Community Tasting Note

• msuwine wrote: 90 points

  May 15, 2019 - Two words sum up my thoughts on this wine. The first is "extracted" - the fruit here tends towards plums, prunes, and raisins; whatever kind of ripe and dried fruit you can think of, this wine has it. The second word is "chunky." In addition to the excess of fruit, the oak treatment - like some kind of Pompeian volcanic ash - coats, almost ossifies every aspect of the wine with tastes of cedar, sawdust, and burnt toast. To paraphrase Ramsay, anyone who tells you that this is a subtle wine, hasn't been paying attention.
  
  Still, it's not all bad. It's not all good - obviously not #1 Wine Of The Year good - but it holds together fine, even if it bursts at the seams a bit. Cherry red in color and full (like Vitamin D milk full) in body, the wine offers a pungent nose of boysenberry, fruit cake, menthol, and baking spices (maybe too many baking spices, like when you accidentally add a tablespoon when the recipe calls for a teaspoon). Tastes of blueberry, smashed raspberry, prune, and tree bark, with a somewhat dry finish. Blend of 86% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec, and 2% Petit Verdot. 14.5% alcohol. Absolutely decant for an hour or two.
  
  I'm in the pro-oak (and pro-new-oak) side of the wine drinking population (the silent majority, to be sure!), but my complaint about this (and most) Duckhorn reds is that they're just a bit clumsy. There is power and complexity, but there's also wood chips and prunes. It's like the difference between a high school lineman and a pro; both are big and strong and maybe even weigh the same amount, but, when they come off the snap, one moves - and the other dances. This wine just moves - not horribly, but nowhere near ready for the big leagues.

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3 Comments

• wine-enthusiast commented:

  5/16/19, 2:47 PM - Nice rite up....
  
  The real question, is there a California wine that rivals Petrus? Its Merlot based.
  
  Three Palms is a top vineyard for Merlot.

• msuwine commented:

  5/19/19, 12:13 AM - Thanks for the feedback. I defer to you on Petrus, as I confess to never having tasted it!
  
  Within the world of California Merlot, my favorites over time have been Blankiet's Rive Droite and La Jota's W.S. Keyes Merlot. Each come from hillside / mountain locations, and each has a bit more savory / tannic / backward profile that requires bottle age. That said, these wines are far more unique than the Duckhorn Three Palms, which struck me as generic and extracted. Even is this vineyard used to be great, this bottle tasted like a pale imitation of greatness.

• poppacork commented:

  6/1/19, 11:05 AM - This review is spot on. Matches my experience with the wine.

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