind horizontal tasting of '14 Chappellets (Cab, Merlot, Pinot, Zin) and the Merlot was picked by half the group as the favorite. Exhibited a smooth velvety texture with blueberries and plum along with medium acidity and smooth tannins. Had subtle notes of smoke. A very elegant wine.

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View all 15 Community Tasting Notes

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