Mark Flesher

9.3

First Disney wine. Starts off black and blue but then gets more red fruited as it opens. This is a baby. We are lobbying to have a bottle opened tonight to enjoy tomorrow. This wine has a great toasted oak tannin finish. Middle has medium+ density weight. Really nice bottle. Will be a 94 in 5 years but solid 92-93 now. Can't imagine what the WS Keyes Merlot tastes like! — 10 days ago

Patrick Derdeyn

9.1

The first one i’ve had that is finally starting to open up. Dark as night in the glass and full of rich black fruit. Mild acidity and still medium but softening tannins make this a good wine for food. This threw a ton of sediment, had a full half glass of dregs leftover. — 21 days ago

Brendan McCahill

10

Literal liquid velvet. Fantastic vintage — 14 days ago

Jim McCusker

9.2

Really impressive given its age, this is old school. Great fruit on the nose with hints of leather, this wine might be 17 years old, but I’d bet its got another 5 years easy given its tannic backbone. Very cool. — a day ago

with Vanessa

Jordan Salmon

9.2

Delicious zin from the top of Napa. Dark plum and chocolate with a great mouth feel. Could have kept it cellared for another 5 years, but it was a great pairing for some BBQ. — 15 days ago

Mark Flesher

9.0

For a 2009 Howell Mountain Cab from Steinhauer Ranch, I expected more. The last bottle of this wine was bigger, dense, more "in your face" blackberry and blueberry cassis with some complexity. This one lacked in this department. The front still had black and blueberry influences, but not as intense and seemed be a little bit red influenced now. Middle is where fig and date notes kick in. Rather simplistic. Finishes with well integrated and soft tannin. Worthy of 90, but barely. — 21 days ago

Mark Flesher

9.1

The other bottles need to sit for 3 to 5 years. This bottle is good, but this one sat with cork out for 4 hours and then slow oxed an additional 12 and still don't think it was expressing the way it should have! Blackberry and blueberry dominant. Stiff tannic opening. Lots of pepper in the finish. Great weight. Good backbone but not overly expressive at this time. Gonna be good in a few. — 7 days ago

Stanley Barrios

9.7

Bottled today. Great aromatics with a floral nuance. Lots of intensity on the mid palate with explosive red and black fruit and a great streak of acidity. Fresh with great density, but far from being over the top. Precision and balance delivering solid structure with a long generous finish. Delicious and satisfying. Looking forward to seeing how this wine evolves with time. — 18 days ago

Shay A

9.3

Opened a few fun bottles to celebrate my birthday this past weekend. Cheers to 31!

This is one of the better young Kistlers I’ve had. In fact, there was a lot of similarities between this and some of Aubert’s Chardonnays (which are my favorite), in that there was a distinct lemon cream note all over this wine. Soft yet powerful, there was savory sea salt and marzipan notes aromatically. On the palate, it was almost glycerin like with ripe tropical fruits (pineapple, guava) and some white peach skin. Honey roasted cashews too. I thought it may be too acidic before I opened due to age, but this was drinking really well. Long finish. — 6 days ago

with Luke and Cody

Daniel Lentz

9.6

Dark red/purple color, black fruit and new oak nose. Red fruit on palate. Big but balanced. — 15 days ago