Community Tasting Note
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sirpat00 Likes this wine: 97 points
August 7, 2019 - Chappellet tasting (Napa Grill, Zurich): Part of a Chappellet tasting showing a total of 16 wines including a Prichard Hill mini-vertical (7 vintages from 1969 to 2016) attended by Cyril and Blakesley Chappellet. The one highlight I will never forget was clearly the 1969 Pritchard Hill that knocked me out of my socks. In more recent vintages the 2013-16 representatives come across less extracted and more complex that the 2007-12. The whites were decent but can't compete in the Permier League. Also had a bottle of the 2016 PNV which was unfortunately closed but showed great potential.
Tasting note:
All-embracing sensation from the first moment. Lots of fresh cigar tobacco, sweet savoury, bit of leather with a core of dark bramble berry fruit. A crescendo of aging notes still coupled with an intense fruit and baking spices. Surprisingly fresh with maybe just the very first signs of fatigue on the palate. Also an interesting phasing here with a first wave of acidity followed by a gradual creeping up of tannins that still coat your cheeks. A mind-blowing nose but with a palate that cannot quite keep up and that, I fear, could start to disintegrate slowly with too much more bottle age. But in any case this was spectacular and testament to how well Napa cabs can age. 97+1 person found this helpful 2,224 views
2 Comments
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Wine Gopher commented:
8/12/19, 8:23 PM - I'm very jealous. Thanks for the great notes across many of the wines I own as well as this one I could only dream of having.
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sirpat00 commented:
8/12/19, 11:32 PM - It is a good dream to have, but apparently has become very rare. It is absolutely stunning how well this stuff aged, especially if you consider that this was only the 3rd vintage!