2015 Fairchild Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Stones No. 1 Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 97.8 points

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  2/17/2024 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 98 Points

  I had this wine 6 years ago and it was completely shut down. Unlike most Napa sites, LPV is known for being temperamental so it's hard to tell when the best time is to pop the cork. On this night, I was thrilled to find it open for business with a few hours of air.
  
  One of my all time favorite Fairchild wine experiences. Only the 16 Stones 3 rivals it. At age 9, this wine is just now coming into its own. Gorgeous creme de cassis, blackberries, dark flowers and burnt embers on the nose. Tremendous concentrated fruit on the palate, this shows impressive depth and a huge frame, with typical LPV grainy, earth driven character and superior purity. It's at once massive and light on its feet, deftly handling the weight of its core with terrific freshness and balance. Finishes long and savory.
  
  I recently had a 16 Memento Mori LPV that was already turning linear, so it was nice to see what age-worthiness can come from this site when done right.

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  11/30/2018 - csimm wrote:

  Side-by-side of a 2015 Vice Versa Las Piedras and a 2015 Fairchild Stones 1.
  
  Both wines struggled to find much semblance of order at the end of it all. The VV started off heavy on the structure and grip, with hints of dark black fruit and minerality peeking out here and there. The Fairchild started off oddly fruity, lacking much structure, with a bitter back end and stunted finish. After about an hour or so, both wines completely shut down.
  
  A Day 2 revisit on both wines only added to the blasted and blown-out effects, as additional air had caused them to totally collapse. Best advice is to wait on popping the corks on these two for a few years. Neither is an apparent happy camper at this stage. Try again in 2021+.

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  11/30/2018 - Cristal2000 wrote:

  Thought it would be fun to side by side this with the 2015 Vice Versa LPV, since they both are from Las Piedras and have Melka as the consulting wine maker. Also because as of I believe the 2018 vintage, all this fruit will be with VV and Fairchild will no longer have the Stones 1 (or at least it won't be from LPV).
  
  Unfortunately, both of these wines seemed to be pretty shutdown. We had them PnP, and initially the Fairchild was showing a decent amount of fruit whereas the VV didn't have much of any. That said, the VV was showing backend structure that the Fairchild wasn't. As time moved on, they both became super linear and just weren't giving up much of anything. I would definitely wait on popping corks on these for a while.

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  4/16/2018 - #1Winelover Likes this wine: 98 Points

  Followed this over 2 days and it didn't change that much. Opened at 3pm and decanted for 2 hours at 5pm, and it needed it. Purple and black primarily with a touch of red around the rim. Dark fruits, including black and baked blueberries, and plum. Strong legs with nice acidity.Strong flavor profile from The Las Piedras Vineyard, including earth, mineral, and stones. Strong and long finish.
  
  For those lucky enough to own this, my advice would be to wait at least 6-12 months, unless you can decant it for 3-5 hours. It will get better with time.
  
  98 points tonight with upside.

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  10/5/2017 - #1Winelover wrote: 98 Points

  Wine tasting with Larry Fairchild. Tasted through his lineup and in order of preference and score: '15 Stones #1, '14 Stones #3, '15 Stones #3, '14 Sigaro and '15 GIII.
  
  The '15 Stones #1 was fabulous and probably will end up being a 100 point wine. It was just placed in bottle.
  
  Dark, rich broading yet a refined wine. It's silky smooth, purplish black, tons of fruit, glycerin and refined tannins. Showing smoked earth, mineral and graphite notes with milk chocolate on the long finish. The bottle did not have its signature Zinc seal, so the bottle looked naked.
  
  The Stones project began when Fairchild knew that he was going to source grapes from Beckstoffer's Las Piedras Vineyard in St. Helena. Since Las Piedras means stones, Larry planned to connect the dots. After a successful introduction to the market, the Stones project was born.

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