Community Tasting Note

Lazlo Toth Likes this wine:

Sunday, November 15, 2015 - Beautiful opaque eggplant color. Rose petals, cedar, kirsch and cassis bouquet with just a hint of flint. This is a tour de force for those that like the fruit-forward California style, but may be less valued by Bordeaux style fans. So dense and velvety rich, but much more well balanced than the regular 40th Anniversary Caymus. Perhaps the most mouth pleasing Special Selection I have tried though perhaps not the most complex. Requires a significant decant to get to peak integration. Double-decanted and then glass swirled off and on for another 20-30 minutes before it started showing its promise. This is so good now, but will be better in a few years. Has the same fruit profile as the regular Caymus 2012 with a powerful, tongue coating blend of kirsch, vanilla, cassis, dark chocolate and oak. Medium acidity with silky tannins and a much longer finish than the standard 2012 Caymus. The structure of this wine differentiates it from the regular 40th Anniversary. I find that 2012 has a different overall flavor profile than most Caymus vintages with the red fruit, kirsch and vanilla much more prominent than the typical black fruit and specifically cassis that has been a prior vintage Caymus mainstay. Although it comes in a well-balanced and pleasing form in this SS, it has fewer common tasting notes with prior great vintages. Nonetheless, when tasted as part of a vertical with the Caymus SS 2011 (a very strong wine itself), this was the clear winner. I have rarely had such a dense wine that drank so “easily”. I found the regular Caymus 2012 lacking relative to prior vintages, but have thoroughly enjoyed the 2012 Special Selection and would recommend it to those not likely to be put off by its unapologetic fruit-forward style.

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