Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

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!

A dark sweaty and intense front end. Profound and intense fruit with tobacco and iodine Really good.

Lovely gnarly stuff. Deep savory fruit. Still clear and intense. Some floral notes at the end with a succulent saline quality. Just spectacular.

Plum. Leather, a whiff of butterscotch. Great balance and some blue flower notes. Fading a bit but very good

Corked. Bummer. Great fruit underneath.

Finally lost my Heitz MV virginity. One word, wow. The mint-eucalyptus was there on the nose. A very powerful wine that smelled powerful and tasted powerful. Besides the mint , hints of earth & cigar notes but clearly in the background. I was having a hard time trying to grasp how youthful and balanced the wine was on the palate. I found the fruit was on the darker side with lingering tannins. I left this in the decanter for three days. The nose really never diminished, the palate grudgingly. If I had to nitpick I felt it was lacking some of the complexity that I would have expected at this stage.

#AgedWineTuesday

Ruby in color with a wide brick rim.

Wonderful nose with plenty of fruits, earth notes and chocolates.

Medium plus in body with medium acidity.

Dry on the palate with great complexity.

Showing blackberries, black currants, cooked plums, cedar, tobacco leaf, light vanilla, earth, spices, leather, chocolates, coffee, peppercorn and licorice.

Medium in length on the finish, with no tannins at all.

This 45 year old is delicious now. Might not be at its peak anymore, but it is still gorgeous.

Still showing lots of fruits with great complexity and a soft mouth feel. Elegant and fruit forward. Really nice.

I've had a few vintages of this wine and it is always nice to drink this kind of wines.

Thank you John for sharing this with me.

Didn't last too long, and started declining after 45 minutes of airtime.

Paired beautifully with a nice piece of fillet.

13% alcohol by volume.

93 points.

$750.

Band aid, intense fruit, sappy almost. Surprisingly vital

A whiff of menthol. Violets and plum. Lovely stuff

Lifted and a bit tangy. Gorgeous pure fruit. Very long, garrigue. Delicious