September 29, 2023 - Three hour decant. Deep dark, yet vibrant, magenta color. Black cherry, blueberry, maple shortbread, and dried oregano. Dry, zesty palate. Firm, medium intensity tannins on the longish finish.
Things flow together very well, but this is somewhat subdued overall. The nose is very nice, but not very expressive.
June 18, 2023 - Pnp'd into a decanter for 2 hours before taking over to HMC's for dinner. Tight cork in great shape, initially very dark purple in the glass, slightly muted nose that improves with every swirl of the decanter. Zero sediment in the bottle. Sampled over the first two hours and it was tight, high toned and slightly tannic. At dinner all this settled out into a well balanced, well made cabernet. The fruit still has some power and juice to it, the tannins have integrated and the acidity is perfectly matched. Primarily dark red/black fruited early on but later in the evening over 3-4 hours some nice blue fruit emerges and takes center stage. Glad I have one more bottle of this one left in the cellar. Kenefick to me, has always felt like it's lacked something over other vineyards in Napa, but not so with this wine in this vintage/bottle. This one is very nice and very, very good! Close to WOTN for me personally. No hurry on it either, it should hold here for a few more years, at least.
June 11, 2023 - Better than my bottle from a year ago. This was excellent, black and blue fruits, smooth, balanced. Really drinking great right now. Some tasters believe you should drink Mike's cabs early, but this could not have been better.
January 16, 2023 - I threw this in a decanter for 30 minutes before back into the bottle and heading over to a neighborhood dinner party Saturday. Still was not ready to drink an hour later, so I put the cork back in, moved to something else, and came back to it an hour later.
This was still rather closed, and not expressive. It opened a little after another hour, but not what I had hoped for.
I rarely seem to be able to "time" these Mike Smith wines right
They are often delicious within the first year of bottling but then go into an extended shut down period
January 6, 2023 - This wine was firing on all cylinders tonight. Bold yet nuanced. All black and blue fruit. Med Long finish. Teeth staining. Excellent
May 26, 2022 - My first bottle from this vintage. Not as striking as 2019. But still a wonderful wine. No need to rush drinking these. I think it is very early on in the drinking window.
May 22, 2022 - Super solid cab. Beautiful fruit . Tannins softer then anticipated .
May 18, 2021 - Quite a different wine from a couple months ago. This bottle came across somewhat closed/not overly expressive. Decanted for one hour and drank over a couple more. Improved a little with time but never fully came around. Drank next to a 2015 Janzen Cloudy’s cab and the Cloudy’s was quite a bit better but also at a better drinking point. Like most 2018 Napa cabs that I’ve had lately, I would give this wine at least another year to open-up/develop further. Nonetheless, I believe the quality is there for a return to around the 96 rating from Dunnuck with some more time. 100% cab.
May 13, 2021 - Napa 2021 Trip; 5/10/2021-5/13/2021 (Napa Valley, CA): Tasting at Heron House. I thought this was a bit coiled up at the tasting (as compared to recent notes from BadMonkey), but I think it shows the most potential. Bought 3 more bottles. I can see getting to the 95 rating with 3-5 years.
March 6, 2021 - Get together with some friends. Interesting how this wine has softened-up quite a bit over the past month so it’s not showing the same depth/concentration. Nonetheless, still a very nice wine. Really impressive how soft the tannins are for such a youthful 2018 Napa cab. 95 this time around. 100% cab