Reviews

Crocker & Starr Cabernet Sauvignon Stone Place

Purple plum, blackberry, cedar, and hints of leather. A smooth and fulfilling entry that speaks to a nicely aged red with the seeming ability to evolve into its tertiary flavors with poise. There is…

Christopher Tynan Wines Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena Reserve

A solid performance, though this was rightly outshined a bit by a 2006 Abreu Madrona Ranch (comparative side-by-sides can get crunchy, eh?!). Otherwise, this 2012 Tynan Reserve was true to form and a…

Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Elysian Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

2016 Myriad Elysian, 2016 Myriad Empyrean, 2015 Schrader To Kalon, 2015 Schrader GIII

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

This continues to perform like the molten mineral-laced black asphalt blackberry bitter-chocolate baby you all know and love. It's as flashy and opulent as LPV can get without sacrificing focus and…

Fait-Main Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras

This was an especially ripe and ready showing. Deep and dark plum, black cherry, blackberry, smoke, wet tobacco, and slate notes are delivered in balanced but gushing and plush waves of chewy fruit…

Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Elysian Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

I wrote quite extensively on my experiences with the 2020 Myriad barrel samples back in March 2021, so I'll focus these most recent notes straight toward the issue everyone is likely concerned about.…

Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

I wrote quite extensively on my experiences with the 2020 Myriad barrel samples back in March 2021, so I'll focus these most recent notes straight toward the issue everyone is likely concerned about.…

D.R. Stephens Cabernet Sauvignon Moose Valley Vineyard

Notable hits of grip and energy set off plum and fig notes that are wrapped in a surprising amount of acidity, which work exceptionally well to catapult the additional black cherry, earth, faint…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon BBS Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

If you dig LPV, then it's hard to do better than the Vice Versa BBS in 2016. It's got the gravel and rock you've come to love; it's got the fittingly Halloween-ish haunting black fruit; it's got a…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

Ya this is pretty darn good juice right here. There was a 2016 Vice Versa LPV BBS that was thrown into the mix too, so of course my palate preference instantly gravitated to the LPV. That said, there…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon BBS Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

Warning Will Robinson! Warning! We are shut down for business here. LPV has done it again. Caution. Crime Scene. Do Not Cross. Back away. Nothing to see here.

B Cellars Cabernet Franc Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

Coming off a bit heavy handed and blown out for the first hour or so, this bottle needed significant air to start coming into form. Ripe red and purple berry and plum are washed with spice and…

Bevan Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

Holy shirtless Vladimir Putin on a Clydesdale! What sort of wicked concoction from the entrails of Hades hath been presented before me here? If Chris Hemsworth was a Starbucks barista in charge of…

Unwritten Cabernet Sauvignon Lewelling Ranch

Sweet and ripe black cherry, raspberry, and blackberry notes finish with a slight green funk note. Pyrazine? Something else? Not sure. This presented as modern but really young, and perhaps a wine…

Ovid Hexameter

Following a 2019 Bevan Crane, which has the potency of a barrel sample aged for 21 years in the Atacama Desert, this wine was a harder read. The mid-palate was a bit hollow and the fruit somewhat…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

Pouring a dark purple-black color, with a nose that instantly rockets up the nostrils with fresh wet muddled black cherries and wild blackberry aromas, the 2016 Vice Versa LPV lets you know way ahead…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon BBS Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

Of the three 2015 Vice Versas consumed this night for the dinner portion of the event, the Crane was.wait for it. the most fruit-forward of the three. It starts out a little hollow and plummy, but…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

I've played around with this wine here and there over the last few years and I am always a little circumspect about predicting how it is going to perform. LPV in general can shut down throughout…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

The first time I sampled the 2019 Crane back in April, it was surprisingly shut down and playing coy. Well, it's done hiding in the corner and waiting to be asked to dance. This sample was exactly…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

This is round #2 with the 2019 LPV since my last sampling it back in April. Once again, it is unquestionably the star of the show. This is the best LPV Vice Versa has ever produced and is…

Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

Three 2016 Myriads: GIII, Empyrean, Crane.

Christopher Tynan Wines Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena Reserve

12/2019 since my last bottle. This is performing like a champ, but it needs a decent amount of air to truly unlock the complexities it is otherwise coveting. In fact, I imagine this wine will be…

Bevan Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

If you know Bevan and you know Crane, then this inaugural interpretation of the lauded site won't come as any surprise. Big, deep, concentrated, intense, and all those other Schwarzenegger-type…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon BBS Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard

I've written quite a bit here already, so I won't go too in-depth specifically on this wine. This was full of depth and flavor expansion from the very beginning. Ripe and rich, but not too sweet…

Vice Versa Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

Not as stubborn as the last time I had this wine 2.5 years ago, but still somewhat disinclined to fan out and show its full flavor potential, the 2015 VV LPV is going to be a slow burn of a wine…