Community Tasting Notes 5

• JPPeterson Likes this wine: 93 points

  June 9, 2018 - Wow! Surprisingly (at least to me), very good! I believe this is declassified wine from an unknown but stellar Oakville producer, purchased and bottled under the Barrique Cellars label. At the first sip, I knew this was special juice. Deep garnet in the glass. Aromas of earth, eucalyptus, dirt, Forrest floor and ripe, dark fruit. Flavores of cassis, plum, dark cherries, black raspberry and currant. A very memorable wine!
  Decanted for an hour or so, some sediment. Serving temperature ~68F with stuffed flank steak, baked potato and Brussels Sprouts.

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• Magnum Bill Likes this wine: 89 points

  March 29, 2015 - Definitely improving with age. Wait, or decant a long time.

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• Magnum Bill wrote: 86 points

  August 8, 2014 - I'm still not getting it.
  
  Had this again, letting it breathe for a long, long time. As before, I couldn't discern a lot of fruit. Some pepper. Now I'm not sensing much depth, making me wonder if time will ever improve this so-called $150 bottle.
  
  The salesman convinced me to buy more than I normally would. As a private label, I guess they have an incentive to push it. At a minimum, it's way too early.
  
  So that got me thinking. If I knew the name of the winemaker, and if he had a stellar reputation, would I be scoring this differently? Maybe.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• RichardP wrote: 91 points

  June 25, 2014 - Pop and pour, then decanted for an hour. At first, strong menthol and a touch of barnyard on the nose; then sweet currant and jammy red fruit, with velvety tannins on the surprisingly short finish. After an hour, this gains some weight and adds some blue fruit, vanilla, white pepper, and lemon citrus notes, and the finish lengthens a bit. I would prefer a bit more acidity and a longer finish, but that can't be considered a flaw.
  
  At the one-hour mark, I am not seeing this as the $150 wine it supposedly was meant to be, but at $40 this is excellent value for those who like jammy, fruity wines. I have saved half the bottle to see whether it improves further on the second day -- this may just be too young to show well.
  
  Edit: On the second day, the tannins and blueberry/vanilla oak flavors have mostly integrated and darker fruit has appeared. This is smoother and less jammy, and it has a medium finish where yesterday it was short. It lacks the "wow" factor to be worth $150 to me, but if it was $60-$80 I would not be surprised. At $40 it's a relative bargain, and it will clearly get better with a few years of aging. Score increased by a point to reflect the improvement.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Magnum Bill Likes this wine: 88 points

  June 21, 2014 - I've had good outcomes with Schneider's private label bottles in the past. This bottle allegedly retails for $150 under the original winery's name (not revealed) but is selling for $40 as Barrique. It's very young...after a 3.5 hour decant it was full of tannin and muted fruit. Second day was much better. I sense a complexity and craftsmanship beneath it all, thus my favorable rating; but I won't really know the quality for a couple of years at least.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

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Wine Definition

• Vintage 2012
• Type Red
• Producer Barrique Cellars
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Napa Valley

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 82 (50%)
• Consumed 82 (50%)

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