Community Tasting Note

• msuwine wrote: 93 points

  November 20, 2019 - This dark and plummy Cabernet needs another 6-18 months to shed the baby fat and gain some focus. Right now, it's a mouthful - very ripe fruit, bursting viscosity, and woodsy notes (100% New French Oak). For comparison's sake, this seemed more concentrated and extracted than the Mondavi To Kalon - more forward, less restrained - but it has a lot of promise if it can calm down in the next few years.
  
  Dark purple in color and full in body, the wine offers aromas of blueberry pie, black licorice, and baking spices. The tastes are similarly luscious, with notes of plum, cherry liqueur, fresh cedar, and graphite, with a juicy and lingering finish that carries fine-grained tannins. Like many valley-floor 2016s, this just needs time. A little flat on second day. Blend of 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1.5% Cabernet Franc, and 0.5% mixed varietals. 14.5% alcohol. 93+ for now, with upside in 2021 or later.

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6 Comments

• sean7711 commented:

  11/21/19, 6:36 AM - Hi msuwright. Thanks for the note on this. First time hearing about this, and wondering if it's worth going in on a 3 pack given the vintage and vineyard source. Can you tell me any more about the label, winemaker, cases produced, etc? My wallet doesn't need another $200 bottle of wine, but sometimes I can't resist.

• msuwine commented:

  11/21/19, 5:26 PM - Hi Sean - It sounds like we have a similar buying habits (read: not good ones). For what it's worth, this is a purchase I kind of regret, since the wine didn't seem terribly unique to me (and it should for the price). I hate when a new wine requires a three-pack, but it's worked out for me more times than not.
  
  In terms of background, this is the To Kalon project started by Constellation (insert big-bad-company reference here, if that's where you fall on this stuff; I'm all for the little guy, but I won't dismiss a wine just because it's owned by Kendall-Jackson or something). Andy Erickson is the winemaker, and they made about 500 cases of the wine.
  
  So, it's a solid wine, but I'd like it to be special at the $200 mark. I think there are better Oakville wines in this style and at this price point (e.g., Vangone, Maybach Materium, Schrader). Maybe it will get there, but I'm not sure if I would make that bet (if I had a chance to do it again).

• sean7711 commented:

  11/22/19, 5:37 AM - Thanks for the info - very helpful. That explains why when I went to the website, there was no "story" or "people" section- ha!

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  11/22/19, 6:31 AM - MSU, your notes sound like a completely different bottle of wine then the one I had. Interesting. Do you recall the bottle number?

• msuwine commented:

  11/30/19, 9:41 PM - Sorry for the delay in responding, MJP. Yes, I was disappointed I didn't have the experience you had! I had high hopes for this wine, but the 2016s can be moving targets in the early going - i.e., maybe this just need time.
  
  In terms of the bottle number, the first bottle is long gone, but my other two are in the 3,500 range (3,561 and 3,540), so I'm guessing that is around where this was. Bottle variation would be a real surprise for such a well-funded operation, but who knows. Here's hoping I enjoy my other bottle mores (albeit in a year or two)!

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  12/1/19, 7:50 AM - MSU, I was disappointed because I had expectation of a completely different style of wine given the site. I looking forward to revisiting in a few years. Note, pending this court case over the naming rights we might have the only vintage under this name!

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