Community Tasting Notes 19

• Winecat Likes this wine: 92 points

  March 28, 2024 - Wine Tasting Group

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• VAGenius wrote: 90 points

  October 23, 2023 - 45 minute decant. Nose of dark cherries, dusty earth, and laurel. Black cherry and red bell pepper palate with zippy acidity, dates, and a bit of white pepper. Strong vanilla bean flavor starts the finish, adding medium-weight resolved tannins, black plum, black cherry, and red brick. Seems ready to roll - no need to wait further.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Mark1npt Likes this wine: 95 points

  June 10, 2023 - Spurred on by fellow CT'ers, I decided to try one of these to go along with the steaks we'll be having tonight. Pnp'd from my 56-60 deg cellar into a decanter at lunchtime and out onto the kitchen counter at room temp of 74 deg. Cork was tight, in great condition and zero sediment in the bottle. I poured off a small glass to follow over the next few hours. Dark, clear ruby as you swirl the glass. Initial nose of blackberry, vinyl (a first-time thing for me) and a whiff of the 15.5% alc. First sip, smooth texture, not quite chalky, all blackberry fruit, tannins are smooth and integrated with a nice bead of acidic backbone all through it and into a nice mouthwatering almost minute long ending, given the acidity. Still, it's somewhat thin and lightweight in the mouth and the blackberry fruit is very one dimensional. A rather 'simple' wine at this point in time. 88-90?
  
  After 1 hour decant: Nose loses the whiff of alc and vinyl, primarily black fruit remains but there is a hint of red fruit coming on along with a hint of perfumed rose petal. Palate reflects the black/dark red fruit, acidity is still dominating along its length, with a hint of barrel spice, like Chinese 5 spice. Complexity is just beginning to surface with some coffee bean and a mild herbal component I can't quite place. Still somewhat thin in the mouth but improving. 91?
  
  2 hour decant: Nose still black/dark red fruited, some red raspberry and a hint of graphite now showing up along with the red rose petals. Palate developing a little creamy texture to it and the fruit deepening a bit, acidity backing off some, things are beginning to come together......maybe a 92 now.
  
  3 hour decant: Nose of more perfumed red fruit arrives, the red roses really proliferate. The best nose of the 3 hours thus far. Palate demonstrates more creaminess and red cherry now takes over as the dominating fruit, with maybe just a touch of tart cherry liqueur on the ending. The acidity re-emerges, the wine continues to flesh out, integrate and improve, a 93.
  
  4 hour decant: Black/Red raspberry liqueur fruit on the nose with a hint of coffee bean/espresso. Palate shows continued integration, still a 93.
  
  5 hour decant: Hard to pinpoint the nose given the aromas all throughout the house as dinner is cooking but it seems to be more of the same dark red fruit and a little graphite. The palate continues down its smooth integrated journey....deeper red fruit, some iron pan (?) or iodine (?) along with a hint of coffee, very well balanced against the smooth tannins and remaining acidity. Seems to be settling in at about a 94. Dinner soon and we'll get Carol's take on it. She hasn't tried it yet.
  
  Enjoyed through dinner with our grilled ribeyes, baked potatoes, green beans and wild mushrooms....I quizzed Carol a few times over dinner and she said a solid 94-95 without any prompting from me or how I was rating it. Now, with dinner over we each have about a 5 oz pour left in our glasses, and it's approaching 6 hours of airtime. To me, it's now reaching its peak drinking as I'm in line with Carol's 95.
  
  7 hours of air now and more of the same. Deeper, denser liqueur like feel to this one upfront. A little cinnamon on the nose now, too. The now fully red fruit is still quite good however, the body of the wine has lost a little of its creamy smooth character and is a just a tad falling apart on the back end now very mild astringency noted on the finish and a hint of alc showing back up as well. This has been a very nice wine to navigate through today and it peaks out at a 95 for me, same as it did for Carol with very good drinkability in hours 2-5 but best by a point at hour 4-5, for my palate and apparently Carol's, too. Still a little left in the glass. I'll add to this note should it warrant it going forward tonight. Cheers, everybody!

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• gquigs Likes this wine: 91 points

  April 1, 2023 - Cherry, raspberry, mouth coating. Great w the steak we had with dinner.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Quiller wrote: 89 points

  March 25, 2023 - Opened, poured and let sit about 40 min. Then: Cool blue fruit on the nose and on the first sip. Tannins not noticeable until about 1/2 hr after first sip. Acidity OK. Mouthfeel somewhat soft/mellow. Taste stays with cool blue fruit; doesn't change, fairly monotone. Fairly short finish. At noted, about 1/2 hour after first sip it gets a little grippy and shortens the finish a bit. No particular cabernet profile. Pleasant wine and sort of like the blue fruit for a change, but expected more. I have several more of these and based on this bottle, will look to drink them more near term.

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Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2016
• Type Red
• Producer Amapola Creek
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Estate
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Sonoma County
• Appellation Moon Mountain District

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 408 (59%)
• Consumed 281 (41%)

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