Community Tasting Note

Napa144 wrote:

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - First, note that this is Stags' Leap Winery ("s" appostrophe), esily confused with the more famous Stag's Leap Cellars (appostrophe "s"). This lowered my expectations. Then there is the concern that a 15 year-old Merlot, any 15 year-old Merlot, is past it's prime and rapidly heading towards flavorlessness. However, my understanding is that much of the best of Bordeaux, including Petris, is made with as much as 100% Merlot (I don't know about the First Growths), and those wines are expected to be improving 30 years hence, so I suspect the "Merlot concern" concern is more myth than reality. Whatever, our reaction to this was, "Wow." I had a couple of better, "on paper" bottles in reserve, but this puppy was good right out of the bottle, and a genuine delight 30 minutes later. The balance was excellent, still some tannin with the finish, which I like, but bursting with delicious fruit throughout. I don't use terms like, "pencil lead," but if I did, and liked it, I'd probably rave about the pencil led and apricot. We opened two bottles for four people so there was enough to sip three or four times the next day and it was even better. Since I only paid $30 for this bottle, if rating it, "among $30 peers," it would be a 98 or 99. The 92 is on an absolute scale. I've had many, many hundred dollar plus bottles that weren't nearly as good.

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