Four hour decant. Very very deep magenta color. Black currant, pressed violets, plum, raspberry, bay leaf, cinnamon scone, and baker’s chocolate malt. Smooth and very dry palate. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish.
There’s a bite (sharpness) to the fruit that’s a bit of a turnoff. There wasn’t much change between two and four hours. We’ll see how this evolves, but I’m not sure my score will increase from here. This needs a 6+ hour decant if drinking now.
3 hour double decant. Carol had a glass at Barry/Mary's before dinner then back under stopper to the restaurant.
Dark magenta in the glass. Nose of graphite, a little earthy, brambly components and red/black berries.
Palate is powerful and dark fruited. With more air this one takes on a silky smooth velour like texture in the mouth. The fruit is so 'shiny' and deep. Excellent balance to this wine at this stage. Wonderful Ehrlich fruit profile with just a tad of the typical Ehrlich nose. The mouthfeel and palate is where this score is tonight, but you gotta give it the needed air!!! Enjoyed over a total of about 4-5 hours of airtime.
Three hour decant. Very deep dark ruby magenta color. Black cherry compote, raspberry, lime rind, mocha, and subtle graphite. Very smooth, dry, full bodied palate, with mouth filling acidity. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish.
This has rich, intense fruit, but is also drinking a touch tight at the moment. A 6+ hour decant is recommended if drinking this year. I expect this will loosen up nicely next year.
Needed a little time to come into its own, blossomed nicely with air. Opens with a tightness that is not reflective of the final wine, deep color and inkiness on first pour. The wine opens a bit tannic and tight then blooming into a fine rounded Cali Cab. Easy drinker, not too academic, gentle nose and easy mouth feel.
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Four hour decant. Very deep dark electric magenta color. Blueberry, black cherry, chocolate mousse, oatmeal cookie, dried thyme, and subtle lemon zest. Smooth, dry, full bodied palate, with pixelated, mouth coating acidity. Firm, full, medium intensity tannins on the longish finish.
This has improved over the past year. There’s still more room for improvement, but this is already really great with a healthy decant.
Hard to believe that it's been over a year since my last bottle, but it is, so here goes another bottle.....
Coravined a glass last night.....juicy, intense black fruit. A hint of the classic Ehrlich on the nose. Tight and tannic til about 2 hours of open to air in the glass. Still tightly wound but man, is this stuff, good......
Opened the bottle for Carol and I tonight, to enjoy after dinner. Hers is long gone, already, I'm still sipping mine. Those that know her, realize it's her norm. Muted nose tonight, slightly softer mouth feel in the glass indicating a little micro ox from the coravin over the last 24 hours. Riveting BCellars acidity really makes your mouth water and lengthen the black fruited ending. Whilst this is not the prototypical Ehrlich taste profile, it is strong and glorious nonetheless. Make no mistake, this one is not in it's best drinking window yet, but it is a very fun ride and drinking well enough for us....probable improvement of 2-4 points going forward over the next 10 years, IMO.
I should have listened to @Mark and finished my 19s before touching the 18s. Bit tight and needed generous decanting for this baby to sing. Great structure and balance. Just oh-so-tasty. I do wonder, however, how this wine would be in a few years. What kind of secondary characteristics would Ehlich take on? At this rate of drinking, I may never find out.
P.S.: Someone got this wine @ auction for 83? Where is this auction because I would buy few cases at that price!!
I had this at a hibachi restaurant - the great smells of the hibachi actually hurt my wine nose but it is all good. Good color, great subdued red and blue fruit nose. Great cedar taste with good blue fruit. Alcohol well integrated . I am not scoring as high as the others but still a great effort- great overall wine- agree that it is work $100.
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Writing this a few days later so no formal notes. Had with slow cooked BBQ ribs and a pasta salad. Really great wine for the price. Jammy, good Oakville fruit. Solid buy @ $100. May try and pick up some more when I visit in May.
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Writing this one up, only because it's so different than my last bottle just a month ago, so Jen....take note.
Opened after dinner last night. Poured off a glass and put the cork back in the bottle. First sips? The best. 95. Rich, dark red Oakville fruit but lacking the sense on the nose and the palate, that it's an Ehrlich. Drinks well for an hour or so then begins to turn black fruited, tarry and bitter. An 87 for my palate at that point.
Today.....poured off a glass about 14 hours later and it's no longer bitter. It's smooth and juicy blackberry fruit, still lacking in both the textbook Ehrlich nose and palate. But damn good. Balanced in acidity and tannin, it has that great B Cellars energy to it. Back up to a 94 now?
Pre dinner with the HMCs......still drinking well but all of us agree....devoid of any character that would note it as being from the Ehrlich vineyard. Strangest bottle of this I've ever had. Glass full, to compare next to the '18 Vermeil Pickett Road and '14 Restricted Cab Franc. Notes on those to follow.
Five hour decant. Very deep dark (nearly opaque) ruby magenta color. Blackberry, boysenberry, hydrangea, black tea, almond, sifted powdered sugar, and subtle orange rind on the nose. Plush, dry, ripe-fruited palate, with chalky, lingering acidity. Soft, but present tannins on the longish finish.
This is somewhat primary, but also has depth and complexity. It’s truly within its early drinking window with a healthy decant. Currently more acid-driven, but I expect the tannic structure will further develop.
Mark1NPT was right on the money (my decant was based on his recent assessment). This is open for business. I expect this will improve another point or three in another year or two.
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Preface: Jen, give this 3-5 hours of air and you'll love it, now!
Been about 8 months since my last taste of this one....pnp'd into a decanter at 2pm. Initial impression: somewhat muted forest floor/herbal nose, strong iron pan, palate of bright, thin red fruit with a hint of tart orange rind and that great '18 tannic structure. A 91.
1 hour in and, boom! A nice floral, maybe rose petal nose. Slight amount of high end ladies perfume, a hint of sweet confectioner's sugar and the slightest of whiffs of the 14.9% alc. Structure has softened considerably, much faster than I would have thought, the wine has picked up some weight already, no longer 'thin', the flavor profile is red/dark red fruited with almost a MHopper meaty-ness to it. Love the umami character this is exhibiting and there is some great backing acidity throughout ensuring a really nice mouth watering ending. Trying to hold off on drinking this, waiting another hour for Carol to get home from work....I opened this for her, after all! A 93+
2 hours in, and it's that great Ehrlich experience I love. More roses and now lavender on the nose with a big dollop of vanilla, too. Big, deep, sweet dark red raspberry fruit appears. A dense compote type of fruit. Tannins are regressing, acidity balanced with the fruit/tannic components. Mouth is watering even more over the elongated finish. Love the complexity and depth developing now a 95-96. I hope what I'm seeing with this particular '18, is what's to come with all the rest of them in the cellar! What a vintage this is going to be......
3-5 hours in......everything is integrating and all hard/uneven edges resolving into a soft chalky, beautiful, fully together wine. The red raspberry starts turning into blackberry compote. The layers of complexity in this fruit are so much fun, and so good. Faint graphite starts to show up on the nose, the wonderful bead of acidity carries all throughout, from start to finish. Dare I say this might be approaching a 97 at this time? An early 93 and a late 97. The bottle is almost gone, but it was a lot of fun.....glad I have more!
2-3 hour decant and this was ready to go. Dark purple color with quite a bit going on; including blackberry, blueberry and chocolate covered cherries. Iron, sage and clove notes as well. Throughout, I could taste earth, stone, mineral and graphite which was remarkable. Very silky tannins.
Opened by HMC before our 5 Guys burgers......needed every bit of 2 hours to calm down. Tannins and fruit were pretty heavy but nothing like 6-8 months ago. By the 3rd hour, confectioner's sugar on the nose, beautiful red/black fruit and the typical Ehrlich flavor profile emerges. This wine is singing at 3-4 hours, just doesn't have the glycerin mouthfeel of the '16. To me, this is the purist vision of Ehrlich thus far. I love it! And I think it will only get better from here....
PNP. Deep dark magenta color. Great fruit and oak treatment on the nose, but it’s very wound up. Smooth, dry palate. Full tannins on the longish finish.
This needs time, but is certainly going to be very nice. This was also the 7th or 8th wine in my awesome tasting....
This wine has potential for sure. If Star vineyard is like Fey, then this is like SLV. Bolder and darker fruit. Yet, at infancy, and couldn't compare with Star. I will defer to Mark regarding when this wine should be opened, but as it it was, it was ok.
Well, I quadruple splash decanted this bottle to see if it would make a difference vs the bottle I had 2 weeks ago where I just coravined and drank. It did in the mouthfeel and the drinkability, it did not on the overall score. Both bottles are a 96. This bottle softened the sharp tannins and leveled the acidity a bit but the fruit, that awesome Ehrlich fruit is so dark, much like the '13 rendition. I think we will find in the end that the '13s and the '18s are probably the most incredibly structured wines of the past 15 years in Napa, and maybe ever. This wine continued to get better and better as the evening wore on and at 5 hours of air time and after the quadruple decant, the last glass was still going strong. I think there is some serious aging potential here with this one. Acidity and tannins still representing quite the structure and the fruit does not take a back seat. All 3 components are equally represented here. Very, very good wine.....but still not in balance yet! And may not be for a while as per my first note 2 weeks ago. Still, I can overlook balance when the components are this good. HMC's WOTN......maybe mine, too.
Wow......tasted this at the Estate in Napa a few weeks ago but didn't take any formal notes. Coravined a glass off one of my bottles tonight after dinner and, whoa! Beautiful dark magenta in the glass, lead pencil nose initially but after an hour or two there's a little shoe polish component to it. In the mouth this is dense, dark fruit with wonderful acidity and bags of tannins and loads of structure! Mouthcoating from top to bottom as Jenmermaidia alludes to in her review. Oak flavors in the mouth are reminiscent of an early Silver Oak Alexander Valley and also a little over the top like the tannins. This wine is a hedonists dream drink but it is too young and out of balance right now to be at it's peak. Nonetheless, I am giving it a 96 and I firmly believe the potential is here for a 98, easy.......if this all comes together. When will that day be? I have no idea....6 mo? 12 mo? 18 mo? I don't personally have any prior experience with a vintage like this '18 vintage. This is not a 4 cylinder Hyundai vintage......this is a 12 cylinder Ferrari 812 Superfast vintage in many ways. We'll have to wait and see how/when it finally kicks into gear and goes cruising down that Autobahn effortlessly at 211 mph...........wow!
This is going to be sooooooooo good. I knew I was opening way too soon as these were just bottled, but I couldn’t help it (picking up bad habits from Mark1npt). It has the vibrancy and ripe fruit of 2016, with much more backbone and structure. Started off a bit grapey, but developed more layers after 3+ hours of air. Tannins were mouthcoattting and chalky. Drinkable on day 1 if you like big tannins, they took a bitter turn on day two but that didn’t stop me from happily finishing the glass. Too soon to rate, needs time to settle down but this is going to be a good one.
3/27/2024 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 94 Points
Four hour decant. Very very deep magenta color. Black currant, pressed violets, plum, raspberry, bay leaf, cinnamon scone, and baker’s chocolate malt. Smooth and very dry palate. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish.
There’s a bite (sharpness) to the fruit that’s a bit of a turnoff. There wasn’t much change between two and four hours. We’ll see how this evolves, but I’m not sure my score will increase from here. This needs a 6+ hour decant if drinking now.
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3/26/2024 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 Points
3 hour double decant. Carol had a glass at Barry/Mary's before dinner then back under stopper to the restaurant.
Dark magenta in the glass. Nose of graphite, a little earthy, brambly components and red/black berries.
Palate is powerful and dark fruited. With more air this one takes on a silky smooth velour like texture in the mouth. The fruit is so 'shiny' and deep. Excellent balance to this wine at this stage. Wonderful Ehrlich fruit profile with just a tad of the typical Ehrlich nose. The mouthfeel and palate is where this score is tonight, but you gotta give it the needed air!!! Enjoyed over a total of about 4-5 hours of airtime.
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1/8/2024 - Bobcat 31 Likes this wine: 94 Points
balanced good taste with only a short 30 min decant This is cosistently
good
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9/30/2023 - Hillio wrote:
Raspberries with oak finish
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8/17/2023 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 94 Points
Three hour decant. Very deep dark ruby magenta color. Black cherry compote, raspberry, lime rind, mocha, and subtle graphite. Very smooth, dry, full bodied palate, with mouth filling acidity. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish.
This has rich, intense fruit, but is also drinking a touch tight at the moment. A 6+ hour decant is recommended if drinking this year. I expect this will loosen up nicely next year.
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4/30/2023 - Ridavids Likes this wine:
Needed a little time to come into its own, blossomed nicely with air. Opens with a tightness that is not reflective of the final wine, deep color and inkiness on first pour. The wine opens a bit tannic and tight then blooming into a fine rounded Cali Cab. Easy drinker, not too academic, gentle nose and easy mouth feel.
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4/7/2023 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 96 Points
Four hour decant. Very deep dark electric magenta color. Blueberry, black cherry, chocolate mousse, oatmeal cookie, dried thyme, and subtle lemon zest. Smooth, dry, full bodied palate, with pixelated, mouth coating acidity. Firm, full, medium intensity tannins on the longish finish.
This has improved over the past year. There’s still more room for improvement, but this is already really great with a healthy decant.
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4/6/2023 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 94 Points
Hard to believe that it's been over a year since my last bottle, but it is, so here goes another bottle.....
Coravined a glass last night.....juicy, intense black fruit. A hint of the classic Ehrlich on the nose. Tight and tannic til about 2 hours of open to air in the glass. Still tightly wound but man, is this stuff, good......
Opened the bottle for Carol and I tonight, to enjoy after dinner. Hers is long gone, already, I'm still sipping mine. Those that know her, realize it's her norm. Muted nose tonight, slightly softer mouth feel in the glass indicating a little micro ox from the coravin over the last 24 hours. Riveting BCellars acidity really makes your mouth water and lengthen the black fruited ending. Whilst this is not the prototypical Ehrlich taste profile, it is strong and glorious nonetheless. Make no mistake, this one is not in it's best drinking window yet, but it is a very fun ride and drinking well enough for us....probable improvement of 2-4 points going forward over the next 10 years, IMO.
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12/13/2022 - Be.Lee Likes this wine: 94 Points
I should have listened to @Mark and finished my 19s before touching the 18s. Bit tight and needed generous decanting for this baby to sing. Great structure and balance. Just oh-so-tasty. I do wonder, however, how this wine would be in a few years. What kind of secondary characteristics would Ehlich take on? At this rate of drinking, I may never find out.
P.S.: Someone got this wine @ auction for 83? Where is this auction because I would buy few cases at that price!!
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4/15/2022 - goonar182 Likes this wine: 93 Points
I had this at a hibachi restaurant - the great smells of the hibachi actually hurt my wine nose but it is all good. Good color, great subdued red and blue fruit nose. Great cedar taste with good blue fruit. Alcohol well integrated . I am not scoring as high as the others but still a great effort- great overall wine- agree that it is work $100.
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3/17/2022 - sean7711 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Writing this a few days later so no formal notes. Had with slow cooked BBQ ribs and a pasta salad. Really great wine for the price. Jammy, good Oakville fruit. Solid buy @ $100. May try and pick up some more when I visit in May.
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2/27/2022 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 94 Points
Writing this one up, only because it's so different than my last bottle just a month ago, so Jen....take note.
Opened after dinner last night. Poured off a glass and put the cork back in the bottle. First sips? The best. 95. Rich, dark red Oakville fruit but lacking the sense on the nose and the palate, that it's an Ehrlich. Drinks well for an hour or so then begins to turn black fruited, tarry and bitter. An 87 for my palate at that point.
Today.....poured off a glass about 14 hours later and it's no longer bitter. It's smooth and juicy blackberry fruit, still lacking in both the textbook Ehrlich nose and palate. But damn good. Balanced in acidity and tannin, it has that great B Cellars energy to it. Back up to a 94 now?
Pre dinner with the HMCs......still drinking well but all of us agree....devoid of any character that would note it as being from the Ehrlich vineyard. Strangest bottle of this I've ever had. Glass full, to compare next to the '18 Vermeil Pickett Road and '14 Restricted Cab Franc. Notes on those to follow.
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1/8/2022 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 95 Points
Five hour decant. Very deep dark (nearly opaque) ruby magenta color. Blackberry, boysenberry, hydrangea, black tea, almond, sifted powdered sugar, and subtle orange rind on the nose. Plush, dry, ripe-fruited palate, with chalky, lingering acidity. Soft, but present tannins on the longish finish.
This is somewhat primary, but also has depth and complexity. It’s truly within its early drinking window with a healthy decant. Currently more acid-driven, but I expect the tannic structure will further develop.
Mark1NPT was right on the money (my decant was based on his recent assessment). This is open for business. I expect this will improve another point or three in another year or two.
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1/7/2022 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 97 Points
Preface: Jen, give this 3-5 hours of air and you'll love it, now!
Been about 8 months since my last taste of this one....pnp'd into a decanter at 2pm. Initial impression: somewhat muted forest floor/herbal nose, strong iron pan, palate of bright, thin red fruit with a hint of tart orange rind and that great '18 tannic structure. A 91.
1 hour in and, boom! A nice floral, maybe rose petal nose. Slight amount of high end ladies perfume, a hint of sweet confectioner's sugar and the slightest of whiffs of the 14.9% alc. Structure has softened considerably, much faster than I would have thought, the wine has picked up some weight already, no longer 'thin', the flavor profile is red/dark red fruited with almost a MHopper meaty-ness to it. Love the umami character this is exhibiting and there is some great backing acidity throughout ensuring a really nice mouth watering ending. Trying to hold off on drinking this, waiting another hour for Carol to get home from work....I opened this for her, after all! A 93+
2 hours in, and it's that great Ehrlich experience I love. More roses and now lavender on the nose with a big dollop of vanilla, too. Big, deep, sweet dark red raspberry fruit appears. A dense compote type of fruit. Tannins are regressing, acidity balanced with the fruit/tannic components. Mouth is watering even more over the elongated finish. Love the complexity and depth developing now a 95-96. I hope what I'm seeing with this particular '18, is what's to come with all the rest of them in the cellar! What a vintage this is going to be......
3-5 hours in......everything is integrating and all hard/uneven edges resolving into a soft chalky, beautiful, fully together wine. The red raspberry starts turning into blackberry compote. The layers of complexity in this fruit are so much fun, and so good. Faint graphite starts to show up on the nose, the wonderful bead of acidity carries all throughout, from start to finish. Dare I say this might be approaching a 97 at this time? An early 93 and a late 97. The bottle is almost gone, but it was a lot of fun.....glad I have more!
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12/12/2021 - kendallgriffith Likes this wine: 95 Points
Loved the wine. Opened up in an hour or so - very balanced cab. One of my new favorites .
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9/13/2021 - #1Winelover Likes this wine: 96 Points
2-3 hour decant and this was ready to go. Dark purple color with quite a bit going on; including blackberry, blueberry and chocolate covered cherries. Iron, sage and clove notes as well. Throughout, I could taste earth, stone, mineral and graphite which was remarkable. Very silky tannins.
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5/18/2021 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 95 Points
Opened by HMC before our 5 Guys burgers......needed every bit of 2 hours to calm down. Tannins and fruit were pretty heavy but nothing like 6-8 months ago. By the 3rd hour, confectioner's sugar on the nose, beautiful red/black fruit and the typical Ehrlich flavor profile emerges. This wine is singing at 3-4 hours, just doesn't have the glycerin mouthfeel of the '16. To me, this is the purist vision of Ehrlich thus far. I love it! And I think it will only get better from here....
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4/25/2021 - AGELVIS wrote: 92 Points
PNP. Deep dark magenta color. Great fruit and oak treatment on the nose, but it’s very wound up. Smooth, dry palate. Full tannins on the longish finish.
This needs time, but is certainly going to be very nice. This was also the 7th or 8th wine in my awesome tasting....
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10/20/2020 - Be.Lee wrote: 91 Points
Tasted at winery
This wine has potential for sure. If Star vineyard is like Fey, then this is like SLV. Bolder and darker fruit. Yet, at infancy, and couldn't compare with Star. I will defer to Mark regarding when this wine should be opened, but as it it was, it was ok.
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10/10/2020 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 Points
Well, I quadruple splash decanted this bottle to see if it would make a difference vs the bottle I had 2 weeks ago where I just coravined and drank. It did in the mouthfeel and the drinkability, it did not on the overall score. Both bottles are a 96. This bottle softened the sharp tannins and leveled the acidity a bit but the fruit, that awesome Ehrlich fruit is so dark, much like the '13 rendition. I think we will find in the end that the '13s and the '18s are probably the most incredibly structured wines of the past 15 years in Napa, and maybe ever. This wine continued to get better and better as the evening wore on and at 5 hours of air time and after the quadruple decant, the last glass was still going strong. I think there is some serious aging potential here with this one. Acidity and tannins still representing quite the structure and the fruit does not take a back seat. All 3 components are equally represented here. Very, very good wine.....but still not in balance yet! And may not be for a while as per my first note 2 weeks ago. Still, I can overlook balance when the components are this good. HMC's WOTN......maybe mine, too.
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9/24/2020 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 Points
Wow......tasted this at the Estate in Napa a few weeks ago but didn't take any formal notes. Coravined a glass off one of my bottles tonight after dinner and, whoa! Beautiful dark magenta in the glass, lead pencil nose initially but after an hour or two there's a little shoe polish component to it. In the mouth this is dense, dark fruit with wonderful acidity and bags of tannins and loads of structure! Mouthcoating from top to bottom as Jenmermaidia alludes to in her review. Oak flavors in the mouth are reminiscent of an early Silver Oak Alexander Valley and also a little over the top like the tannins. This wine is a hedonists dream drink but it is too young and out of balance right now to be at it's peak. Nonetheless, I am giving it a 96 and I firmly believe the potential is here for a 98, easy.......if this all comes together. When will that day be? I have no idea....6 mo? 12 mo? 18 mo? I don't personally have any prior experience with a vintage like this '18 vintage. This is not a 4 cylinder Hyundai vintage......this is a 12 cylinder Ferrari 812 Superfast vintage in many ways. We'll have to wait and see how/when it finally kicks into gear and goes cruising down that Autobahn effortlessly at 211 mph...........wow!
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8/8/2020 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine:
This is going to be sooooooooo good. I knew I was opening way too soon as these were just bottled, but I couldn’t help it (picking up bad habits from Mark1npt). It has the vibrancy and ripe fruit of 2016, with much more backbone and structure. Started off a bit grapey, but developed more layers after 3+ hours of air. Tannins were mouthcoattting and chalky. Drinkable on day 1 if you like big tannins, they took a bitter turn on day two but that didn’t stop me from happily finishing the glass. Too soon to rate, needs time to settle down but this is going to be a good one.
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