March 21, 2024 - Drink now!!!
June 15, 2021 - Drank from bottle over 3.5 hours, nose evolved a bit from when first opened at cellar temp to when wine hit room temp but had a consistent black cherry note, started a little muted with blackberry, then got vanilla after around 30 minutes then cassis and red cherry, with raspberry coming out at end, very fruit forward aside from the brief vanilla phase. Flavors evolved too and largely mirrored the nose so nothing much to add, again there is a consistent cherry flavor but flavor wise get a good amount of red cherry. Quite tannic but still very good is probably at the beginning of its drinking window, surprisingly acidic for such a ripe wine. This is very nice and is great for a big bold Cali cab fix, would never be confused with an old world wine so look elsewhere if this is what you’re after. Somehow paired well with pizza particularly the sausage component. This is very nice.
January 25, 2020 - Drinking nicely. Round fruit. Decent cabernet.
September 28, 2019 - Drank at dinner with friends. Decanted for short time. Delicious! Low tannins - drank like velvet. Flavors of dark berries. Good structure and long finish. Everyone really enjoyed it!
September 14, 2019 - 4 of us had a dinner where we compared 7 fairly high priced california cabs on one bargain. All from 2014 and one 2013 and one 2015. Anomaly 2014, Cliff Lede Scarlet love 2014, Vineyard 29 Aida estate 2014, dakota shy 2015, Fairchild Stones 2 2014, Checkerboard aurora 2013, Pirate Treasure Red 2014. We drank the wines blind in two 4 pour flights. We choose our top two wines per flight then tasted those 4 in a final 4 flight. Interestingly enough in a unanimous decision our 2 most expensive wines finished 1 and 2 with the group who tasted. First time in the years we have been doing these blind taste dinners that the most expensive wines in our evening won the night so to speak.
The Aida estate made the final 4 and was 3rd place for me. Absolutely delicious, but the nose was subdued. May just be the state the young wine is at this point. It was delicious but didn't match up to the 1st and 2nd place wines of the night Checkerboard and Fairchild.
July 26, 2018 - Medium plus nose shows black pepper, blackberry, black plum, baking spice, cassis, violets. Palate gives dark fruit, deep brooding style, graphite, rocky notes, dried baking spice, mocha, espresso. Medium plus tannins, high alcohol, long finish. Probably needs time to get truly interesting given the price point.