February 15, 2023 - Fully mature with an air of elegance to its core of fresh cherries, strawberries, tobacco, cedar, dried flowers, and herbs profile. Medium-bodied, with lift and red fruits on the back end, this is a pop, pour, and still quite enjoyable wine. Drink from 2023-2030.
February 20, 2022 - tasted blind
nose - surripe
mouth - rich, saturated ripe berry, bold, with some coffee. reminded me a little of some Bryant family that I've had. Delicious but phat. A sip standing alone wine, lacks acidity and after a while slightly fatiguing. I suspect they picked too late in a hot year. The '95 and '96 are clearly better.
August 28, 2021 - From magnum at Harvest Stomp. Unreal quality and depth. Still super intense fruits and secondary notes. Perfect balance.
April 10, 2021 - Nearly 25 years old and drinking amazingly well. Flavor profile leans strongly in the direction of earth and related flavors, but pleasingly so. Enjoy now.
May 7, 2020 - Fantastic wine. From a magnum. Last bottle from a case of 750's and a case of magnums. Purchased at the Bassin MacArthur Beverage annual California barrel tasting for $275/ case. This baby was singing. As I recall, this wine was approachable upon release and was a joy to drink at every stage. Memories from here on out......
October 26, 2019 - Some secondary with faded fruit. Not quite at the same level as the '95 but still a solid wine. This particular bottle still had some structure remaining, but I wouldn't wait more than 5-6 years to drink these.
May 6, 2019 - What a shame, the wine had so much fruit to offer yet was undeniably corked. Sad moment.
March 9, 2019 - Cabernet Sauvignon Dinner in DC (Eric and Janet's House in DC): Cedar and red fruit on the nose. Big fruity body, strong black current, light bitter with strong drying tannins and good acid. Pretty much still mostly primary. Overall it was a bit unbalanced towards the fruit for my palate and simple/linear. If I loved more extracted wines I would have rated this a bit higher.
January 27, 2019 - Best of the evening - all focused on "94 CA wines from my daughter's birth year. Well balanced with elegant nose. Beat out our Opus 1, BV Private Reserve and Silver Oak.
November 15, 2018 - Very dark ruby red. Right on opening, had an earthy, almost root vegetable nose, but lighter (pops, a vet wine buff, smelled licorice and said my nose signaled a wine past its prime, but I didn’t mean it as such). Definitely had a Bordeaux quality (though fruits became more pronounced as it remained open). Very, very unique wine—not for everyone, but those who can appreciate an earthy, almost musty California red will love it.
EDIT: Becomes a bit tamer after decanting for ~45 minutes and really comes into its own.