As others have said, still a young wine in its life cycle. Nice to drink now with softened & well integrated oak. Plenty of young/fresh fruit still showing so will hold others for at least 5 years to have more development
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Visually, the wine was dark ruby and opaque with not as much garnet on the rim as I would have expected to see from a 14 year old wine. Cork was high quality. Gives me comfort in being able to age the rest of my wines for several more decades.
We decanted the wine and poured the first glass after 15 minutes. Wine was still closed up but we enjoyed how it opened up over the next hour. First notes were primarily ripe black fruits and coffee. The initial taste showed the same, but the tannins added a bitter dark cocoa on the finish. As it opened up, we picked up fig, dark cherry, black berries, toasted coconut, and a more pronounced dark cocoa that lasted about 15-20 seconds. While the alcohol was high, we did not get a sense of heat. If it had a little more acidity, I would have scored this 94-95. But it was balanced, complex, enjoyable, and I am really looking forward to reading my notes in 5-10 years when I open the next bottle (4 left).
Perhaps my kids read this 20-30 years later with the 3 remaining bottles and enjoy them together!
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Meat, sherry and mushroom on the nose, this had a silky mouthfeel with cranberry, smoke, leather and cracked pepper that is wrapped up by a pretty good dose of tannin and acid. Not sure how much it has to give. Probably not a $50+ wine at the end of the day. It’s always interesting to me when Matthews says drink by ‘25, Raynolds (RIP) said ‘38 and Gilman has it at 2075. Pull out of rear much?
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3/31/2024 - El Tino Likes this wine: 93 Points
In a great place right now, smooth, fragrant and long-lasting blend if high and low berry notes, with integrated oak. Lovely!
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3/29/2024 - Swintonblade Likes this wine: 92 Points
As others have said, still a young wine in its life cycle. Nice to drink now with softened & well integrated oak. Plenty of young/fresh fruit still showing so will hold others for at least 5 years to have more development
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3/22/2024 - WinoWemby Likes this wine: 93 Points
Visually, the wine was dark ruby and opaque with not as much garnet on the rim as I would have expected to see from a 14 year old wine. Cork was high quality. Gives me comfort in being able to age the rest of my wines for several more decades.
We decanted the wine and poured the first glass after 15 minutes. Wine was still closed up but we enjoyed how it opened up over the next hour. First notes were primarily ripe black fruits and coffee. The initial taste showed the same, but the tannins added a bitter dark cocoa on the finish. As it opened up, we picked up fig, dark cherry, black berries, toasted coconut, and a more pronounced dark cocoa that lasted about 15-20 seconds. While the alcohol was high, we did not get a sense of heat. If it had a little more acidity, I would have scored this 94-95. But it was balanced, complex, enjoyable, and I am really looking forward to reading my notes in 5-10 years when I open the next bottle (4 left).
Perhaps my kids read this 20-30 years later with the 3 remaining bottles and enjoy them together!
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3/19/2024 - guitarguy wrote: 90 Points
Meat, sherry and mushroom on the nose, this had a silky mouthfeel with cranberry, smoke, leather and cracked pepper that is wrapped up by a pretty good dose of tannin and acid. Not sure how much it has to give. Probably not a $50+ wine at the end of the day. It’s always interesting to me when Matthews says drink by ‘25, Raynolds (RIP) said ‘38 and Gilman has it at 2075. Pull out of rear much?
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3/2/2024 - EvoPeteMTL wrote:
Very evolved. Lots of mushrooms and tertiary notes on this one. I am not sure this bottle was conserved properly.
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