Community Tasting Notes (22) Avg Score: 96.6 points

  • The darkness of Mysterons continues, with lots of black cherries, cassis and black raspberries providing a beam of acidity in addition to the tannic backbone which has been prominent throughout. Classic LPV notes of dark soil and rocky minerality along with a whiff of dark florals add further interest. Just went back to look at my notes for the ‘19, and they’re remarkably similar, with the additional 3 years (consumed 2 years later, 1 year earlier vintage) providing just a bit more openness. Like the Mysterons and the Mag 7, I’d be more a holder than a drinker of this at this point, but if you go the other way, aerate the dickens out of it. 97+

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  • 2018 LPV Showdown - Carter La Verdad vs. Vice Versa

    Opened these on Thursday to celebrate my promotion to partner at my company. Overall, I preferred the Vice Versa a bit more. Carter was a touch hotter, and just a bit more finesse in the VV bottling. Of course, we are splitting hairs as both bottles were excellent, and LPV continues to be one of my favorite single vineyard expressions.

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  • This sample was actually a bit subdued (comparatively to other vintages of VV LPVs at least), but certainly with enough potency and drive that there is little question of its origin and of the stylistic preference from the producer and winemaker. It's black and modern, carrying a plush center surrounded by signature LPV minerality - though perhaps less so in the rocks and gravel department than this site's typicity tends to usually show. Notable glide, with a softer punch of flavor in the mid-palate push. Air helps to bring out a bit more intensity. Hold for a few more years, as this seems to have some sleepy eyes going on at the moment.

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  • This is great wine! Creamy polished and rich but not a blockbuster, a plush generous elegant wine. There is a lift on the gorgeous palate - perfume and cassis, hint of menthol, with some cake spice and white pepper. Long finish with some complexity. Fine and ripe tannin. Leave for another 5 years, then drink over the following 20+.

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  • Guy's Night: Open Your Last Bottle (Jason P's, St. Paul, MN): Bonus pour, and I will echo galewskj's comments. Bracing, with bold black fruits that yet are less descript, glycerin, oak, somewhat angular now with a fair bit of volatility. This is obviously young and not really ready. Lets see this in another 4 to 5 year and then see what we have. Score reserved.

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  • Open your last bottle (Jason and Mariellen's house): This was a bonus half pour while waiting for people to show up. Full-on in your face modern napa cab with a lot of fruit, spice and earth. This had been open for a few hours and the alcohol seemed to be peaking out. This is a powerful wine and I can appreciate the quality, but it isn't my preferred style.

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  • Guys Night Out - Open your last bottle of something you had multiple bottles of at one time!: Decanted 2 hours in the cellar initially, then poured a couple glasses, then back in the cellar for another 3 hours, poured another couple glasses, then back in the cellar overnight (about another 12 hours). I opened this for my sister-in-law who loves fruit forward wines and we drank some of this as we prepared for tonight's wine dinner!

    At this young age, this is all about the fruit! Very enjoyable at cellar temperature, but alcohol shows up when it warms to room temp, which is a negative for me. At cellar temp, the nose is slightly muted, but still shows plenty of dark fruit and some lavender notes. Palate shows gobs of delicious dark fruit, some red fruit, and cocoa notes. The purity of fruit is delicious. Unfortunately, as it warms up, the alcohol starts to rear its ugly head. The good news is that cooling the wine back in the cellar gets rid of the alcohol (but it keeps coming back as the wine warms up to room temp). The tannins are there, but fine grained and more silky that harsh or drying. I have mixed emotions about opening this wine so wine. I have 2 more bottles, which I will not touch for years (at least 5...I hope!). I am drinking the wine as I write this note...it is at cellar temp now and alcohol is present, but not abrasive, yet! The fruit has melded together, and some secondary notes of bramble are present. I hope the alcohol resolves, the fruit remains and the secondary notes develop down the road....I think they will, but time will tell for sure. If opening now, I recommend drinking at cellar temp and keeping the wine cooled down, at least that is where I found it most enjoyable. Based on my limited experience with this wine, and my best guess from this tasting, I would say this wine should drink well at around 7 -10 years old. I am giving it a 95 based on the purity of fruit and drinking it close to cellar temp. However, I do see tons of upside potential!

    Addendum....the alcohol on the wine (after over 12 hours decanted at cellar temp) actually started to calm down as it warmed, giving me even greater hope for this wine down the road!

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  • Simply outstanding. I couldn’t wait another 2 years but I wasn’t disappointed.

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  • This is really, really good. The comparison between Napa Cab and Burgundy is over done, but this is a wine that points in that direction.

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  • That’s a bomb but young Cal Cab …

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  • Needed a great bottle to celebrate and this was calling my name! I re-read my review from May, and I had a similar experience except for a few notes. This is a full-bodied balanced wine with signature notes from St. Helena and Las Piedras. One of my 5 favorite vineyards in Napa (the others being Dr. Crane, Trespass, Henry Brothers Ranch, and Frediani), it is very strong on the front-end, mid-palate and finish.

    Decanted 1/3 of the bottle at 2pm and by 6 it was ready to go. I will have the remaining wine tonight.

    This is just a great wine and if you are lucky enough to have it, try a bottle with a 2-3 hour decant.

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  • Saw LPB finally rated the VV lineup and I was pretty surprised at the relatively low 95 given to the LPV. Given my exceptional experience recently with the 2019's, figured I would pop a bottle to give it my own evaluation. Important to note I doubled decanted, left at cellar temp for 3-4 hours and then warmed up to room temp before drinking. I think that really makes a difference with these wines.

    Begins with expressive and powerful aromas of blackcurrant, baking spices, white flowers, crushed rock and hints of forest floor. Reflects the cooler vintage with extraordinary freshness and precision, showing great balance with mostly black fruit, bitter chocolate with lots of mineral driven and savory character. Super refined tannins are still very present, giving the impression it can age quite nicely for years to come. Builds powerfully in the mid palate with layers that are just emerging, and finishes for over 1 min. Really impressive and way better than 95. Perhaps I am low at 98. Definitely upside.

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  • I decided to re-visit Vice Versa's LPV and boy am I glad that I did! I started with a Coravin pour because I had another bottle that was already open and didn't want to waste this. Well, that didn't last long as my pour was so good, I went all in!

    Nice strong smell. Deep purple and blue coloring and translucent. This was very consistent from the smell and look to the taste and long finish. Blueberry and black raspberry, earth, slight mocha mid-palate and the great mineral and stone streak throughout. This is a big wine; however it doesn't seem that big as the Vice Versa team knows how to rein in the tannins. Tannins, acid are really incredible. This is an excellent wine and a great representation from The Las Piedras Vineyard. Year in and year out, this is one of my favorite bottles. Sorry to the Dr. Crane lovers!

    Having a wine that is full-bodied and translucent is hard to do and it is right up my alley. My 1st experience with that was when I had Abreu's Madrona Ranch 2012, which I rated 100. I will post more after I finish the bottle tonight, which I am expecting to be even better.

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  • Napa 2021 Trip; 5/10/2021-5/13/2021 (Napa Valley, CA): Glad I was able to taste this, since for some reason, I never ordered a bottle of this from last year's offering. Ordered a bottle to tack on to my fall shipment.

    All the trademark characteristics of LPV - wet stone, minerality, blueberry/dark blue fruits. Will definitely be matching this up to Carter Verdad, Quivet, etc. versions of the same vineyard/vintage down the road.

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  • Napa - Lokoya - Vice Versa - Memento Mori: I am glad I didn’t have to open any of my bottles sitting in the cellar to try this. This wine was also showing very well today and maybe edged the MM LPV by a tad today. I think I liked the nose of the MM over the VV but the palate and finish was better with the VV. Earth tones, dark cherries and blueberries. Blackberries…fruit fruit fruit! There was a savory aspect to this that felt like it would go very well with food. Having some of the cheeses with this confirmed what I thought. This was actually #3 behind the Steltzner but with time in the glass it finished out #2.

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  • Dream Trip - Napa On A Mission - All My favorites Plus A Few New Ones; 4/1/2021-4/4/2021 (Napa Valley): Now we are getting somewhere. This is a very nice wine however it needs more time in the cellar before opening or make sure this has enough time to open up fully but not too much time or you will miss the window. Perfect advice right? Super helpful? ok maybe not but my takeaway here is to be careful with a super long decant as to not blow by the window - this wine needs time but also know it is not a majorly fruit forward wine, which is fine as LPV handles both presentations/styles exceptionally well. One typically has more lift and minerality to it as the other style tends to showcases more fruit & mineral with the acidity in the background at least IMO. No rating as I was unable to drink the wine in the proper window (my fault not the wine).

    Do yourself a favor and signup for their list, the '19s have elevated this winery to another level.

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  • 2018 LPV Blind Tasting: VV, Carter, Fait Main, Quivet and B Cellars (Lang's): 2018 LPV blind tasting. Wines: Vice Versa, Carter La Verdad, Quivet, Fait Main and B Cellars. Six total tasters. All wines decanted 3+ hours.

    The VV tied for first with Verdad. It was a little closed to start but started putting on weight as it was exposed to more and more air. I'd say this is the most classically made and well balanced wine of the group. The acidity was a bit crisper and the focus a bit better. While they all begged for more time in the bottle, this one seems the clear longer term ager of the group. Overall, while not as ripe or powerful as the Verdad, it was my favorite by a hair.

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  • Nose: [58°] Red fruits with a soft brightness, clean river rocks, clean damp forest floor with damp dark soils, damp trees along with its bark and a bit of spiced oak (imagine someone trying to cut a wedge into a tree but stopped half way). Deep undergrowth develops with not much time in the glass. The softly bright red fruits eventually succumb to the darkness that is and eventually becomes black fruit.

    Palate: [58°] Intense black earth, brooding black fruits, deep forest oak with a gentle warming spice, savory bark skin, bitter undergrowth very similar to the nose. Finishes with lingering dark minerals with heavily grounded dark graphite, steeped black tea and that soft warming spice.

    Attributes: Really dark ruby. Dry with medium amounts of fine, grainy tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium to medium-plus acidity (great integration if its on the higher end). Great finish of at least 18-20+ seconds.

    Thoughts: Very tasty bottling. The palate matches the nose completely. The flavors deliver so much with great energy and intent. Lots of flavors lasting well into the finish and just lingers there. This held up very well over the course of over 5 hours. Just maybe a bit of heat seemed to develop as it got around 4-5 hour mark but I'm just nitpicking there. I really wish I had more to say to add on how good this is but I'm at a lost for words.. should've bought more. This really competes with some heavy hitters with bigger price tags. Dammit man should've just trusted the community on the good '18 vintage and bought more.

    Other notes: Bordeaux glass. Slow-ox'ed in bottle at cellar temp ~55° for the duration of consumption over 5.5 hours, recommend drinking straight from the bottle and let it decant at cellar temp over the course of consumption.

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  • Incredible. Best of our tasting at VV

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  • Vice Versa Wines - Mostly 2018 with a few others: Huge, powerful wine loaded with potential. Aromatics of blackberries, cassis fruit, smoked meat, scorched earth and violets. Full bodied and packed with pure, gorgeous fruit with savory character, this is an exceptional reflection of the vineyard. Tannins are firm but fine grained, the texture is perfect and the structure is epic. Layers and layers of goodness that will need some time to unfurl. During the time I was at the tasting, this just kept getting better. Finishes super long. Lots of upside potential. 97+++

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  • This wine was a real study in changes. We opened it the night before and decanted for 5 hours before drinking. Even with that it was prob still on the tight side when we first had it. I appreciated the balance here between fruit and some other aspects (mostly get like a gravely road). By the time I tried it maybe 10 hours into the decant it was very intense baking spices. The darkness had blown off a bit and the power was actually more upfront than it had been earlier. Needs a lot of time.

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  • Tasted from barrel. Showing REALLY well right now. Dark fruit and earth mingled together with a minerality that lingers quite a while. Silky tannins and rich mouthfeel.

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