4/16/2024 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 97 points

Brought to VHR winery by MN so we could observe a side by side treatment of the same (relatively same, at least, both in terms of blocks and different vintage) grapes. I had this 2 years ago at Keplinger’s tasting room in Napa, and bought a bottle, and while I don’t recall DJ’s aeration ablutions, it was, for my palate, completely unready to drink, although highly promising. MN opened and slow ox’d this 6 hours before we got to the winery, and to say this needed that, and probably could have used 4x that, would be an understatement. Still, this wine has gone from potential greatness to being near the doorstep of it, as the black currants, plums and dark berries are far more apparent, joining very dark earth, spice, dark florals and rocky minerality in a wine that almost has an LPV tang at present. I’m not nearly as vintage wise as most of my CT friends, so I won’t be teaching any master classes on ‘19 vs. Bruce’s ‘21, but if I had both bottles within reach, I’d pop the cork on Bruce’s wine waaaay before this, as that wine’s wonderful silkiness currently contrasts favorably with the quality, even if much diminished in the past 2 years, of picking sharp objects out of your teeth and so much chewiness you may be checking to see if you’ve exceeded the FDA daily fiber requirement. Still, this reinforces my earlier thought that this will be an absolute banger, and, again, comparing the 2 bottles, at a solidly lower winery price, a very justifiable choice for wine spend dollars if just one bottle is possible. This could ultimately be the better wine of the 2, full stop, but it isn’t for me yet. 96 on this today with 98-99+ potential, so 97 seems a fair compromise. Huge thanks to MN here, as everywhere else, for his generosity.

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