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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 93.3 pts. and median of 93 pts. in 54 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by SARED on 10/19/2023 & rated 92 points: Grape, vanilla, rounded, lush, smooth. 14.5% and can feel the weight. Non wine geek guests mostly preferred to 2016 GPL. (1398 views) | | | Tasted by SARED on 6/2/2023 & rated 92 points: Bordeaux vs. Napa 101 (Bobby Vans 54th Street (Thanks Danny!)): Good wine and was pleasurable now. Fruit felt blue/purple, rounded, medium acidity, some vanilla still present on the wine. No rush to drink this now, but I think I prefer the straight cab in 2016. (2195 views) | | | Tasted by DSaenz on 4/2/2023 & rated 94 points: I picked up some of the green herbal notes called out in one of the other notes, and definitely picked up a nice layer of tannins. I didn't get an explosion of blue or red fruits, maybe a tiny strawberry. Not sure if this wine has shutdown and needs more time in bottle, or is this the peak. A really nice wine. (2358 views) | | | Tasted by brigcampbell on 3/26/2023: I tasted this one before it was released years ago and unfortunately lost my tasting notes. That's because Will had opened up about 30 bottles of wine. Lol
I was excited to see this on the table and it stood up to all the praise. I like the style of Napa cab. A little more old school. (2430 views) | | | Tasted by Rbhan12 on 12/25/2022 & rated 95 points: Incredible wine that is clearly a cut above. Decanted off sediment for 40min.
Beguiling nose of flowers, greenery, lovely blue fruit, some red fruits too. Palate is a masterclass in balance. Medium weight, acid that is lively but gentle and brings the fruit to a strong blue tone, floral elegance, little bit of rocks. Finish shows some blue florality and gentle earth notes. Tannins are present and quite large but just barely showing.
I am personally biased to Cabernet Franc and this is predominantly CF, but WOW this is outrageously good. Fruit, florals, structure, this just has everything. Again I am biased towards CF but WOW.
Drinking beautifully now but this will absolutely cruise in the cellar for another 5-7 years. (1985 views) | | | Tasted by bottles.and.bites on 12/25/2022 & rated 95 points: Blackberry, plum, savory tomato leaf, lush tannins, but not astringent. Dark chocolate, with acidity on the finish. Evolving in the glass and very pleasurable. Crushed gravel mineral. Back to rich fruit. Some smoked meatiness. And around it goes. Great with our steak dinner and umami mushroom sauce. But the continued evolution making it great to just sip through the night. (2207 views) | | | Tasted by DrBad on 11/20/2022 & rated 94 points: Top notch wine, really can't ask for much more in a Cali Red Blend in this price range. Opened and aired in the bottle for about an hour, this was ready to go from the first pour. Lovely floral aromas with lingering smoke and tobacco. Medium to full bodied, juicy blue and dark fruits, with a touch of mint and licorice on the mouth coating finish. (2170 views) | | | Tasted by ekorn on 12/24/2021: To echo some of the below, the nose was red-fruited with savory components -- a slightly roasted/smokey note and coffee. The palate showed cherry and some similar savory components. Not too heavy on the palate.
We served this after about 4 hours in a decanter and I think the time was necessary. The wine continued to open up over the next several hours. Altogether, the element of this bottle I find most memorable was the nose -- you could practically smell the wine from across the room! (3154 views) | | | Tasted by t_moderne on 11/20/2021 & rated 95 points: Opened, poured into a decanter, and then enjoyed with food (NY strip steak, potatoes and eggplant in a miso honey glaze, in case you were wondering).
Vibrant ruby purple color.
Nose offers ripe plums, dried flowers and some red earth.
Hint of sage and dried herbs mixing in as well.
Nice plum fruit, with red cherries, touch of tobacco leaves, licorice root, red flowers and white pepper. Wonderful mouthfeel. Shows depth of flavors in a seamless and elegant style.
On this occasion, this is outstanding.
On day two, after saving 1/4 of the bottle under Vacu-Vin and refrigeration, I tasted again.
The nose shows a slight cedar/cigar box element. Still going strong with great depth. The Cabernet Franc adds a wonderful herbal note to add to the rich ripe plum notes.
Outstanding. (3206 views) | | | Tasted by bottles.and.bites on 11/14/2021 & rated 92 points: Savory and nuanced. Rosemary, lightly smoked meat. black cherry & plum. (3123 views) | | | Tasted by Decanting Queen on 11/14/2021 & rated 92 points: I think this needs a bit more time although it is certainly good now. Five hours of air and just starting to open, it is wound pretty tight. Savory on the nose and tart cherries on the palate. There is much more to come with this wine. Great with a beef roast, really needs food right now. (4597 views) | | | Tasted by Maphill01 on 11/11/2021: PNP. Moderate sediment already. Black fruit, blackberry, black cherry, tea leaf. Some dark chocolate and vanilla. Somewhat plush. Good now with air, this should continue to improve. (3020 views) | | | Tasted by fisk15 on 9/12/2021 & rated 95 points: Really coming together now, balanced as always this was really singing after a long slow ox. (3170 views) | | | Tasted by MAXIMUM SATISFACTION on 9/3/2021 & rated 93 points: Needed a pumped overnight in the bottle to come together. Initially very disjointed with heat. Big difference on the second day with the ripe black fruit, black cherry, vanilla and the black tea element I always find in these. Not at the quality level of the 18 but still very nice for the first vintage. Needs 5 more years. (3276 views) | | | Tasted by Cow Town on 6/17/2021 & rated 92 points: Upon opening, the Cab Franc was very noticeable with some green/herbal notes. But that blew off after an hour or so. Thereafter, the wine, while young with some lingering tannins, had a lightly red fruit streak, which gave it some lift and balance compared to the W&M cab. Really nice wine. (3046 views) | | | Tasted by Nutty08 on 3/21/2021 & rated 92 points: Splash decanted. Delicious. Black fruited with a rather seamless plush mouthfeel. Coconut oak notes integrated after a couple hours of air. Drinking well now. (3027 views) | | | Tasted by SARED on 12/28/2020 & rated 92 points: Felt more grapey and vanilla on this showing. 92 to my palate, but 93 to others? (2490 views) | | | Tasted by Frank Murray III on 11/19/2020: Tasted as part of a vertical (2016-2018), all tasted at the same time, and for context, retasted the following day after all three wines had seen 24 hours of additional air. On the first night, there is a pencil shaving aroma, a crushed fruit feel, with fresh cherry, brewed coffee, plum and nice medium weight. On the second night when I finished the wine, it now shows to be the truest of the three wines to have an older world anchor. Soil/peat, licorice, tangy dark cherry, with elevated acid and the oak (whatever will put onto the wine) is pretty well integrated in my opinion. This is very good, the least modern in tone of the three, too. (3324 views) | | | Tasted by fisk15 on 11/18/2020 & rated 94 points: Held up well for two days, light sediment. Red fruited but herbal laced that made this enjoyable and unique in the world of Napa cab based wines. (2603 views) | | | Tasted by Sfflyer123 on 9/26/2020 & rated 88 points: I decanted this wine, then drank fairly quickly, around 10 minutes afterwards. The wine is very acidic. It is also very light--almost like a pinot. The tannins are very strong, almost mouth-puckering. The fruit is in the background, and the acidity and tannins overpower the immediate taste. This wine is almost sour. Notes of blackberry, cherry, and cigar come to mind. The complexity is high. It tastes to be more like a lighter wine, really like a pinot or a beaujolais, not a cabernet based bordeaux blend. 88 points. (2877 views) | | | Tasted by tcufletch on 8/6/2020: Pop and poured a taste before dinner; perfumed nose of cherry and red licorice with some spice box; initially a bit jagged on the palate but after 60 minutes that jaggedness softened; over the course of the night, the wine presented a sweeter, red fruit profile that would darken a bit mid-palate; very fine streak of oak throughout; very sophisticated and full of class; lighter on its feet than the Cab and seemingly more old-school Napa flair; give it time or more air to thoroughly enjoy. (2663 views) | | | Tasted by ex-sommelier on 7/22/2020: Finally got to open this with a friend. Nice comparison to the 17, and showed a consistent personality, though perhaps the personality of the varieties were a bit more intertwined in this vintage. Wild berry fruit, some soil tones, blood orange, iron, and chocolate were well knit together with a creamy mid weight texture. More time in the glass gave up spice plums, vanilla, violets, and more structure.
Individual notes aside this felt very well composed, deceptively simple but asks you to lean in. I like that there was a lot going on but no one element clamoring for space. (2620 views) | | | Tasted by budman on 2/8/2020 & rated 94 points: Awesome! (2576 views) | | | Tasted by BRR on 11/25/2019 & rated 94 points: Wow. Decanted for two hours prior to tasting, then consumed in Gabriel Glas Gold stems. This was stunning. Sexy aromas and flavors of red currant, juicy dark cherry, lavender, and licorice. Perfectly balanced. Totally approachable right now. What struck me besides the concentration and balance was how that concentration was in a wine that felt almost weightless on the palate. While the 2016 Cab tasted a few months back didn't wow me (too young!), this one really did. Could be my WOTY. (2718 views) | | | Tasted by Frank Murray III on 11/25/2019: Opened yesterday so it's had about 24 hours of air. Tasting without food and no other wines (other than the 2017 which for a side by side comparison). The aromatics on this show a mix of dark berry, spice box, pencil shaving and some French oak. Mixes some plush flavors of tangy dark cherry, cigar leaf, red licorice, iron and bitter chocolate. There is good tang in the wine, married up with the wood and red fruited notes. Will need more time for all of this to settle together. I like the intensity, the flavors mixing together. (3520 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Jeb Dunnuck
JebDunnuck.com, Napa Valley’s 2017s (1/31/2020)
(William & Mary Wine Company Proprietary Red) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Antonio Galloni
Vinous, Napa Valley’s Extraordinary 2016 Cabernets (Dec 2018) (12/1/2018)
(William & Mary Proprietary Red Shifflett Vineyard Napa Valley Red) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of JebDunnuck.com and Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| William & Mary Producer website2016 William & Mary Proprietary Red Shifflett RanchFrom release notes:
2016 William & Mary Proprietary Red
50% Cabernet Franc, 50% Merlot
125 cases produced
14.5% alcohol
Seamless. Purity of fruit. Power without weight. Aromatically expressive. Tastes like barrel sample in the best way - youthful & energetic with a bright future. The Merlot is the core of the wine, the red fruit platform upon which everything is built. Standing tall on that platform is the Cab Franc, providing lift to the aromatics and midpalate while giving the overall wine power and drive.
I would encourage opening one of these early as there is something joyful about this youthful stage . I’d also recommend stashing one away for as long as you reasonably can as I suspect the best, most interesting days are well in its future.Red Bordeaux BlendRed Bordeaux is generally made from a blend of grapes. Permitted grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and rarely Carménère.Today Carménère is rarely used, with Château Clerc Milon, a fifth growth Bordeaux, being one of the few to still retain Carménère vines. As of July 2019, Bordeaux wineries authorized the use of four new red grapes to combat temperature increases in Bordeaux. These newly approved grapes are Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Castets, and Arinarnoa.
Wineries all over the world aspire to making wines in a Bordeaux style. In 1988, a group of American vintners formed The Meritage Association to identify wines made in this way. Although most Meritage wines come from California, there are members of the Meritage Association in 18 states and five other countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Israel, and Mexico.USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners) |
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