November 11, 2023 - It's time or somewhere in the 4th Q. An excellent pairing with the NYT's mustard/cognac stew.
September 22, 2023 - Very dark red color. PNP, drank a couple glasses over 2.5 hours. There's an enticing perfume immediately with a mix of sandalwood, leather, cassis, cigar box and leather, peat and sweet lead pencil. The palate is sublime, with a harmonious feel to the tangy cassis, wild black raspberry, dried earth and absolutely wonderful spices and white pepper. There's a hint of menthol, subtle green pepper and wood that goes layers into the pencil and leather notes. The last of five wonderful bottles. A fitting way to bid adieu to a long standing old friend with many, many years ahead. 94+ to 95pts.
January 2, 2022 - 12L format, opened on Thursday 12/30/21, when the 12 of us managed to put a serious dent in the bottle (roughly 45% finished). We revisited on Friday and Saturday, and I took the remaining ~25% home tonight, where I decanted into a magnum, 750, and two glasses for the wife and I. As you might imagine, this was extremely youthful in this format, and held up with hardly any noticeable decline over 3+ days. Some mint and spice on the nose, with beautiful cassis and plum fruit, a smooth midpalate and chewy but smooth tannins on the back end. While clearly a California cab, it tends toward a more restrained style, and the oak was unobtrusive and became better integrated with air and time. A real treat to try this in this format.
October 23, 2021 - Deep, dark opaque garnet in the glass, 2 hours of air reveals graphite on the nose with strong dark fruit on the palate. Great depth to the fruit. Great tobacco flavor on the palate. Amazing how this doesn't drink like a 19 yo bottle! Plenty of life left in this one given the remaining acidity and tannic structure. Initially gave this a 94 but with another hour of air the finishing acidity and fruit brings it up another point for me.
October 23, 2021 - Jen-a-palooza with Paul, Mark and Carol; 10/22/2021-10/24/2021 (Atlanta): Drinking beautifully right now, a perfect aged napa cab. This is 1.5 better than the Venge today but also has a lot more life ahead. Expressive nose of cassis, darker fruits, some vanilla and oak, sous bois, graphite mineral ling finish. A bit of an acid zing which mellows out after a few hours. Dark and youthful in color. Thank you for sharing this one Mark! Can’t wait until our 97’s arrive
July 27, 2021 - dark color extremely smooth with a distinguishing finish
June 25, 2021 - Awesome night with Mary and Barry...this was the kickoff wine. Pnp by moi...cork in great shape, wine still deep, dark purple/magenta, no hint of bricking or aging whatsoever. Nice oak/cedar component, mushrooms, and dark red fruit. Tough to believe this wine is almost 20 years old.....can go what? 10? 20 more years? Amazing........
Addendum: as the 1-2 hours wore on drinking this one a very nice cinnamon/barrel spice emerged on the back end and the texture became more velvet like in the mouth.....by the end it was an easy 94 for Barry and me.
October 2, 2020 - Nice mature wine. Mello tanins. Smoky dark fruit
May 10, 2020 - Big and juicy. Jelly sandwich. Lacks balance. Too much oak for my tastes. Not sure this will get any better - although I wish it would. Not my cup of tea... or glass of wine so to speak.
October 4, 2019 - This had a soft, mellow fruit and tannin profile when first opened and enjoyed thru dinner at the Rutherford Grill in St. Helena tonight. For a 17 yo Sonoma cab this is beautiful. Two hours later the dark fruited cab nose and palate reveal more oak/cedar and astringency in the mid and later stages. Gotta love these older cabs from legendary producers like Richard Arrowood when you can find them in the secondary market.