2016 Black Stallion Estate Winery Cabernet Sauvignon

Community Tasting Notes (49) Avg Score: 89.4 points

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  10/9/2023 - smokingelk wrote: flawed

  It had gone bad. 😪

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  1/1/2023 - DbertCellar wrote: 90 Points

  Better second night. Sweet.

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  8/28/2022 - Muledog71 Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Lots of oak, starting to integrate quite nicely. A bit sweet in the nose and entry. Very smooth with a fairly long finish . If it had started with more structure and tannins maybe it would have turned out a bit different . I’ll take it for under 30$ though.

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  1/8/2022 - astifors Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Bold, a lot of fruit, a little sweet, compact.

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  12/4/2021 - forceberry wrote: 83 Points

  Aged for 18 months in oak barrels. 14,5% alcohol. Tasted blind.
  
  Slightly translucent and still pretty youthful, luminous cherry-red color. The nose feels open, very sweet-toned and pretty oak-driven with polished and almost cloying aromas of vanilla and cloves, very ripe dark plummy fruit, some cassis tones, a little bit of blueberry, light chocolate milkshake tones, a hint of cherry marmalade and a touch of allspice. Lots of everything going on here. The wine feels rich, full-bodied and sweetly-fruited on the palate with intense, noticeably ripe and somewhat extracted flavors of chocolatey mocha oak and luxurious oak, some woody notes of cedar, a little bit of rich cassis-driven dark fruit, light spicy notes of vanilla and cloves, a hint of plum compote and a touch of caramel. The medium-to-moderately high acidity keeps the wine somewhat in balance, but the gentle medium-minus tannins don't really bring enough firmness and structure to the rather substantial body of the wine, making it feel a bit fat. The finish is rich, long and quite sweet-toned with intense flavors of sweet oak spice, ripe blackcurrants, some crème de cassis, a little bit of dark plummy fruit, light cedary oak notes, a hint of vanilla and a touch of milk chocolate.
  
  This was still a very big, opulent and heavily oak-driven Napa Cab, just as it was a couple of years ago. For some reason this was among one of the best wines for multiple attendees - many commented positively on the "luxurious oak" and some even guessed this was the most expensive wine in the tasting. To me, this wine was anything but impressive - it came across as noticeably sweeter, softer and oakier than probably any other wine in the tasting and despite its big, weighty and quite extracted nature, it was still lacking quite badly in structure. This latter quality was only emphasized when the wine was tasted between two more structured Cabs (Dutschke St. Jakobi Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 and Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2010). I really hope the wine would drop some of its baby fat and integrate its oak character better with age - for my palate this wasn't a particularly memorable effort. Not particularly good value at 22,88€.

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View all 49 Community Tasting Notes

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