Enjoyed this a lot. Green apple and lime skin were the dominant fruit flavors, and there is enough cut here to make the 9g dosage (as listed) feel a bit lower to me. There is also some light bread dough notes, too. All together, very balanced and refreshing. Disgorged 11/2013.

Tasted blind. I found this to be more on the simpler side last night, lacking some energy that I wanted. The oak seemed to be more dominant that I prefer in Chard, and the acidity while there, paired with some minerality, they both seemed in lower doses, too. I have had this wine now on a couple of occasions and I simply like the stunning '11 better, which for me was what really turned me onto LF.

Tasted blind. As I swirled this wine in the glass, tasted the flavors, it felt like Anderson Valley to me but the higher ripeness level kept getting in the way. Ultimately, I landed with 2009 Copain, calling it Monument Tree, which was a close guess. The reason I landed with '09 is that I have found that to be a year for Copain that has been riper than I tend to prefer these days. As we talked about this wine around the table while it was still bagged, I guessed at an ABV around 14.5 to 14.8, which was off about a point, as the wine I believe was labeled at 13.7%. For Wells and the new era style, this is about as high as I think he would want the wines to go. Riper styled charred raspberry and black cherry flavors, with just a little apple hanging around to give a clue as to the AV fruit. And a few of us, me included, we thought there might be some stem in here, as there is a stalky note but I do believe this vintage was all de-stemmed. A touch of heat too on the aromatic and also some crushed rock in the palate. Not bad, and what seems to really for me help the '09 Copain pinots is to make sure they are drank with a light chill to reign in the vintage.

Tasted blind. Well, after having drank the '11 Papera just last week and working through that lovely bottle, this was pretty far off from that wine. For me, this is about vintage. I really have liked Mike's '11 Zinfandels, yet if this '12 is an indication of vintage speaking, I'll have to fall to last year as a stronger preference. First, the aromatics on this really fooled me, as this '12 lacked the berry bouquet and briary RRV notes that the '11 last week did so well. Here in the '12, I was going down a syrah track, as the wine seemed to exhibit a sweet leather and bbq sauce note, much like I get in warmer years for say a Rosella's syrah from the SLH. The fruit in this '12 also seemed plummy to me, what I noted as plum sauce. There is some heat here too, and while not a lot, it does get into the aromatic, which I did not find in the '11. With more air, a lot of that syrah quality faded and some RRV berry qualities came out but in the end, this wine seems a bit much for me, lacking the definition and character of the '11. Forgive the comparison to the other vintage, but my intent here is to provide context and to express distinction between the wines.

Tasted blind, was the last wine of 5 that we did for the meal. Oy vay, this is a big wine. On first impression, to make a guess at the table, I though petite sirah as it had a strong aromatic of really ripe fruit, as well as a dark impression in the glass. A few guys at the table also guessed petite. But, for some reason I fell back towards Cab and then when thinking about my initial guess of petite, landed with Switchback Ridge. There is for me a lot of alcohol here, and it's embedded into the aromatic for sure, coming off a bit soapy. It's that combo of oak and high ripeness that for me is too much. Coffee, milk chocolate, iron and lots of fruit. For context, I do buy and enjoy the SR Petites and even this year, I took a handful of 375s of Merlot for the first time. The latter was tight recently, as I opened one and found the wine to have great grip and long-term potential but it wasn't to me styled like this Cab. In the end, I didn't care for this Cab but for those who know me, I don't buy nor drink Napa Cab but there will be an audience for this wine. I would suggest this wine be paired with the right food, and for context, we had it with bacon wrapped dates that had a little citrus liquid on them and the pairing went very well.