2/17/2024 - Mark1npt Likes this wine:

About 10 months since the last bottle.....given a 60-90 minute decant before taking it to the restaurant with Kala and Andrew.
Dark garnet in the glass......nose of graphite and blackberry. Palate is soft with dark red/black fruit, more graphite, and a little caramel/vanilla on the ending which is perfectly balanced with acidity and soft, round tannins. This is so nice....a gentle forest floor component as well. This is my 4th-5th bottle since release and it just sings so beautifully and consistent, just softer now. This borders on a 95 for me tonight.

Addendum: so 60-90 min decant before dinner, bottle open slow oxing for almost 2 hours during dinner, bottle taken home under stopper with 8 oz left, so a 4oz glass for both Andrew and I that we nursed for maybe another 1-2 hours at home til gone. Total airtime at the end, about 3+ hours full decant + 90 min of slow ox. The wine was def even softer and deeper in layers by that time....the '19s can be more approachable for sure, but man.....air really seems to help them along, too. Def a 95 at the end, some may lean toward a 96 at that point. I'm changing my score above to a 95.

11/26/2021 - JLuch1 wrote:

Decanted for about 4 hours to enjoy after some Thanksgiving Turkey. Not sure if this was an off bottle or my tastes have changed, but this didn’t do it for me at all. We had been drinking a few different wines over the course of dinner, which may or may not have helped.

The wine came across as a stewed cherry pie without a ton of tannins or acid to give the wine any structure or balance. Was really disappointing considering the price point and fruit source. I’d argue the vintage, but I had a 2017 DICO opened at the same time and it was tremendously better at a third of the price. The DICO was flat out delicious.

I’ll refrain from rating on the basis this bottle might have been flawed.

1/14/2024 - Mark1npt Likes this wine:

So good......I needed to wait but it's been 9-10 months since my last bottle. Decanted 90 min before the HMCs came over for dinner. Could have easily been drunk at the pnp as it was full of energy, packed with fruit and just hedonistic. Those who like hedonism would have easily given it a 98 at that moment in time.

At the pnp, a hint of alc and cassis out the wazoo. 90 min in and it's full of sweet tobacco on the nose. Just beautiful.....enjoyed over 2-3 hours before, during and after dinner. Compared to what one would say the more classically styled '18 Arkenstone NVD tonight, a 94, this one is just a thriller at 97. Easy to see the difference in the two styles of winemaking on display.

9/9/2022 - csimm wrote:

Ok, so this bottle screams two words to me very distinctly and without equivocation: "Drink Now." It's a Charleston chewy prune purple drank and all, but it's pushing past its window (at least, this bottle spoke loud and clear to that end). It hasn't tanked by any means, and I find it certainly to be a wine of lovely succulence and modern (like, really modern) hedonism, but I don't think this wine will be developing any "tertiary flavors" beyond ripe, more ripe, and really ripe over extended time. It's already spitting out some balsamic notes that stand to upstage the remaining freshness. Pop yo' corks folks.

12/5/2023 - csimm wrote:

Ok, so for those who desire a bit more detail, this is a follow up to my last extremely brief note a few days ago…

A big, sweet, ripe, purple, fruit-driven slather hound. Grab a Red Bull and top with whipped cream, and you got yerself the best Sonic blackberry slushy this side of San Antone. And to be fair, this is along the same lines as what one would expect from this wine. No surprises. If you like Materium, you’ll like this Materium. It’s on the ripe end of the ripe spectrum, was probably picked in late December, and carries a viscosity that Brer Rabbit would envy (see what I did there?... as in Brer Rabbit Blackstrap Molasses? Cute, right?! ……….you get it…). I feel like the last 5 years have made this even richer and more chocolatey. And again, if that’s your jam, this will literally be your ‘jam.’

Designed for those who feverishly elbow their ways through masses of merrymakers to board the flavor-choo-choo and ride it all the way to Miami Beach.

11/17/2023 - melsdad Likes this wine:

Double decanted 3 hours before dinner. Zero hint of smoke taint. This was singing. Big and voluptuous in the mouth, expanded mid-palate and long, lingering finish. My second 96 rating of this wine. Along with Carter Grand Daddy, the best 2020 I've had. Thank you Leah and Mike for your hospitality.

1/26/2020 - csimm wrote:

Eeeeeeesh... What happened to my precious prefect Scarlett?!?!?!

Super saaa-weeeeeeeeeeeet blackberry pie muddled in a pile of chocolate Caymus-meets-See's brown sugar buttercream and pureed with a fistful of purple Gobstoppers and the suntan oil of a sweaty southern Iberian pool-boy with a thyroid issue. Plush the way that mud in the Everglades is plush. Like nothing I've ever had from the Scarlett Reserve lineup before. I'm gonna go out on an easy limb here and call this flawed..... as in, A LOT flawed......

5/12/2018 - csimm wrote:

Mike Smith Tasting and Wine Dinner PART #2: One of the top wines of the night. A point up from the last time I had this wine back in November of 2017. I would’ve said this was the best Quivet LPV I’ve had to date, but that attestation only lasted about 2 minutes. Enter the 2016 Quivet LPV. Now THAT became the best Quivet LPV I’ve had to date!

Taking a step back, it’s important to note that the 2016 was a barrel sample, full of all sorts of swirling baby fat, massive concentration, and unbelievably captivating power. The 2015 has been in bottle for a hot second, so it’s had a chance to mellow out a bit. However, as is often the case in comparative tastings, barrel samples will frequently trump the bottled versions simply because there is just so much damn flavor coming out of the barrel samples. What makes an argument for the 2015 is the fact that it kept pace with the 2016 and it was somewhat hard to tell them apart in the end. So if the 2015 can do that, it might mean it is ultimately a bigger wine (as the 2016 will certainly downshift a hair once it settles into bottle).

Regardless, the difference between a 98-99+ point 2015 and a 99+ point 2016 is basically nothing. They are both utterly compelling wines. Quivet certainly stepped-up this tasting!

Pretty darn awesome if drinking now, but holding the 2015 for another 6-12 months in the name of science is not a bad idea. 98-99+ points.

11/30/2018 - csimm wrote:

Wine Thief (2016 Purlieu) (Napa): So you watch a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies? You thought Terminator was a classic cinematic production? You actually know who Michael Ironside is and can rattle off movies he has been in while you’re throwing around free-weights at the gym...Gold’s Gym...because after all, Planet Fitness is for infants and girly-men? You think Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel are glam-posers and on any given day would clearly lose in a bar fight with Chuck Norris?

If you answered “Yes” to the above questions...or if you didn’t even recognize the aforementioned as questions because they are obviously givens on their faces, then the 2016 Purlieu Teucer is clearly a wine for you! A strapping powerhouse of a beverage, and quite possibly one of the most muscular mammoth Napa Cabs I’ve experienced from this vintage yet.

As dark as Attila the Hun’s soul and as strong as a Nepalese yak at Base Camp, the Teucer sacks the palate with black, scortched earth driven fruit, with a triple espresso fortitude that brings the fullest-bodied mouthfeel I can recall in recent history. Additional steroidal enrichments of bitter cacao powder, blackberry, dark chocolate covered black raspberries, black currant, medjool date, charcoal, burnt embers, freshly turned black soil, and dark spices (clove, anise) all make for a monstrously indulgent wine.

Hey man, I was a fan. I could chew on this liquid jerky for hours while watching reruns of Kung Fu Theater in my Superman onesie. The finish was astounding, resounding, and compounding. It’s hard to tell where the front of the attack (or rather, onslaught) starts and where it ends. It’s as if the whole delivery is one huge mid-palate blast of unctuous, undulating cyclical flavor waves.

Ironically, there is still balance, grip, acidity, frame, and lift. It’s huge and powerful, but not fat and messy. There is superb focus here, especially for such a massive wine. By comparison, the To Kalon exhibited a touch more synergy amongst its flavors, but the TK’s profile also wasn’t as colossal as the Teucer.

An awesome bungee jump of a wine on PnP, but worthy of a little bottle age to enable it to find its ultimate sense of seamlessness. Cuz right now, it’s totally nuclear. I felt like I needed some DOT Class 1 placard to transport these bottles from the Wine Thief back to my house.

Brave the hurricane now if you’d like, or try again in a year. 98+ points.

3/17/2019 - csimm wrote:

One of my Napa Cabs of the vintage, and a consistent standout every time I pop the cork. This wine simply lays waste to a whole mess of wines when in comparative tastings or as a stand-alone. The complexity here is absurd, with a dark mineral-inflected core that actually speaks less to Rutherford and more toward LPV or Steltzner/Stags Leap sites (so I guess I should ding it down 0.427 points for not accurately representing its proper terroir - So, 99.573 rounded-up is 100 last I checked).

Frame, speed, grip, precise flavor expansion on the mid-palate, viscosity, depth, texture/mouthfeel ... You can go ahead and check all of your little sommelier boxes on this phenomenal specimen. What really draws me in here is how focused this biooootch is. I’m not sure how it achieves such a well-honed and complex delivery of flavors while still kicking down crazy awesome on the savory front. It has personality and a sharpened intensity I love.

The flavors themselves are, as before, a trifecta of black berry, black rock, and bad assery. This was a PnP, and it performed great right from the pull. Air helped to broaden the blackberry and obsidian notes in a way that was perfectly governed both in weight and in speed. I’m not sure what the finish was like really because it went on forever and I was already taking another sip before it actually ended... whenever that was exactly... the next day perhaps.

My only issue with this wine is that I didn’t buy 5 cases of it. And of course... I don’t see it on Wine-Searcher anywhere, even in some random place like Hong Kong, or London..... or Azerbaijan.

Alas, the trials and tribulations of first-world disappointments: “...If only I could find and kidnap my favorite wine so as to tuck it away in my precious cellar like Gollum’s ring or some Silence of the Lambs Buffalo Bill wackamo.”

99.573-100 points.

8/5/2018 - csimm wrote:

Bevan 2017 barrel samples and 2016 wines: Much in the same lane as its 2015 brother, this 2016 offered similar red and black currant, fruitcake, and spice notes that were undeniably Calixtro. Perhaps a bit deeper, broader, and a little more powerful than the 2015, this version kicked it up a notch with polished red raspberry liqueur, black cherry, dark dried cranberry, and incense flavors as wel.

Intense but polished, with notable purity of fruit (more of a red fruit profile). A lot of energy and a little bit of heat; though this is slightly wound up, it’s still kicking out some pretty bad ass flavors despite it being a PnP. A higher presence of acid as well. This is one for the cellar. Give it 2-3 years and enjoy at least a decade of vivacious longevity after that. Revisit in 2021.

96-96+ points. Great stuffing here.

12/9/2018 - csimm wrote:

Dark black cherry, bitter dark chocolate, red and black raspberry, blackberry, black currant, pencil lead, and some clove. Mid-palate weight and complexity was elevated, with a really balanced push of flavor that maintained a perfect equilibrium from the front end through the finish. Slightly meaty but texturally satisfying on the back end, which made for a nicely chewy mouthfeel overall. A real nice focus here.

Worth holding another year, but drinking fairly well after about an hour of air. Day 2 of this wine deepened the flavors even more without losing much speed compared to day one. 94-95+ points. Possibly another point after 2020.

12/2/2018 - csimm wrote:

Six month checkup on this wine. Performs as awesomely as expected, especially with a little bit of air in the glass. Traces of booze on the back end with a few higher-toned red fruit and cassis notes darting around initially on PnP, but really focused-in beautifully after about two hours. Notable flavor complexity and weight distribution all the way through. Turned to more purple and black fruits on the final sips, with a deeper pitch and more solid mid-palate drop.

Worth giving it another year or two to really reach potential pefection. I’ll plan on checking back in the beginning of 2020. Consistently great wine.

11/29/2018 - csimm wrote:

Opened around 11AM, double-decanted, and remained re-corked in the bottle until 7PM. Re-opened, decanted, and followed over the course of a few hours. After the first hour of open air exposure in the decanter and glass is when this wine truly started to blossom. Served side-by-side next to a 2015 Cliff Lede BTK (somewhat similar in profile and demeanor, if a little bit more austere and linear than the MACDONALD) and a 2015 Purlieu BTK (which came off much more “fruity” and simple in overall delivery by comparison).

It’s really no surprise that the 2016 MACDONALD showed as an absolute phenom, and is perhaps even more seductively compelling than its 2015 sibling. This 2016 hit the front end with a gorgeous cascade of mineral-infused black cherry, currant, dark cassis, and black raspberry core fruit. Notes of freshly laid asphalt, black rocky soil, scortched earth, anise, clove, and even hints of charcuterie arrive to the palate-party and catapult this wine into the next-level-sh*t category.

Astutely grippy, with a prominent but ever-balanced acidity. The back end unloads with more crushed stone and black earth notes. All of the swirling minerality almost fools you into thinking it will finish gritty, but instead, fine-grained tannins roll in and harness the back of the palate with a keen grip.

If the best Mick Jagger To Kalon grape went on a celebrity cocaine bender, had a rockstar lovechild with the best Gigi Hadid (ya, look her up folks) runway model Las Piedras grape, then sold the baby to a Ricky Schroder Silver Spoons family of Steltzner grapes in the rockiest region of Stags Leap, it would grow up to be the 2016 MACDONALD.

And look...Don’t anyone get all caught up in the “perfect” score thing, thinking this is all some CIA tinfoil-hat-wearing-conspiracy motivated by just some automaton MACDONALD cronie that slings throwdown points for the uber-cult genre in hopes of garnering attention or upping an allocation (...are you reading this Alex??!! I’m doing good, right??!)..... just kidding people.... let’s all take a breath.

In any event, those who know this label don’t need any convincing about the top tier quality and craftsmanship that go into the wine. Those who know To Kalon should be well aware that this wine sets the benchmark in many ways as to what the best of this site and terroir can offer. 2016 is a hyped-up example of what you already know about MACDONALD. It’s one of those unicorns that supersedes the 100 point scale (which is utilized more like a 90-100 ten point scale nowadays), and operates on both cerebral and emotional levels, offering plenty of geek-out moments as well as visceral oohs and aahs.

Ideally, and unless you want to go through a whole barrage of aeration gymnastics to get this thing to do its tricks for you, hold this wine for 3+ years to allow it to start finding its true identity. 98-100 points all day long.

11/7/2018 - melsdad wrote:

My first Scarlett Reserve. Decanted for 3 hrs and drank from decanter over the next 4 hours. This wine is a mouthful. Red and black fruit fills the mouth with a touch of sweetness. Very smooth. An gorgeous Mike Smith creation. If this was the only wine I had to drink for the rest of my life, I'd be ok with that. Thanks to Csimm1161 for the recommendation.