2016 Spence Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Atelier

Community Tasting Notes (8) Avg Score: 94.9 points

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  10/18/2023 - I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Marvin (WineBurrowingWombat) Visits Minnesota; 10/16/2023-10/23/2023 (Jason's House): One nice thing about friends is that it is a great excuse to open up some nice wines! Today, I picked the bottles! We started the day with this wine, and it was every bit as good as I remembered!
  
  TN: Nose showed plenty of perfumed flowers, blueberries, and spice. Palate was glorious, with plenty of blue fruit, turning to red fruit with time and air. Also, notes of earth, sweet tobacco, some bramble, and toasty oak. Tannins were pure silk and lead to a rich mouthfeel that begs you to keep sipping. Solid 96! May get better, but so good now! No danger of falling off....drink or hold!

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  10/18/2023 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Cracking the whip; 10/16/2023-10/23/2023 (Eagan, MN): N: Dark yet fresh red fruits on the nose, a bit of buoyant blueberries, deep wet earthiness, damp tree bark and tall dried stalks of straw. With time, the aromas become like a forest floor a few hours after it has rained. Graphite develops here on the nose as well.
  
  P: Big blueberry delivery with well integrated deep earth. Gently spiced oak, and a trace of minerals on the finish as well. Surprisingly, the blueberry notes seem to make way for a dark red fruit flavor, with the same earth as before and a bit of underbrush as well.
  
  Dangerously quaffable. You can enjoy now and journey along, or cellar away for another 4-6 years for even more smoothness. Honestly don’t know if it can get any smoother than this.

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  7/22/2022 - I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 95 Points

  PnP - drank over 2 hour period....absolutely delicious! I love this wine! I did PnP again because I had lots of people over, and I wanted them to taste the blueberry, which is very dominant on the PnP, but moves to the background as other dark and red fruit open up with time. Nose is floral, and palate is complex, with blueberry to start, then dark fruit and some tar notes, then dark fruit with notes of red fruit and tobacco, then adding notes of sweet toasted oak. A very complete wine that is a pleasure for my palate. (Note: no heat...smooth, well rounded tannins and enough acidity to keep the fruit lively....easy 95+ for me and my palate! Bought some 18s....hope they turn out as well. Drink now for hedonistic pleasure (without a decant to experience blue fruit....with a decant for added complexity) Personally, I would PnP a small pour to experience the blue fruit, and then let the open bottle rest for an hour or two.

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  9/25/2021 - I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Open THAT Bottle - at Dan's!: PnP - I know...PnP...are you crazy! Well, aside from the fact that I am, I really wanted others to experience the blue fruit in full force, which is most prevalent on PnP! Obviously, this wine improved immensely throughout the evening, but probably would have scored higher if I had decanted.....Oh well, next bottle! Blue fruit and vanilla dominated this wine early on, then those flavors integrated more into the wine (although they were both still very much present.) Black fruit, tobacco, crushed violet and some spice, coupled with a nice dose of toasty oak. I really love this wine, and it will only get better, IMO. Drink with a decant or hold another 5 years (at least) for it to show its best...if you can resist the temptation! 95-95+ tonight! Thanks Mark for turning me on to this wine!

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  9/22/2021 - galewskj wrote: 93 Points

  Open that bottle - Jason chooses 2004 Ridge Monte Bello (Dan's): Pop and pour. Lots and lots and lots of blueberry. Sufficient acid, and the wine started to show earth and bramble after about 1.5 hours.

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