2009 La Jota Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Community Tasting Notes (65) Avg Score: 92.5 points

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  2/3/2024 - devraj Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Dark reddish purple in color. Gorgeous aromas of dark cherry and black raspberry preserves, dark cocoa, graphite and hint of menthol. A full bodied palate shows waves of dark berry preserves, a savory note of tobacco and black olive paste, medium acidity, fine but firm tannins and a long fruit and graphite finish. This is still so younthful. Excellent bottle.

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  12/10/2023 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 96 Points

  From a magnum taken to the reception at Kala & Andrew's wedding. No hint of aging/bricking. Slow ox with cork out of bottle for 2 hours. Enjoyed at our 'parents' table over the next 3 hours.
  
  Notes pretty much as with prior 750 bottles earlier this year so won't recount those here. What was fascinating to see and hear from others at the 'parents' table, who are admittedly not consumers of fine wine, was how much they were taken with the nose of this one. I don't think they'd ever experienced a nose like this one. In fact, when comparing their two glasses, they noted how the house wine really had no nose at all when held up against the La Jota. The rich cedar notes, the florals, the still dark and flavorful fruit. It was light years ahead of the house wine the CC was serving. My only complaint is I didn't have the time to aerate the mag fully and properly. While the nose performed, the palate was a good 2-3 points under the last 750. Still, you gotta love wine that's made like this......Chris Carpenter is The Man.

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  7/26/2023 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 98 Points

  Final bottle of an auction lot from last Fall.....opened tableside by our server. The cork came out in 3 large/crumbly pieces, necessitating our server decanting thru a screen to clean the wine up. This bottle easily the best of the 3. Dark ruby in the glass. No hint of aging/bricking. Immediate nose of perfumed dark red fruit, graphite and toasty vanilla caramel. Palate reveals more of the same with a great velour like mouth feel, in perfect balance with just the slightest hint of cedar on the backend. This bottle started out at 96 and improved 2 points as we enjoyed it over 3 hours at the table before the concert. A candied dark cherry dominated the palate near the end. This was one of those bottles, just caught at the perfect time, with the perfect woman and enjoyed with the perfect meal, starting with mussels in a light tomato/garlic sauce followed by a veal scallopini/marsala with a great selection of mushrooms. This was one of those bottles, that neither of us wanted to see end......

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  5/27/2023 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Second bottle from an auction lot last year and the first consumed in the last 7 months. Pnp'd tableside and good to see that just as with our last bottle, it's ready to go from the start. Settles in a little further over an hour or two open at the table, no decanter. Great dark red, black fruit. The bottle is beautifully integrated and resolved all elements in balance. Wonderful Napa cab nose with graphite, cassis and maybe some forest floor? Thoroughly enjoyed with our meal, our wine friends G&L and the nice music. 95-96 again for this one.

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  5/26/2023 - gteran76 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Brought by Mark for dinner at The London Club. PnP and we were surprised how approachable this wine was in just a few minutes. Then about one hour I to the game it was clear that this was WOTN. Impecable nose, medium plus body and total harmony. Dark notes with sweet tannins and phenomenal finish!
  
  Very good representation of Howell Mnt!

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