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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 93.6 pts. and median of 94 pts. in 223 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Duce on 4/15/2024 & rated 96 points: Tar, licorice, dark fruit. Probably at its peak. (513 views) | | | Tasted by franinnyc on 4/6/2024 & rated 91 points: Coming to its end. Drink yesterday. (373 views) | | | Tasted by Brian of Mull on 3/6/2024 & rated 94 points: PnP. Color is brooding dark ruby/purple. No real age showing. On the nose: Plum, cassis, baking spices, dark chocolate and bit of vanilla. On the palate: Rich plum, blackberry, clove, menthol, dark chocolate and cassis. This is dense, silky and big but not jammy. It is a bit big for my taste but it’s very good. Also a bit high on the alcohol but that does not come through at all. A lot of people will love this wine. (705 views) | | | Tasted by Sam3 on 1/6/2024 & rated 95 points: Expected it to be overdone but absolute powerhouse. Dark berry flavors with long, powerful finish. Supremely enjoyable. Looking forward to my last bottle. (1208 views) | | | Tasted by Thomas D on 12/25/2023 & rated 94 points: excellent wine with same observations as my note from one year ago. (1139 views) | | | Tasted by Grinner on 11/4/2023 & rated 92 points: 25th Annual Lyon 10 Year Retrospective (Lyon Down Inn): Glycerin laden palate giving it a very smooth velvety feel. Dense blackberry and currant fruit with limited complexity and resolved tannins. Denise's WOTN. 90 on day 2 with acid being more obvious. Only a brave soul would save this beyond 2028. (1815 views) | | | Tasted by Scottlmatthews on 11/3/2023 & rated 94 points: Similar to my previous notes 5 months ago, but the extra age and 3 hour decant showed the true beauty of this wine. (1889 views) | | | Tasted by BSBONO on 10/21/2023 & rated 92 points: 2 hr decant. Reminded me of port which for some reason alot of high pedigree wines taste to. I don't think the QPR was worth it but wouldn't throw it out of bed (1611 views) | | | Tasted by Elkcims on 8/14/2023 & rated 90 points: Slow ox 2 hours, then decanted and served at 65*. This was thick like 10-30W oil, and as fruit forward as I have tasted in 30 years. Plum and blackberry. Maybe it was a bad bottle, however, prior experience with earlier vintages suggests this is the way it's crafted. Rebottled half and cellared for next day - no change. (1738 views) | | | Tasted by Matty the wine collector on 5/10/2023 & rated 95 points: Wow. Deliciious. Ready to drink. Decant not needed. Amazing structure. LOOOONG finish. A wine to be savored. (2445 views) | | | Tasted by Scottlmatthews on 3/18/2023 & rated 95 points: Typical Caymus-big nose of blackberry, blueberry fruits intermingled with tilled earth and effluent alcohol. The palate follows suit with chocolate and velvety tannins that goes on forever! 10 years did this beautiful wine some justice after a 1 hour decant. (2558 views) | | | Tasted by Coachron13 on 1/20/2023 & rated 93 points: Much improved over our last bottle in 2019. Smoother, much more integrated. Seems to be coming together. (2741 views) | | | Tasted by Life At Your Leisure 🍷 on 1/8/2023 & rated 96 points: Opaque purple color with a reflective edge. The nose gives off ripe, concentrated flavors of dark berries with smoky notes of cigar box and cedar from the toasted oak. The palate is full-bodied, creamy in texture, and goes full throttle on ripeness. But there’s enough acidity restraining the alcohol to bring this wine back in its place. Flavors of blackberry, cassis, blueberry, and raspberry form the core. But there’s so much going on with secondary flavors of chocolate, espresso and tobacco that nothing need be said any longer. The mid palate is solid, and leads to a complete, unctuous drink that need not be paired with any food, consistent with the style we’ve all come to recognize. Finishes long with velvety tannins that last for 40 seconds. Drink now until 2038. 96 pts. (2787 views) | | | Tasted by Thomas D on 12/17/2022 & rated 94 points: Deep intense ruby purple color; cassis and plum nose with smooth tannins; blueberry red fruit cinnamon and cocoa flavors with a long finish. Drinking very nicely right now. (2514 views) | | | Tasted by cab blends on 11/20/2022 & rated 90 points: Not blind Compared to myriad tonight this is disappointing by comparison and that was a shock. The Myriad tasted more like Caymus SS than the Caymus did!
Maybe with a steak it will be better - I shall try again sometime of the next few months as I have a case of these. (2526 views) | | | Tasted by Yack Man on 11/9/2022 & rated 93 points: Pretty good but not great. 92+/ 93 My last really good bottle of SS was 2012 vintage. (2672 views) | | | Tasted by GalenP on 10/14/2022 & rated 94 points: Was really good. Personally thought it had more depth than the party pleaser Caymus. (1967 views) | | | Tasted by gteran76 on 7/4/2022 & rated 94 points: Our 4th of July choice and I was happy!
I'm holding all of mine Napa '13s so far but we felt like drinking this one with a long exposure to air. Opened for 15 minutes, then double decanted for 2:15 hours and started drinking about 1 hour later.
The wine is big and bold, a classic representation of what a good Napa Cabernet is all about. It's lots of fruit in this youngfull Cabernet, also some vanilla, berries, cocoa, it has a nice complexity and fair to good finish.
For people that like their wine young this can be drank with at least 2 hours of air. For others that like more secondary notes a few years will reward you.
Drink or HOLD. 94+ (2982 views) | | | Tasted by winelover1808 on 7/4/2022 & rated 94 points: big bold and beautiful. this is always a great crowd pleasing bottle. lots of cherry fruit, good acidity, chewy tannins. a hedonistic wine. (2242 views) | | | Tasted by BamaWiner on 6/18/2022 & rated 95 points: Pretty much the quintessential example of Napa Valley Cabernet. This wine is right in the sweet spot right now. Decanted for three hours and consumed with none in ribeye and chateaubriand. Lots of fruit still with tobacco, leather and spice on the end of the palate. A beautiful wine. Drink up. (2159 views) | | | Tasted by Yack Man on 5/3/2022 & rated 93 points: This was pretty good bottle of wine. It's been a few years since my last bottle of Special Selection and I was pleasantly surprised. This vintage was a bit more tamed than I expected. Although extracted, it was to a good degree, adequate and not syrupy as I anticipated. Popped, poured and to my surprise it showed a bit inhibited and clearly needed air. After some time the wine did come around to a much better place. The color, an intense, rich purple color with violets on the nose. Palate wise, dark adequately extracted berry fruits, black and blueberry fruits, plum, some anise and currants. A big wine that was pretty enjoyable, especially on the second day. 93/ 93+ Points (3156 views) | | | Tasted by gew71walsh on 4/28/2022 & rated 92 points: Continue to like Special Selection better than regular Caymus. Profile still a fruit forward wine, but with nice complexity and integrated tannins. Leaves a long finish on the palate of dark fruits. Benefitted from a little air as subsequent glasses were a tad better. (2146 views) | | | Tasted by Don Jose on 2/5/2022 flawed bottle: No rating because I believe the wine may have been cooked. The cork had significant stains along the sides. The bouquet was promising but the taste was similar to prune juice. The astringency was off the chart. I decanted the wine for several hours but it never softened or evolved. Just that same prune juice profile. (2847 views) | | | Tasted by yasha on 1/7/2022 & rated 95 points: great !! (2800 views) | | | Tasted by Bobcat 31 on 12/26/2021 & rated 93 points: very good as always minimal decant (2577 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Sara d'Amato
WineAlign (11/16/2016)
(Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon red) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (5/3/2016)
(Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Special Selection, United States) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of WineAlign and JamesSuckling.com. (manage subscription channels) |
| Caymus Producer website Cabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.
Used as frequently in blends as in varietal wines, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend) and in Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace. Even the bold Tannat-based wines of Madiran are now generally softened with Cabernet SauvignonUSAAmerican 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)Napa ValleySt. Helena |
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