Community Tasting Notes 15

• Cuellar's Cellar Likes this wine: 93 points

  February 15, 2024 - Dont wait too long on this guy. This is 100% ready to drink today. Its a nice dark, super approachable wine. Cheers

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Mark1npt Likes this wine: 94 points

  December 27, 2023 - A winery library release picked up in a wine club shipment 2 months ago. On its side in the 56-59 deg cellar since then. I've been totally enthralled with their '14 Restricted Merlot off of Spring Mountain and have re-ordered it multiple times over the past 2-3 years. This is my first of the '14 La Jota Howell Mtn Merlot.
  
  Pnp'd and enjoyed with Carol over about 3 hours til it was gone. A little tight/reserved on opening with both the nose and palate, but within 30 minutes that all changed. Dark garnet/purple in the glass. Nose of red fruit, mild spicy/oaky overtones and some forest floor notes. Floral notes like red rose develop over 2 hours. The palate was initially a bit tart with its fruit but after that first 30 minutes, it softened, deepened and smoothed out nicely with just a slight sweet hint to it. This is not jammy or overly sweet fruit in any way. The longer it's open and the more air it gets, the more full and interesting it becomes, still there's a bit of an odd note on the fruit/ending. I can't quite place it. It's not tart as when it was first opened but it's a tad austere and drying. The acidic backbone is still right there so this can go quite a while longer yet. This was an 89-90 on opening and rounded into a 93-94 over 2-3 hours of air. If not for the bit of an odd note on the ending, this one would score a point or two higher for me. Still, I think I prefer their Restricted '14 Merlot over this one by a point or two.
  
  Was going to post this score at 93 but the longer it's open as I'm finishing the last glass, it continues to deepen and display those slightly granular Howell Mtn tannins and a longer finish from the wonderful acidity matching the now decidedly blackberry fruit.....it's a 94 now.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Montesquieu Likes this wine: 94 points

  November 27, 2023 - A deep, brooding Merlot drinking at a nice maturity. Dark fruit, moist soil, good length and complexity.

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• Cuellar's Cellar Likes this wine: 93 points

  November 19, 2023 - Incredible wine. Drinkable today. Well worth the wait. Fruit is becoming balanced. Cheers

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• EMTAME wrote: 91 points

  April 9, 2023 - Lots of minerality to this wine, backed up by dark fruits. We all liked it, but this seemed to be a case where the mountain terroir overshadowed the grape variety. Wish there was more Merlot character shining through. A few hours of air helped provide better balance, so maybe more time in the cellar will see it evolve in a positive direction. For me, the best example of mountain Merlot continues to be O’Shaughnessy.

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Pro Reviews 2

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2014
• Type Red
• Producer La Jota
• Varietal Merlot
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Howell Mountain

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 193 (57%)
• Consumed 146 (43%)

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