2013 Bryant Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Community Tasting Notes (6) Avg Score: 95.4 points

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  5/20/2023 - napasoutherner wrote: 91 Points

  Wine is in a weird place right now. Had a lot of “chocolate milk” and muted tones to it. This needs another couple of years to it.

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  8/12/2022 - Portland Seth Likes this wine: 95 Points

  WBW's note cannot be improved upon. My main complaint is the oak still stands out and is overly sweet. I'd rather drink Pontet-Canet and it costs half as much. Still I wouldn't kick this out of bed for eating cookies, especially as I didn't pay for it.

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  1/1/2022 - FoinZap Likes this wine: 94 Points

  PnP from 375ml. Color is a dark plum to crimson at the edge. Nose is black fruit, tobacco, wet leaves, vanilla. Palate is same, with a strong woody/oak element. Full-bodied, slightly bitter and tannic on the long finish. A bit of heat. Drinking nicely now, but not flawless and may come together and mellow as tannins integrate with more time in the bottle.

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  11/29/2020 - tcosgriff Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Garnet color with a bouquet and flavor of blackberry and dark cassis but still with some unintegrated tannins obscuring the fruit and marring the balance. These should give way over the next few years. This is probably the last of the Bryant Family Cabernets that I will purchase, as they no longer are wines whose price makes sense. There are much cheaper wines with scores that are higher. I did enjoy the many years that these wines were in my cellar and contributed much to my appreciation of life. Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse.

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  7/5/2020 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Nose: [55°] Sweet, ripe red fruits, wet forest floor, fresh undergrowth and damp oak. [58°] Spiced tree bark, the forest floor becomes more vibrant with grass, moss and brush. [64°] Earth becomes deep and dark with just a bit of vanilla notes emerging making the earth seem smooth and creamy.
  
  Palate: [60°] A blend of rich, black earth with red and blue fruits as a backdrop, lots of bitter tannin like spiced oak, branches, heavily steeped tea. A bit of tobacco leaves and a trace of bitter river rocks linger on the finish. There also seems to be a bit of incense (before being burned though).
  
  Attributes: Really dark ruby. Dry with medium-plus amounts of strong, chewy tannin. Medium to medium-plus body with medium-plus acidity. Good finish of at least 20-22 seconds.
  
  Thoughts: The fruit is there but is shy compared to the wall of oak that this is fronting at the moment. The main focus seems to be on the earth and tannin right now. Intense oak and minerals but that seems to be it. If this is going to need time, it's going to need a lot of it. There's nothing really here to indicate what goods it will have, it will have a long life for sure as the structure suggests, but what future it will bring.. I can't really tell. The only thing I do enjoy is the intense attack on the palate with what it does have (most likely due to its youth). It's currently like a wall of oak and I can't see what's behind it. Another 4-5 years of bottle age should help this a lot.
  
  After the 3.5 hour mark, it softens drastically and the oak dam begins to break as the dark fruits begin to escape through the oaky cracks. Soft, dark red and blue fruits. Rich, smooth earthiness with spiced oak. The youthful intensity calms down and dramatically smooths out. Seems to lean more towards the smooth and rich side but specializes on being soft. My apologies if I seemed kinda rough during the first few hours.. but that's because it was being rough with me. 95-96 (being kinda generous I think with the 96 but that might just be preference)
  
  Other notes: Bordeaux glass. Slow-ox'ed in bottle for the duration of consumption over 4 hours. Recommend a healthy decant of at least 3 hours if you enjoy this now. If you don't have time to decant, try enjoying it with protein like a ribeye or a NY strip, that'll help take the bite off of this oak-ish brute.. the protein might help take on the wave of tannin it has hopefully reveal some goods.

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