Community Tasting Note

oldwines Does not like this wine:

Saturday, March 6, 2021 - Decanted for several hours and brought by a friend to our house for dinner. Tasted along side 1986 Ch. Pichon Lalande and 1992 Ridge Monte Bello. Even though I gave this a good score, it is just not my style of wine. For me this pales in comparison to the others, not because it isn’t as big or rich but because it is over the top for my taste. This is labeled as 14.9% ABV but tastes more like nearly 16%. Clearly this is still a baby and needs some time in the cellar to settle down but this will never be a balanced wine in my mind. This is dense opaque purple black with glass coating crimson stain. Sweet, dark red fruit on the nose along with menthol, alcohol and some oak induced baking spices including vanilla. There is a great deal of tannin, some might describe it as “ripe” but it is mouth coating and intensely drying given its youth and more characteristic of young Nebbiolo. It is very viscous (alcohol?) with dense legs coating the glass. The flavors are big, powerful and in your face. Palate has sour black cherry, boysenberry, blueberry and tart black currant as well. Very primary. Finish is long but uncomfortable as it is somewhat bitter and lingers due to the tannin and small amount of residual sugar. On its own I find this difficult to drink at best but with steak and mushrooms it is a reasonable pairing.

I have never cared for wines of this style and find little interesting about them. I just don’t understand the attraction...and the price makes absolutely no sense to me. This was my first Cali Cab from the 2018 vintage which is getting huge kudos from the pro reviewers...the only thing I can glean is that it will be a vintage that will please you if you like this extremely ripe, heavily extracted style of wine. My initial reaction is that the 2016 Cali Cabs are on the whole much more balanced and less over the top ripe. I remember a discussion I had with Nicolas Morlet of Peter Michael (et al) at a trade tasting just after the 2016’s were released where he and I disagreed about the 2016 and 2018 vintages...he seemed to feel the 2016 Les Pavots didn’t measure up while I thought it was the best wine from them I had ever tasted. He was much more excited about the 2018 vintage. Different strokes for different folks...I guess.

Post a Comment / View oldwines's profile
3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue (4,843 views)