January 10, 2020 - Slow ox for 7 hrs. Awesome fruit on the nose, soft tannin but has a hint of sourness. Not my favorite Carlisle but still happy to drink it.
December 1, 2018 - Blackberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, licorice, spice, and earthiness in the nose. Concentrated fruit in the flavor, blackberries, black cherries and licorice. Full bodied and a medium to long finish.
December 1, 2018 - Blood nose, black currants, plums, sweetness. In beautiful condition.
March 22, 2016 - This wine is in a nice place right now. Very northern Rhone like with dark berries and white pepper on the nose and palate, good medium weight a finish. Silky mouth coating texture. Another winner from Mike. No reason to wait on this but probably has a few more years of good drinking.
December 26, 2015 - Better showing than last bottle. Fruit and savory elements more in harmony. A garnet coloring to the wine, served with lamb chops an the game flavors met the wine where it is, so that was a nice pairing. Blind, I would have guessed this to be Old World....enough garrique to make me thing something like a St. Jospeh or Croze. Fun to revist. Can hold but I think best to be enjoyed now.
March 13, 2015 - The nose was reluctant at first, showing tart blackberry, herbs, and pepper, yet fleshed out and intensified with time in the glass, adding notes of green olive and crushed stone. On the palate, it was silky with lean black fruit tones, savory herbs and saline minerality. Dark fruit saturated the senses throughout the finish with white pepper notes lingering long.
January 31, 2015 - More savory than expected. Took a good amount of air exposure before the earthen notes lifted enough for some black currant to peek through. Nose is very pleasant light purple fruits but upon approach palate is all bay leaf, touch of garrique, dried herbs. Midway through the bottle this started to change as some of the currant and bit of black cherry emerges. More of a shape shifter than typical for a Carlisle. Have one more of these, will look to pair with something savory like an herbed roast, etc.
May 25, 2013 - I found this bottle in my inventory check I did over the holidays and it was a pleasant surprise. Was interested to see how it has aged, as well as how the wine would show in terms of ripeness. I opened this last night and had a large glass. Labeled at 15.2%, so my first thought was to assess for heat, which is in some comments in the other CT notes. In my experience here, I don't find it, although I am enjoying the wine at a cooler temp, too. Aromatically, shows the fruit forward syrah tones. Palate? Really enjoy it, as it reflects an iron, steak sauce and blue/black profile with plenty of juicy acidity. Only about 80 cases of this made so not sure I run into another bottle but this wine is aging well and probably has another 2-3 years of good drinking left in it, can go 4-6 more. In terms of syrah, as I think back, this may be the best ager from Mike I have opened. Drinking excellent. PS--there have been only 4 notes on this wine in CT in the last 18 months......not much in terms of drinking reference for those who are holding these and waiting to see how these are aging..I'll stand behind my drink window.
May 18, 2013 - Hard to remember any previous corked bottles from Carlisle but this one was badly corked.
October 20, 2012 - Can't believe I'm saying this, but I've finally experienced a Carlisle wine that didn't WOW me.
It was hot, and there wasn't much exciting going on.
Perhaps a bad bottle? I hope so.