Community Tasting Notes 5

• havana4 🍾🍇 Likes this wine: 92 points

  December 4, 2023 - Good … but no where near the hype or previous ratings.

  Comments (2)

• csimm wrote: 94 points

  June 1, 2023 - 2016 Napa Cults Blind - and a few Champs and such for fun: Red, powerful, tannic, and dry, with a woody finish that makes for an arid exit. A salty olive brine note adds to the initial feeling of astringency. With air, menthol, gravel, and unripe red cherry notes emerge. The fruit is almost completely collapsed into itself at the moment. The frame is at the forefront and shows little signs of letting up. I thought this might be the Bond St. Eden and was quite surprised to find this Abreu behaving in such a stubborn fashion. This was the least giving wine in the lineup and one that clearly begs for time in bottle. For those holding, continue to do so. You’re in for a long haul. Try again in a decade.

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• Cristal2000 Likes this wine:

  May 17, 2023 - This was a 2016 vintage blind of: Abreu Thorevilos, Colgin IX, MacDonald, Scarecrow, Bond St. Eden, Eisele, Futo Oakville, Colgin Tychson and Vice Versa M7. Each wine had a decant of approximately five hours before the first sip, except for MacDonald, which had around three, and the Futo, which I believe was PnP. There were nine tasters, including CSIMM1161, wine proprietors and a prominent winemaker.
  
  I’d really love to post notes on all these wines, but unfortunately time is scarce, and I don’t think I would be able to get to it anytime soon. I am sure CSIMM will post a ton on each, so that should fill the gap. Instead, I am going to give the broad strokes here.
  
  The first thing to note is all these wines could have used more air, especially the MacDonald. We shorted it in the tasting, and I think there was an impact on how it showed. The other thing that could have impacted how the wines showed is bottle shock. Most of these bottles were packed onto an airplane a couple days prior. While I didn’t note any overtly off bottles, there is no doubt it could have played a role.
  
  I know a lot of folks that hate blinds. It can really test your palate, and crowing a winner means the other great bottles must “lose”. If you haven’t done it before, it can also wear you down and things can blend, so it does take a methodology and consistency to do it well. That said, all these wines were spectacular.
  
  While we didn’t have the group rank order them all, we did ask for a top 3. The consensus was 1. Magnificent 7 2. Futo and 3. Scarecrow. There were certainly others than received votes in the top 3, but overall, it was uniform across the group. Those top three were easily 99-100 pt wines, and the others were not far behind. A few comments on each (in no particular order outside the top 3):
  
  1. Magnificent 7: almost universally the #1 wine in the tasting, this had all the elements of perfection. Suave and powerful, with super refined tannins, excellent purity, unreal depth, and a finish for days. Nothing harsh and pure class without any element out of balance.
  
  2. Futo: super focused wine with precision, this wrapped power and grace into a regal package. Showed dark chocolate and powerful fruit intensity backed up by impressive levels of freshness and acidity. Simply outstanding.
  
  3. Scarecrow: the most opulent, plush, and sexy wine of the bunch. While some of the other wines were trying to get all the pieces to fit together, this one was complete on every level. Beautifully integrated with supple tannins and wonderful energy and balance.
  
  4. Colgin IX: the only mountain/hillside wine of the bunch. This wine really progressed over the course of the tasting to the point where it was gaining on the leaders. Lovely red soil profile with deep mineral driven flavors, the mid palate began expanding over time and produced a complex, powerful yet refined wine with fantastic length.
  
  5. MacDonald: this was one of the wines that was a bit discombobulated, and I attribute that mostly to lack of decant time. It showed more spice and woodsy character than usual and was a little rough around the edges despite clearly having the class, pedigree, and overall intensity to be amongst the best wines in Napa.
  
  6. Colgin Tychson: this had a soft, supple entry with opulent fruit and gorgeous floral notes. The mid palate stayed tight throughout, and it never really blossomed into what I am sure will be an epic wine. I love this bottling, and this is going to be spectacular with a bit more time.
  
  7. Eisele: another wine here that needed more time to unfurl. This showed possibly the best complexity of the bunch, both on the nose and in the glass. It had all the hallmark savory character, but the fruit was wound up tight and there was a bit of oak obscuring things. I’ve had this when its blown my mind, just needs more air or more time.
  
  8. Abreu Thorevilos: the most disappointing wine for me in this tasting. I was expecting it to vie for top honors and it couldn’t get out of its own way. It was super unresolved and reductive, with oak and tannin obscuring most everything. This is a fabulous vineyard and winemaker, so I am sure it will come around, and part of me wants to attribute this showing to bottle shock.
  
  9. Bond St Eden: another wine that was within striking distance of the leaders. Rich, textured, beautiful and still grippy, it showed a ton of class with hallmark red earth notes and killer concentration and length.

  Comments (1)

• Race crew Likes this wine: 94 points

  December 28, 2021 - There was so much hype I had read about this bottle. I have three. Christmas dinner seemed to be a perfect time to take the dive into a dark corner of the cellar. Out she came and into a full three hour decant. Inky and smooth, but.......there must be more, sadly not. I found the wine, for the lack of a better term, confusing. I am going to forge about the other two bottles for 7 more years and try again. I am a bit disappointed right now.

  1 person found this helpful Comments (3)

• msuwine wrote: 99 points

  May 1, 2021 - This rich and delicious Cabernet blend is the best 2016 I have tasted so far, with a density, nuance, and class that are second to none. This might break the scale in a few years time, but the score is as of now - and, right now, this is a wine to behold. Dark red in color and full in body, the aromas go on and on, with pungent notes of pencil lead, cocoa powder, and peppercorn that pair with softer notes of blueberry, spice, and mulberry. The flavors are similarly symphonic, with notes of blackberry, anise, leather, and trail dust, with a tannic and sweet finish that carries a grainy, cocoa-inflected finish. Blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Cabernet Franc, 17% Petit Verdot, and 11% Merlot. 14.5% alcohol. Decant two hours.
  
  Discovering Abreu’s wines in general - and Thorevilos in particular - count among the more significant developments in my time tasting Napa Cabernet. Over the past few years, I have loved the Thorevilos wines - particularly the 2005, 2009, and 2010 - but I’m tempted to say the 2016 is in a league of its own. Regardless, this offers the two things that, to me, make Thorevilos a singular wine. First, it has a raw density, with each drop offering something in terms of flavor, texture, and energy; this isn’t just generic fruit, but flavor across the spectrum, including sweet, savory, earthy, acidic, and just damn original. (Ask yourself: have you tasted this before? If the answer is no, you’re in unique territory.) Second, it has a class and integration that are magnificent. This is not the propriety of the wallflower (so much restraint, not much risk); no, this wine is of a bolder ilk, with intensity, energy, and ambition, each part supporting the whole, complex but unified - and absolutely delicious.
  
  I went and looked at my tasting notes of the other 2016s I have rated highly, since I think comparison is one of the only ways to talk real in the world of wine (and, yup, I’m going to name names, since CT is strictly a volunteer gig!). The wine that immediately came to mind was Kinsman’s Rhadamanthus, which offers a similar earthy and original flair (which is saying something for an inaugural vintage!). If I had unlimited bottles, I’d try the two side-by-side, but the Abreu had a generosity that I couldn’t argue with tonight. The other two wines that I rated 98 were Memento Mori Crane and Realm Moonracer, two more modern wines that (at least in 2019) were offering a depth of fruit that was fantastic. I imagine they are still great now, but the Abreu offers a touch more character through a touch less polish. Why not perfect? To call a virtue a fault, this wine has youthful roughness around the edges, but I have no doubt it will get to three digits (if it hasn’t already… eye of the beholder… all that).
  
  Enough said: this is an epic wine. Open now if you have a few of them; open in 2023 or later if you are a sensible person and/or only have a bottle or two; but open sometime, since it ain't no sin to be glad you’re alive.

  6 people found this helpful Comments (16)

Pro Reviews 5

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2016
• Type Red
• Producer Abreu
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Thorevilos
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Napa Valley

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 31 (1%)
• In Cellars 4,776 (97%)
• Consumed 102 (2%)

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