Community Tasting Notes 8

• msuwine wrote: 97 points

  January 19, 2023 - This wine is utterly everything: delicious, complex, layered, balanced, audacious, expensive, awesome. The adjectives are exhausting, but this wine is not: powerful but nimble, this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is among the best I've tasted from this vintage. Generous but precise, this is all I could ask for from a Napa Cabernet... aside from time, since this probably needs until 2026 to begin to approach its apex.
  
  Dark red in color and full in body, the wine offers explosive aromas of blackberry, cherry compote, graphite, and cocoa shavings. This wine, whether in terms of aroma or flavor, will not go gently into that good night. It pulsates with flavors of blueberry, mocha, graphite, and underbrush, with a dense and layered finish that goes on and on. I loved the 2016 Bettina a few years ago, but this offers another level of purity and depth. A little blowsy on second day. 15.2% alcohol. Made by Marc Gagnon. 96-97 for now, with upside (to perfection and beyond) in 2025 and later.

  1 person found this helpful Comments (1)

• Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 99 points

  May 13, 2022 - Not ready just yet, at least not without a ton of air, but this wine promises to be an absolute hero. Needs to integrate some of the wood and let the fruit even out, but all the stuffing is there for a legendary Bryant. Violets, blackberries, asian spices and loamy soil showoff an impressive aromatic display. The palate is packed and stacked full on depth and flavor, with ripe tannin, big time structure but a seamless quality that allows it to glide with weightlessness to a super long and impressive finish. The fruit is epically pure and supported by the classic iron ore from Pritchard Hill that gives it magical complexity. Big, but not brutish, and will no doubt be one of the better wines produced from this legendary winery.

  2 people found this helpful Comments (3)

• I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 96 points

  December 8, 2021 - Epic Napa Trip - Day 4: Tasted at Bryant - This was the star of the tasting! I was very pleased with this wine, as my only other experience with Bryant Cabernet was a 2009 I opened a couple years ago and it was painfully young. This 2016 vintage was singing from the get-go! Nose showed plenty of dark fruit, purple flower, earth, with some spice and wooden notes too. Palate showed plenty of rich black and blue fruit, with volcanic rock, tobacco and chocolate notes, coupled with hints of toasty oak, spice and forest floor. Truly a pleasure to drink! 96+without hesitation! Great now, but should get even better!

  3 people found this helpful Comments (3)

• galewskj wrote: 95 points

  December 8, 2021 - Napa trip day 4 (Napa): Drank a good-sized glass over an hour at the winery. The fruit reveals a lively, soft, well-resolved cab with pure, pretty fruit. There is some dense earthy soil and blueberry. Fabulous.

  Comment

• bigdogflow Likes this wine: 98 points

  June 10, 2021 - Tremendous balance with beautiful array of dark fruit flavors with a long finish.

  2 people found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 4

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2016
• Type Red
• Producer Bryant Family Vineyard
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation Proprietor Grown 25th Anniversary
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Napa Valley

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 31 (1%)
• In Cellars 2,065 (86%)
• Consumed 294 (12%)

Food Pairing

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