June 19, 2022 - wonderful wine, very smooth and delicate
August 2, 2020 - Good stuff Maynard! The unsung 2003 come through again with this purple piece of soft tannin candy. I was worried I’d missed this wine but it delivered. Dark fruits and candied currents with a touch of leather and graphite. A winner for sure.
January 13, 2016 - Very nice, drinking really well right now -- you can taste the age a little bit, has almost an aged Bordeaux like quality while still being 100% Napa cab and very much new world in style.
May 24, 2014 - I rate this powerful giant extract cabernet a 95 because it was as opulent as a sweet tobacco river, flowing over soft bolders of spice, with chocolate eucalyptus trees above, dropping their chocolatey fruits into the river. Powerful and long finish, with very firm and approachable tannins delivering a firm, long ,yet round finish. Very impressive for an 03 Napa.
I think that the price pissed allot of people off...
January 3, 2014 - Good, not great. Loads of cassis and dark berries but a little on the overdone side surprisingly. Charcoal, caramel and roasted plums. A bit disjointed. Might have been poorly stored at one point in its life.
May 5, 2013 - Good effort for a tough vintage year. The wine is a little hot which takes it down a point. Menthol, vanilla Oak, black cherries. Still a dark garnet core and through the rim. Finish is a bit short which also took it down a point. I doubt this wine will improve and it might have been better earlier in its life.
November 5, 2011 - Great, dark, complex flavors. One of the better VY 29.
June 22, 2011 - RICH FRUIT, BLACK CHERRIES AND CURRANTS WITH CHOCOLATE AND LICORICE IN THE NOSE AND FLAVOR. ELEGANT WINE WITH NICE COMPLEXITY AND A LONG FINISH.
June 2, 2011 - Left to breathe in the bottle for 3 hours. Cassis with some green vegetable on the nose. Medium bodied and quite smooth in the mouth with a nice initial attack of blackcurrent and black cherry fruit. However, on the mid paalte the fruit struggles to contain the alcohol. The finish is moderate in length but there is noticeable heat. This is pretty good but just isn't very well balanced at this point. May improve with more cellar time but i am not sure the fruit will ever be able to stand up to the alcohol. I think this retails at around $200 and even though i only paid half that amount it has to be considered disappointing. very poor QPR
January 22, 2010 - Slow-ox for 2 hrs, decanted and served immediately, enjoyed over the next 2 hours. This was served alongside the '05 Araujo Altagracia - the less expensive (~ $85) Araujo dominated this wine on all levels. A full-bodied wine with a firm, compact frame, it offers up a mildly complex nose, a somewhat interesting palate and a clean, but only slightly above-average finish. Perhaps some bottle variation could be attributed to this, but in the instant case, I find the wine pretentious and uninteresting. Approx $150, 14,8% abv.