This bottle, one of the biggest scares I had in my heat-exposed wine collection, also turned out to be one of the best cabernets I’ve had from California in quite some time. I sought this wine out and brought it back from California for a special occasion, but ended up drinking it right after finding my damaged wine. Popping a great bottle on a normal or crappy day is highly underrated! For me this was much more impressive than the 1986 Dunn Cab I had a few months ago because it was more integrated and seemed to hold together a lot better on the palate.
With this wine I found a nice confluence of Bordeaux-like aromas of graphite and mineral and great California fruit such as cassis and cherry on the nose. Under all of this was a touch of mintyness. The palate was extremely smooth and elegant, with tons of black currant. What struck me most about the wine was its purity and expression, a phenomenal feat for a 13 year old cabernet from Napa, many of which do start losing some of their aromatics with that much age. A beautifully structured wine proceeding from a very enticing attack to a full and multi-layered mid-palate and a velvety silk-like finish. This was tasting absolutely brilliant when I opened it but it had the tannins and the fruit to last a few more years.
Excellent to Excellent+
$80 at North Berkeley Wine Merchants
