12/7/2020 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine:

One off as part of a 4 bottle purchase of high end wines (hard to price individual bottles, but probably about $130) about 4 and a half years ago. Small pour, then about 75 minutes of air, but it was singing straight out of the bottle (and I recorked it after the 75 minutes so it wouldn't dissipate). As vibrant a nose as I've experienced, led by creamy cassis, ripe and rich boysenberries, black cherries, black currants, plums, wet earth, smoke, cigar box, camphor, spice, dark chocolate, graphite, with powerful dark coffee notes on the back end. Almost blackish purple, medium+++ bodied, tree trunk legs. Medium- acidity, fairly powerful but super silky tannins, no heat. Tremendous complexity, very good intensity, medium+ persistence. I've had a couple of other vintages of this bottling, but this is the first bottle of this I've bought, and with a one-off seller and a mediocre CT score, I had some concerns, but this bottle blew them away quickly. Powerful, rich, subtle and supple but in no way soft, this tumbled out the bottle perfectly balanced and elegant, surprisingly fulsome for a wine renowned for its Bordeaux nature--perhaps the vintage--not to be confused with a cult cab, but clearly grounded in the 707. Great on its own, it hit another gear with a grass-fed, organic Wagyu ribeye, as if they were twinned, and was also a wonderful accompaniment to chocolate. Lost just a touch of steam night 2 and was good but several notches below with spaghetti and meatballs, but this at no point was less than memorable and outstanding, a stunner bang in the middle of its drinking window (agree with CT friend msu that estimating DWs is a mug's game, but hard to imagine that this doesn't have at least 5 peak years left). Not quite the elegance of the Montrose, the power of the Ovid, the sophistication of the Verite or the electricity of the Spotteswood, but it's close, and that's damned fine company. 97+ night one, 95-96 night two. Would buy again and again at what I paid for this.

At the risk of touching a third rail, this is one of the most mis-scored wines I've encountered on CT IMO. I'd love to taste everything I buy beforehand, but that's not possible, and CT is my go-to source of choice, at least when there's a critical mass of reviews, when I make buying decisions for wines I haven't had. That said, I've noticed habitual underscoring of "classic" cabs viz "cult" cabs; how else to possibly explain this wine scoring the same or lower than entry level wines from Mike Smith or Kirk Venge which I believe barely scrape pretty good, well below very good (but to my mind, far from exceptional) higher priced wines from Mike Smith, as well as excellent, but not superior, high-end wines from TRB? I know taste is, at some level, personal, but are the winedrinkers who appreciate this style really that underrepresented on this site? I'd welcome others thoughts on this, but I'd take a couple of bottles of this anytime over a mixed half case of the Quivet LPV and Myriad BGIII. Well, as my dad used to say, that's what makes horse racing.

11/14/2014 - Eric Guido Likes this wine:

Intense and fruity on the nose with ripe tropical fruits, sweet, spicy floral tones, and a contrasting hint of bitter lemon rind. On the palate, it was rich yet balanced, showing ripe peach, grapefruit, wet slate and minerals. Spiced peach and lemon zest lingered on the finish, closing the experience with fresh and clean note. Very Nice!

7/30/2015 - pjbeans wrote:

This was very good but a slight disappointment given my experience with the 2007 a few months back. A bit heavy handed stylistically for me (too much oak and extraction) put this syrah a little to far out of balance for my liking. Definitely some nice interesting secondary flavors developing and a good QPR was just hoping for a little more out of this bottle. Had with a bone-in ribeye