Community Tasting Notes 21

• Cailles wrote: 95 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: Medium intense nose, dark berries and earthy notes showing. On the palate much more spectacular. I really loved the structure and feel here: so much melt, satin-like texture, fine tannins but with some edges, good freshness. The complexity was quite high with lots of dark berries mixed with a strong minerality backbone, earthy notes, an herbal component and spices. While most others did prefer the Heitz Martha’s (rated 94pts) we had next to it, I gave the Bella Oaks the edge thanks to a higher complexity. Maybe the Martha’s would have won if we had more time to follow it for longer as it was definitely the more subtle wine.

  2 people found this helpful Comment

• G_H wrote: 95 points

  January 28, 2023 - 1978 California Cabernet Horizontal: Stunningly beautiful and elegant. Fresh, minty, red beries, some dark berries, wonderful!

  Comment

• sirpat00 wrote: 89 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:
  Elements of beef juice, but also some fruit left as well as herbs. The palate had nothing really exciting on offer, hardly worth writing about. At least that was the first impression. With some time and air this turned around, revealing nice, mixed forest berries as well as spice and herbs. But while more pristine now, this still fails to impress and leagues below the Martha’s Vineyard 1978.

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• acyso wrote: 90 points

  September 24, 2018 - Pausing for the Cause 2018 (Chicago, IL): As far as Napa goes, this is still hitting all the spots, but it is a tiring wine at age 40. Initially lovely green and herbal tones on the nose, as well as lots of black fruit. The palate is a bit weaker, and there's some signs that this is falling apart. Still, a more than pleasant drink.

  Comment

• WoodieBayArea wrote: 95 points

  June 5, 2018 - well, the story of three wines, decanted mid-day (two hours, then bk to bottle) and was structured, high acidity, fruit was there but hiding a bit, couldn't tell whether fruit had faded and was on its way out, or if it would come out in time / air, at 6pm the fruit had emerged, very fine wine but nothing eye popping... probably a 92 and folks were really enjoying this grand old lady, then about 930pm Joe came in with the decanter and about a half inch left in it and said 'you gotta try this'... I will say that it may have been the best sips of cabernet I have ever had... it was spectacular in depth (but not overdone), fruit was purple -- which can be sweetish in character, but this wasn't mostly due to the menagerie of spices that swirled around the entire palate, felt like Xmas, boy oh boy... what a wine, and so glad we had the last sip hours after the bottle went back in decanter in the evening, ties my highest rating ever

  3 people found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 5

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1978
• Type Red
• Producer Heitz Cellar
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Bella Oaks
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Rutherford

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 2 (2%)
• In Cellars 99 (75%)
• Consumed 31 (23%)

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