2/28/2024 - Odedis.Wine.reviews Likes this wine:

99 POINT WINE

Dark ruby in color with a short reddish rim. Not showing much age.

Fruity nose with cedar and chocolates notes.

Full bodied and elegant, soft and smooth.

Dry on the palate with medium-plus acidity.

Showing black currants, plums, cedar, cooked cherries, spices, light vanilla, tobacco leaf, herbs, dark chocolates, peppercorn, pencil lead and dark coffee.

Long finish with fine grained tannins and tangy cherries.

This is a delicious Napa Cabernet Sauvignon based Bordeaux blend. Nicely balanced and peaking now.

Rich and fruit forward with nice complexity and a great mouthfeel.

Good right out of the bottle, and better after 2 hours of airtime.

Robert Parker 99 points. Wine Spectator 94 points.

Will continue to drink beautifully in the next 5 to 7 years.

Good by itself or with food, like a nice piece of steak.

A blend of 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc, 8% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot.

14.8% alcohol by volume.

93 points.

$350.

3/2/2024 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine:

First of 3 from an auction lot ($187) 2+ years ago. On the nose and palate, classic vibrant Ovid notes of dark berries, cassis, black currants, forest, fruitcake and exotic spice, violets, dark roast coffee, bitter chocolate, graphite, tobacco and a hint of cedar. Wonderfully deep purple-black, medium to full bodied, thick legs. Long, silky tannins and medium acidity, both well integrated, no heat. And as always, epic complexity, intensity and persistence. Wasn’t sure what to expect here, with (relatively) tepid CT reviews, even from CT friend Geaux, a fellow lover of all things Ovid, and a general disregard for this vintage (which, dog in the manger that I am, I don’t share, at least not mostly), but this was beautiful right out of the bottle and gained just a touch more length, depth and silkiness with 30-45 minutes of air, which it held evenly through the last glass on night #2 (you didn’t really think I’d get 3 nights out of this, did you?). This ranks just above the outstanding ‘08, a little more than just below the transcendent ‘12 in my Ovid pantheon, already perfectly resolved, although still youthful, but with a touch less hurricane ferocity than that ‘12. Like those 2 wines, this stuns equally on its own and with food, in this case a rare carnivorous double header for mostly pescatarian sfwl of lamb chops one night, mixed grill the next, with the food really bringing out the tremendous backbone, the on its own experience doing the same for the resplendent fruit. This is bang on in its drinking window with no babying required, yet if the ‘08 (from a similarly unfairly maligned vintage, in sfwl’s humble opinion) is any indication, this will continue to be an extraordinary pour well into the decade beginning with a 3. At the risk of sounding like a totally uncritical fanboy (oh, WTH, I’ll sound that way), this is why I drink wine and only admit what I’ve paid to my non-winey friends sotto voce. I suspect we could have a pretty good pay per view imbroglio over this cuvee and whether it’s right at the top of Napa with me being joined by CT friends msu, Geaux and QL and opposed by cs and A_M (although I’m not sure they’d completely dismiss it, either). I’ve gotten all of my vintages for $200- (not including the inevitable sales taxes but including everything else), a price significantly lower than my Abreus and Colgins, which, for me, this absolutely stands right beside, if not a nose in front of. Long may you run, Andy and Austin. Stunning, suberb and sophisticated stuff. 98+

2/13/2024 - Deegie Likes this wine:

Very interesting. Lemon custard, yellow apple, and maybe a bit of honey dominate on the nose. It’s much more tart on the palate than I expected. It’s like underripe citrus and apple with some baking spices on the finish. Enjoyed it quite a bit and found it unique. A lovely break from over-oaked domestic Chardonnays.

4/30/2023 - DizzyOneCheck wrote:

On sale at Binny's so grabbed a bottle to try. Decanted for around an hour, paired with grilled Ribeye.
Pours deep purplish. Nose is black cherry, plums, dark berries, vanilla(?).
Tasting is an absolute fruit bomb, a juicy, fruity explosion of concord grapes, blackberries, cherry coke. A little more silky than expected but very fruit forward. A bit sweet and one note for my taste, bordering on syrupy at times. Don't think I would buy again for myself but I'm sure it would be a fine "crowd pleaser" for casual consumption.
At less than $40 it's a decent QPR for Napa fruit (allegedly of Caymus provenance) if you like the fruit bomb style.

1/20/2024 - Deegie Likes this wine:

Very restrained on the nose. I’m going to say lemon and green apple but I might be influenced by expectations here. It’s definitely shy. More expressive on the palate. Acidity is crisp and pleasantly high. A touch of salinity. There’s something that gives it almost a Riesling-like petrol note, which is weird. Perhaps a steely minerality? But I definitely enjoyed it. It’s clean and just feels pure.

11/2/2023 - Francophile1 wrote:

The wine was not flawed or corked, but it was just trying too hard to tell you it was from Bordeaux (almost manufactured flavor profile). Loads of tobacco & earth and lacked a center core of fruit. It's bigger sister the 2012 Montrose is significantly better than this wine and is already drinking great now. I won't be buying the '12 La Dame again.

10/8/2023 - DizzyOneCheck Likes this wine:

Bramble-y nose of dark fruit, almost zin-like at first. Some real depth to the nose. On the palate it starts and ends with the Malbec. Anise, licorice, menthol, herbs. Fruit appears more on the mid palate, raspberry and dark cherry. Savory, almost slightly salty finish with notes of olive.

Drank over several nights and fared fine in the fridge with the cork back in. Solid and enjoyable for what it is, but there are (in my opinion) better Malbec-dominant red blends for the same or a lower price point (for example Amancaya, which can be had for about half the price).

8/17/2023 - EM_MB Likes this wine:

No formal notes. Not sure why the CT scores are so low. I thought this was textbook Ovid and another great vintage. Very early in the drinking window and will easily improve.