Not flawed as last week's bottle was. Enjoyed over 1-2 hours after the pnp. Red/black fruited with a slightly tart aftertaste. Balanced otherwise. More bottles to go in the cellar. We'll see how they play out over time.
Been 2 years since my last bottle of this one. pnp'd before dinner. Dark purple in the glass, red fruited nose and something peculiar, I can't quite place. First sips thin with light red fruit. Palate of semi tart red cherry predominantly the first hour. Nice balance with good acid and integrating tannins. Maybe a 90?
2 hours in and the weird nose element comes to the forefront, even more so. It's the very distinct smell of modelling clay that you get on your hands during art class. Unfortunately, it overwhelms the wine completely. You can't get any fruit at that point, it's all clay. I'm going to let the wine sit another hour and see what happens, as it also impacts the taste big time and leaves a very undesirable backend on the palate. 89 at best right now.
3 hours of air and the clay on the nose evolves to some kind of composting vegetal essence and it remains clay on the palate, almost turning 'yeasty' now. I'm beginning to think this has to be some kind of defect as my other bottles did not resemble this profile at all and I've never before come across a fault such as this in all my wine years. I'm stumped....87 or less now.
4 hours in, the nose remains the same and so does the palate. It just isn't moving or improving in any way. I put 8 oz in a sealed glass bottle to try another day, but not holding out hope. Going to avoid giving this one a score for now, due to its obvious flaw.
Addendum: opened the sealed glass bottle the next day and the wine, even though there was no airspace in the bottle, had degraded much further It was not at all drinkable and smelled of clay and composting, stewed plums. Down the drain. No score for this one as it's obviously a severely flawed bottle. My conundrum? Been drinking good wines for 25 years and never, ever come across a flaw such as this. Does anyone have any idea what it could be???
Deep purple color. Very dark fruits on the nose. Medium-plus body, medium acid, medium tannins. Very dark fruits, cedar, bitter cocoa, and licorice on the palate. Very good value for a Napa cabernet.
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What to serve with grilled Morgan Ranch ribeye? Boom, going Napa cab. It's been 18 months since I had the 2018 and it's starting to settle into it's early phase of the drinking window. I decanted for 2 hours.
Classic Napa fruit, cassis, sweet oak notes, creamy mouthfeel, dark and yet brilliant.
Wow, this is the best Napa QPR I've tasted and it might be 2x value. It reminded me, and the Warden, of Riverain which is very high praise coming from her because that's her favorite.
Deep ruby purple colored; nose of blueberries cocoa and graphite. Well integrated tannins Delicious dark fruit, licorice and earthy flavors. A little hot at first but over the course of the meal it smoothed out giving complex flavors with a long finish. Should continue to evolve.
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10/14/2023 - Mark1npt Likes this wine: 89 Points
Not flawed as last week's bottle was. Enjoyed over 1-2 hours after the pnp. Red/black fruited with a slightly tart aftertaste. Balanced otherwise. More bottles to go in the cellar. We'll see how they play out over time.
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9/26/2023 - Mark1npt wrote: flawed
Been 2 years since my last bottle of this one. pnp'd before dinner. Dark purple in the glass, red fruited nose and something peculiar, I can't quite place. First sips thin with light red fruit. Palate of semi tart red cherry predominantly the first hour. Nice balance with good acid and integrating tannins. Maybe a 90?
2 hours in and the weird nose element comes to the forefront, even more so. It's the very distinct smell of modelling clay that you get on your hands during art class. Unfortunately, it overwhelms the wine completely. You can't get any fruit at that point, it's all clay. I'm going to let the wine sit another hour and see what happens, as it also impacts the taste big time and leaves a very undesirable backend on the palate. 89 at best right now.
3 hours of air and the clay on the nose evolves to some kind of composting vegetal essence and it remains clay on the palate, almost turning 'yeasty' now. I'm beginning to think this has to be some kind of defect as my other bottles did not resemble this profile at all and I've never before come across a fault such as this in all my wine years. I'm stumped....87 or less now.
4 hours in, the nose remains the same and so does the palate. It just isn't moving or improving in any way. I put 8 oz in a sealed glass bottle to try another day, but not holding out hope. Going to avoid giving this one a score for now, due to its obvious flaw.
Addendum: opened the sealed glass bottle the next day and the wine, even though there was no airspace in the bottle, had degraded much further It was not at all drinkable and smelled of clay and composting, stewed plums. Down the drain. No score for this one as it's obviously a severely flawed bottle. My conundrum? Been drinking good wines for 25 years and never, ever come across a flaw such as this. Does anyone have any idea what it could be???
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12/18/2022 - timothynbond Likes this wine: 88 Points
Deep purple color. Very dark fruits on the nose. Medium-plus body, medium acid, medium tannins. Very dark fruits, cedar, bitter cocoa, and licorice on the palate. Very good value for a Napa cabernet.
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7/25/2022 - brigcampbell wrote:
What to serve with grilled Morgan Ranch ribeye? Boom, going Napa cab. It's been 18 months since I had the 2018 and it's starting to settle into it's early phase of the drinking window. I decanted for 2 hours.
Classic Napa fruit, cassis, sweet oak notes, creamy mouthfeel, dark and yet brilliant.
Wow, this is the best Napa QPR I've tasted and it might be 2x value. It reminded me, and the Warden, of Riverain which is very high praise coming from her because that's her favorite.
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5/26/2022 - Thomas D wrote: 94 Points
Deep ruby purple colored; nose of blueberries cocoa and graphite. Well integrated tannins Delicious dark fruit, licorice and earthy flavors. A little hot at first but over the course of the meal it smoothed out giving complex flavors with a long finish. Should continue to evolve.
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