7/25/2023 - jjoyce Likes this wine:

Very well balanced, still has a lot of life in it. Full flavored.

7/20/2018 - jjoyce Likes this wine:

Still has loads of fruit (cherry notes dominate), and very complex. Tannins still mouth-drying, which makes me feel this wine can still develop for years to come, but it's in a beautiful place right now, with some light tar and oak on the finish. Best to let it breathe for 15-30 minutes before partaking.

7/23/2017 - jjoyce wrote:

It was a crowd pleaser, but it is past it's prime. Time to drink up any in storage.

7/22/2017 - jjoyce Likes this wine:

Still remarkably vibrant, and lots of acidity. Well balanced, still some tannins present.

7/20/2016 - jjoyce wrote:

After a long work day I felt like just jumping into the glass with the enveloping aromas of apple, raspberry and cherry. Lovely, full-bodied wine. Still plenty of backbone, but all the harshness is melted away. Loving this.

7/13/2016 - jjoyce Likes this wine:

Popped and poured. Amazing bouquet. Can't believe this Cali wine is 17 years old! Smooth as a baby's bottom. Still a lot of fruit, and tannins present. Could have kept for a few more years still I think without going downhill, but I believe it is at perfect maturity now. So happy I opened it up!

4/24/2012 - jjoyce wrote:

This has changed dramatically since my last tasting note in 2005. Tannins have completely resolved leaving an easy drinking and very fruity beverage. Definitely time to drink these up. Summertime barbecue fare!

4/30/2011 - jjoyce wrote:

Upon opening it was clear this was still a baby, so let it sit in the glass for about an hour. The nose stayed closed, but, the flavor really opened up. Loads of tart cherry with lively tannins and acidity. This has the stuff to become something very special with a few more years on it. Glad I have another bottle to look forward to in the coming years.

4/30/2011 - jjoyce wrote:

Nose of caramelized sugar, stewed apples, cassis, dry twigs and marjoram. Full bodied tart apple - cherry flavor with strong acidic backbone. Tannins very present. Tasty, but would benefit from a few more years of cellaring.

3/20/2011 - jjoyce wrote:

Took hours to open up. Upon opening the nose was all band-aids, and the flavor hollow. This did improve quite a bit with time. This is not a pop & pour wine. Purchased for under $14 a bottle, so definitely a good qpr if willing to let it breathe a few hours before serving. Best served with a meal. I'd recommend a pot roast or such. For a pop-n-pour I'd score this a 79. If you are willing to let it breathe 3-4 hours before serving, it jumps up to the 89 range. Scoring 86 as the mid-point since most people won't wait for it to open up.

3/18/2011 - jjoyce wrote:

Pleasant fragrance with notes of peach, pineapple rind and white flowers. Flavor is a bit on the sweet side for a Kabinett, but this is nicely offset on the back end with a great tang. Long finish. Not a wine for great introspection, but super accompaniment to light Spring & Summer fare. Terrific QPR too at under $16.

8/19/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Corked, but drinkable.

8/18/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Sooo good. Sooo smooth. What you would expect from a well-aged Tawny by a maker as respected as Fonseca. I could drink this all night long if I were made of money, ha ha! Married especially well with the Valdeon Blue Cheese.

8/18/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Flavor has improved since the last time I tasted this (more than 3 years ago). Great fruit, oak and tar flavors balance it out nicely. Still some respectable (though smooth) tannins ... with a greatly improved finish. Super QPR, especially if you held on to some of these. Drink now or the next couple of years.

7/10/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Purchased this with dinner at the Ram's Head Inn in Absecon, NJ. Enjoyed it with salmon. Nice, bold flavor that was accented by a beautiful spicy/fruity nose. Matched well with the salmon. Good QPR.

4/16/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Hide and seek aroma of deep, dark cherries with the tiniest hint of captain crunch. Dry red with rose/cherry/twig flavor, medium bodied with a very pleasing aftertaste.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Dirty stewed plum nose peppered with twigs. Surprisingly smooth for a 13 year old magnum bottle of vintage port. Easy drinking, very tasty, not very complex.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Dried apricots drenched in honey. Super sweet with enough acidity to keep it from being unctuous. A bit rich for my tastes, but this would be a popular choice for many. I would love to incorporate this in a dessert sauce or drizzle it on poundcake.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Nice fruity nose without being too candy-like. Smooth mouthfeel with lightly drying tannis. Nice table wine, if a bit one-dimensional on the mid-palate.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Super fruity, candy nose. Goes very well with the cheesy pasta dish I was eating. Nice everyday drinking wine. Tasty and not very complex. Overpriced for the flavor profile IMO.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Full throttle nose that draws you in at first, but then quickly dissipates to the point where you question if someone switched glasses on you. Well balanced flavor with a slightly fruity/woodsy finish. Still a bit of heat on the end and enough fruit to make me believe this can still improve, but it is in a great place now.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Dill, smoke and earthy nose. Beautifully smooth, well balanced Rioja. Perfect cherry flavor with no sweetness, just a pleasing citrus finish.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Flower-bedecked creme brulee nose with a turbinado sugar dusting. Very nice grapey, cognac flavor profile. Alcohol is well integrated. Tasty.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Blueberries, a little spice. Nice nose. Very tasty. Citrusy. Really yummy mouth-feel, yet gives the impression of lightness. Leaves a hint of cornichon on the finish.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Rose petals, violets, blueberry. Thin bodied, had an aftertaste of overripe fruit with twigs. The taste didn't live up to the promise of the fragrance.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Classic Cali-cab nose of cherries and spirits. Nice fruit, but still a bit hot. Needs some time to come together.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Band-aid nose. Taste was a bit medicinal with a tarry finish. Went well with the meal, but would benefit if it had a little more fruit.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Sugared raspberry front notes with some "clean toes" in the background. Cherry, black pepper and light tar taste. Still a bit too young, but shows lots of promise. Just needs to settle down and gel a bit.

4/15/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

WLTV Forum Offline Montclair (Table 8, Montclair, NJ): Pineapple rind, lemon and floral nose. Peaches with light acidity. Tasty, if a bit flabby.

3/28/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

This is drinking beautifully now. Great, full flavor with tannins fully integrated. Drinking much better than it did 3 years ago because the flavor components really balanced themselves out. Should be strained, loads of sentiment.

2/14/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Floral and strawberry notes on the nose. Medium bodied wine with berry and twig flavors predominant, maybe a bit of black olive too? Very nice.

1/1/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Allowed to breathe for about 3 hours before pouring, then poured with aeration device. Beautiful wine with strong tannins, but with the aeration the tannins did not overpower the fruit. Great body and roundness with cherry as the primary note with an oak backbone that felt like exactly the right touch. Looking forward to trying this again in a year or two.

12/31/2009 - jjoyce wrote:

Black olives! Nice body, well integrated. Glad I waited to try this. Super yummy!

1/1/2010 - jjoyce wrote:

Used for cooking (had no cheap Barolos so used as a substitute in Beef Barolo recipe). Cork completely soaked through and nearly falling apart; fair amount of sediment. Probably a good idea to finish up any remaining bottles.

8/28/2009 - jjoyce wrote:

Major improvement since the last time I tasted this in 2007. The flavors have really come together and I find this wine nicely balanced. Will definitely be drinking the rest of my bottles soon because I think the wine is in its ideal drinking window now. Terrific food wine.

5/20/2009 - jjoyce wrote:

Nose of strawberry & melon rind punctuated with floral and yeasty notes. The taste was bright and sweet, but dry at the same time with a definite Watermelon Jolly Rancher flavor profile. Had a lovely dry finish that had me thinking this would be an outstanding wine to drink lightly chilled on a sizzling day. Will likely buy this again as a light summer treat.

4/28/2009 - jjoyce wrote:

Almost overpowering tangy fragrance with strong notes of blueberry and cloves. Nice mouth feel with pleasingly dry finish. The pretty, astringent fruit is marred by a bit too much tar which becomes the predominant flavor profile. Sealed up and will try again in a day or two to see if there is any improvement.

4/5/2009 - jjoyce wrote:

The nose is quite lively with lots of dark fruit (blackberries, brandied raisins & cherry stems simmered in dark molasses) surrounding a center of turbinado sugared red plums. A hint of green pepper in the background really rounds out the profile! The flavor is really nice. Quite young and lively with lots of fruit and a great mouthful with a cherry stem backdrop. The finish is strong, but maybe a bit too much tar. This knocks off a few points for messing up the balance a bit; but all in all a very nice wine!

2/4/2009 - jjoyce wrote:

Nose is all about raspberries, spun sugar, and grape jelly. Kind of sweet, very easy drinking wine. Nothing to get overly excited about, but certainly a pleaser to 90% of the red wine drinking public. Finish is bit one-dimensional but compared to most other old-vine Zins out of Lodi, this one is quite good!

4/5/2008 - jjoyce wrote:

A little too hot and funky finish first day, but flavors really melded well on day two. Definitely a drinkable Tuesday night wine. Looking forward to the others I have.

3/30/2008 - jjoyce wrote:

This was my first experience with CA Port. The nose is very reminiscent of stewed, spiced raisins in brandy served in aged barrels. This description is not very far from what this beverage essentially is and maybe that is what makes it so special. It is a very enjoyable drink, not overly hot, deliciously fruity with a rumtopf like long finish. I enjoyed this immensely, as did my guests.

1/13/2008 - jjoyce wrote:

Wine was aerated and then allowed to sit in the glass 40-45 minutes before tasting. The nose was primarily raspberries, with an undercurrent of green pepper. Flavors of raspberry, followed by pine needles, asparagus and pencil shavings with just a hint of tar. The wine went very well with our Stouffers Lasagna and salad dinner -- in fact I'd say it was an excellent match. The food and wine worked together in perfect harmony.

10/10/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Pleasant aroma and lovely dry flavor. Married excellently with Flank Steak and German Potato Salad dinner. Excellent food wine.

10/7/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Very easy drinking wine. Lots of fruit, great nose.

9/29/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Nose of cherry and dark fruit compote in a bowl of wet leaves. Taste was classic with cherries and tobacco with pencil lead. There was still a very nice acidic backbone with satisfying tannins. The cork was almost completely saturated, so even though this wine still has the structure to continue to develop, I wouldn't allow it to do that unless the bottle were re-corked. Drinking very nicely now.

9/29/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Lovely dry, crisp flavor with typical yeasty, citrusy aroma. Very effervescent and lovely finish.

8/27/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Nose of figs combined with berry jolly ranchers in a fruit-stained oak barrel. High alcohol, but lovely mouthfeel. The tannins have fully integrated in this bottle and the finish is very peppery. Fruity flavor, but alcohol overpowered all but the strawberry aspect. I'd say this is a "drink now" wine as I don't see it having the stuff to continue to improve. Very tasty.

8/24/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Spicy mix of cherries and dirty hay on the nose upon opening. Let it sit for an hour and deep, dark berries joined the mix along with a hint of vanilla. Another hour later and there was some definite dirty ashtray smell coming through.

The taste was very cherry with strong vegetal characteristics on the mid palate. The finish was dry, smoky and oaky -- with a really zingy acidity. I enjoyed my one glass of this quite a bit. I thought there was just a hair too much wood on the finish. After a retaste on day 2, I am scoring this an 88 since the oak never really integrated itself and became more and more dominant as time went by.

8/5/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Still a really super nose on this wine - very alive. Taste notes are in tune with previous ones -- just a really solid wine. Scoring this at 89 to balance out my trio of scores at 88 which I think is just about right . . . excellent wine.

7/16/2007 - jjoyce wrote:

Deep, dark syrupy black cherries on the nose along with cassis and blackberry. Really nice nose. Well rounded cab flavor too with the tastes echoing the aromas along with a little green pepper in the mid palate and a nice light-oak finish. Nicely balanced -- maybe a little tarry on the end, but that might improve as this sits open a little longer. Great QPR.