2005 Medlock Ames Cabernet Sauvignon Bell Mountain

Community Tasting Notes (11) Avg Score: 86.5 points

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  9/27/2015 - Arinbraghe wrote:

  God I just do not get Cabernet Sauvignon as a variety. Or at least, that's what I think now everytime I have a Cab-based wine from a producer I like, that fails to push my buttons. I popped this thinking that at 10 years on the wine would be grown up, if anything kinda shuffling into shapeless old age, a good quick-turn match for fancy burgers. Never pegged this as needing 20 years in bottle or figuratively flipping us the bird as it rode through town on its chopper, anything like that. Well, I was wrong. Among the other, mostly-desultory Cellartracker notes on this wine, Woodford's review most resonates with my impressions when he points out tobacco (there's an ass-load of it here) and dark fruits (ditto). Beyond that the wine is pretty soupy and unappetizing when first opened, and the flavors are aggressive and blaring -- the wine kinda screeches at you like an old analog radio where you haven't quite dialed in the station frequency correctly. So we backed away and bided our time, which helped this to civilize after about an hour or so but not the point where it would win any kind of congeniality award. Airtime did crank the tobacco notes up to about 10.5 here (we're not quite in Spinal Tap territory but it's close). The tannins are a bit too drying but the fruit's still plenty sticky, so the wine's oddly balanced in a 'two wrongs make a right' sense. Also, it's an academic point but the alcohol's listed at 13.9% and I'd be very surprised if a Cali Cab this brawny actually clocked in under 14.5% on analysis. I like this producer and what they've done the last 10 years or so in Alexander Valley, but this is not a wine that's going to convince any newcomers.

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  2/20/2015 - HWgeek wrote: 90 Points

  It is now nicely integrated - fruit is in the right place, easy finish, makes for a decent drinking red.

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  7/4/2014 - Woodford Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Open 1 hour
  Smells of tobacco & thick black fruits. Tastes of blackberries, cassis, coffee, and has a heavy chewy texture. Full Bodied.

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  2/9/2014 - michal wrote:

  This bottle was much better than our last one of 4 years ago. Certainly not great as others have described. But certainly not bad. It's just a good solid cab that we enjoyed and felt it was drinking well now.

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  1/7/2012 - Not647f wrote: 84 Points

  I know that the scale below indicates that 84 is good, but of course the real scale is more like 84 is at the bottom. And that's going to drag down the community notes score for this wine even more. It wasn't bad--I didn't pour it out or cook with it. But this wine hasn't come together and doesn't seem like it will. It's like a fruit salad in jello. There are recognizably nice elements, but they don't really get to be themselves. Moments of enjoyment, but no positive overall impression. Whereas a good wine should keep surprising the drinker with shifting, but good elements that build on each other. So there's some good fruit, but it shows up in the midpalate. Some secondary characteristics that come up front. A finish that lasts, but with flavors that are out of place and therefore unpleasant. After a day, the wine hadn't settled down much. I paid waay under what these guys wanted at the winery, and I understand why this was dumped at a discounter. I think they were wine wannabes who just didn't have the stuff--grapes, know-how, or something.

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View all 11 Community Tasting Notes

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