Been a year since my last bottle of this vintage....pnp'd to go with Carol's lunch of homemade Bechamel lasagna. I think I may have missed out on my bottle of this one last year by giving it too much air at the beginning.
Dark purple, opaque in the glass. Nose of cassis, with a hint of forest floor. Palate is big and rich and energetic. Bags of smooth red/black fruit, high quality fruit, well integrating tannins and wonderful acidity backing it all up. This is going down very smooth right now. Nice long finish, too. This starts at the pnp as a 92-93, but with as little as 2 hours of air it's an easy 95 now, fades a little after 2-3 hours of air but it's basically gone by then anyway. Kudos to Michael Savaiano for making this one!
First bottle! Pulled from the cellar and decanted for 1hr before tasting. First taste…..extracted wine. How many punch downs did this cap get? While the tannins are very fine, the deep dark cocoa and dark cherry fruit is there but needs more air time. Aromatics of earth, eucalyptus with a sweet fruit core. More to come!
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Four hour decant. Nearly opaque magenta color. Coffee, toffee, cassis, cranberry scone, and grapefruit rind. Dry, satiny palate. Very firm tannins on the longish finish.
This took a modest step backward since my last bottle (6+ months ago). It’s dark, brooding, and well-built, but also a bit sour presently. I expect it to rebound and settle in at 94 or 95 points, which would make it a terrific QPR for a boutique Napa CS.
I believe this has a lot of potential. Popped it at 7:30 pm on a Friday night as it progressed over 4-5 hours it only got better and BETTER. At first it's firm an dense oak of grip like tannin's. After hours of air in the Decanter it opens up to coffee, ink, licorice and cassis. The nose also becomes more delicate from the BRICK of PLUM and oak you have on the initial WAF. I would recommend drinking in 2026 or after.
Two and a half hour decant. Nearly opaque purple color. Sarsaparilla, coffee, blueberry, black cherry, dark baker’s chocolate, and almond butter. Dry, satiny palate. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish.
This needs time, but is already fun. I expect some improvement in the coming year or two as the oak resolves itself a bit better. Mark1NPT was kind enough to supply this for dinner at Jimmy P’s Charred (terrific institution in Naples).
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Pnp'd into a decanter....for 3 hours then back into the bottle to take to dinner with Mr/Mrs Agelvis. Great dinner at a new steak place for us. This was jammy when first opened, but changed over time. Big acidic backbone to this one and it def improved as far as depth and coming together over time. On its way to a 94 by the end of the bottle and the meal. This one is still young and will def be better in another year or two....
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Going off of memory from last week as lost track of time. Drank over 2 days. Day 1 - quick splash decant; young but overall well made juice. Day 2 - shutting down. Overall good effort and great QPR which is both a compliment and an indictment on the state of Napa cabs these days.
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Tasted at the new production facility with Michael and Andrea on the rainiest day California has seen in years. I'm going for a lot of water and rain-based puns here so stick with me. Some not-so-dry humor. While it was pouring outside, we were pouring inside. After thoroughly drying ourselves from the walk from the loading dock to the door, we tasted through the line-up of 2018, 2019, and 2021 from barrel. Both the 2018 and 2019 had a plethora of black fruits but the 2019 was more approachable than the 2018 and was my preference of the two. The 2019 also seemed to have a bit more depth and more layers and just more balance overall. The 2018 was great too, just more of a tannic wall stopping the fruit from flooding the mouth, should hopefully catch up to the 2019's performance in a couple years, but I think the 2019 will perhaps pull a bit ahead in that time as well. Great QPR on these wines. No more specific notes or thoughts you ask? Well let me tell you why. After about 30 minutes of hanging out, checking out the new facility, and tasting...Russell Bevan (consulting winemaker) walked in and dragged us to the table to taste all of the facilities ferments and barrels so he could make any alterations necessary before dryness and to check on the barrels. Who would say no? Who could say no? Well about 20 or so progress checks later and a total of around 1000 grams of a river of sugar coating my mouth, all rational thought left my being and I was stuck with these notes. Spitting never works as well on sugar for me. The 2021 was coming together great in barrel from what my poor palate could tell at that point and also, some new vineyards coming online for the 2021 wines that should be fun. A real fun-soaked afternoon.
1/9/2024 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 95 Points
Been a year since my last bottle of this vintage....pnp'd to go with Carol's lunch of homemade Bechamel lasagna. I think I may have missed out on my bottle of this one last year by giving it too much air at the beginning.
Dark purple, opaque in the glass. Nose of cassis, with a hint of forest floor. Palate is big and rich and energetic. Bags of smooth red/black fruit, high quality fruit, well integrating tannins and wonderful acidity backing it all up. This is going down very smooth right now. Nice long finish, too. This starts at the pnp as a 92-93, but with as little as 2 hours of air it's an easy 95 now, fades a little after 2-3 hours of air but it's basically gone by then anyway. Kudos to Michael Savaiano for making this one!
2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (12)
12/28/2023 - WineArchitect Likes this wine: 92 Points
First bottle! Pulled from the cellar and decanted for 1hr before tasting. First taste…..extracted wine. How many punch downs did this cap get? While the tannins are very fine, the deep dark cocoa and dark cherry fruit is there but needs more air time. Aromatics of earth, eucalyptus with a sweet fruit core. More to come!
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10/19/2023 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 93 Points
Four hour decant. Nearly opaque magenta color. Coffee, toffee, cassis, cranberry scone, and grapefruit rind. Dry, satiny palate. Very firm tannins on the longish finish.
This took a modest step backward since my last bottle (6+ months ago). It’s dark, brooding, and well-built, but also a bit sour presently. I expect it to rebound and settle in at 94 or 95 points, which would make it a terrific QPR for a boutique Napa CS.
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4/7/2023 - Takeshi Likes this wine: 93 Points
I believe this has a lot of potential. Popped it at 7:30 pm on a Friday night as it progressed over 4-5 hours it only got better and BETTER. At first it's firm an dense oak of grip like tannin's. After hours of air in the Decanter it opens up to coffee, ink, licorice and cassis. The nose also becomes more delicate from the BRICK of PLUM and oak you have on the initial WAF. I would recommend drinking in 2026 or after.
4 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (5)
1/23/2023 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 94 Points
Two and a half hour decant. Nearly opaque purple color. Sarsaparilla, coffee, blueberry, black cherry, dark baker’s chocolate, and almond butter. Dry, satiny palate. Firm, full tannins on the longish finish.
This needs time, but is already fun. I expect some improvement in the coming year or two as the oak resolves itself a bit better. Mark1NPT was kind enough to supply this for dinner at Jimmy P’s Charred (terrific institution in Naples).
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1/23/2023 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 93 Points
Pnp'd into a decanter....for 3 hours then back into the bottle to take to dinner with Mr/Mrs Agelvis. Great dinner at a new steak place for us. This was jammy when first opened, but changed over time. Big acidic backbone to this one and it def improved as far as depth and coming together over time. On its way to a 94 by the end of the bottle and the meal. This one is still young and will def be better in another year or two....
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9/10/2022 - EM_MB Likes this wine: 91 Points
Going off of memory from last week as lost track of time. Drank over 2 days. Day 1 - quick splash decant; young but overall well made juice. Day 2 - shutting down. Overall good effort and great QPR which is both a compliment and an indictment on the state of Napa cabs these days.
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10/24/2021 - Cyclist Likes this wine: 96 Points
Tasted at the new production facility with Michael and Andrea on the rainiest day California has seen in years. I'm going for a lot of water and rain-based puns here so stick with me. Some not-so-dry humor. While it was pouring outside, we were pouring inside. After thoroughly drying ourselves from the walk from the loading dock to the door, we tasted through the line-up of 2018, 2019, and 2021 from barrel. Both the 2018 and 2019 had a plethora of black fruits but the 2019 was more approachable than the 2018 and was my preference of the two. The 2019 also seemed to have a bit more depth and more layers and just more balance overall. The 2018 was great too, just more of a tannic wall stopping the fruit from flooding the mouth, should hopefully catch up to the 2019's performance in a couple years, but I think the 2019 will perhaps pull a bit ahead in that time as well. Great QPR on these wines. No more specific notes or thoughts you ask? Well let me tell you why. After about 30 minutes of hanging out, checking out the new facility, and tasting...Russell Bevan (consulting winemaker) walked in and dragged us to the table to taste all of the facilities ferments and barrels so he could make any alterations necessary before dryness and to check on the barrels. Who would say no? Who could say no? Well about 20 or so progress checks later and a total of around 1000 grams of a river of sugar coating my mouth, all rational thought left my being and I was stuck with these notes. Spitting never works as well on sugar for me. The 2021 was coming together great in barrel from what my poor palate could tell at that point and also, some new vineyards coming online for the 2021 wines that should be fun. A real fun-soaked afternoon.
6 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (22)