1978 Robert Mondavi Winery Johannisberg Riesling

Community Tasting Notes (2) Avg Score: 84.5 points

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  2/5/2023 - Cailles wrote: 83 Points

  30x California 1978: So many wines from this great Californian vintage at the age of 45 certainly qualifies as a “once in a lifetime” event. A few observations: 1) The quality was very high (almost all my ratings above 90pts). And only four faulty wines (2x corked, 2x over the hill/flawed, sadly those two were the Ridge Monte Bello and the Phelps Insignia). 2) The wines are ready to drink, the tannins have melted but the tension and freshness remain high - across the board. 3) There is still lots of fruit left and I was surprised how most wines didn’t show lots of tertiary aromas (find me the Bdx 1982 without tertiary aromas!). IMO, more than a handful of the wines could continue to improve for a few years. 4) Style wise, these are obviously quite different from today’s Napa wines with much less ripeness and more mineral accents. But hardly any wine we had would be mistaken for a Bordeaux in a blind tasting (unlike 80s/90s Dominus). 5) Best reds: Inglenook Limited Cask, Beaulieu GDL Reserve, Stags Leap Cask 23 4.5l (all 96pts), Heitz Bella Oaks, Simi Reserve, Stag’s Leap Cask 23 0.75l (all 95pts). The best wine overall, however, was the magical Late Harvest Riesling from Phelps (98pts).
  
  TN: Unfortunately, this was not clean, had lots of cardboard notes and was missing a bit of substance and weight in general.

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  1/28/2023 - sirpat00 wrote: 86 Points

  California 1978 (Zunfthaus zur Waag, Zurich): Grand tasting of 1978 California wines, mostly from Napa. Main takeaways: i/ surprisingly high quality on average for wines that were not intended for such long-term aging with plenty of primary fruit left, ii/ but within the detail nonetheless a broad range with the worst few suffering from clear signs of fatigue while the best showed hardly age, iii/ top wines were Phelps Cab Sauv (97), Firestone Cab Sauv (95), and Beaulieu George de Latour Private Reserve (95). Full list sorted by score included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Initially some cardboard notes which we weren’t sure was cork taint or just cellar must – but this appeared to dissipate hence probably the latter. Candid apricot, toffee, caramel and hints of mint. The palate had an unexpectedly creamy texture for a short while, but this couldn’t fend off the onslaught of aggressive acidity. This paled (literally) in comparison to the Phelps Johannisberg late harvest next to it.

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