Community Tasting Note

• Mark Larson wrote: 89 points

  July 16, 2016 - Over 4 of these, disappointing. This should be legendary. In the book that describe Joel Petersen's journey Joseph Swan was his mentor and inspiration.
  My only guess is he is gone and others are running the shop. Higher ABV's? Restaurant wine gaming? These are good wines that aged a bit and are at what they can do. Good. No more.

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1 Comment

• Chris@77 commented:

  8/20/16, 12:48 PM - Mark, Rod Berglund has been the Swan winemaker since 1979 and Joe Swan died in 1987. From reading, Berglund followed in Swan's footsteps relative to style. I haven't read anything by Joel Peterson but he was at Swan a very short time, made zins (Swan started with zin ... Peterson made the 1st Ravenswood at Swan), then was gone running his own winery. All this is on Swan's website.
  
  My experience ... CA PN doesn't age like burgundy ... most bottles without "bottle bouquet" and complex secondary flavors, still very enjoyable. Since I stopped collecting Bordeaux/Burgundy and got serious about PN I've seen ABV's climb significantly across all appellations, to my chagrin. Lastly, tastes change. I no longer drink young cabernet based wines, don't like them. CNDP is too massive, alcohol too high. Burgundy is great, good wines typically taking longer to be ready than I wish to wait. Suggest you sample across the board. Swan wines are typically high acid, less enjoyable young than many. Re 2007, I have a couple bottles left, am a little disappointed they haven't gotten more complex but are straightforward enjoyable wines to drink. I'm saving the remaining ones in hope of improvement, probably should have drunk them years ago. I think the more recent vintages have more potential, esp 2011-2013. We'll see. Cheers.

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