Reviews

Hall Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

A messy diaper performance; wonky, fruity, and pretty mushy. Not much focus, with a one-note pile of ripe, flabby fruit. Sorta like taking a spoonful of raw Bisquick drop biscuit dough and plopping…

Honig Cabernet Sauvignon

Lithe, cedar-laced black and red currant, tan bark, and dry dirt. A little stemmy, with a limited display of flavor. Thin mid-palate. Bitter on the back end. Weak.

Switchback Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Peterson Family Vineyard

PnP was a tad tight and linear, but after a few hours of stretchy-time, it stopped being a wallflower and its flavors started to arrive to the party. A wine for those that don't necessarily gravitate…

Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

All previous notes apply. Last minute pull this time. Served in crappy stemware with lackluster food. Luckily this wine was a nice reprieve from an otherwise challenging dinner service. 92+ points.…

Outpost Cabernet Sauvignon

Same as previous notes. Not a sin to pop the cork presently, but giving it a couple of years to fill out completely would be most prudent. Ideally wait until 2019+. QPR is pretty darn good on this…

Becklyn Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon

PnP was a blast of an assortment of wild flavors. Rich cassis, sweet Amarena black cherry, purple plum, black raspberry, IHOP boysenberry syrup, cocoa, Milk Duds, vanilla bean, red and black…

The Grade Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Winfield Vineyard

Same as previous notes. Held up nicely over two days. Best after a couple hour decant after PnP. 93-94 points. Likely to level out at this point and start to gracefully age. Has plenty of life left…

Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon Lore Vineyard

Looks like I'm the outlier this time around, as this wine didn't deliver the way I had hoped it would, even in its youth. At best for me, it was in that 90-92 point bracket, and honestly that's being…

Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon Lore Vineyard

Same as previous notes, except that this never fully came around to anything that provided any real pleasure for me. I get the potential, but it is something that I cannot foresee delivering in a way…

Hall Cabernet Sauvignon Eighteen Seventy-Three Napa Valley

This score is based on Day 2. The first day it was a hot, alcohol-ridden, acidic mess. Day 2 it finally came around...a bit. Still, the booze was apparent; it never fully quit, on the back end…

Kobalt Cabernet Sauvignon

This essentially took 2 days of air before it really started to show its potential. Day 1 was a little hot, but still displayed a big, powerful core fruit that was certainly pleasurable (if not a…

Tusk Estates Cabernet Sauvignon

An excellent showing this go-around. Previous notes apply. This needed about 2 hours before it really started to find its glide. There was some decent grip and tension swirling around the deeper core…

Scarlett Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

Same as my notes from earlier this month. Wild and concentrated flavors, with a mid-palate that is incredibly intense. This and a '13 Tusk were tied for WOTN. The Tusk was much smoother (after about…

Hourglass Cabernet Sauvignon Blueline

PnP was a little tight, but it only took about 20 minutes of air to start performing. This is what I would categorize as a fairly standard example of what's coming out of Napa from the 2014 vintage.…

Bacio Divino Cabernet Sauvignon Janzen Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Vineyard

Revisited this after a Coravin pour the previous week. PnP with about an hour of air did this wine some good. Favored by most over a 2015 Bevan Ontogeny served alongside it. Decent depth and some…

Buoncristiani Cabernet Sauvignon

Same as previous notes. On PnP, it was a little tight, with some restrained black cherry notes dominating. But after about two hours of air, it blossomed. Deep, dark chocolate, black raspberry, ripe…

Pride Mountain Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

Notes of black cherry, black currant, and some spice. Decent grip and frame, but not super impressive mid-palate. The high resister acidic bite on the back end served well to cut through the rich…

Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard

All of my previous notes apply. This took about 2 hours of slow O2 with some swirling in the glass throughout consumption to really develop some beautifully deep and saturated flavors. Started out a…

Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon

Previous notes apply. Pretty much a snoozer for me. Some RM SVD's have promise, but this wine, even given the QPR, is super boring for me. Light-to-medium bodied, with a fairly flat attack and…

Forman Cabernet Sauvignon

Same as all my previous notes. A L'Aventure Estate beat this by a long shot. 92-ish points.

Buoncristiani Cabernet Sauvignon The Core

Exquisite blackberry, black currant, black cherry, bitter chocolate, cassis, and some tar notes. Concentrated but smooth the whole way through. Medium-bodied to some degree, but with a super smooth…

Buoncristiani Cabernet Sauvignon

Very primary and tight at the moment. Not astringent, but somewhat restrained in terms of allowing its core fruit potential to step forward. A little heat on the back end. Notes of primarily red…

Bacio Divino Cabernet Sauvignon Janzen Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Vineyard

All other previous notes apply. 93-94 points given the service (Coravin), with very little time to get some much needed air; swirling wasn't really enough to coax it out of submission. With some air,…

Lewis Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

A big wine that needs some air to open up. Coravin pour, which didn't allow it a true opportunity to expand its flavors or deepen in the way it should have. 92-93 points this time. I'll decant for an…

Seven Stones Cabernet Sauvignon

Similar notes as 8/24/2017. Classical restraint with a little bit of cult viscosity and ripeness. Not sure where exactly this wine is headed. It teeter-tottered back and forth between a 91-92-ish…