February 3, 2024 - Delicious delicate red raspberry and earthy aromas and flavors wrapped in a silky texture with wonderful balance and smooth long finish. Continues to drink beautifully from 375ml!
August 7, 2023 - Translucent ruby color. Nose of crushed red berry, airy violets, iron, brier, hints of saline. Layers of black raspberry, bramble, iodine, earth, and ferric notes on the intense, forceful palate. Brash acidity and firm tannin leading to a long finish of deeply anchored dark berry and plum fruit cut with iron and crags. Last sips were best.
March 16, 2023 - -- decanted 30 min. before first taste --
-- tasted non-blind over a couple hours --
NOSE: cherry; fresh, sweet bakery -- light cinnamon and freshly-baked sweet dough.
BODY: magenta-ruby color of medium-shallow depth; slight bricking at edges; medium-light bodied.
TASTE: red-fruited (cherry stands out); little bit of stony mineral; high acidity; clean; medium-scaled and relatively straightforward for an Arcadian; it did improve over the first 1.5 hrs with air; most of the action is on the front palate. For years now, this wine has presented in a way that leads me to wonder if it has another gear left in it, or not --- if there's another gear, I would have expected some movement in that direction by now, but I'm not seeing it. That said, Joe has -- in the past -- suggested this wine will blossom around 2027, so the jury is still out. I still have six bottles remaining, so I'll certainly have the chance to find out what its future holds.
November 17, 2022 - Earthy with raspberry and dried fig, and a burst of cherry at the finish. Delightful, and if you have it, you should drink it.
June 4, 2022 - Totally excellent.
December 30, 2020 - a bit of fleshy fruit, a slight sour note. This reads as shut down to me. Not much interest at the moment.
July 20, 2020 - Fresh and macerated black cherry with plenty of spice and a cherry cola hint that I find atypical for Arcadian. Medium weight, good length. Best to enjoy over the next few years.
May 23, 2020 - I was not as compelled by this bottle as I was from the previous one in 2016. It showed more as I would expect a CA PN to: dark cherry fruit, some cola, some herbal notes. In a word: similar to the way many CA PNs show when young, but just...older. Not a lot of evidence of development of compelling tertiary notes. The palate is well resolved, full of fruit still, lively acidity, and mainly resolved tannins. But there is a little heat poking out to me. At 14.1%, I guess I'm not surprised. This will probably continue to hold at this stage for some time.
December 29, 2019 - Darker ruby color. Young, fresh nose of mulberry, cherry pits, raspberry, damp cellar. Vibrant fruit on the palate yielding layers of Bing cherry, mulberry, and red raspberry cut with brambles, iodine, and iron particles. Mouth-watering acidity and firm tannin with a hint of earthy green leading to long finish of fresh red fruit, stone, and grip. Wonderful showing, indicating the beginning of a long drinking window.
February 16, 2019 - This one flirts the line between way too early to drink and right on the money to drink right now. Hard to explain. One thing is for sure: whole cluster fermentation can really mess with the mind. This is a dark black cherry with a little bit of cola and brambly and somewhat green earthy and vegetal notes that dominate the front and middle. The middle is almost medicinal. Finishes with a lot of power yet still has good acidity and finesse. I really don't think there is any hurry to drink this wine quite honestly. It will probably be around for the next five to seven years, although when it drinks like this, you might as well enjoy it!