A blend of Cab Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc, and Petit Verdot, aged for 22 months in French oak (76% new). Deep Ruby color with aromas of red and black fruits, spicy notes and cedar. On the palate flavors of plums, currants, cherry and wild blackberries adding cedar and cinnamon. Fine grainy tannins, well balanced with acidity, long finish ending with fruit, cedar and slight mineral character. Nice! Tasting Sample! — 5 days ago
2002 vintage. Last tasted 10.06.22 (9.4). Similar "gliding along" impressions with feminine characteristics. This bottle (nice fill, cork and decent sed) was a goody. Decanted and tasted after 5 mins, 30 mins and 2 hours. Bit more structure evident after two hours open as to be a different, yet fantastic, wine. Funny how some of these underwhelming, less than aggro wines can take on another life of their own, on their terms, by gently removing all doubt. Still another 5-7 years-easy. 11.21.24. — a month ago
Super sweet and oaky on first open but matured up with a 3 hour decant
Still quite fruity but with steak, it gives a lot of red berry fruit and the oak is reasonable and the sweetness is gone with the airtime.
Overall good wine but I thought it lost out to the Paul Hobbs LPV ‘14. — 17 days ago
After 35 years I was not expecting much. Especially when the cork disintegrated on opening. Aureated on decanting and was happily surprised. After about 20 minutes opened to dark chocolate, leather but so smooth. The last glass was pure delight. Howell Mountain at its best! — 6 days ago
#AgedWineTuesday
Dark ruby in color with a short reddish rim.
Strong nose of black fruits, cedar, spices, chocolates, coffee, licorice, light vanilla and black pepper.
Full bodied and elegant with medium acidity and long legs.
Dry on the palate with black currants, cooked cherries, tobacco leaf, dark coffee, cedar, earth, dark chocolates, licorice, cola, spices, vegetables, herbs and black pepper.
Long finish with fine grained tannins and tangy cherries.
This 17 year old Napa Cabernet Sauvignon feels more like a Left Bank Bordeaux. Fruit forward with nice complexity and a soft mouthfeel.
Showing great complexity and delicious, but I expected more from this great 2007 vintage. I had the 2001 not too long ago, and it was so much better.
Nicely balanced and good by itself or with food. A good food wine too.
A blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot.
14.1% alcohol by volume.
93 points.
$350. — 8 days ago
2013 vintage. Decanted with a little sed. Great cork. Tremendous power and on the leaner side of the ledger...think bigg vintage Leoville Las Cases or 80's/early 90's Montelena or *gasp* La Jota before the Helen Turley fruit bomb intervention in the early 90’s. Drinking a little "hot" but only at 14.9% ABV. Definite palate-wrecker with tannins for daze. Will take this wine in their lineup nearly every time vs the pricier Pritchard Hill shizz. The off the charts QPR is easily tasted vs the rest of their Cab/Cab-based lineup. Awesome now but will consolidate even further into a wolverine wine. Be very afraid. If you're looking for a quiet, placid dinner for two, then a rom-com snugglefest, this is not your beautiful house. This is someone else's beautiful wife. 12.01.24. — 16 days ago
After missing a ‘70s and ‘80s Heitz vertical many years ago, I vowed to seek out a bottle as all the comments from the tasting were astoundingly positive. My last bottle of Heitz Martha’s was the ‘01 (which was great) a few years ago, but at 46yrs, this was quite the experience.
The ‘78 has a bit of a legendary status, so expectations were high. Upon opening, the cork was in good shape (sigh of relief) and the color was unbelievably dark ruby with some bricking (another sigh of relief). The singular signature menthol/eucalyptus began to fill the glass, alongside aromatics of red berry fruits, espresso, some sort of sweet brown sugar/caramel note, and a savory-graphite type note too. Beautifully elegant on the palate with more red fruit, herbs (bay leaf?), and even some pipe tobacco (subdued, not in your face), but it sports the classical old Napa cab profile that is pure. Spectacular wine, and I could simply smell the wine all day…the aromatics were so powerful the entire time.
Open in bottle for three hours and powered through the entire time. Wish I had another so I could have the same experience! — 24 days ago
"Odedi"
Deep purple in color.
Fruity and easy drinking right out of the bottle
Rich and extracted. Smooth and elegant. Showing nice complexity and balance. Spicy and entertaining.
Still young, but already enjoyable, even by itself. Would be nice to revisit it in 5 years. Will continue to age nicely in the next 10 to 15 years.
Robert Parker 92 points. Wine Spectator 94 points.
A delicious Napa Cabernet, and better with airtime. I've had many different vintages of this wine and it is very consistent.
A blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot and a touch of Petit Verdot and Malbec.
14.5% alcohol by volume.
93 points.
$100. — 23 days ago