1/17/22, 11:32 AM - I agree with the Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow assessment of the 2013s. Like the persimmons I sometimes buy that look and smell beautiful but never seem to get ripe enough to shed the astringency before they go off. I have tried many and I have long felt that the fuss around 2013s seems way overblown. Concentration and tannins are only part of what make a good wine. Balance makes them great. I far, far prefer the 2016 vintage of most everything. I expect 2018 will surpass 2013 as well but i havent started cracking those. I have a number of 2013s from fine producers and will continue to hold some but I doubt these ever live up to expectations. 2025++ is probably spot on.
1/5/22, 2:51 PM - Have you had the Laurence? The 1998 laurence was my favorite CdP for years and years but has started to decline rapidly since late 2019. I have one of the 1998 and one 2001 reserve left. Excited to open those next time I make lamb or goose or goat.
1/5/22, 2:48 PM - Bummer. I've had nothing but super bottles of this and the 2002 p2.
1/5/22, 2:46 PM - Thanks for your review. I'm a big fan of this bottle too. Curious - did you decant? I found that about 75 mins of air did wonders for it and was interested to hear if your experience was the same. Thanks!
11/24/21, 12:06 PM - Thanks for posting this! I've been eyeing the case or two in my cellar and wondering. I have been assuming 2025+ but wasn't sure.
7/24/21, 3:31 PM - The 1989 is pure magic. Classy yet super sexy... I have a few left. Need to pop one soon!
7/24/21, 3:28 PM - Love the 1989! Still sitting on a few and this review is making me want to pop a cork!
7/24/21, 3:27 PM - Perhaps it is an unusual pairing but I mated it with brown butter pan seared shrimp, dusted (not a lot at all) of ras El hanout and slivers of black garlic and fresh kumquats. No complaints... Agree with you on the layers. Really a fun wine.
7/24/21, 3:24 PM - Hi there. Thank you for the review. Did you decant? If so for how long?
7/24/21, 3:22 PM - I agree. Underappreciated. The 1996 Cos is my favorite "everyone knows all bdx is so-so" year but the 2001 is a close second. These wines give a lot of pleasure and marry wonderfully with food.
7/24/21, 3:19 PM - I've got one bottle left. I love the 2003 and I've been wondering if I could hold it a bit longer. The delicate dance between drinking a last bottle of something you know to be great versus waiting to long! I will open this next time I make lamb or goat. Thanks for the review and the nudge.
4/1/21, 5:00 PM - So I decided to open another bottle tonight. To see if it would.match up with the last one. Tastes 5+ years older. Far more tertiary notes. Same wine but yeah, inconsistent is the word. Thinking I'll avoid this producer in the future.
3/3/21, 6:54 PM - I have only had two vintages of it. I have a friend who buys it regularly. Both the 2009 and 2014 are enjoyable. Plum, plum, plum and some blueberry and raspberry are my recollections. Delish and ready to rumble with crowd pleasing fruit... (I'm sure people will cringe but I kinda think of plumpjack cab in the same way.) Does not have the same velvety mouthfeel or darker, jack handy deep thoughts elements as the grand vin. Anyhow that's my recollection. Would be excited to try 2010 or 2016. Have you had any more recent vintages?
3/3/21, 7:03 PM - Very interesting, thank you. I will look for the 15, 16 and 17 in the secondary market. If I can find nice pricing I'll snag a few and try a wertical. ( open 3 bottles in a week of the same wine from diff years and compare, like I did with the blankiet this weekend/ week.)
3/1/21, 7:35 PM - The 2009 is really singing at the moment if.you have any. Sadly the last 2003 I had was past peak. Still enjoyable but no longer magic. Blankiet is my favorite napa merlot. Have tried a number of others which I have found to be too jammy. I love continuum proprietary red blend in years when it has less cab sauv and more merlot, pv and cab franc. If they ever bottled those latter 3 as stand alone wines I'd be excited to try them. But in the meantime, can snag 2014 continuum. Cepage for the 2014 as well as the 2016 and 2018 which I have not tried yet is low cab sauv on all three (~50%) and some of the merlot, pv and cf characteristics really shine through.
2/21/21, 8:17 PM - Hi SonoDoc, did this need a long decant? I'm sitting on a pair of these in my cellar and have been wondering when they might be ready. Thanks, whisky&wine
2/16/21, 12:52 PM - This is a great bottle. Still have 9 in the cellar. A couple 2003s & 2004s too, I think. Hands down, Blankiet merlots are my favorites in Napa. I enjoy serving these to cab supremacists who swear they don't like merlot (thanks, sideways!) to convert them. The decant time is key, as is serving temp. Thanks for the great note. Going to pop one of these in the near future.
2/17/21, 9:54 AM - The 2003s were magic. Really great. But are now in steep decline.The 2004s are still excellent. I think they will be good at least until 2023 and then probably tail off through 2025.Skip 2005 & 2006 unless pricing is very sharp. Def not as good. 2010 is solid.
2/18/21, 3:50 AM - My home in Houston lost power intermittently Sunday til late yesterday. I had shut off the water main, drained sprinklers and emptied pool below the level the pump etc could fill. Hope you guys are doing alright too. We will see how my outside prevention plan worked once everything thaws. Stay warm, gents!
2/13/21, 4:33 AM - Vine Hill Ranch is a really storied vineyard. Many acclaimed napa bottles have come from it since the 60s. If you liked this, try the VHR cabernet with 5+ years or a bottle of Bond Vecina with 10+ years of age. Both are sourced from this Vineyard (but different blocks). For me, I always get an edge of fresh, mouth watering cranberry-like acidity with VHR sourced grapes, and in the best years, great earth / minerality under the buoyant fruit. It's this nuance and balance that makes this site so good. I have 9 bottles of this in the cellar and I plan to.try the first one in late 2022. Right now, if.you are into memento mori, the 2012s and 2016s are just awesome. I imagine 14 is as well but haven't had one in a while. To date, my fav bottle by MM is the 2016 LPV. Stellar. 13s, 15s, 17s and 18s probably need more time.
2/15/21, 12:03 PM - Yeah I think 2018 has a lot of people's attention. Great vintage by all accounts. I was never wowed by 2013 as much as critics were. I loved 2016. Sounds like 2018 has elements of both 2013 and 2016. I bought a fair amount of 2018s but won't be buying as much as I did 2016s. I think the 2016s aren't adequately appreciated yet. I also think people are drinking more wine or drinking at home due to covid and that has spurred demand for the cults, alongside a surging stock market and home values. This pandemic has been good to the net worth of the top two quintiles in the US. $225 bottle of wine? Sure, why not? Heck, one bitcoin buys you a barrel. Finally, some of these smaller houses are becoming collectible vs just tasty and known by a few people. I do think that is an element too. Fine wine continues to be a high performing investment category.
2/16/21, 7:19 AM - I am not sure about those two in particular because I have not tried any 16s but I can tell you the MMs, Vangone, Lazy Susan Ranch, and the per us Alessio are good to go with a proper decant. Arkenstone, bond, fairchild, spring mtn, outpost, all need more time. Not sure if that helps but maybe you can triangulate from those to judge if your Bevan (he makes alessio) are ready. I generally think Schrader correlates with Fairchild.
2/16/21, 7:25 AM - What do you guys think of Dana? I'm on their list but haven't bought recently. QPR seems out of whack.
2/12/21, 2:45 PM - I put thorevilos from Abreu and Bond Pluribus in the same category. They need a decade plus (maybe 15+) to start singing but then, they offer tremendous pleasure and complexity. I just snagged a case of the 2016 and I'm very excited to try it at the end of the decade!
1/11/21, 3:31 PM - So from 2017, I bought very few napa wines. There were certainly pockets of intense quality. I plan to take a similar approach with 2019. For 2019 I feel like there is better value in BDX than napa. If you are going to buy napa wines for 2017 and 2019, be prepared for more suave and nuanced wines vs fruit powerhouses. At least in the 2017s I have sampled, they were more austere. Not a bad thing. But I think BDX does the lithe style a bit better than most napa houses at the same price point. If you are patient, I would focus on scooping well reviewed bottles from auctions later. 2017 will trade at a discount almost as deep as 2011. So many good vintages this decade have caused people to skip whole years (like I did!). That means value in the secondary market. I did buy smaller 2017 allocations from a few producers like memento, perus and a few other nuggets. I bought heavily in the 2016 and 2018 vintages. 16 doesn't get the love yet but I think within the next decade it will be recognized as having a disproportionate number of the best wines of the decade. Not quite as high average quality as some other years, but higher highs.
1/11/21, 4:49 PM - Lite it on fire, What have tried for 2019? Curious what you plan to buy. My planned purchase list is pluribus, mm, perus (alessio). Unsure of others.
1/12/21, 5:55 AM - I'm not sure on the 2019 vintage honestly. I have not tried any yet. I have read that it was a good growing year. I have also heard from some folks in the biz that it may not be as strong as several other top years last decade. I will wait to read / try a few before pulling the trigger on more than the core producers. Reading some critics and merchants, they've really worn out words like great, stellar, perfect, top vintage. Lotta hyperbole. In my view top names in 12 are some of the best values of the last decade. A good year but not 13 or 16 or 18. The 2013s I've tried - and I know I'm in the minority here - but they feel lopsided to me. Not as keen on 2013 as critics. 2014 top names can be outstanding. 2015 has some great wines and some bruisers that need time. 2016 to me is my fav vintage of last decade, at least so far. In terms of cab blend names to buy, I like MM, vangone, alessio by perus, abreu Thorevilos, bond pluribus, and I might get some fairchild stones 2 or 3. If continuum makes a cab franc heavy blend I will buy that too. Most of these will sit in the cellar for 4 years + before even being tried. The abreu and pluribus should be a decade. So if you're looking for something now, I'd go scour 2012 and 2014 auctions for top names in those years. If you're patient, I'd snag some of the names listed above. Or, if you're a degenerate collector like me, do both 😀
6/23/20, 1:15 PM - Sounds like a stellar evening! How long did you decant the MM?
6/23/20, 1:59 PM - Thanks for the info. Just opened a 2016 MM LPV for tonight. Popped and into the decanter about an hour ago. I plan to give it about 4 hours of air before taking a taste.
10/26/20, 7:32 PM - Hey Dave, I posted a tasting note under the 2016 LPV. I have tried two bottles. It is just exceptional. Deeply fruited without being cloying. Aromatics are stellar. Minerality and nuance too. It is a sexy wine. Certainly one of the best napa wines I have had in the past few years. Now that it is getting cooler again, I'll get back to drinking more reds. May try another bottle around the holidays.
6/11/20, 1:52 PM - Hi LoB,I would open it at breakfast time and if you have a magnum decanter, use that. I think it will be singing by dinner time. I typically decant in the cellar so it stays at temp until serving. Not sure if room temp would change the time required. If you have some diff shaped glasses you may try that too. I have some bottega del vino amarone / aged bdx glasses and then the zalto bdx. The shape of the lip makes it hit diff parts of your tongue. Taste buds are not equally distributed. Very nerdy but I found it fun to try this from both glasses.
5/22/20, 6:10 AM - Thanks guys. I look forward to trying the MM VHR SVD. I have a few sitting in my cellar now. I think a side by side by side tasting would be pretty spectacular. Have to wait a few years though; the bond wines are made to cellar. I doubt the vecina would show well until it has at least five years to sit and sort itself. In the interim I think the MM side by side will still be quite fun.
4/16/20, 6:45 PM - The 2003 2004 and 2008 are still going strong. I still have a bunch of 08 and 09 bottles and a pair of the 2004s. Just had my last 2003 in mid 2019. I really like this merlot blend and I think the end date of 2029 is probably conservative. Window is now open with a decant and not close to closing. I expect this one will be fine into the early 30s if you have enough self control. If you have some different shapes of wine glasses it is interesting to try this wine from a burg glass rather than a syrah or cabernet glass. Different concentration on the nose and the glass steers the wine to diff parts of your tongue.
4/17/20, 6:42 AM - I think we both went to the 2017 VHR launch at Pappas Brothers earlier this year based on your other notes. Nice to see we have similar taste!I have not tried the 2017. I did try the 2011 and prefer the 2008 and 2009. The 2011 does not possess the same level of concentration and richness. Have you tried Alessio from PerUs? That is another merlot heavy blend that is just wonderful. Both 2015 and 2016 are excellent. Have some 2017 in the cellar but have not tried one. Roberta's reserve from Kapcsandy can be excellent too but is less balanced / more fruit forward in some years. Also, not merlot but if you like this flavor style /profile, try continuum in any year with a more balanced cepage. 2014 stands out for heavier petit verdot and cab franc and is my favorite. I find the continuum is so much better in the years that are less cab sauv heavy.
4/17/20, 7:21 AM - I agree the Roberta is probably not worth the money except in the very best years.Very cool on continuum! Sounds like I have been overpaying!
12/16/19, 4:57 PM - Hi msuwright,I also love the 2012s and they are solidly in the window to enjoy now! The other favorite is the Fairchild stones no. 1 Las piedras. It needs time to open but is great once it hits its stride. I would give a slight edge to the MM but it is more of a stylistic choice. Here are all the 2012s I can remember trying. I'm sure I am missing a few. Thankfully I am on a few of these lists and have generous friends who are on some of the others. It's fun to get together and taste - blind or otherwise. AloftDark matterMondavi to kalonPejuCade (white label)Cade reserve (grey label)PlumpjackCarter og. Carter 3kings. Carter grand daddy. Continuum Bjorn. Adamvs teresScarecrowScarecrow m etainDunn HowellDunn Napa valley reserveFairchild sigaroFairchild g3Moone Tsai OutpostO'shaughnessy Burgess Blankiet Chimney RockLevy McClellan Cimarossa (think it was rian) Ramey pedregal2012s in my cellar I am waiting to tryAbreu Thorevilos Bond pluribusGhost horse fantome 2012s I would like to trySchrader lpvPhelps InsigniaFutoVHR
12/16/19, 5:16 PM - Sounds like we have similar taste. Pluribus is the best bond wine in my opinion ( at least for 2006+) and I have almost every year of it in my cellar. I really like the power and the layers of interesting flavors. I usually give them more cellar time to get ready as they are made for the long haul. Exciting to hear that the 12s are drinking well already. Thst may be a new years eve wine for me this year!
4/7/19, 5:59 PM - The 2012s are amazing right now. Had folks over in March and did a Carter 12 OG, Myriad G the 3rd and the MM. The MM was the clear winner, with only one person preferring the Carter. I have a bunch of the 16 MM and the single Vineyard. It's an exercise in self control to keep them in the racks and off the table (or couch).
2/9/19, 5:05 AM - I had a glass at a Christmas party last year (from a magnum). It is stellar juice but it is not ready yet. I dont think the window will really open until 2025 on this one. Enjoyable now but worth holding off.
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