December 17, 2023 - Medium red with mahogany highlights. Balsamic, black currant bouquet. Soft , smooth flavor. Beautiful drinking now, but I’d drink it soon. Good length.
Beginning to show a little age and declining fruit. Still, the remaining fruit is ripe and almost sweet.
This held up much better than I thought it would.
December 24, 2022 - In my cellar since release. This was the last vintage made largely by Randy Dunn at Camus before he left to start his own label in 1985. Fresh and youthful for a 38 year old. Medium garnet with ever so slight bricked edge. Rich, soft and complex with good depth and length. Layers of spice, chocolate, blackberry, cassis and touches of cedar, coffee and tobacco. Beautifully balanced and elegant. My last bottle of a full case purchased on release for ~$42. Lovely and by no means over the hill.
July 3, 2022 - Clearly past its prime, but thoroughly enjoyable. The color is fairly brown, light reddish. Prune and raisin. Decanted for an hour. Vinegar initially, but faded after a while and turned very pleasant. Cheers!
August 15, 2021 - This had been kept in a cold cellar, purchased on release. We popped and poured into the decanter, then finished over an hour or so. It could have used more time as the wine still needed to open a bit, but this bottle was unusually dark purple in color, with fairly classic notes of cassis and blackberry fruit. Still some fine firm tannin left, perhaps not surprising as the wine was made by Randy Dunn, I’m told.
September 29, 2014 - Musty nose. Wine definitely at peak or beyond but still a good wine with bordeaux texture. Not the strongest wine tasted in this dinner. An '87 Dominus just killed it, so did an '83 Spottswoode. But the Caymus held up well.
June 17, 2014 - Wonderful nose, past prime but very drinkable
March 13, 2012 - Still nice, but not displaying the layers of soft, ripe, cassis and blackberry tasted in previous tastings, the wine offers coffee, licorice, smoke, earth, cassis, truffle and dark berry aromas. A bit on the austere side, the wine finishes with slight tart, cherry, cassis and cranberry. Drink up.
February 25, 2011 - Dark red-garnet. Strong, complex and leathery nose of well-oaked ripe currant-y fruit, chocolate, vanilla, spearmint, sassafras tea, cedar, tobacco, pile o' damp Fall leaves. Low tannin, low acid. Fat in the mouth with the barest hint of a sweet-sour acid balance, the ripeness is central to the pleasure and the herbal notes sustain the interest. Went well with lunch of braised rabbit with a bacon-sweet potato-onion-sage-pecan hash.
November 14, 2009 - In my cellar since release...beautiful deep garnet color, with only a bit of brick at the edge of the glass. Nose had hints of chocolate and plenty of red fruit at 2 hours. Still had tannin and fruit with more of the chocolate on the palate. Thoroughly enjoyed it with grilled NY strip steaks. The big surprise was the next day. After being open for 20 hours I tried the remaining wine in the decanter and was shocked by the expansive nose with huge chocolate , blackberry and plum as well as tobacco. Taste was velvety smooth again with yummy chocolate, tobacco and blacberry. I find top Cali Cabs (Ch. Montelena, Diamond Creek. etc.) from the 80's often are better the next day. Don't be afraid to let them breathe.
March 14, 2009 - Mature, if not a bit old. New world styling with resolved red fruits and cedar notes. Somewhat hollow in the middle. Enjoyable.