Community Tasting Notes 16

• DBell65 Likes this wine: 88 points

  October 14, 2023 - Very serviceable for its age and storage, which really says how well made these wines are. Good nose of fruit, slight discoloration (rust) but

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• Cailles wrote: 94 points

  February 5, 2023 - 30x California 1978: So many wines from this great Californian vintage at the age of 45 certainly qualifies as a “once in a lifetime” event. A few observations: 1) The quality was very high (almost all my ratings above 90pts). And only four faulty wines (2x corked, 2x over the hill/flawed, sadly those two were the Ridge Monte Bello and the Phelps Insignia). 2) The wines are ready to drink, the tannins have melted but the tension and freshness remain high - across the board. 3) There is still lots of fruit left and I was surprised how most wines didn’t show lots of tertiary aromas (find me the Bdx 1982 without tertiary aromas!). IMO, more than a handful of the wines could continue to improve for a few years. 4) Style wise, these are obviously quite different from today’s Napa wines with much less ripeness and more mineral accents. But hardly any wine we had would be mistaken for a Bordeaux in a blind tasting (unlike 80s/90s Dominus). 5) Best reds: Inglenook Limited Cask, Beaulieu GDL Reserve, Stags Leap Cask 23 4.5l (all 96pts), Heitz Bella Oaks, Simi Reserve, Stag’s Leap Cask 23 0.75l (all 95pts). The best wine overall, however, was the magical Late Harvest Riesling from Phelps (98pts).
  
  TN: Very intriguing nose, dark and red berries, honey and slightly malty notes. Very elegant and sublime. On the palate the same picture with a beautiful pure red fruit core, very round and harmonious, softer than the others without having not enough tension. Very intriguing but not the highest complexity. In terms of elegance, though, this was one of the winners. 94+ pts.

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• G_H wrote: 89 points

  January 28, 2023 - 1978 California Cabernet Horizontal: Honey, fully ripe, surprisingly slender in the palate but still enjoyable.

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• sirpat00 wrote: 94 points

  January 28, 2023 - California 1978 (Zunfthaus zur Waag, Zurich): Grand tasting of 1978 California wines, mostly from Napa. Main takeaways: i/ surprisingly high quality on average for wines that were not intended for such long-term aging with plenty of primary fruit left, ii/ but within the detail nonetheless a broad range with the worst few suffering from clear signs of fatigue while the best showed hardly age, iii/ top wines were Phelps Cab Sauv (97), Firestone Cab Sauv (95), and Beaulieu George de Latour Private Reserve (95). Full list sorted by score included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Intense with on balance a more red berry type of fruit, a thick layer of iron-like minerality and smoke. The palate was still in pretty good balance with a long and smoky finish and engaging tension. This was one of the best performers in this tasting, but the Beaulieu Georges de Latour Private Reserve next to it was even better.

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• dera wrote: 85 points

  November 7, 2022 - Bottle in excellent condition, high fill, cork perfect. Opened with a normal corkscrew and cork came out intact. Fully developed brown-ish ruby color. Mature nose of raisins, sherry, tart cranberries, touch of soy sauce and some alcohol. Wine is clear and medium bodied with slightly tart palate with more red fruit, cranberries and lingonberries. Very little tannins left but still some acidity left providing some freshness with the wine. I expected the wine to be dead as a doornail but it's still somehow hanging in there. I don't know if I will finish the bottle but it was a fun wine to try.

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Wine Definition

• Vintage 1978
• Type Red
• Producer Beaulieu Vineyard
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Rutherford
• UPC Code 080696121227

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 66 (69%)
• Consumed 29 (31%)

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