Community Tasting Notes 5

• Eclectic Palate wrote: 82 points

  October 8, 2019 - Purchased three bottles at auction, allowed to sit for over 6 months before opening the first one. Cork in pristine shape, with some tartaric acid crystals on the cork. Thus, the wine is in perfect shape as the bottle I tasted readily appears to be representative of a properly stored bottle. To begin with. Sigh. I had hoped that CSIMM was off base, but I have to agree with much of what he indicated, except that my palette scores this to be a major disappointing 82. No varietal characteristics, as the wine tastes overly oaky and has little fruit. Did I give this wine a chance? Oh yea. Pop and poured, decanted, poured back into the bottle after 3 hours, tried again 6 hours after opening, 14 hours after opening and 24 hours after opening with the wine being vacu vined. No showing of oxidation.....it's just a wine with little fruit and utterly no reason to bear the name Herb Land Vineyard. If I was involved in management or ownership I would NEVER have released this wine as a HB Vineyard wine. Word spin can only help marketing to a certain degree. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and recognize that one denigrates the good will that one is trying to build with a brand by releasing sub par product. This wine is sub par product.

  Comment

• csimm wrote: 50 points

  February 24, 2018 - Flagship Cabernet Sauvignon Tasting at Tre Posti (Saint Helena): Ok, so I seriously have to call out any used car salesman who tells me there is anything even remotely redeemable here beyond a rancid, broken soul of a core in this wine. Huge, inflammatory blasts of green and rotten red bell pepper, poblano chili, and dirt. And don't feed me some hoodwinkery about how this is simply "an expression of the 2011 vintage." That skulduggerous line has been used time and time again since this challenging year reared its ugly head. It's not because I'm a 2011 hater; there are some beautiful, finessed wines that have come from that vintage...from craftsman who really knew what they were doing. But dear lord, how houses can peddle these wines simply to offload them onto the seemingly naive general public is beyond me. At what point do you just call your insurance company, tell them your wine is flawed (or you don't know how to make wine), and hope for a partial claim to save what's left of your integrity as a company. If I as a customer know that you have no problem serving this to me, then all that tells me is you care very little about the quality of product you actually push onto your people.
  
  I have nothing personally bad to say about this outfit in terms of the people running it. They all seem very nice. But stop with this nonsense. Your other wines are sometimes, kinda, pretty ok. So, bury this particular wine in the desert and never look back... Crazy town I tell ya.

  3 people found this helpful Comments (6)

• joraesque wrote: 90 points

  August 6, 2017 - Brambly / red berries / feminine / underwhelming. Great fruit but insipid winemaking. Would not buy again at the asking price.
  89-90

  Comment

• Jimvetter Likes this wine: 95 points

  May 14, 2017 - Solky, soft tannins. Very approachable. Black berries, earthy tones. Will only get better.

  1 person found this helpful Comments (2)

• shadow wrote: 92 points

  May 17, 2014 - Yes, from the first sniff of the decanter, its, its, its, close to bell pepper, but no, its artichoke.
  Also got than sour mash, mustard thing going on.
  Take a sip, like a mix of high school band members tuning up, its a lot of noise but no harmony.
  I do find I drink this, just out of curiosity to say what flavor comes up next.
  First sip, getting that almost tart sour taint, some spice in their but its buried.
  Another sip, leather is showing up, again its not that pleasant captivating cab I love, more of a runner up.

  Comment

Pro Reviews 0

• No pro reviews found.

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2011
• Type Red
• Producer Herb Lamb
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation HL
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Napa Valley

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 283 (58%)
• Consumed 204 (42%)

Food Pairing

Who Likes This Wine

More About This Wine