Community Tasting Note
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Badmonkey wrote: 94 points
February 27, 2021 - Purple fruit - blackberry, currants, dark cherry, and a little blueberry. Smooth mid-palate with a nice purity and solid depth/concentration. Nice rich flavors of dark berries, some spice, and cocoa. Fairly long finish. Decanted for one hour and drank over a couple more. Improved a little with time. Quite enjoyable at this stage but I believe another year or so will be beneficial to let it soften/open-up some more. I believe the 96 rating from WA makes sense with a little more time. Drank next to the 2015 vintage and I thought the 2016 vintage was a couple points better (bigger/fuller fruit and more expressive/flavorful) but surprisingly also at a better drinking point. 100% cab.
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12 Comments
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sfwinelover1 commented:
2/27/21, 9:16 AM - Great note, BM, with all the stuff I like to see (flavor profile, decant time, drinking window). I picked up a couple of bottles of these for $60@ through Last Bottle based on CT TNs--haven't had before--will probably give a year+, but am looking forward to popping. Cheers!
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Badmonkey commented:
2/27/21, 9:24 AM - Unfortunately I missed that one on Last Bottle. Obviously a nice price. You should enjoy it. Take care.
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sfwinelover1 commented:
2/27/21, 9:51 AM - Like most of these clearance outfits, there's more chaff than wheat, but they do have stuff of interest from time to time (perhaps more for me than you, as I think I may be more interested in non-US wines). A couple of months ago, they had a Yount Ridge '16 cab, which has been well-reviewed on CT (to no surprise to you, I haven't popped yet, although I was encouraged to buy from a favorable impression of a YR SB and generally positive thoughts about Celia Welch).
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Badmonkey commented:
2/27/21, 11:32 AM - I’ve had a little luck with Wine Slash and Last Bottle but for the most part I thought I got what I paid for. The only wine that I really remember as being a nice value from those online services was the 2013 Conn Valley Reserve cab. Unfortunately I didn’t notice the 2016 Maze cab at $60 or I definitely would have bought some. I had the 2014 Maze a couple years ago and I thought it was pretty solid.
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Thebigbaby commented:
2/27/21, 1:53 PM - Great review and consistent with my notes and experience with my first bottle that I opened. Also, in terms of closeout sites, I have actually picked up multiple bottles of this wine on a few different sites. I missed the offer on Last Bottle, but they offered it as a "Mystery Wine" on their sister site , First Bottle for $70. Then, shortly thereafter, it was offered on WTSO for $60 and I grabbed a few more. Looking forward to following you here on CT, too!
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Badmonkey commented:
2/28/21, 4:40 AM - I’ll definitely have to pay more attention to their offerings going forward. It’s not easy to find a mid-90 rated wine nowadays at $60 to $70. Take care.
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sfwinelover1 commented:
2/28/21, 8:07 AM - Relatedly, thanks for your reco to Wine Slash. I'm impressed by what they have, although many of the prices are just ok. I think that it's going to be at least a few good years for being a winedrinker, particularly if a lot of what you drink is in the $40-100 range, as I think that there's more supply than demand and we're likely to get price compression. Alas, for the Harlans, Colgins and Abreus of the world, probably not so much . . .
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sfwinelover1 commented:
2/28/21, 8:12 AM - If you're still interested, wtso has it for the same $59.99 under its "Premium" selection. Free shipping, too. When I first started ordering from them, they didn't charge sales tax, but they do now.
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Badmonkey commented:
2/28/21, 8:38 AM - Unfortunately I’m in Michigan which is a restricted State for shipping. WTSO doesn’t ship to Michigan. Ridiculous State laws.
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Thebigbaby commented:
2/28/21, 2:18 PM - It is so strange with the restricted States. I live in Illinois and it has been on, off, on...
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Badmonkey commented:
2/28/21, 3:06 PM - A little frustrating but since I buy most of my wine direct from wineries it’s not that big of a deal for me. Although it would be nice to freely take advantage of the handful of nice opportunities that I come across ever year in the secondary market.
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WineGuyX commented:
9/10/21, 9:08 AM - Just got some from WTSO $59.99. Haven't heard of Wineslash or Last Bottle, but I'll check them out!