Last bottle. Hitting all the right notes for me and I would guess, for most of the guests in attendance. Honey, baked apple pie with a flaky, buttery crust, lemon preserves. I am a big fan of Lauren. IMO, drink now.

Similar notes to last time. This was probably the most pleasurable to drink tonight. The 18 VV To Kalon is probably in its primary phase optimal drinking window if that makes any sense. Lots of red fruit, laced with forest floor. Unfortunately, this was the last bottle but am happy I popped it.

2 years later and decided to check on this. Well, it looks like it is time to forget about these for another 5-10 years. Lots of ferrite, forest floor with a tinge of dark red fruits. A bit brooding and needs some time to mellow out, integrate and do its thing in bottle for a while. Good news is, I am fairly confident this is going to give me much pleasure long term. Bad news, it is in a spot where it just needs to be forgetten for a while. If I needed to score this today, it would be 94-95.

I was actually a tad surprised by this bottle. I have a sort of biased perspective of what Carter is. Don't get me wrong, I really like Carter for what it is. But, since everything we drank today was initially blind, it made for some interesting notes and maybe a tad contrary to my normal notes that I often get from a Carter bottling. Dark fruits, lovely nose, young. I thought this could use a bit more time in bottle and I do see upside for this.

Maybach is just one of those wines that can please a crowd in general. Like the extrovert friend who comes over, never has beef with anyone, and can make you laugh here and there. But, they can often be a bit much because they are bouncing off the walls. That is Maybach to me. Of the 4 red drunk today, this was the most pleasurable to nose in glass. It is the definition of Napa fruit "bomb". Well, I take that back. It isn't one those Napa fruit bombs you get at the grocery store. Maybach is a complex, structured, fruitastic beast. It is a bit primary, but it knows what it is and it is a people pleaser. Drink this next to Eisele and the Eisele now seems like the stern, no frills, muscular former Navy Seals uncle who lets off a corner smile here and there and has fantastic stories if you are willing to sit there and listen to him, understand his sometimes cryptic stories that are sure to blow your mind once you unfurl the layers. Maybach to me is the Harry Potter series of books. It is a joy to drink, it has some serious stuff going on in the background and you are left with a smile on your face.