November 25, 2021 - Double decanted 3 hours before drinking. A modicum of lees decanted off. Excellent nose of mostly dark fruits. The palate started out with excellent structure overlaying licorice, dark cherry, cedar, excellent acidity and cassis. Thus is an outstanding wine with many years left to mature further.
November 11, 2021 - Schrader multi-vintage tasting: A slight funk on the nose gives way to more pronounced fruit aromas of wild berries and plum. On the palate, dark berry compote is intermixed with leather, cedar, and currant notes, signaling the progression of this wine and its comparative age amongst its other siblings. Considering it is 13 years from vintage, this CCS has plenty of requisite energy and verve, with a notable grip that persists with air. The more developed leather and cigar notes add interest, especially for those looking for some additional nuance and secondary/tertiary flavors from these otherwise big and lusciously rich wines. Drink now and over the next 5-7 years.
April 10, 2021 - Nice compliment to our Wagyu Strip steak at the Summit. Blueberry, blackberry with a hint of chocolate. Crisp , smooth and well balanced. Dont think this will improve with more age. Drink Up!
January 2, 2021 - 3 1/2 hour decant. Deep ruby colored. Even after the decant some strong butterscotch aromas that eventually blew off. Medium plus bodied with strong grippy tannins and medium acid. Very concetrated with dark fruits on the front along with graphite and coffee grounds and some real oakiness mid-palate. Not much changed on day two -- a bit more fruit but still very tannic. This needs a lot more time.
December 26, 2020 - I opened and decanted for 3 hours on the 24th. I drank about 25% of the bottle and it was good, but not great. I opened again on the 25th and the wine had softened nicely and really had a nice long finish. I let it slow ox all day and re-visited for hours. The last sip was the best for me which means it needs more age for my taste. If you like bigger edge cali cabs then this drinks great now but with another 3-5 years I think this gets better and better.
August 23, 2020 - Casual Dinner w/Friends (R&R's): No formal note. Courtesy of our hosts, opened some time before dinner and allowed to breathe in bottle. In two words- hot damn. This is something special. Not as big as I anticipated this would be, this was more elegant. Lovely perfune of violets, cassis, currant, black cherry liqueur and bitter chocolate. Silky tannins; wonderful mouthfeel. Red and black fruit, herbs, soft spice and chocolate. Balanced; long finish. Liquid velvet texture. Wow.
April 19, 2020 - 6oz via coravin. Wine remains young, however within early drinking period. Dark red color no browning. Within an hour, scents of sweet dark fruits intertwined with floral orange blossoms and oak emerge. On palate it packs a bunch of dense dark fruits. Tannins noticeable but don't affect the drinking joy. For those who doubt California wine is short lived, I'd cellar a bottle for a decade or 2 more. We think they will be in for a pleasant surprise.
February 20, 2020 - "Cult Wines" & a Few Others (Jason P's, St. Paul, MN): Very dark red/purple color. Decanted for 3.5 hours. Drank a glass plus over 3 hours. Despite the decant - and this never went back into bottle before serving, this took some serious glass time to really open up on the nose. Maybe a good 30 minutes in, this developed a more classical Napa Cabernet nose with a nice perfume of dark chocolate, graphite, and cassis. The palate is pretty open from the start and gets better also. This is deep and concentrated, but really more of a mid-weight plus feel despite being what I'd call full bodied on the palate, dark fruits, cassis predominates, very pretty, slightly herbal, succulent fruits, citrus and pomegranate, gravelly minerality, medium plus finish. I like this, feels well put together and the class of the flight. 93+ to maybe 94pts.
April 25, 2019 - Decanted and served. Thick body with notes of volcanic soil along with a very intense, palate-filling dark fruit. Perhaps a bit overstated for my taste but a jolly, delicious wine.
November 23, 2018 - Oh my. Decanted for 1.5 hrs. Black fruit and tobacco on the nose. Tannins were perfectly balanced. Dare say a 100 point wine.