2018 and 2019 side by side. The 2018 is all wood chips and bitter tannins. "Leave these alone," is the best advice I can give here. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit concerned about the direction…
The nose hits you square in. well, the nose. with washed ripe berries and warm red licorice. On the palate, this is teeth staining and chocolatey ripe, with mixed berries and dark spice. The 2019 is…
Clean, crisp, and just what the doctor ordered on a hot summer day whilst kicking up dust and walking the vineyard rows in the middle of the afternoon. Lemon, grass, and pumice notes are flanked by…
With the Franc element seemingly providing a ton of lift, brightness, and energy, the Las Posadas is similar in profile to the Englehart in terms of fruit flavor, except more red berries on the…
This is my second stab at this wine, and although I can see why others favor the 2018, I may be straddling the other side of the line with my love for the 2019. I simply find the 2019 to be a…
Black cherry red and black licorice, Christmas spice and cedar provide a nicely medium-bodied richness; this had been open for 2 hours, which seems to be about right in terms of proper service.…
Whoa, what a strong nose! Yellow citrus and zest, stone fruit, lychee, lemongrass, and an overall tropical vibe, this is a Sauv Blanc with quite a bit of punch and panache. Certainly richer than most…
Primary black cherry fruit, slightly chewy, with subtle spice, rolling beautifully to an undulating finish.initially. The length is short lived, as its compactness closes it down on the back end with…
Slight poblano chili on nose with obvious funk. Ever so slight mushroom notes peeking out, but not so overpowering it becomes off-putting. Same flavors on the palate, with leather and green…
Funk on nose. No funk on palate, with a rounded mouthfeel and lighter fruit notes. Silky on the front end, but much shorter finish (compared to the 2014 served next to it). Soft and caressing…
My second go at the 2016 Quintvs, this time at home under a more controlled setting. A little fruity on the initial pull of the cork earlier in the day. I then went with a slow O2 in the bottle over…
Even fresher than previous samples, the 2016 continues to be a superb example of what domestic SB can achieve. rather, a superb example of what Maayan can achieve. Previous notes apply otherwise.
Smooth and silky, with a fully amalgamated profile that allows beautiful black cherry, currant, earth, and subtle spice notes to flow along the palate with Sinatra-esque light baritone crooning…
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…
Restrained blackberry seed, dried thyme, black cherry, and river rocks, the Lore shares characteristics similar to a 2016 Shafer HSS served beside it, but for the profile of the Lore being more…
A biiiiiiig daddy, the M7 is the most powerful and bicep-driven of all the 40+ wines served up over the course of three days. Having come off a tasting where the 2016 M7 was the belle of the ball in…
Rich without being rich, day one of this wine was fairly plush, pumping full throttled black fruit and chocolate notes out like a firehose. A baby Vice Versa M7, the Lail was unsurprisingly showing…
The roots (literally) and history of this wine are indeed an interesting lineage to follow insofar as the To Kalon fruit and the MacDonald connection. For that, I am forever appreciative to have…
With dark berry, earth, and a bit of sherrying (already?) permeating the profile, the 2001 Harlan is all class. Muddled black cherry, dry cinnamon stick, leather, and menagerie of tertiary elements,…
Smooth and slightly round on first entry, with the contours of the 2012 vintage showing a suave plane of velvety and flowing red and black fruit flavors. With blackberry, black cherry, saturated…
On day one, this was a blacker fruit and mineral dominated beast. I was loving it, but I was even more enamored with it on the second day, where the body really filled out and notes of earth,…
A perfect wine, and perhaps the best wine of the weekend. Black fruit profile (my favorite!), with dark spice, and black rock, black soil, black roses?!, black-black whatevers, bitter black…
Initially angular (surprisingly for a Colgin) and displaying some heat and bite, luckily this IX doesn't take long before it settles into a more comfortable glide. Tertiary flavors of leather,…
Plum, black cherry, and the sweat of a Vegas nightclubber, the 2014 Cariad offers a little rave succulence and opulence with a little parental shoulder angel sternness. More former than the latter,…
Tannic and drying, the chest on this thing is bumping and thumping with push, thrust, grip and clutch, but the fruit has a difficult time elbowing past the bro-code bullishness of the frame. Black…
