2020 Promontory

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 96 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Rbhan12's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/7/2024 - Rbhan12 Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Tasted at the property.
  
  The story of this 2020 was they picked in August well ahead of the fires as part of a stylistic change (heading towards no new oak, large format casks, etc.).
  
  My first experience with promontory. This was very very good. Lovely complex fruit with fresh red and deeper purple notes complexed over some rocky minerality. Pretty weightless with good power and profound balance.
  
  A very strong effort in what was otherwise a tough vintage. Had next to the 17 and this was clearly superior. I did not perceive any smoke taint (persistent gritty or ashy aftertaste). No reason to expect it either based on pick dates.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comments (1)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View csimm's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/7/2023 - csimm wrote:

  A few days in Napa with fellow CT'r Cristal2000: I didn’t get much of a read here. It was so linear and primary that any sort of logical assessment was lost between the pucker and the frame. Sour cherry and sour cherry and sour cherry. The finish was severely clipped. No smoke taint detected (for those asking that question with every 2020 from Napa – which, you’re not wrong to do). Beyond that, assigning any sort of numeric scoring range here would seem silly to me. Always fun to sample and see what's under the hood here, but it's a mystery to me right now in its current state. Wait and see.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Cristal2000's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/19/2022 - Cristal2000 wrote:

  I have similar feelings to what I see in some notes here. Harlan is releasing a 2020 at all its properties it seems, which is an amazing risk. I can think of no other winery near its status doing so. If these wines end up with taint down the line, it will be ruinous for their reputation. No matter what anyone says, there was a ton of smoke in the valley well before harvest, even if by some stroke of luck they picked before the second fire (not sure how convinced I am of that either).
  
  The barrel sample was thin, primal and really not indicative of this property. Did it overtly show taint? No, but the finish did end on a bitter note, which of course leads one to wonder. No matter how you look at it, this will be a loyalty test for their list, and I am afraid I will not pass. If rating, not good.

  5 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (43)

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View LiteItOnFire's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/23/2022 - LiteItOnFire wrote:

  I have now had 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020.
  
  2020- interesting to get to taste 2020s (or 2020 as I have only had one to date). Hmmm are they going to bottle and sell this for regular pricing? I did not detect smoke taint but perhaps if there was, it would have been more interesting… better that I don’t rate this And no clue where this is going if anywhere. 2020 and 2011 are outliers for sure- it was unique to taste a 2020 so there is that…

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View WineBurrowingWombat's profile
  • Report Issue

  4/12/2022 - WineBurrowingWombat wrote:

  Napa Trip - Trying new wines and meeting new people; 4/11/2022-4/12/2022 (Napa): After hearing a LOT of people, including winemakers, say to not buy any '20s.. it's kinda like, "why did you guys make it anyways???" Yeah, sure this has no faults but it definitely didn't taste like anything other than red fruits and minerals. I know this is young and a barrel sample but man compared to the barrel samples at Christopher Tynan's, this just did not hold up. Excluding the Dom Perignon that was served first, this was literally my first experience with the Promontory wine and wow did it not impress. I might be going kinda hard on this for a noob, so forgive me.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (1)

View all 6 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.