Community Tasting Note

• Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 points

  September 25, 2022 - Pnp'd into a decanter at 2pm while watching the Eagles grind Carson Wentz and the Redskins into the ground.....sampled all throughout the game....
  
  Initial impressions? 91-93 with nice ripe, sweet powerful fruit but a tad thin in the mouth and a general feeling of a lot of heat on the backend. Stated alc on the bottle is 15.1% but it 'feels' like more. Knowing that by law in CA, you can be off by up to 1.5%, I'm not surprised if it's actually more.
  
  2-3 hours in and this one turns......for the better, now a 94-95. exact notes are quite difficult to come by as Carol is cooking some spicy Tuscan chicken dish for dinner and the garlic and spice aromas out of the kitchen are messing with my olfactory sense. Dark magenta in the glass I get red, blue and black berries, some slight floral component and maybe a hint of graphite with some mossy forest floor. All I know for sure is the fruit deepens and expands. The wine puts on weight with dense, sweet cassis showing up in spades. The mouth feel changes to this silky, soft powdered graphite glide in the mouth, but in no way is this wine feminine in any way. It's much too powerful as more acidic backbone emerges as a touch of the previously noted early alc backs off. This is surely way over the top for any Francophile but yet will float any big, powerful Cali cab drinker's boat to the heavens.
  
  Hours 4-5 brings even more of the great cassis and depth of fruit. Intense blackberry compote and a hint of chocolate shows up. Some of the soft silkiness leaves, but the concentration of fruit takes center stage. Still a tad hot and acidic but that just elongates the ending. I really don't want this bottle to end but I'm down to the last glass, now. Gave Carol a sip and she remarks at how much the wine has changed for the better from the pnp, this afternoon.
  
  Hour 6 sees a little more blackening to the fruit, a lot more chocolate emerging on the palate and a touch more acidity noted. This one has been a fun ride.......

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17 Comments

• I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine commented:

  9/25/22, 7:00 PM - You have to love a wine that takes you for that kind of a ride! I don't know how you find these wines I never heard of! Good for you though!

• Mark1npt commented:

  9/25/22, 8:10 PM - Jason, this is another Kirk Venge made wine. He's been making it for the Janzens for maybe 2 decades, I'm not exactly sure? They also have a To Kalon and a Missouri Hopper as well as a NV. Some years they are very good, some years just average. Most often pnp'd and not consumed at its best point. Fun to wait, watch and enjoy this one as it evolves.

• I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine commented:

  9/25/22, 9:04 PM - Seems like there are sooooo many wineries, and since my wine buying is in an indefinite hold pattern (other than a couple of winery lists I am on), seems like I have no incentive to try to seek out new wineries, but I love learning about them on CT and through trying some with friends! Trouble is most of my friends out here are francophiles!

• Mark1npt commented:

  9/26/22, 5:29 AM - Well, with the insanity continuing in Napa pricing, I'll soon solely be a Francophile, too.

• Badmonkey commented:

  9/26/22, 6:00 AM - Nice note. An interesting vintage of this wine. I recently popped a bottle and it was quite good on day one - I also thought 94/95 on day one. However, I set some aside for day two and it was better but it also became much darker - almost entirely blackberry and black currants. Chameleon like. Take care.

• Mark1npt commented:

  9/26/22, 7:05 AM - Bad, I know you like this one! Sounds like your 2nd day was exactly what I found by hour 6 of the decant, all blackberry! Cheers!

• Badmonkey commented:

  9/26/22, 7:50 AM - I do tend to like the profile of this wine - I’m a sucker for quality dark blue/black fruit. However, I also enjoyed the price when you could find it in the secondary market at around $100. With the most recent price increase from the Winery to $165, I don’t believe I’ll see those prices again. I was able to pick-up some of the 2018 vintage at $125 which isn’t terrible assuming it drinks in that mid-90 rating range.

• Mark1npt commented:

  9/26/22, 10:29 AM - Bad, I totally agree with you.....getting harder and harder to find this kind of quality at that price. Napa is quickly pricing themselves out of my cellar. Luckily for me (but sad at the same time) is that at almost 65 yo, I have maybe 20 good years left if I'm lucky, and can continue to drink nice wines. I'll probably wrap up any more new buying with the last of the '19s that are releasing now. The 1200 bottles (roughly 66% CA-34% Bdx) that I have in my cellar will be what I drink going forward, with occasionally picking up some bottles like these when I can find them in a close-out or auction somewhere at reduced prices. Be well, my friend......

• Badmonkey commented:

  9/26/22, 1:10 PM - I hear you. I continue to look for values but it’s getting harder and harder to find especially with California cabs. It’s crazy how much prices have increased over the past five years. I expect this recession to last into late 2023 or early 2024, however, I don’t expect it to change wine prices much - especially with quality producers that are even capable of selling-out the 2020 vintage.

• Mark1npt commented:

  9/26/22, 1:57 PM - Ha, the world is awash in wine, my friend! Spirits here in the States are providing stiff competition to the wine industry. Most wineries did not sell out their '20s (just as they didn't in '17) and those that did, have members immediately turning around and dumping them right now in the secondary market in record numbers, even Aubert. If the recession 'hurts' enough and goes deep enough, we'll see some selling off at discounted pricing. Having said that, deep pockets have taken over Napa and many of them can afford to wait it out. I suspect there will be many individuals however, who start dumping some of their wines through various retail and auction venues as a means to raise cash and pay their bills. I'll be looking for some of those bottles, to back fill my cellar with going forward.

• Franken Berry commented:

  9/26/22, 5:07 PM - Great conversation, my friends. Bad, I just scored a ‘18 for the same price from a well known Michigan retail store. Mark, based upon your very detailed reporting, I think I may try the micro ox trick and drinking the rest a week later. This vintage has also struck me as a bit thin ( or closed, I may not understand the difference), but I don’t want to wait until it is past its prime. The richness of the fruit here can be so alluring

• Mark1npt commented:

  9/26/22, 5:15 PM - FB, I just scored a bottle of the '12 at $120. It'll arrive in a few months and I'll open it before I do my last bottle of the '15 which can def wait for quite a while. If I had an '18 I'd be inclined to hold it for quite a while, like 3-4 years....and then, even still, give it plenty of air time. This is just such great fruit! I just discovered today that this vineyard sits between Switchback and Hourglass. Not a big fan of Switchback (it always seems kind of thin/weak to me) but love Hourglass a lot, personally speaking. These wines are in no danger of having the fruit fade any time soon, IMO.

• Badmonkey commented:

  9/26/22, 5:45 PM - I also picked-up the 2018 vintage from Woods Wholesale Wine. They also had a couple more bottles of the 2015 vintage on the shelf at $95 which I grabbed. I don’t know how they are getting that price. I plan on popping a bottle of the 2018 vintage this weekend but I have a feeling that it might have to be consumed over a couple days but hopefully I’m wrong.

• Franken Berry commented:

  9/26/22, 7:44 PM - BM- I am quite jealous of that find (2015). Mark, I have been trying to pinpoint the location of Cloudys vineyard. the best that I can tell is that this is in Calistoga, off Dutch Henry canyon, near the Hourglass Winery (and hence the blueline vineyard). I believe that Hourglass estate cab comes from their other vineyard which is in St Helena, between Trinchero and Neal Family. Here is a bit of (worthless) trivia. Robert foley made the first Hourglass Cab, he also made switchback, until recently

• Mark1npt commented:

  9/27/22, 7:36 AM - Thanks for the info, FB......did not realize Foley was the first winemaker for Hourglass. I do know that I love wine from this vineyard and the Blueline!

• gteran76 commented:

  10/1/22, 10:22 AM - Excellent note, cheers!!!!

• Mark1npt commented:

  10/1/22, 6:09 PM - Thanks, Gabriel!

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