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Wine Type Vintage Name Variety Locale Date Posted Score Helpful Comments Comment Date Community Score More...
Red

2012 Bevan Cellars Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard

 Napa Valley Red Bordeaux Blend more
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9/25/2023 - d.f.c Likes this wine: 98 points

Very powerful and full bodied cab. We drank this right after Realm Absurd, and this Bevan outperformed the Absurd in every aspect. Beautiful nose of pine, earth and leather. Strong tannin and alcohol level, very balanced.

  • Comment posted by jcosindc:

    12/24/2023 5:17:00 PM - Interesting how taste/palette can be so different. I found just the opposite where Realm Absurd is the better wine.

  • Comment posted by jcosindc:

    1/5/2024 8:49:00 AM - I too have been part of blind tastings and, yes, sometimes lower priced wines outshine the higher priced wines. In the case of the '12 Bevan Sugarloaf and the '12 Realm Absurd, I prefer the Absurd even with the "not-so-good" QPR. As I'm drinking the '14 Absurd I'm reminded of the old adage: Drink what you like; buy what you like to drink. Cheers to you!!
Red

2012 Realm Cellars The Absurd

 Napa Valley Red Bordeaux Blend more
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8/16/2020 - msuwine wrote: 100 points

I know this wine invites a certain adjective, but the word I kept thinking of tonight was "sublime," defined as something "of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe." This is such a wine. The first Absurd since 2005 (a great wine in its own right), the 2012 is the best Benoit Touquette wine I have ever tasted.

Dark purple in color, medium in the glass, and full in the mouth, the wine offers incredible aromas of blackberry, fresh leather, freshly ground espresso, peppercorn, and dried lavender. I know aroma is the better part of taste, and to smell this wine is almost as good as to taste it... almost. The flavors are symphonic, with intense but precise notes of blueberry, mulberry, cocoa bean, dried herbs, and graphite, with a finish that is dusty, layered, grainy, and lifted - a finish that you never want to end. Blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot, and 3% Petit Verdot. 14.6% alcohol. Drink in next few years.

A three-digit score demands explanation, and it can't just be a subjective one (e.g., "I feel this wine is the best thing ever, so much that I equated fermented grape juice with Platonic perfection!"). At the risk of sounding like a TED Talk, three things make this wine stand out, above and beyond:

(1) The depth of fruit is incredible. It is ripe, layered, and concentrated, but not extracted or concocted. I've had a lot of 2012s over the past year - and a lot of Napa wines over the years - and I'll say that it is very, very, very hard for a wine to deliver fruit this deep and pure and real.

(2) The integration of the wine is complete. Maybe this will get better, but it has an undeniable harmony right now: fruit, tannin, acidity, everything working together beautifully (something that is not always the case for a wine this big at this age - including, cough, the 2012 Bard).

(3) This wine is unique. I know blends aren't supposed to be cool, but that's usually because something good is mixed with something mediocre. Here, it is all great: this wine has the depth of a Crane, the earthiness of an LPV, and the elegance of a BTK. I suspect the vineyard sources are fantastic (in a remarkable vintage, no less), but the sum is still greater than the parts.

In a word: sublime. Over six years and 1,804 tasting notes, this is my fourth 100-point wine. Only one other word comes to mind, one worth repeating: Bravo, bravo!

  • Comment posted by jcosindc:

    5/26/2023 10:25:00 AM - Wonderful note about the wine. I gave this bottle away to my brother as a wedding gift in 2019. We enjoyed it at the wedding reception. Your comments are spot on target.

    And...luckily, I have 2 more bottles to sample for myself.
Red

2016 Scarecrow Cabernet Sauvignon

 Rutherford more
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1/26/2020 - csimm wrote: 94 points

Red and black raspberry, vanilla, red currant, and hints of scorched earth and espresso powder. A floral note briefly appears but then quickly dissipates. Smooth and fairly balanced on entry, but mostly one-note throughout consumption. Stays pedestrian throughout delivery, even after 4+ hours in the decanter. A rounded frame makes for only medium focus and a casual walk-in-the-park finish. (Not that walks in the park aren’t kinda nice and all, but that’s about all they are... kinda nice). In the 92-94 realm at best for me.

I’m sure the Exalted Highness of the Scarecrow loyalists will say it just needs time, I opened it too early, and how dare I evaluate a wine that is clearly meant for another decade+ of cellaring.... and you’d likely be (partially) right. Plus, I’d be (and kinda ‘am’) super bent too if I just spent a few grand on a handful of bottles and along came some jackalope who didn’t give the wine climactic thousand-point reviews. Well, best delete this note then my friends, because this dude was a tad disappointed in this wine’s showing. Youthfully primary is one thing; boring is another. Just sayin’.... (PS: I’ve learned if you say ‘just sayin’ at the end of any sentence, it makes it ok to say whatever you want and not be blamed for it - Hooooraaay for lack of personal accountability!)... And hey, if you drink this wine and it makes orgasmic butterflies launch from your nether-regions, good on ya. That just wasn’t the case with this little soldier.

Without the fancy hay-stuffed wood box, Illuminati aura, and Area 51 access, the juice itself could have been from any halfway decent Napa Cabernet. The flavors seemed pure and decently fresh, but any semblance of complexity was not even in the conversation (I guess this Scarecrow really does need a brain).

...This conjures up a whole bunch of internal rhetoric about the role of the Scarecrow in the stigmatization of Mid-West farmers’ intellect and how wine doesn’t (or at least, shouldn't) grow in Kansas anyway so why should one expect it to manifest itself successfully as a cult wine label in Napa... but that just seems.....unnecessary..... :)

For the optimist, hold remaining bottles for another 7++ years. To the pessimist, I say donate your stash to the King of Siam so he can fund his military for the next year or so....

  • Comment posted by jcosindc:

    4/1/2020 5:18:00 PM - csimm1161, I found your whimsical and clever review to be awesome. Always state how a wine speaks, or in this case doesn't speak, to you. The '16 was the first allocation I finally got into and, went ahead and purchased the '17. I'll probably pick up the '18 and then drop. Though I've never sampled a single Scarecrow, I too find the price tag to be absurd. There are indeed too many other wines with fantastic QPR. I'll check out Abreu. Have you tried Realm Cellars or Dakota Shy? Have you tried any wines from Virginia, e.g. RdV, Barboursville, Michael Shaps or Arterra? Truly some outstanding wines with excellent QPR.
White

2014 Morlet Family Vineyards La Proportion Dorée

 Sonoma Coast Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc Blend more
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11/23/2017 - jcosindc wrote: 89 points

My family and I were highly disappointed. Perhaps our expectations were too high for a wine which garnered so many high scores or perhaps we should wait a few more years, but I don't know. The wine seemed disjointed and, though it did get somewhat better after warming up in the glass, it never reached the point of excellence. I have 2 more bottles...hmmm. Perhaps I'll drink one next year to see if it improves, but I'll probably give the other bottle away.

  • Comment posted by jcosindc:

    11/26/2017 7:25:00 PM - JEP2007, thanks for your note. We did pull out of the cellar and popped the cork, but didn't begin pouring until an hour or so later...we we're waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to finish cooking. With my next bottle which I now won't drink until at least 2 years from now, I'll definitely keep your note in mind for longer decant, maybe even using a decanter. Cheers!
Red

2012 Lovingston Pinotage Gilbert's Vineyard

 Monticello more
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11/4/2014 - DRK III wrote: 85 points

When I first opened this, I thought something was wrong with the wine. It smelled like a poopie diaper -- this dissipated with an hour of air, but there was definitely a funkiness to the aroma. The taste was a little bitter and hot, but there was some good fruit tucked in there along with acids to balance. Pinotage is not common in Virginia (or the US, for that matter) so not sure this varietal is suited for the environment. This is an interesting wine, if not pleasant to drink with food. I paired it up against a true South African Pinotage (Spier 1692) and considering the QPR, the Spier whooped its ass...but I was still intrigued by this bottle and would consider buying another vintage just to compare.

  • Comment posted by jcosindc:

    8/23/2016 6:27:00 PM - Did you ever try another vintage? I thought the '11 was really nice. jcosindc.

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