Cult Californians Wine Tasting

An outstanding tasting of 18 top Californian wines mainly from older vintages which very extremely generously flown in and provided by Nick Silver and Jeff Moyers of SC Trading. Crown did an excellent job managing the event, which was limited to 30 members and hence there was no scrum for any of the wines, not even the Sine Qua Non. This was followed by an impromptu dinner with six of us to put the French case......

I didn't have the capacity to try the others available:
1987 Dominus
1991 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon
1995 Peter Michael Les Pavots
1996 Quilceda Creek Claret
2001 Araujo Syrah
2001 Bond St. Eden
2003 Kongsgaard Syrah

• 1986 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 97 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain

  Lighter colour and fully translucent. Lifted, light petrol nose of delicate perfumed wild woodland strawberries with violets and dried herbs. Impressively, the nose has a length that carries into a resonance in the head. Lovely palate of great multi-dimensionality and still well-structured with gorgeous dusty tannins at the back end. Huge length and just silence-creating. Near-perfect........

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• 1987 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 94 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Lovely, dusty-tannined, beautifully made, fully resolved mature Californian Cabernet. a real treat.

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• 1993 Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Fantastic nose...wild strawberries. Gorgeously unctious mouthfeel. Good length.

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• 1994 Pride Mountain Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 95 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Complex, Bordeaux-style nose. Very structured. Tons of life in it still. Very impressive.

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• 1995 Joseph Phelps Insignia 96 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  I have never been disappointed by Insignia when it has gone beyond 10 years, which is when it turns into my kind of a wine. Lovely powdery tannins, elegant, refined but still with power. Lovely........

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• 1996 Ridge Monte Bello 92 Points

  USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

  Rich red colour. Unctious and chocolaty/coffee nose. Great power and balance on the palate. Still a baby and with years ahead of it.

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• 1996 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select 95 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District

  Fantastic: rich, pure and poised. A gorgeous old style Californian Cabernet with a touch of extra class that sets it apart.

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• 1997 Pride Mountain Vineyards Reserve Claret 93 Points

  USA, California, North Coast, Napa / Sonoma

  Lovely. Tannic but smooth. Loads of structure for a wine that is 60% Merlot. Still young. Years ahead of it to gain more complexity.

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• 1999 Harlan Estate 91 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Very sweet.....both on the nose and palate. Young. Predominantly coffee. Beautifully balanced and well made but lacks character or complexity at this stage of its youth. Not as over-the-top in style as I had anticipated but, for my taste, it is seriously over-shadowed by the Shafer Hillside Select.

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• 2003 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select 94 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District

  Gorgeous: young, ripe, very good indeed and everything a young Californian Cabernet should be.

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• 2004 Sine Qua Non Syrah Poker Face 90 Points

  USA, California, Central Coast

  Fruit juice......not for me. Hadn't been decanted much in advance so perhaps it wasn't done full justice.

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What can I say.........thank you.

• 2003 Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair La Romanée 96 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, La Romanée Grand Cru

  Lovely light colour. Burnt rubber and pepper nose that immediately jumps out the glass at you and quickly starts unfolding into high petrol notes, violets and streaky bacon. Light in mouthfeel but tingly, racy, touch of cola and opening out into beautifully delicate strawberries. Very light but intense and impressively powerful. Huge length......it just goes on and on. WOW!

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One of our own to contrast with Nick's.....thanks Jason.

• 2003 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Deep red translucent colour. Open welcoming oaky and caramel nose with some coffee and then blackberries emerging. One the palate this is superb: unctious, rich, sweet, concentrated and structured. Huge length. Lovely.

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This just happened............Jason kept going back into the cellar and coming out with a twinkle in his eye.

• 1986 Château Cheval Blanc 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  Deep red transparent colour. Light, lifted, perfumed nose which is hugely multi-dimensional and complex but also so very light. Eye-wateringly lovely and elegant on the palate with the same lightness given by the nose. Billowing and ethereal and very much on the intellectual rather than hedonistic end of the spectrum. Good length......actually great length but it is so light it hard to appreciate its true length and resonance on the finish. Gosh......

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• 1990 Château La Conseillante 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  Deep red translucent colour. A perfumed light nose showing blackberries and blueberries......rather Burgundian in its lightness and delicacy. Very complex on the palate with a contradictory combination of light ethereal sensations combined with dense, multi-dimensional underlying depth that unfurls slowly like a dance of a thousand veils. Tons of fruit still. Great length and resonance. Quite silence-creating. I love this and fascinating to drink it alonside the 1986 Cheval Blanc..

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• 1986 Château Haut-Brion 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Huge depth of colour still. Great nose. Wonderful combination of depth of fruit and beautifully balanced tannin and acid structure on the palate. Huge length with an after-resonance in the head that goes on and on like rolling thunder. It may have been a little too late in the night to this full justice.

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• 1994 Château Léoville Poyferré 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  Deep red translucent colour. Restrained cedar-dominated nose. Good, tart, structured classic Bordeaux palate which led you to think it came from a better year. Some length. This won a lot of friends, coming as it did at the end of a night of much more exceptional wines and directly preceded by the Haut Brion 1986.

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A truly memorable evening......remarkably, even my last notes of the night are legible.