January 7, 2024 - This wine opened up nicely after 12 years resting. Nose of leather and some floral herbal notes. Flavors followed with some dark fruit, dark plum and blackberry. The tannins were well balanced and expressive. The finish exhibited the tannins and dark fruit leaving it long. A great wine!!
April 11, 2023 - 6th and last of a half case, consumed over the past 9 years. Consistent in qualities and quality, and very much in keeping with my comments from my 8/21 TN. This has continued to integrate so that it drinks well off the pour, and drank very similarly over 3 nights. While I’m not quite sure I go with darwine that it’s one of the best ‘11s (which my friends on CT would view as damning with faint praise), it *is*, IMO, one of the best valley floor ‘11s and a solid and enjoyable wine, even if it still lacks a bit of the power of many other vintages of this bottling. While a recent ‘09 was drinking better out of the chute, this held considerably better with air, and while I don’t think that there’s upside, I don’t think you need to go out and drink your remaining bottles tonight (the next couple of years should be fine, and I’m pulling in my window accordingly). I regret panicking with cacophony of voices proclaiming the lousiness of this vintage and drinking my relatively few bottles from it quickly; as I noticed with this and the last bottle or 2 of a case of Etude that I finished a couple of years ago, this vintage matured glacially, and while its apogee is lower, in some cases, considerably, than the adjacent vintages, it’s not one of those wipeout vintages, like 2002 in Italy. An honorable 92+ if scoring.
December 21, 2022 - Wonderful full bodied wine! Nose of dark fruit primarily of ripe dark plum, blackberry, touch of leather and wood. Flavors followed with great fruit forward black fruit - plums , baked black cherry, blackberry and a surprising twinge of bright fruit leading to a long finish of dark fruit, leather and wood with a lingering flavor of dark fruit, chocolate and some vanilla. Great wine - almost a delicious fruit bomb.
April 16, 2022 - Fruit has significantly mellowed. Paired well with cheese. Drink now.
December 25, 2021 - Nice tannins and acidity. Good complexity and nice finish.
August 8, 2021 - Generally consistent with my TN from 5/29/20, but this wine continues to develop, integrate and generally improve, as I predicted it might, with the dark fruit continuing to step forward with earthy, tannic notes, leather, ground spice, manageable amounts of pyrazine/vegetal notes (which continue to recede, both on an absolute basis and relative to the fruit notes). Like some other '11s, particularly from the valley floor, this shows signs of being a slow evolving wine rather than a complete disaster, even though the vintage is highly unlikely to catch the magical '12-'16 run, and this will always likely be, on a relative basis to other Hewitt vintages, more rustic and more driven by secondary notes and structure than fruit. Drinkable on the 1 oz pour out of the bottle but improved with a couple of hours of air and continued to get better over 3 days. Unsurprisingly per the above, really nice complement to burgers and sausage and polenta but more than respectable on its own. If I had only one of these, I'd likely hold for a year or 2 and with the possibility to improve for a few years after, but you won't be disappointed if you drink now. 92+
December 21, 2020 - The most elegant and layered bottle of the evening among a young Trefethen Cabernet and an 8 year old Freemark Abbey. Front palate notes included cherry and blackberry. Mid palate made up of dark fruit, a bit of green pepper and herbs. Back palate consisted of charcoal, coffee and earthiness. Surprisingly balanced and fruity for a 2011. Full bodied with nicely integrated tannins. A really nice value at $64. About half thxx ex price of a typical Hewitt.
October 10, 2020 - A fantastic wine. Nose of black cherry and dark fruit and some leather notes. Beautiful mid pallet of black fruit - black cherry and blackberry with silky tannins giving a long finish of blackberry with some tobacco and leather. This is a very fruit forward wine and was delicious - this wine has several more years. One of the best 2011 Napa wines.
August 31, 2020 - Nose: A-/ Palate: B++ Tasted bling.
July 18, 2020 - Beautiful bold wine. Let this wine set for awhile. Notes on the nose of dark fruit and an essence of earth - leather and a magical vegetal. The pallet is filled with dark fruits, black cherry and dark raspberry and a definite cassis finish with the lush tannins. Finish is long with the sharp cassis and fruit and ending with some caramel but with some earthy elements. Great wine with my surf and turf!!