2016 Arnot-Roberts Cabernet Sauvignon Fellom Ranch

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 91.8 points

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  4/21/2024 - rocknroller wrote:

  Monthly Tasting Group: California: Anything but Napa (BLVD Kitchen & Bar, Wayzata, MN): Very dark red/purple color. Slow-O for a couple hours I believe. Small glass over 45 minutes. Ripe, red and black fruits, green, firm tannins. Gut feeling is 90-91pts.

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  10/30/2023 - alabunka wrote: 92 Points

  very good wine served with beef bourguignon - great pairing - no need for a burgundy wine!!!

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  3/7/2022 - jcm87 wrote: 89 Points

  Few notes on the nose, medium weight with an agreeable concentration of plum and graphite but little tension and structure and it began to fade after a few hours. I don't see much possibility of development. Set against a Cab from the same area at half the price the Arnot-Roberts didn't really deliver on my expectations, but I'm looking forward to trying other vintages and other wines in their portfolio.

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  9/20/2021 - KPB wrote: 91 Points

  An interesting, excellent wine, but for my palate, lacks that excitement you find in some AR reds.
  
  Medium weight, with a dark purple robe. The nose is a bit muted, although I’ve given this bottle a few hours of air (I’ll recheck tomorrow!). The most dominate aroma is actually a minty, grassy note. Beyond that you find red plums at that stage before they get really ripe, but when they are becoming enjoyable to eat, and a graphite note. The thrill here centers in the palate, which again centers on red plums and shows a fascinating tension between the fruit and the acidity, with the acidity perhaps in front, but the fruit showing a remarkable intensity without seeming at all overripe. A slightly malty aftertaste distracts and may warn that the wine won’t have a really long life (but right now, this is just a bare hint).
  
  I often find that Napa reds are a touch (or more) too ripe. This is the rare Napa red that, for me, could have benefitted from a tiny bit more ripeness. Yet the wine is balanced and in its style, excellent. Will improve with age, should peak in six to eight years. Lacks the structure to last twenty years, but will surely be exciting to taste around 2030.
  
  Revisited on day two: no change at all. Decided to drop my score from 93 to 91.

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  8/23/2020 - sid_loves_wine Likes this wine: 96 Points

  This just reaffirms my belief that Arnot-Roberts is one of the best winemaking teams in the world right now. One of those impossible wines: a super fresh, crystalline, lower-ABV expression of a grape that's more often about power in the US, but still somehow shows deeper, richer fruit than old-world Cabs, so truly a style all on its own. It's expensive (~$100) but worth it for that extra unique factor. I can't stop thinking about how good it was; if you love deep, black-fruited reds but also value complexity/elegance over power/expressivity, then you absolutely must try this.
  
  Tightly wound, but so much depth lurking; on both the nose and palate, layers upon layers of fresh, sweet wild blackberries, violets, forest floor, fresh mint, vivid black licorice, super subtle oak (like shortbread) and a highly smoky, ironlike mineral tone, all sailing together on a wave of bright acidity and powerful, ultra-fine-grained tannins. Had a bit of a Ramune soda thing to it after a while. Could use time- plenty of fruit, acid and tannin go to the distance, but I wouldn't age it for /so/ long that you lose too much of that beautiful freshness.

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