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Q3 Tasting - Aged Cali
The Apt
Tasted September 10, 2016 by MC2 Wines with 565 views
Introduction
Mea culpa on this one, but it was a very long day of wine (we also did the Acker auction in the morning) and so I'm afraid the quality of the notes continued to decrease through the night and that coupled with a very busy few days post tasting did not lead to the best of results. I highly recommend nyccablover (https://www.cellartracker.com/event.asp?iEvent=32893) for a better run down of events, but here goes anyway:
Flight 1 - Official tasting (20 notes)
Red
1997 Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon Cinq Cépages
Wine #1: An excellent start to an excellent tasting this wine was approachable right off the bat (had prob opened maybe 25 minutes before pouring). Great fruit, mostly boysenberry, lower on the spice, still very open and ready for business. Young almost. For me it benefited from being in the early crowd where I was still tasting more, but I very much enjoyed. (8 pennies)
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Red
2003 Buccella Cabernet Sauvignon
Wine #2: Very fruit forward which appears to be what stuck out the most for me with this wine. Opened and let breathe for maybe 45 minutes before the first pour. There was a touch of this left and apparently was still drinking quite well 5 days later. (8 pennies)
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Red
2001 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate
Wine #3: Also good fruit, this wine tasted a bit younger than some of the earlier ones for some reason to me (odd since it was right after the '03 Bucella). My first Montelena and I'd say I enjoyed it although it was in tough company and could perhaps have used some more secondary/tertiary flavors.
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Red
1996 Pahlmeyer Merlot
Wine #4: Truly one of the big surprises for me of the tasting and one of my favorites. This had a bit more age which came through and made the wine seem more mature (esp on the heels of the Montelena). Great fruit and a nice balance. Maybe a hint of alcohol, but suspect if had had the opportnuity of a decant that would have blown off quickly. (11 pennies)
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Red
1985 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate
Wine #5: Fruit, alcohol, and spice, but somehow it's missing a subtlety that the other wines with a bit more age seemed to gain. (2 pennies)
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Red
1992 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
Wine #6: I was one of the few that liked it. I called it wonderful and young tasting, but am very aware that we missed by not decanting it (and potentially for a more extended period of time). I'd never have guessed it was a 24 year old wine. Cranberry the most dominant flavor. While not really revisited during the blind, this was one of the bottles that seemed to get finished rather quickly afterwards. (1 penny)
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Red
1992 Ridge Monte Bello
Wine #7: We'd had this wine a few months ago at a dinner and I was very impressed with it then and continued to be here. The fruit was a lot more striking than one would have expected although I think it was more muted and balanced a bit more with cigar and leather than some of the other wines. I do wonder what some more time would do. We opened and decanted and it prob had over an hour before the first pour and yet it was youngish. I have a feeling another 10 years would add quite well to the wine. (4 pennies)
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Red
1997 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon
Wine #8: The winner of the tasting. This was very primary for me - I mostly just tasted grape and alcohol and while normally I would have said that doesn't bode so well, I did enjoy the wine. (18 pennies)
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Red
1999 Whitehall Lane Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
Wine #9: From a magnum. This got a bit lost in the group for me. I had a pleasant opinion of it - marked the smoothness, good fruit, maybe just a hint of alcohol. Perhaps it was hard to find the differentiating characteristic compared to some of the others. Was a very nice example of aged Cali cab (which is a good thing in my book). (2 pennies)
Red
2005 Pine Ridge Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District
Wine #10: Fairly funny since if this wasn't the youngest of the tasting it was quite close to it and yet I was convinced it was older than its brethren. So much so that that was about all I wrote about it in my notes. (7 pennies)
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Red
1998 Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Red Rock Terrace
Wine #11: I was quite excited when I found out what this was to have tried it. Have also been a bit fan of the '98 vintage which seems to have aged particularly well given how little love it received at the getgo. Sweet fruits, a word that I can't quite translate now, and an overall feeling that this was an interesting wine and worth sipping on. (12 pennies)
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Red
1986 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Artist Series Napa Valley
Wine #12: I must admit that while I didn't remember where many of our bottles up, given this was a mag I was aware. It surprised me. For a 1986 Napa Valley it was just young (I wrote this point 4 times in a note that only contained maybe 10 words total). I found it very enjoyable. We unfortunately had not decanted. Think the wine could have been really something if we had, but as it was I quite enjoyed it. (4 pennies)
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Red
1994 Joseph Phelps Insignia
Wine #14: (Listing these in the order that we drank them and hence skipped 13 as it came at the end) Afraid the notetaking was getting a bit tougher by this point. I have noted that it was very good. A bit more alcohol than I'd have liked. Here again would have appreciated a decant but who'd have guessed it needed one? (2 pennies)
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Red
2006 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection
Wine #15: Quite interesting to hear the reveal (esp with all of the noise of the 40th Anniversary bottling). Having already had a few wines that day, the word that sticks out from my notes is slutty (a similarly applicable adjective to the 2012 I'd say). Some pepper and red fruit. (3 pennies)
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Red
2005 Switchback Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Peterson Family Vineyard
Wine #16: Similar to the Caymus before it this just needed a touch more acidity than it was throwing out (esp this late in the line-up). That being said, I enjoyed the wine. (9 pennies)
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Red
1996 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate
Wine #17: This appears to be the end of any serious wine tasting notes that I took. The wine as I recall now faded a bit being towards the end but without the benefit of being the last one tried (there were 4 wines after). As I recall rather nondescript and more in the standard aged Cali form. (1 penny)
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Red
1985 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley
Wine #18: Again a wine which suffered from it's placement (3 additional wines to taste afterwards). I don't remember any strong opinions towards it. Certainly CT tasting window of 2008 is too short - it was still going just fine. (6 pennies)
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Red
2003 Burgess Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Wine #19: Remember this one being a little bit lacking in acidity and a little bit overly fruit forward without enough of the balancing flavors. That being said, CT window much too short. This was still quite definitely going. (3 pennies)
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Red
2003 Araujo Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard
Wine #20: Oddly this wine seemed to have been a bit more memorable (whether it was because it was second to last in the tasting or because it deserved to be is hard to say). Certainly I found myself enjoying it a bit more although sadly did not record what exactly it was that I found so enjoyable. (2 pennies)
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Red
1993 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Wine #13: A truly excellent wine that stood out and I'm quite sure for more reasons than just because it was the last wine of the day. I knew the Howell Mtn had the ability to age well, but this was also quite lovely in it's spot. No detailed note (hard given the # of wines consumed earlier), but very enjoyable.
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Flight 2 - Bonus bottles (3 notes)
In addition to these mentioned there was a Heitz rose which I did not try on the night and so have left out of the formal notes.
Red
1978 Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon Napa / Sonoma
Bonus bottle #1: How fun to have gone through the whole tasting and then to get to try an even older Cali. Surprisingly still going although it was not unclear that there was a lot of age on this and it was nearing the end.
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Red
1989 Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley
Bonus bottle #2: again we're in bonus bottle area so the notes are much less detailed, but I was excited to try this. Did not realize that Washington State winemaking had been around for quite so long. Very drinkable and interesting.
White - Sparkling
N.V. Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée
Bonus bottle #3: To celebrate an engagement. If we were to have a house champagne this would be my choice. It's invariably excellent to great and the cashmere bubbles with the excellent toast are a great combination. Unfortunately don't have disgorgement date, but this was a young one.
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Comments (4)
Closing
This was one of those tastings where I found it incredibly difficult to vote. There were a number of wines I quite enjoyed and so I found my five pennies spread out across different ones. Some take aways - Dunn is a true master and I had no idea the Napa Valley could be so special (and such a deal!), Chateau Montelena might have hit the heyday a bit earlier than our tasting allowed for, California wines do age really quite a bit better than they get credit for (this is something I already knew - it's a particular favorite of ours - but worth calling out anyway), the Pahlmeyer Merlot was shockingly good and I'll be seeking some of that out.... I'm sure there was more. To be fair while it was quite a long tasting I must say it was also one of my favorites.
Oh - should prob have said - the grand winner was the 1997 Spotswoode. No zeros among the group, but the 1992 Shafer HSS and the 1996 Chateau Montelena did not fair so well with 1 penny apiece.
Till next time.