Very balanced wine, but reached its limit. Still with medium acidity and medium-minus tannins, this drank reasonably well, but the oxidation had taken over the fruit and was a few years beyond its drinking window. The fruit had moved to more prune and raisin, rather than fresh fruit flavors. This would have drunk better at around 35 years, around 5-10 years ago. Drinking blind, the brownish color around the rim and stewed prune flavors gave this away, almost all of the group tasting identified this wine correctly.

This wine still had strong tannins. It was a little watery with a very restrained nose and palate. Diamond Mountain AVA wines in the past have tasted big and tannic, with subdued fruit and without much nuance in my opinion (lack of mid-palate)… but with age, developed great mouthfeel. Exactly how this wine presented. At this blind tasting, an easy tell, with some tasting history to reference. This wine has a few years left, but is definitely in its prime drinking window now. If you are holding, drink now and enjoy.

This was the fruitiest of the group tasted at this sitting and had the most obvious oak. This was the surprise of the evening (IMO). Recent vintages of Silver Oak Cab Sauv are not generally viewed as being able to stand up to extended aging, but this 80’s era vintage was balanced and still fruity. Perhaps, a product of original purchase provenance. A nice wine with tremendous character for 30+ years of age. In a blind tasting, had the most obvious oak on the nose and palate. This fit the Silver Oak tasting profile, making for a high probability of identifying accurately.

At this blind tasting, I mistook this wine to be the Joseph Phelps. I have always had an odd relationship with BV as a producer. I have not really cared for their lower priced wines, having only a minimum of value (IMO), while their well-known Georges de Latour release every year is good, but over-priced. They also seem to develop complex flavors in their higher priced wine, some flavors of which I don’t care for. So, I may have gone into this tasting with preconceived notions… which is always an interesting aspect of blind tasting. I felt this wine had the most balanced profile of the wines tasted and having the most enjoyable mouthfeel. Frankly, I didn’t think a BV wine could be this balanced. (buzzer sound) Well, I blew that one! Chalk one up for having a closed mind. Beyond its best drinking window, but good nonetheless.

I described this one in my notes with the typical wine industry generic term, “food friendly”. The kiss of the death for uninteresting wine in a tasting note in the U.S. This was the most acidic of the bunch. Which was amazing, since this wine was 33 years old. It was a little vegetal with a touch of tomato, but no green bell pepper… both characteristics of under-ripe Cab Sauv. Hard to believe this wine was from a warm vintage. This could only happen in a Napa vintage before 1995. No self-respecting Napa producer would harvest Cab this early in a warm year today. I enjoyed this wine the least of the bunch. Poor balance and “interesting”, but not particularly pleasant flavor profile.

This was smokey, with medium+ acidity and medium tannin. This was another example of an aged Bordeaux showng balance after extended aging. The flavor profile included an earthiness, that when you taste enough Cru Bordeaux, you come to recognize. Still with fresh fruit (blackberry) and stewed currants, the fruit was forward on the palate. I am not a huge fan of Pauillac wines. I prefer the St. Estephe and Margaux regions in Bordeaux, but this was drinking nicely at 30 years and was a strong representative of aged Left Bank Bordeaux. An easy tell within a blind tasting of Napa Cabs.

This was exceptional! The fruit was still reasonably fresh for an aged vintage port. Not too sweet, tasting like a more recent vintage… but for a port, this wine was so balanced… integrated alcohol, good acidity, soft & full mouthfeel. All of us agreed, this was the outstanding wine of the evening. I wish I could hold on to ports this long. This one was worth the wait.