1974 Inglenook Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Cask D-1

Community Tasting Notes (2) Avg Score: 89 points

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  5/1/2024 - Cailles wrote: 88 Points

  23x California 1974: Do the legendary 1974s still hold up? The answer is a resounding YES, and not just for one or two top wines, but across the board. These best wines showed incredible complexity, with still vibrant fruit cores perfectly complemented by layers upon layers of tertiary aromas, a fully intact structural frame, stature, poise, and freshness. While many of these wines should continue to age well, I don't expect them to get any better than they are now. The top wines in the tasting were the Mondavi Cabernet and the Phelps Insignia (both 97pts), the Mondavi Reserve and the Mount Eden (both 96pts), and the Ridge Monte Bello (95pts). Many more wines scored in the 90-94 point range. I'm convinced that many wines would have scored even higher in a different tasting setting, where you can follow the wine over the course of an evening. Only 5 of the 24 bottles showed signs of weakness, with 1 of those already oxidized, but given the substance that could be tasted underneath, this is more likely due to weak corks or poor storage than anything nature delivered this year. All the wines had very good fill levels and had been quickly double decanted before tasting to remove the sediment.
  
  TN: The wine's aroma revealed signs of decline, characterized by dominant balsamic and soy sauce notes, indicative of oxidation. On the palate, it improved, displaying finer qualities of red berries, minerality, and herbal notes. However, the wine lacked sufficient density and complexity to be truly captivating. Despite these shortcomings, it still provided a reasonably pleasant drinking experience.

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  2/2/2024 - G_H wrote: 90 Points

  A 1974 Napa Retrospective (Zunfthaus zur Waag Zürich): Between 1969 and 1974 Inglenook experimented with different lots and released them as part of their limited cask series. As far as I understand they experimented with picking dates and elevage. But what exactly each limited cask meant seems to be lost, as I have found no record of that anywhere. And neither did other people around the table, even at the winery itself apparently.
  
  This particular bottle showed quite well for the first minute in the glass and would probably have merited a rating in the mid-90s would it not have deteriorated that quickly. It had some candied sugar, caramel, tobacco and unsmoked cigars. Unfortunately this quickly developed into the tawny port territory.

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