February 5, 2024 - 💪🏼
October 13, 2023 - AJ’s 9th anniversary
March 24, 2022 - Wotn against 2009 Bordeaux lineup. Smooth tannins and ready to drink with many years ahead of it
October 9, 2021 - Beautiful. Perhaps another 10-15 years to go on this one, but drinking beautifully now.
September 3, 2021 - Decanted two hours. Delicious showing for this and no rough edges but for whatever reason didn't bowl me over the way the previous bottle did. Silky cassis and supple tannins as you would expect in a Napa cab 12 years old.
May 2, 2021 - This is still on the upswing. Decanted for 30 minutes, but could have used 1-2 hours. Continued to develop in the glass over 3 hours. A beautiful wine, with depth, complexity, length and breadth. Silky mouthfeel, long finish. We all loved this wine.
August 22, 2020 - 3 hour decant
Drinking exquisitely right now.
Nose dominated by crushed dark blue fruit and chocolate, with hints of roasted cacao, floral bouquet, anise, and a menagerie of minerals. Body is supple and sappy, with an inviting and exotic lift, rich dark fruit and elegant structure. Finish has the length and pedigree to support the nose and the palate.
Outstanding and the way California Cab should be.
I think this is drinking at peak but there is definitely no rush at all; may soften a little with time and some may say to do so but the edge and verve today, balanced tannins and acidity make it actually more exciting today than if it gets too curvy.
November 9, 2019 - Better than I remember it from 2 years ago. Big fruit but not too ripe, good structure.
July 23, 2019 - Guess I should have been patient and held off drinking all the '99 and '05 that I had? This is the first '09 that I pulled from the cellar, and it was absolutely delightful!
August 7, 2018 - Best Bottle Monday with Friends (Carlton, Zurich): This Napa icon had quite a hard time that night against many other great wines. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly drinkable and it’s delicious but I don’t believe it showed all it got that night. There seems much more in store for this wine with some more years of bottle age and/or a longer decant. At first the nose was not that expressive but clean and flawless. Became a bit more intense with 60-90 minutes in the glass with wild forest berries setting the tone. Same on the palate. At first not that expressive, later tons of cherries took the reign but not overly complex, not much depth. Only after 90+ minutes the forest berries, cassis, along with cherries, some chocolate, a tad minerality and only hints of herbal aromas showed up and made the palate more multi-dimensional. Still not overly expressive but becoming more intense by the minute. The structure is impeccable. The tannin are smooth and jucy. The acidic backbone is there to keep it elegant (the first glass even suffered a bit from excess acidity, but that quickly went away). Overall very well balanced and really good, round and on the elegant side of what Napa can deliver.
In my opinion, the wine needs a solid 3 hours decant at the moment. It seemed quite closed at the beginning (PnP). I guess it can reach even higher highs (and higher scores) than I experienced that night, if you give it an even longer decant (6-8h).