2001 St. Clement Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Community Tasting Notes (16) Avg Score: 87.2 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View travelme's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/25/2011 - travelme wrote: 88 Points

  Always a nice everyday drinking wine I decided to pop and pour a stored bottle for the day before Thanksgiving. I would recommend some decanting but on to the quick review. This cab had a nice smell from the get go. Seemed like some vanilla, burnt oak, and cherry. Nice fruit and smooth and easy to drink tannin structure. Upon taste, a nice bounty of red fruit. I can certainly note the taste a mix of red fruit and in particular the taste of cherry jam, leather, and blackberry seem prevalent to me. A nice effort by St Clement but not worth waiting any longer if you have any unopened. I would recommend drinking them now. Not as nice as some of the other St Clement wines of the era, but a good effort nonetheless. Would be better paired with a meat and potato meal such as a steak.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View VashonWine's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/7/2011 - VashonWine wrote: 89 Points

  Decanted one hour. Elegant wine, woody nose, forward tannins, long finish. Overall a bit hard edged but very enjoyable.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View golfwine's profile
  • Report Issue

  2/12/2011 - golfwine wrote: 90 Points

  This bottle was clearly the exception and I can only imagine, might have been bottled with the intention of being held for the winery's library. The cork was in perfect condition; looking like one pulled from a just-bottled vintage. In no need of any decanting, the aromatics sang from the get go and the flavors were full & round, with near-perfect balance and symmetry; not dissimilar to some of the best wines that I had collected from this great vintage. More telling, this might just be the best bottle of St. Clement's regular Cab of any vintage that I've had; at one time, declaring it one of the most reliable QPR's for several years running. Bummer that my previous two bottles opened, didn't even come close to this experience.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View z_willus_d's profile
  • Report Issue

  8/6/2009 - z_willus_d wrote: 84 Points

  2hr dcnt in med base. Nothing off to note of the color; noticed the legs. This is one of those wines I remember well from a great steak w/ wine reduction dinner pairing years ago. I'm sure my palate was in a different place then, but on that long ago night, this wine made quite an impression on me. So I saved the sister bottle for perhaps far too long. Now it's time to reckon the truth of my memory. NOSE- eeewww, I must have liked a lot of oak back then 'cause this has got that stamp of year two-thousand something grocery store Napa cabs, like wood chips that have become more "organic" as they've set in a putrid puddle. I guess otherwise there’s a raisin cum prune juice smell emanating from the glass and maybe a memory of impure artificial cherry extract. PALATE- well this isn’t quite the same monster once it enters the eat-cavern; though there is a good measure of oak-influenced cedar-box running a muck to be sure. It’s medium to full bodied with a mouthfeel approaching an adjective of “silky.” The flavors are of an aged wine with truck-loads of currants and hints of anise. Pipe tobacco leaning toward the vanilla variety and a tinge of mint dominate the finish. Tannins are in check and the finish is good for the first half before it turns to the oak again. The oak distresses my palate in a large way with this wine; it fatigues me. There’s a hint of floral perfume that I kind of like – filled the back decanting room. There is enough acid in this wine to make it appear to improve when paired with my rib eye. Could do much better, but it’s held together well enough through these years.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View pwm's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/8/2009 - pwm wrote:

  Harsh; not to my taste at all. To be fair, I rarely like straight Cab Sauv; better blended with other varietals.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 16 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.