June 28, 2020 - In vertical. Lighter styled, nicely elegant, but with moderate weight and length.
March 21, 2020 - Ric Forman knows how to craft excellent wine, even from a “tough” vintage. This particular bottle isn’t quite up to the high standard of his bottlings from superior vintages but a beautiful wine nonetheless. Lots of red fruit here and a funky, old school bordelaise style wafts from the glass upon opening. Mushroom and leather coming through, with this strawberry preserves character on the nose, but not in a sweet way. Aromatically this is a beautifully nuanced and layered wine, but the palate does fall a bit short on the length and finish. Holding together better than most 2000’s from Napa I’d suspect. Drink up.
July 7, 2019 - From Magnum.. Straight up Old School Napa and reminiscent of a Left Bank Bordeaux. Deep and penetrating bouquet, very earthy and pungent with black raspberries, wet forest floor, dried roses, and new leather. An hour of air brings out licorice, cinnamon, tobacco, and a wonderful fruit ripeness. The aromas carry over to the palate, which is structured, complex, and very impactful. It kept evolving and growing and changing over the course of a few hours and all for the better. This is a very convincing wine, very balanced and integrated, so expressive of place, and performed like a Grand Vin. 93+
May 18, 2015 - This is what I get for ignoring the "drink by" date in CellarTracker. Obviously WAY over the hill, but it was still "interesting". A little bit of fruit and a whole lot of mushrooms, forest floor, etc. - a Francophile's wet dream. Almost enjoyable. My one remaining bottle has "gift" written all over it.
March 3, 2013 - Still very balanced as you would expect from a Forman. Time to drink and fruit is not the same and finish a bit weak.
October 28, 2012 - Well balanced wine that was smooth, but has lost much of the fruit flavors. Definetely time to drink as would not hold much longer.
July 10, 2011 - Well integrated but extremely earthy w/ lots of notes and just a little black fruit whcih is what some people loved and others liked less. Has a number of years left, but it did get drier with a shorter finish over the 2 hours we drank it.
May 9, 2010 - Opened, but not decanted, about an hour before drinking. No visible signs of age - very dark, almost opaque. Initial impression from the nose was primarily oak. On the palate, I would have guessed it was a Bordeaux - oak, forest floor and graphite. After another half hour in the glass, it began to open up, revealing a core of (mostly black) fruit. No coffee, vanilla, or herbaceous notes. Fairly full-bodied with a really nice finish. These should last - and maybe improve - for several more years.
July 24, 2009 - Agree with the old-world cab comments. Earthy, with notes of mushroom, tobacco and clove. Tannins still present, but have mellowed.
February 2, 2008 - Below the "oak juice" as RW put it is some nice fruit. However the oak is so overwhelming they ruined a decent wine. Decant it for several hours and the oak is reduced and with food it masks it a bit, but cant hide it.