Community Tasting Note

• Badmonkey wrote: 93 points

  January 13, 2018 - Get together with some friends. Drank the following: 2014 Outpost cab, 2014 Outpost immigrant True Vineyard, and 2014 Lewelling Wight.
  
  Similar thoughts as a couple months ago - solid depth/concentration, nice flavors of dark blue/black fruit with a little red along and a nice mineral/graphite component, decent finish but not overly long nor deep - once again I believe it needs some more time for the fruit to open-up. Popped and poured but drank over around three hours. I thought it showed its best during the first half hour - more of a dark blue/black fruit profile with nice depth/concentration mid-palate. However, as the night progressed I thought it transitioned into a redder fruit profile and the finish became a little tart. Once again, I believe better days are ahead for this vintage. Like most of the 2014 Napa cabs that I've had over the past 6 months I believe this wine is in a transition phase and needs time to come around. Going to continue laying my other bottles down for at least another year or so hoping for Parker's 95 rating.

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10 Comments

• amauryc1 commented:

  1/14/18, 6:33 PM - Right on with the notes. I was shocked when I started tasting red fruit halfway through the bottle.

• Badmonkey commented:

  1/14/18, 7:10 PM - amauryc1, interesting how it faded as the session progressed. I'm in full agreement with your thoughts. Although one again I believe it will come around with more time.

• WineGuyDelMar commented:

  1/17/18, 6:11 PM - This wine might need two more years to come around??

• Badmonkey commented:

  1/18/18, 3:52 AM - WineGuyDelmar, I believe so, however, I'm still waiting for the 2013 vintage to come around so it might be even longer. In consideration of the source, mineral component, and Thomas Rivers Brown style of winemaking I believe the Outpost cabs need a fair amount of time. I still don't believe I've ever had a bottle that was drinking in its prime

• WineGuyDelMar commented:

  1/18/18, 7:57 AM - Badmonkey My first vintage was 2014 so I'm going to wait until 2020 to try one of them. I just bought some 2015's yesterday. I'm OK waiting for a bit to try them. I haven't decided which is worse, drinking wines too early or drinking them too late. I think drinking them too late is worse.

• Badmonkey commented:

  1/18/18, 8:22 AM - I hear you - there's nothing worse than when a wine is past its prime and you know it will never come back around. That's the really nice thing about Cellartracker is we can continue monitoring a wine's progress through the tasting experiences of others. Take care.

• Yack Man commented:

  8/14/20, 8:38 AM - As always your comments your comments are appreciated and duly noted Badmonkey. I see this wine on sale at around 80 bucks and was thinking about taking a shot at it. As you mentioned in this comment string, the wine could be in a dumb phase? Perhaps it’s worth a shot?

• Badmonkey commented:

  8/14/20, 9:14 AM - Yack Man, from my experiences with the entry level Outpost cab it tends to show well shortly after its release - within the first year or so where it’s probably still in that really youthful/barrel tasting phase. After that they tend to shutdown in my opinion and need time. I had a bottle of the 2013 vintage earlier in the year and I believe that vintage is just coming around but still probably needs another year or two - although a decent decant helped. That’s obviously a pretty good price for the 2014 vintage. I haven’t had the 2014 vintage for a while but after my recent experience with the 2013 I’ve decided to let my Outpost cabs from 2013 on lay down longer. I’ve never asked the Winery about the anticipated maturity window for their cabs but I would bet that they would recommend some patience which I guess isn’t a surprise in light of the source on Howell Mtn and Thomas Rivers Brown’s winemaking style. Sorry that I don’t have more insight with the 2014 vintage. Take care.

• WineGuyDelMar commented:

  8/14/20, 9:28 AM - Badmonkey I hear 2014 is much more approachable than 2013. They are less tannic so keep that in mind. 2014 Kobalt is much softer than 2013.

• Badmonkey commented:

  8/14/20, 11:26 AM - The last bottle of the 2014 vintage that I had was around two and a half years ago and I thought it clearly needed more time. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was showing better and it makes sense that the 2014 vintage is more approachable than the 2013 vintage in consideration how the 2013 vintage overall was built. I continue to watch other CT notes for the 2014 vintage and RAYT’s review in May concerned me a little. Although a different style, I also haven’t cared for how some of Mike Smith’s 2014 have been drinking lately - I was recently underwhelmed by a 2014 Quivet Kenefick Ranch cab and 2014 Myriad G3 cab - closed/not much character. Once again, I don’t have any recent insight on the 2014 Outpost cab but I’m still inclined to wait longer.

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