Community Tasting Notes 2

• Cailles wrote: 92 points

  February 5, 2023 - 30x California 1978: So many wines from this great Californian vintage at the age of 45 certainly qualifies as a “once in a lifetime” event. A few observations: 1) The quality was very high (almost all my ratings above 90pts). And only four faulty wines (2x corked, 2x over the hill/flawed, sadly those two were the Ridge Monte Bello and the Phelps Insignia). 2) The wines are ready to drink, the tannins have melted but the tension and freshness remain high - across the board. 3) There is still lots of fruit left and I was surprised how most wines didn’t show lots of tertiary aromas (find me the Bdx 1982 without tertiary aromas!). IMO, more than a handful of the wines could continue to improve for a few years. 4) Style wise, these are obviously quite different from today’s Napa wines with much less ripeness and more mineral accents. But hardly any wine we had would be mistaken for a Bordeaux in a blind tasting (unlike 80s/90s Dominus). 5) Best reds: Inglenook Limited Cask, Beaulieu GDL Reserve, Stags Leap Cask 23 4.5l (all 96pts), Heitz Bella Oaks, Simi Reserve, Stag’s Leap Cask 23 0.75l (all 95pts). The best wine overall, however, was the magical Late Harvest Riesling from Phelps (98pts).
  
  TN: Expressive dark and dusty nose displaying ripe dark liquor, barnyard, smoke amd some olives. Quite intriguing. The palate is soft and round, the tannins are still there but quite round, good freshness and overll hood balance. Not the most complex wine on the palate with herbs, smoke, fire wrapped around an undefined dark fruit core. This is a fine wine with the layered nose as the highlight but not enough substance on the palate to truly excite.

  Comment

• G_H wrote: 90 points

  January 28, 2023 - 1978 California Cabernet Horizontal: Still a tiny bit of fruit left, some mint, red berries, enjoyable

  Comment

Pro Reviews 0

• No pro reviews found.

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1978
• Type Red
• Producer Buena Vista
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Sonoma County
• Appellation Sonoma County
• UPC Code 081188207276

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 1 (100%)
• Consumed 0 (0%)

Food Pairing

Who Likes This Wine

More About This Wine