April 17, 2023 - WoW! Drank this with a perfect Greek Easter Dinner of baked lamb, roasted Greek potatoes, Bulgarian grape leaves, feta, Kalamata olives and green salad lettuce and scallions. This wine was worth the money. Perfectly balanced and it packs a punch at 15.5%. Lots of kirsch. I was imaging I was drinking a porto. Extracted? No just well made. If I had the funds for a case I would not hesitate. Delicious.
December 25, 2022 - We're shocked by this wine. Every Hundred Acre we've ever had (and it's a lot) have been dense and memorable. This one pours so light like a Pinot, and lacks all density. Never had an HA like this. Will give it time but very disappointed considering the pedigree.
November 11, 2022 - This is my 2nd bottle-over a year later-full mouth feel, apricots, dark honey , sweet leather. not as long a finish with a velvety feel. Still relatively young but will peak I’ll bet sooner than many of its peers-2-3 years max. I’d give it 93-94
August 27, 2022 - Awesome. Would not wait to drink till 2064, though. But that's just me. Mostly because it's close to my expiration date.
July 3, 2022 - Of the 3 wines we drank this weekend, this was definitely the best by a very long shot! Aromas of black cherries, blueberries, licorice and graphite. Tannins are difficult to describe (between grippy and silky), but the palate was full of black fruit (plums, cherries and blackberries) and a mineral-laced 45-second finish.
May 29, 2022 - This was a very nice wine. Smooth, not too complex, delightful. Should be a $100 bottle at most.
September 5, 2021 - a very good wine, but not a great wine, and not equal to its competitors from the vintage nor up to its price point.
July 3, 2021 - Hundred Acre is, for me, the most difficult to understand of the $500+ Napa crowd (“cults” by another name). With Colgin, Bryant, Harlan, Abreu, and the rest, I have a sense of what I’m getting: dense, rich, balanced, ageable, eventually elegant, with a good measure of class and originality. The Hundred Acre wines surely have ripeness and extraction, but they come in such a light-bodied package that it can be disorienting. Sometimes they are spectacular (iron fist, velvet glove, all that), but sometimes not - and this wine is currently the latter.
I am not a strict adherent to the rules of typicity, but - broadly speaking - a Cabernet should taste like a Cabernet. If I had tasted this blind, I would have guessed a Pinot from Santa Lucia Highlands (and not even a great one - think Lucia or Roar) - sweet, light, and easygoing. Medium red in color and light in body, this wine offered aromas of pie cherry, licorice, and crushed rock. The flavors were also Pinot-like, with notes of raspberry, black cherry, and anise, with a silky and lifted finish. 15.5% alcohol (?!). Wait on this for a few years, since it’s showing nothing special right now (or, “it’s shut down,” if I’m being polite).
This sure went down easy, but a wine this expensive should not be an afterthought. My guess is that this just needs time to develop more complexity, since I adored a 2008 Kayli Morgan and a 2012 Deep Time I had in the last year (but not a 2014 Kayli Morgan). That said, I’ve tasted a number of 2014 wines that run laps around this right now - some priced similarly (e.g., Promontory, Colgin Estate) and many priced way cheaper (e.g., Tynan, Futo Oakville). For what it’s worth, I had this on the same night as a 2007 Realm Crane, an imperfect wine but one with more body, complexity, and nuance than this one. Give the Hundred Acre time, I guess, but it’s a hard pass for me right now. Even without factoring in the price, 92 at the moment.
May 3, 2021 - Wonderful framework, but still young. Will revisit in 5 years. The 15.5% alcohol hasn't mellowed enough quite yet.
September 19, 2020 - Brought to tasting - obviously a little young but basically perfect.