2018 Cardinale

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 94.1 points

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  2/16/2023 - hookemkps Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Showing good potential but drinking very young. We decanted for about 30-40 minutes and could’ve used more time. But showing great promise

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  6/29/2022 - bsumoba Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Incredible nose from the jump. Floral notes, graphite, streaks of minerals. Dark bing cherries all day, maybe a tad one dimensional in its flavor profile for me. This is a cellar wine and will reward the consumer as it develops secondary and tertiary notes, but right now it is good, but not great. Started to shut down hard after 15-20 minutes of us sitting down. This received about 3 hours of air.

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  6/29/2022 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Napa day trip (MacDonald, Cardinale, La Pelle) (Napa): Aromas of subtly dark fruits, dark flowers, dried stone with crushed minerals, more subtle stone notes and a spiced oak.
  
  Flavors of dark fruits, good intensity in terms of wildness/prickliness, giant halved boulders, and dark forest floor. Silvery minerals with a decent shine. Nice darkness to the wine.
  
  Unsure if these were given too much air but the nose and palate dissipated quickly given around 10 minutes.

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  4/30/2021 - msuwine wrote: 95 Points

  This generous and layered Cabernet is drinking beautifully in the early going, with nothing but blue skies ahead. Dark red, almost purple in color, the wine is full in body, though somehow being both tight and round in the mouth. The aromas are pure and elegant, with notes of blueberry compote, black cherry, graphite, fresh rosemary, and trail dust. The flavors are somewhat more raw, with rush of boysenberry, elderberry, cocoa bean, leather, and mulberry, followed by a fruity but structured finish (read: sweet fruit but dry tannin) that begs for more age. Blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot. Draws almost entirely from mountain sites (32.5% Spring, 25.5% Diamond, 18.5% Howell, 8% Veeder, and 5% Atlas) with a little more than 10% valley fruit (7.5% Stag's Leap and 3% St. Helena). 14.5% alcohol.
  
  I know Cardinale is nothing new, but it is always amazing how this blend can be both (1) true to its mountain origins (bright acidity, dusty tannin, red fruit) and (2) accessible upon release (yeah, it’ll get way better with time, but you don’t need the patience as you do for a Dunn or Togni). This is close to as good as the 2016 (my favorite Cardinale of recent vintages), but the 2018 has less generosity than the 2016 did at this point. Still, the 2018 is a stunning wine with an incredible future. 95+ for now, with upside in 2-4 years.

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