In a blind of 2019 top shelf Napa Cabs, the Songbook held its own with beautiful persistence and push of flavors. The expansion of dark and almost lush fruit was immediate, with an open and giving…
I've written a few times over the years on this wine and it has progressively become better and better. Now a decade from vintage, the Stardust Heaven is in a wonderful drinking window. Black and…
From the Rock Block series, the 2018 Magic Nights is the latest iteration of this compelling succession. Black berry and mineral notes are beautifully weighted, with a mid-palate that brings on the…
I could cut and paste most of my tasting notes for the 2019 Songbook and place them along with the beautiful 2018, with the exception of the slightly dialed-back ostentatiousness displayed with the…
I love Tynan's take on To Kalon, with a serious cut instantly reminding me of a MACDONALD-esque physique and intensity that showcase some of the frame and fortitude that is sometimes missing in the…
Well, this wine is pretty much all sorts of astounding. Especially for a Tynan wine, which typically leads from the frame, this is an expressly gushing specimen. I'm not even sure where it begins and…
Serious business here, with a dark and gravelly profile that strikes both chiseled and black sappy chords. This could use another year or three to fully resolve and unwind, but with a decent decant,…
This is pretty solid stuff right here kiddos, with all the black cavernous fruit one would want, but it's gotta lot o' working out to do in the meantime. Structure, stuffing, and sophistication all…
Though knowing Tynan is the winemaker here might have influenced my mindset, upon first sip of the Songbook, I was instantly reminded of the Tynan MGs we had sampled earlier that morning (of course,…
Continuing to progress, and starting to kick out some optimum pleasure - though it is just now entering into a window where it is seemingly able to offer true flavor expansion. Locked and loaded…
Similar to my previous notes in terms of specific flavor profile; just more advanced in expansion and depth (since having it 3 years ago). This was a dark and concentrated wine. Huge black berry…
It's been three years since my last bottle of this wine. A slight bit of evolution in bottle has served it well, but it hasn't changed all that much. Perhaps a little more expressive and less linear,…
Time in bottle has certainly helped this wine come along beautifully, kicking out fascinating flavors of earthy black raspberry, black cherry, blackberry seed, black rock, scorched earth, black…
From a comparative side-by-side BTK tasting with this Cliff Lede, a '16 MACDONALD, and a '15 Purlieu BTK (which ended up being an off-bottle it seemed).
Turning coal into a diamond is about all this wine is good for at the moment. Tight as all getup, kicking out alcohol, bitter earth notes, and unripe blackberries. Why this and the other reds…
Unlike the BTK, Poetry, or Scarlet Love, I was fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) able to rate this wine with some semblance of disciplined inquiry and analysis, though a numeric quantifier at…
Take a PnP 2014 Cliff Lede BTK, breed it with a PnP 2014 Cliff Lede Scarlet Love, and you've got yourself a 2014 Poetry. Pulverized granite meets crunchy, bitter blackberry. It kinda tastes like…
Same as all of my other notes. On PnP, this was tight. Notes of dark black currant, black licorice, and asphalt. It needed about two hours to open up. With air, fascinating flavors of cacao, dark…
Similar to my previous notes. My last bottle. It was good, even a little better than when I last tried it back in December. A few hours in the decanter helped significantly. But even as I type this,…
Some of my previous notes apply, but this was indeed more accessible than six months ago. With a short decant, it was drinking at what I would expect to be close to its apex. It developed over time,…
Similar to all of my other previous notes. PnP was a little tight, but it advertised itself right away as a big boy wine. Balled-up black raspberry, black currant, black asphalt, and some bitter…
Same as a few weeks ago. Not bad. Not great. A good intro sipper. Had a little bit of a distracting alkaline tinge on the back end, which clipped the finish.
Agree with others on this. Wait! In fact, wait another 4 years. 2020 seems like a good time to see where this is, as it displayed extremely coiled-up notes of red berry fruit, alcohol, chalk, and…
