2011 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Estate

Community Tasting Notes (73) Avg Score: 92.6 points

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  4/5/2024 - The Cellar at 924 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Decanted for two hours. Dark red in color. Cocoa, currants, and tobacco on the nose. Velvety on the palate, black cherries, blackberries, sweet tobacco. Smooth, well-defined tannins, great acidity, lovely balance. Long finish, dark fruited changing seamlessly to red fruits at the very end. Brilliant wine.

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  9/29/2023 - Philip67 wrote: 91 Points

  Moderate fruit extraction, presenting notes of blackberry with hints of raspberry. Only slight signs of tertiary leather notes. Oak not obvious. Tannins are fine and quite soft now. Acidity is high and gives a somewhat austere finish to the wine. Mid weight. Medium finish, straightforward. Drinking now, will last for many years. I hope this improves and puts on weight as it ages. Will try again in a decade.

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  11/22/2022 - levinml wrote: 93 Points

  Surprisingly good given the off vintage. Nice balance, but a little muted in the fruit. But way overpriced for the overall quality.

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  9/3/2022 - jnewman77 Likes this wine:

  This bottle was very nice; certainly not a great vintage of Spottswoode, but very good for a tough year; the nose shows plenty of dark ripe fruit with bluebuerry and cassis, a bit of bell pepper and green tobacco add complexity and just a hint of coffee and wood spice; the palate has very nice balance, and good depth for the vintage. Not going to be a long ager, but probably good for the next 5-10 years.

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  7/7/2022 - Wwinowillie Does not like this wine: 86 Points

  A much maligned vintage but I am excited for this bottle a day before my birthday. Hour and a half decant before first glass
  
  Tons of sediment and medium purple middle with ruby and a very faint hint of garnet on edges. Nose is kinda funky with wet soil and possibly a touch of manure in addition to a brandy/port, eucalyptus, and very ripe fruit, mushroom, and a savory quality I can’t quite put my finger on. There is even a little bit of curry maybe? Definitely some spices and herbs at play.
  
  Mouthfeel is light and smooth, well integrated tannin, and a lot of the same notes from the nose. This is a bit funky in terms of taste, a little bit of the port from the nose.
  
  As it opens the fruit becomes more pronounced but it is very ripe, contributing to some of the funk. The savory qualities are revealed by the finish, which isn’t really dry but dry enough.
  
  At 2+ hours of decanting this is still not impressive, this is funky but not in a Bordeaux way but almost like a prunes and port way. All the other characteristics are fine, but the funky taste lingers into the finish and it’s just not very good or something I want to dwell on…
  
  Getting into hour 3…everything is beginning to balance out a bit but the problematic characteristics are still there. However this is increasing considerably in terms of enjoyment and the funk aspect is becoming more integrated. The nose is also improving drastically, almost providing a hint of charcoal that also becomes noticeable on the palate.
  
  Waiting for the steak to cook but this resembles prune juice way more than I would like. It also took way longer than I would expect for a wine with this kind of age to open up, and even then, it’s still not great. Still awkwardly sweet with steak, like port or overly ripe fruits with not enough background to make a difference. Now at 4+ hrs
  
  To give context, I just opened a lagunitas IPA and in comparison it is absolutely amazing and refreshing, obviously not apples to apples but…this was super disappointing for the price

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