February 2, 2024 - My contribution to the CDV713 MacDonald tasting.
With 11-21 being shown this was one of the gaps to be filled when building the lineup.
Hefty tannins but no acrid ashy taste that I've experienced with other 2020 wines. I'm glad that Alex and Graeme decided to release this wine after explore the almost full vertical. A majority of the group complimented 11, 13, 14 & 21 as being the more ready wines right now.
I'm in the camp that these will be best with 20+ years of age on them. Maybe more.
Hold
April 7, 2023 - A few days in Napa with fellow CT'r Cristal2000: (If you want the punchline, skip all the drivel and just go to the last sentence at the bottom of this lingual mess I’ve created here).
Sure, you can talk about 2020 until you’re blue in the face. You can pick it apart and bust out your 2020 calendar (which of course I had handy in my jacket pocket) and go day by day leading up to the fires, asking where the smoke was (answer: every-where) and how the sun was barely discernible though the fumes for a month’s time. You can say, “But how?! How is it not tainted?!” Back and forth; back and forth. And we did. And I do. And it gets to the point where you dismiss that whole vintage and thank your lucky stars that you can actually afford to pay your electric bill (don’t even get me started on that whole thing!) because you thinned out your wine-spend so much this year that you start remembering what your finance life was like before you had to squander thousands of dollars away for this hobby you pretend to your family is an investment.
Ok, enough of that… So, if there’s a wine to buy in the 2020 vintage, it is the MACDONALD. Period. Other wineries (as in, all other wineries), you’ll probably want to hit the ‘Pass’ button on (I know I’m gonna get grief for saying that since there is someone out there somewhere that somehow is giddy about some particular wine they hold allegiance to). Those of you who are savvy folks (and even those who aren’t) should know this by now. I’ve been tasting through a small handful of 2020 wines and many are ‘not ok’ in some way. From barrel, a few shined (or at least didn’t show any taint issues – masked by oak char perhaps). However, the 2020 MACDONALD is an exceptional wine for the vintage. Yes I know the final tag of “for the vintage” makes people nervous, as though it is somehow my secret code for subpar. Well, rest assured my fine friends, it is not subpar. No lies. No conspiracy. You know I can go on and on, so I’ll answer your questions quick and easy:
- Any perception of detectible smoke taint? No (I’m not the science guy, so I’m going with what I taste – and yes of course, I was looking for any chance I could get to ask myself, “Is that it? Was that smoke taint?” Answer: still No.
- Is it good? Yes. It’s great! (insert Tony the Tiger accentuation). The profile is completely along the same lines of previous vintages. A perfectly pitched black, gravely core with a judicious balance and tension that is signature MACDONALD. Olive, black asphalt, brambly blackberry and black cherry, dusty earth… What else do you want?
- Should I buy it? What are you dumb? Um, Yes. If you don’t, send it my way right now.
- What’s the difference compared to other vintages? I know people are looking for faults here, so I’ll appease ya’ll a bit just by saying that in its current state, the finish is a tad shorter at the moment and the body (more so in the mid-to-back palate) gentler than the previous big boy vintages of 2016, 2018, and 2019, for example. There is a notable finesse here as well. Toward the very end of the night, the expressive fruit elements started to shut down a bit and go back to sleep, but at the same time, the elegance remained steadfast. It’s a little hard to put a numeric here, but it’s easily in the 95-96+ point range for me at the moment.
- Do I work for the Macdonalds? No… (though I did submit my forever pledge to their undying allegiance regardless of fact and circumstance – kidding… but I do still wonder where my 3L of 2010 Macdonald I asked for years ago is? Must’ve gotten lost in the mail…)
For those who couldn’t stomach the above tasting note, here ya go: It’s good. It’s a buy. It’s the best 2020 out of Napa. Period. Exclamation point! Pinky swear. Absodefinitely. No backsies.
March 29, 2023 - Macdonald is here to slay the 2020 dragon, and amazingly they pulled it off. Using only old vines, which are less compromised by smoke, they produced 150 cases. That means most list members will get a bottle or two in their allocation.
As we all know, this was a downright miserable vintage, even if you avoided smoke taint. So even with a tremendous effort, this isn't going to be a 16, 18, or 19 vintage. To my palate, it most resembles the 2017, which was another difficult vintage where MacDonald managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
To make things just a wee bit harder on Alex, we had this (CSIMM1161's place) next to a 19 Colgin Tychson Hill and a 12 Araujo Eisele. Nevertheless, the MacDonald held its own. The nose was gorgeous, showing creme de cassis, anise, white flowers, black olive and tilled soil. The palate is firm and rides a bit higher than previous vintages, while displaying some of the hallmark dark chocolate flavors, but errs on the earthy and mineral driven side. With a little less body than other vintages, the 2020 makes up for it with crisp acidity, excellent balance and refined tannins. Finishes medium length on a savory note. Quite an achievement and still the only 2020 Napa Cab I'm buying!
March 7, 2023 - Testing (or tasting) out a couple of '20s (Napa): Nose of dark red fruits, amazing red flowers, and soft black olives (more fruit-like than the way it is normally perceived like as a topping for example). Dark green brambles and fruited earth. So perfumed and aromatic.
Flavors of dark red fruits with a pitch of black fruits, and nice olive notes. Fruit-coated graphite veins (imagine veins the size of tree roots), and awesome savoriness in the minerals with a muddy, almost clay note.
I loved the elegance of the flavors but with good power that delivers the flavors in almost a velvety way. Amazing job in a tough year. Not really surprising, though.
March 7, 2023 - No discernable smoke on the palate. Lots of blue fruits, plums, mushrooms and some toasty oak. Slight black licorice note as well. 16 hour double decant. There is a mid palate complexity to this wine that I enjoyed. Tannins are still a bit grippy even after the air treatment. For 2020, surprisingly balanced. Only older 69 and 48 yo vines in this wine. Younger vines were left out of the blend on purpose which sort of mimicked the older vintages of Macdonald. With lots of swirling, the classic black olive note came up which was a very welcome surprise. This did show a bit different than many of the other Macdonalds I have had in the last year, namely ’16, ’18 and ’19 but it is no secret that 2020 was a challenging year and they did a good job bringing forth the best wine they possibly could in this vintage.
February 28, 2023 - 7 Hours In Napa: VHR; Roy Piper; Spottswoode; & MACDONALD (Napa, CA): The fourth and final tasting of our 7 hours in Napa was with Alex MacDonald. Spending an afternoon with Alex is more of a history lesson than a tasting and it is always a highlight of my trips whenever we are able to coordinate a visit.
The history lesson started out with walking the perimeter of the MACDONALD portion of the To Kalon Vineyard in the cold and pouring rain, which the vineyard was in the process being manicured by sheep! The brisk walk was followed by the tasting in a family home that Graeme previously lived in on the vineyard property.
The wine selected was in fact the 2020 vintage which was double decanted (DD) at 5:30AM and then poured into a decanted 1 hour prior to our tasting at 3:30PM. The wine is made up of only the oldest vines on the MACDONALD Vineyard of approximately 49 and 69 years-old, not typical of recent vintages.The 69 year-old Cabernet vines were planted by Alex and Graeme's great grandparents and are some of the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Napa. The limited selection of vines resulted in a considerable reduction in case production for this vintage.
I only took brief notes, as we were deep in conversation during the tasting. My initial impression was that the wine was primarily showing black fruits with brown spices and good tannic grip. It's very young and a little tight but has good complexity. It's a full-bodied wine.
This wine was the best 2020 I've had but it will take some time to unwind. Alex mentioned that the wine went through several rounds of testing with different laboratories that specialize in measuring the levels of smoke taint and all results were consistent with no detectable levels of smoke.
I'm not sure if this is one I'll age for a decade(+) but if I'm afforded an opportunity to purchase a couple, I may choose to consume one in the short-term and a second in the 7-12 year window, just to hedge my bets from any potential issues presented by this difficult vintage.
Bravo to the MacDonald brothers for making such a beautiful wine in such a difficult vintage. If you are lucky enough to be on this allocation list, buy with confidence but the vintage presented many challenges and it may fall just a tad bit short of some of their greatest vintages.
My score is 96+
February 16, 2023 - Tasted with Alex. The only '20 Napa Cab I've tried to date. If you have old vine Cabernet grapes and know what you're doing (they do) you can make a fantastic 2020 Napa Cabernet This is it. Full stop. Brad - heavypourwine.com