Community Tasting Note
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TSBWine wrote: 89 points
June 12, 2013 - 88-91 Pts. Decanted about 45 minutes before serving. Served outside on a very warm evening. Proved to be a bit unruly at times with aeration and as the wine warmed in the glass.
Aromatically the wine offered up mostly muted dark fruits and some oak spice characteristics. Over time the wine hinted at eucalyptus notes as well. On the palate, the wine was dominated by black currant notes and followed by loamy earth, tea-like notes, wet stone and an oak influence. With aeration additional notes of subdued red plum, cedar and even an herbaceous quality began to emerge (which quite honestly reminded me of garrigue - a bit perplexing really but undoubtedly positive).
Texturally the wine is solidly built and it holds a real presence on the palate with it's grippy tannin and structure. There's plenty of acidity here which leads me to believe that a fair amount of grapes were sourced from fairly cool sub-AVAs. In a sense, it was refreshingly restrained and focused for the price point without lacking character.
Unfortunately, at some point in the evening it completely fell apart. At one moment, with Cellar Tracker in mind, I was telling myself that it was on its way towards meriting a 91 Point score (a serious triumph for the price point). However the wine simply became overwhelmed by tannin and oak to the degree that it was too reminiscent of other over-oaked Cabernets from the region.
Given the quality and composition of the wine early on, I'm willing to attribute this to the influence of heat and a wine simply being served too warm. I'd love to try another bottle in a better tasting environment and track how it develops in the glass. There's always the possibility that there's too much oak influence here - but it based on the price I think it deserves another shot and a first try by anyone who comes across it.4,828 views