Neil Valenzuela

9.6

Deep purple color. Aromas of blackberry, dried herbs, leather and tobacco. Perfect Cab! Full bodied, loads of black fruit and oak on the palate.

🏅95 Points - Robert Parker
🏅95 Points - Decanter
🏅94 Points - James Suckling — 3 months ago

Craig Marino

9.2

Light and very drinkable. Not strong on the hops, not bitter and no sweet malt taste — 4 years ago

Severn Goodwin

9.4

Just concluded our annual Fall seclusion at our cabin in the Rangeley lakes region of Maine, mobile service up there is mostly non-existent, after several days I am posting again. Notes are somewhat brief, as my focus is relaxing and watching the Common Loons swimming and diving in the cove in front of our camp.

Nose has old leather, semi-dried plum, ripe blackberry, mashed black cherry, over-ripe plum and mild oak, dried (unsweetened) cranberry and trailing washed (whole) green pepper notes.
Palate has ripe plum, ripe blackberry, cedar plank, dried cherry, dried raspberry with still noticeable tannins. This bottle will easily hold another 10+ years, future bottles can be 2025+ without concern.

Blend is Bordeaux in its style. I believe this bottling was started in the early 2000's (01/02) when FAW was doing a multi-vintage blend across their two top vineyards, Bosche and Sycamore. I cannot seem to find my winery notes on this 2005 bottle to confirm percentages or varietal distribution.

I'm pretty certain this is the second, named vintage of the Josephine red blend, we also have 2004, but it's safely out of my hands on our off-site storage. — 5 years ago

Ed Chin

9.2

Nice texture and fruit. Well balanced with some tertiary notes just coming in to play. Really good finish. — 7 months ago

Severn Goodwin

9.2

Nose has ripe blackberry, medium roast coffee grounds, tannic black cherry, crushed milk chocolate, sliced red pepper, tanned black leather and ripe plum skin.

Palate has ripe blackberry, plum, milk chocolate chips, mild new oak, black currant and red clay pottery. Mild tannins are becoming integrated. Decanted 6H.

We enjoyed this bottle with mesquite smoked chuck steaks from a local farmer (Kinderhook Farm; Valatie, NY), cooked slow and low. Manage your temperature and you'll never be disappointed, on the grill for almost 25+minutes, but beautifully medium-rare.

FAW is a staple producer in our cellar, but generally I do not touch anything until at least a 10-12Y birthday. A one off bottle purchase from Costco ($40) so that I can check in on bottles we're waiting on.

75.8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16.2% Merlot, 4.0% Malbec, 3% Petit Verdot, 1% Cabernet Franc.
Sourced from Bosché Vineyard, Keyes Vineyard, Oakville Vineyard, Stagecoach Vineyard & Sycamore Vineyard.

++++++

FYI, new-ish trending algorithm on Delectable only pushes wines to the feed which can be purchased through Delectable/Banquet. Kind of a 'fake news' feed of the actual popularity on wines in the platform, but what do I know?! I figured since this bottle 'trended' with no likes as of this commentary, I'd let everyone know. I generally don't drink wines that are available via Banquet registered purveyors, since most of our wines are unique or older. Same with 'Tasting Notes: Weeky Roundup' so be aware. Enjoy this tidbit of knowledge, community. 🤗 My soapbox. — 4 years ago

Severn Goodwin

9.2

OMG so fruity for a Freemark Cab., but this is Mt. Veeder, so my benchmark for 5+ year old FAW is out the window. Being accustomed to the NV, Bosché or Sycamore styles, this is a departure, very little oak present, color is so damn purple/dark voilet it's crazy, almost like any CA-based port you might come across. Stunned this is FAW, such a different style, but in a very good way. — 7 years ago

Sarah Nally

9.5

Really good, full fruity body, smooth. — a year ago

Tom Garland

9.4

Cabernet retrospective tasting: with Jay Fletcher, MS...Donald Patz, winemaker...Ashley Houseman, MS.

2017 secret door, St Helena
2014 Secret Door, Lot: secret 1Z, St Helena
2018 La Jota, Howell mtn
2004 La Jota , Howell mtn
2010 Hewitt, Rutherford
2008 Hewitt, Rutherford
2018 Hickinbotham, Trueman, Australia
2016 Hickinbotham, Trueman, Australia
2014 Freemark Abbey, sycamore vineyard
2011 Freemark Abbey, sycamore vineyard
2015 Chappellet signature cabernet
2007 Chappellet Signature cabernet

07 Chappellet and the 2017 Secret Door were the BOM! — 2 years ago

with Brenda

Aditya Shrivastava

9.2

Great wine — 6 years ago

Stephanie Christin

9.2

Very lively bold flavors with pepper and full tannins. Paired wonderfully with Parmesan and dark chocolate. — 6 years ago