Mark Farrell

9.5

Deep ruby in color with slight brick color on the rim. Nose is quite pleasing with berry compote, lavender, and dark chocolate. Also a bit of earthiness. Wow. A great mouthfeel on this wine. Well balanced with tannins still a bit heavy. That said, I like my wines with a bit more tannic backbone. These notes are from pop and pour taste. Will let it open up a bit and will update if it changes significantly. — 5 months ago

Bob McDonald

9.2

Deep Ruby in colour. Strong earthy stony aromas with deep ripe plum plus red and black fruits. An example of a Hunter Valley wine trying to be like a South Australian Shiraz - too ripe and full bodied. “Clumsy” HH said when it was first released. Thankfully wine makers lately in the Hunter have returned to the old medium weight, savoury, “sweaty saddle “ style. Returning to this 2005, this is more full bodied and rich but the quality of the very old vines planted by Maurice O’Shea pulls it over the line as a high quality wine. The more recent vintages of Maurice O’Shea are of extreme quality (2014 - 99 points), back to what the Hunter does best, and will live for decades. — 9 months ago

Stefan Dolhain

9.5

2002 vintage.Tasted at the Château, showing very well at 4 pm The person who opened the bottle said it was closed in the beginning, she double-decanted in the morning. A beautiful Lafite from a forgotten vintage, elegant, profound and very long. — 2 years ago

Jenks

9.2

2020 Silver Oak at the sky club. Hype Napa cab, would normally avoid this like the plague but not gonna lie it’s pretty fucking good. Would I buy it? No. Will I throw excess miles at it, absolutely. — 7 months ago

Andy Stabile

9.2

My last bottle…
A few years back I bought 3 bottles. Now can’t find another 2017 on the inter-webs.

Soft mouth feel with a kick not from tannins, per se, but from a strong peppery finish. Just loved.
36% Grenache, 36% Syrah, 31 mourverdre…
After 2017 they jacked up the Grenache and it hasn’t been the same. Not sure the vineyard is even still around.

Was fun while it lasted…. — 9 months ago

Ericsson

9.4

Probably said this before: pound for pound this is the best Napa Cab out there. This vintage specifically is riveting: bright dark fruit with incredible acidity and depth on the palate. Balanced, round tannins, medium alcohol and notes of fig and cedar on the medium plus finish. Yup, hats of to this pretty little dear in 2020. — 2 years ago

Lee Pitofsky

9.3

Delicious pairing with duck. Reminds me of old Ravenswood 👌🏻👌🏻 — 7 months ago

Thomas Clinch

10

Peppery, cherry, cranberries. Rosemary pairs well. Duck, figs, pork chops. — 8 months ago

carl thornblade

9.0

A little green in flavor (as in unripe), too acidic, but had some elements of tropical fruit, just not full and ripe. Has potential but not the best. — 10 months ago

Gabriel Ramsey

9.5

1985. Synth laden moment. Depeche mode. Tears for fears. But I digress. Just opened this. It’s quite a structured wine. The nose is a little muddled right now but that’s because I didn’t decant. That said, after 15 minutes of opening in the glass the nose is indeed tannic cherry skin. Musty and such, but that fruit profile is obvs right up front. I would say that the same is true on the front palate. Cherries with immediacy and extremely full fruit. That is what drives my initial rating here. So rich and definitive fruit. Finish not real refined but it’s only been 15 minutes and this wine has just had the wires jacked out of it Matrix style. It doesn’t know itself yet. Will post some notes in a few hours to see if the landscape has changed. Cheers! — 3 years ago