Opened and decanted and drank. Just a small taste for me as there were lots of folks around. I found this very enjoyable though. Good aged Napa. More secondary and tertiary. Fruit mostly faded. But the type of wine that makes you think more of the bordeaux style which I like.
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Diamond Creek Rare Wine Dinner (Charlie Palmer Steak): Curious nose of coffee grinds, rye and rye whiskey, and some new leathers. Not overly expressive. Fruit is damp and mature on the palate as well as a touch stewed. Tannins are very grippy. A good one to drink now.
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1978 Big Boys + friends (Riverpark, NYC): Served alongside a 1978 Diamond Creek and 1978 La Mission, it surprisingly bore more resemblance to the Bordeaux. Green, musty, and clunky, the table consensus was TCA--though I'm yet to meet a post-1980 Diamond Creek that's impressed me.
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1978s + others at Riverpark: Others thought this was corked. There certainly was something to that, as there's a dirty/funky edge here. But the funk always stayed in the background and didn't get any worse with air, which is unlike TCA in my experience. There's some still very primary cassis fruit framed by nice herbal/olivey/cedary notes, although the green here is nowhere near as prominent as the LMHB. But the structure is still out in force, as the tannins are drying and the acidity is extremely high, so high that as this is otherwise phenolically ripe I wonder if it was acidified. Better with steak, which cuts the structure some. I would say this still needs more time to resolve the structure, but does it have enough concentration to last long enough for that? Compared to, say the 85 Dunn HM (also a tannic, mountain cab), which also needs years and years more time, this is a lightweight.
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Bought on release in the Diamond Creek mixed case; cellared ever since. I must confess that at times I doubted the wine. But no more. It was an amazing wine and makes me nostalgic for the 80s style of California cabs. Double decanted an 1 1/2 before drinking. Drinking beautifully but there is no rush for well cellared bottles. Unfortunately my last bottle. Thank you, Al.
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12/7/2019 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Opened and decanted and drank. Just a small taste for me as there were lots of folks around. I found this very enjoyable though. Good aged Napa. More secondary and tertiary. Fruit mostly faded. But the type of wine that makes you think more of the bordeaux style which I like.
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5/4/2016 - The Vines That Bind wrote: 90 Points
Diamond Creek Rare Wine Dinner (Charlie Palmer Steak): Curious nose of coffee grinds, rye and rye whiskey, and some new leathers. Not overly expressive. Fruit is damp and mature on the palate as well as a touch stewed. Tannins are very grippy. A good one to drink now.
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8/16/2014 - cooberp wrote: flawed
1978 Big Boys + friends (Riverpark, NYC): Served alongside a 1978 Diamond Creek and 1978 La Mission, it surprisingly bore more resemblance to the Bordeaux. Green, musty, and clunky, the table consensus was TCA--though I'm yet to meet a post-1980 Diamond Creek that's impressed me.
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8/4/2014 - coremill wrote: 87 Points
1978s + others at Riverpark: Others thought this was corked. There certainly was something to that, as there's a dirty/funky edge here. But the funk always stayed in the background and didn't get any worse with air, which is unlike TCA in my experience. There's some still very primary cassis fruit framed by nice herbal/olivey/cedary notes, although the green here is nowhere near as prominent as the LMHB. But the structure is still out in force, as the tannins are drying and the acidity is extremely high, so high that as this is otherwise phenolically ripe I wonder if it was acidified. Better with steak, which cuts the structure some. I would say this still needs more time to resolve the structure, but does it have enough concentration to last long enough for that? Compared to, say the 85 Dunn HM (also a tannic, mountain cab), which also needs years and years more time, this is a lightweight.
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7/19/2014 - senna22 Likes this wine:
Bought on release in the Diamond Creek mixed case; cellared ever since. I must confess that at times I doubted the wine. But no more. It was an amazing wine and makes me nostalgic for the 80s style of California cabs. Double decanted an 1 1/2 before drinking. Drinking beautifully but there is no rush for well cellared bottles. Unfortunately my last bottle. Thank you, Al.
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