Reviews

Arrowood Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Rosso Vineyard

Plum and booze rush up the front end of the palate before they are consumed by a bitter green note that squashes the expansion of flavor. With air, this becomes a bit more affable, but it still…

Carter Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon La Verdad Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard

Baby fat popcorn, vanilla, red cherry syrup, mixed berries, and a slathering of sweet cassis, this wine is such a youngster that I am surprised it didn't come from a shiner or a barrel sample, and…

Château Beau-Séjour Bécot

Earth, dust, and bit of funk playfight with black and red cherry flavors; new kids on the block meet old school rules here. Higher in acid than just about any wine up to this point, but with a…

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…

Elyse Cabernet Sauvignon Tietjen Vineyard

Grape Ape meets Ookla the Mok, the powerful blast of blackberry cobbler and big-boned black earth flavors possess serious YUM factor delivered in a one-fist-clump of "here's your fat dollop of ice…

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…

Côte Bonneville DuBrul Vineyard

Ripe blackberry, bitter chocolate, muddled plum, rust (iron), and soil flavors roll soft and round along the palate, with a medium weight pause mid-palate before trolling to a fruity but slightly…

Realm Cellars The Bard

Unripe blackberry and a decent force of tannin and frame present good persistence if but a bit angular in its present form. There is a lot to like here, with a modern hit of fruit flavor served on a…

Tenuta Sette Ponti Oreno Toscana IGT

Blackberry skin, plum, and unripe black cherry notes are wrapped in an exceptionally dry and dusty casing. Much more dynamic than the 2016 Capbern BDX served next to it, but still fairly reserved…

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…

Château Capbern

Lighter and dustier than the previous wines poured, telegraphing Bordeaux in spades. Earthy cherry, great grandma's hope chest, tobacco, green peppercorn, and dusty plum push out all the hallmarks of…

Fait-Main St Emilion Todeschini Asteria

Plum skin, unripe berries, wild blackberry, and tart cherry all scream young Bordeaux, with the acid and structure really biting down on the flavors' attempts to expand. There is power here as well.…

Double Diamond (Schrader) Cabernet Sauvignon Amber Knolls Vineyard

Funk-keeee funkalicious front-end funkified fruit (like a BDX that got caught in a bayou). This has fruit like a domestic red but is overpowered by wet tobacco and almost muddy fruit to where I…

Purlieu Cabernet Sauvignon Teucer Vineyard

A powerfully ripe showing, with chewy blackberry and super ripe black raspberry flavors sloshing and washing through the mouth, finishing with absolute authority. Some alcohol on the tail adds to the…

Double Diamond (Schrader) Cabernet Sauvignon

Black cherry, eucalyptus, plum, and blackberry skin dominate the profile. There is decent tension, with a broad grip housing the flavor carriage wanting to bust out of the frame. The fruit power is…

Beringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve

A rustic and funkfied showing, with citrus rind and old dust infecting the "fruit" trying to poke through. The only saving grace for this wine was that it followed a 2013 Silver Oak, which was.um.…

Ghost Block Cabernet Sauvignon Estate

Dark plum, round and rich black cherry, sweet blackberry, and hints of soil, this was immediately identified as New World Napa (or an Aussie Shiraz posing as a Cabernet Sauvignon) crafted for the…

Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Creosote, funk, blackberry skin, and cedar. A wine to which I immediately made "that face" when I took a sip. A rough go here. I thought this was a flawed Bordeaux. Turns out it was just a terrible…

Kenzo Estate Cabernet Franc Asuka

Big fruit. Big power. Big Big. The drive on this puppy is super intense and concentrated, with a dump truck-load of blackberry and black cherry fruit that lap around the palate multiple times before…

Château Clinet

So...tight... and darn near flavorless. More primary than a Precambrian man's forehead. This has shut down more than Blockbuster video. Ok, enough of the metaphors. Let this be for... ever?! Or at…

Bevan Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Harbison Vineyard

A textural dream, with a smooth and enveloping mouthfeel that is Bevan at his best. The flavor profile is straightforward and fruity, with black and red cherry creme, black raspberry, and some spice.…

Arkenstone Cabernet Sauvignon Heimark Vineyard

Another outstanding showing on this wine, with meaty black berry, dark earth, char, embers, unsmoked cigar, and spice captivating the palate immediately upon first sip. The attack is strong but…

Realm Cellars The Bard

Much improved since my last bottle 2.5 years ago, this Bard is full of dark berry, bitter chocolate, allspice, asphalt and black soil notes that present initially as somewhat brooding and heavy, but…

Fattoria Le Pupille (Elisabetta Geppetti) Saffredi

Red currant, red and black cherry, dried cranberry, dust, cedar, and a whisper of earthy funk, all amalgamate into a classic array of flavors that, though youthful and slightly strict, are…

Château Troplong Mondot

Dominant spice and black cherry notes play Jai-Alai with a little pelota of dry earth and cedar to fashion a wine that is ready to party. but a party that is more about ice swan sculptures and…