Cabernet Tasting - '94 & '95s
Saturday, Mar 7, 1998
Results from a Cabernet tasting at the Wine Exchange in Orange, CA. For $25, they poured 16 wines from Napa and Sonoma. Included, are tasting notes on a second bottle of St. Clement, which was opened when the staff determined the initial bottle to be "corked." The bottles were distinctly different.
The wines, in the order tasted:
'95 Forest Glen Cabernet - California. $6.99 Ruby color, with a slight purple cast. Nose of cassis, anise and shoe polish. Good, if light mouthfeel. Satisfying flavors of strawberry and raspberry, but thin fruit, which is pretty much what cost it points in my book.
Aroma score: B
Taste score: B
Overall score: B
'95 Beaulieu Vineyards - Rutherford. $11.99 Nice deep ruby, with hint of purple. Slightly closed, with hint of leaf, cassis, shoe polish, and oak. Also, a bit of Ovaltine. Good solid mouthfeel, smooth soft tannins, long finish. Touch of heat at back of palate, but overall quite nice.
Aroma score: B+
Taste score: A-
Overall score: A-
'95 Pezzi-King - Dry Creek Valley. $16.99 Deep, dark ruby with purple edges. Slightly closed nose of cassis, shoe polish, black cherry, anise, blueberry, and cedar. Young, big, smooth fruity and very chewy. Some heat at back of palate, but wow! Very clean mouthfeel, excellent balance and long fruit-filled finish.
Aroma score: A-
Taste score: A
Overall score: A
'95 Frog's Leap - Napa Valley. $17.99 Medium dark ruby, hint of purple. Nose of cassis, shoe polish, dill, and anise. Very interesting. The wine has a nice entry with good tannins and a very long finish. Somewhat astringent right now throughout its ample mouthfeel.
Aroma score: A-
Taste score: A-
Overall score: A-
'95 Silverado - Napa Valley. $21.99 Medium dark ruby. Nose of cassis, shoe polish, strawberry, sweet sawdust, leaf or celery, beet, and oak. Taste of sweet cherry and strawberry fruit. Smooth and jammy. Lovely. Medium long finish, with a nice touch of stemmy fruit at the end. Nice work here.
Aroma score: A-
Taste score: A
Overall score: A-
'95 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars - Napa Valley. $19.99 Medium dark ruby garnet. Nose of cassis, anise, shoe polish, with hints of leaf, cheddar. beet, bell pepper, and tomato. Mouth is very tart and slightly astringent. There appears to be ample fruit, but it seems green or early-picked. Very long finish, which is probably its strongest attribute, since it manages to mesh everything together without overriding tartness. I'd have to bet that there is more than a little Fay Vnyd "fruit" in this wine.
Aroma score: B+
Taste score: B
Overall score: B+
'95 Joseph Phelps - Napa Valley. $18.99 Purple garnet ruby color. Nose of cassis, anise, oak, cedar, and blackberry. Very nice. Flavors of cassis, anise, shoe polish, along with good acids, fabulous fruit and excellent balance. Very smooth, long, and refined finish. This is a really nice wine for the money.
Aroma score: A-
Taste score: A
Overall score: A-
'95 Rocking Horse - Robinson Vnyd, Napa Valley. $23.99 Purple blue ruby color. Cassis, floral notes, shoe polish, dill, green olive and Worchestershire in the nose. Slightly tart and astringent, but a very big mouthfull of wine. A touch more sour than its nose would indicate. Possibly green or underripe fruit? A let-down, after the intriguing nose.
Aroma score: A-
Taste score: B+
Overall score: A-
'95 Stonestreet - Alexander Valley. $20.99 Dark ruby garnet color. Very deep nose of cassis and shoe polish with hints of dill and sweet tomato. Sweet jammy fruit gives good palate coverage, and a few years cellaring should smooth out the slight astringency still present. Long, smooth and seamless finish. Nice job, guys.
Aroma score: A
Taste score: A
Overall score: A
'95 La Jota Howell Mtn Selection - Napa Valley. $27.99 Dark garnet ruby. Nose of dill, raspberry, Worchestershire, anise, and cassis. Deep and brooding. Despite the pickling aspect, I love it! Huge jammy entry, with major mouth-coating tannins. This is a chewy monster, though the astringency seems to be in check. What a killer!
Aroma score: A
Taste score: A+
Overall score: A
'94 Beringer Alluvium - Knights Valley. $16.99 Beautiful dark ruby with garnet overtones. Nose of cassis, tar, floral notes, anise, leaf and tomato. Mouthfeel of very nice and seamless black cherry fruit. The tannins are easy on the palate, thought not quite soft. Very long, if slightly sour finish.
Aroma score: A-
Taste score: A-
Overall score: A-
'94 Grgich Hills - Napa Valley. $22.99 Ruby garnet purple. Nose of sweet cassis, black cherry fruit, and anise. Slightly tart and even sour on the front end and through mid-palate, I'm not sure whether the wine's acids are souring the fruit right now, or if wine will come around. Given Grgich's past Cab efforts, my guess is this is as good as it will get. Too bad, the nose is really lovely.
Aroma score: A
Taste score: B+
Overall score: A-
'94 St. Clement - Napa Valley. $20.99 (bottle 1) Dark ruby garnet color. Nose of shoepolish, mothballs, cassis, anise, and cedar. In the mouth, flavors of sweet raspberry, black cherry, shoe polish, and mothball. Nicely jammy fruit that fades into a mint or mothball quality in the finish. The story here is that the pouring crew decided that this bottle was corked. Think "corked" is subjective? Beats me. Maybe this wine was, or maybe it wasn't. But, the mothball was certainly less than seductive.
Aroma score: B
Taste score: B+
Overall score: B
'94 St. Clement - Napa Valley. $20.99 (bottle 2) Dark ruby garnet color. Nose of shoe polish, anise, Ovaltine, prune, tar, and chocolate. Flavors of raspberry, strawberry, chocolate, and prune. What a difference between these two bottles. Will the real St. Clement please stand up! I wasn't particularly fond of either one of them, but I've got to admit being puzzled about this wine. Hmmm, prunes and Ovaltine, or mothballs. What do I want in a wine? Yeah, right!
Aroma score: B
Taste score: B
Overall score: B
'94 Spring Moutain - Napa Valley. $29.99 Dark ruby garnet purple color. Nose of shoe polish, anise, cassis, tar, and a floral component. Wow! What an elegant, sweet fruit-filled mouth full of wine. Smooth cassis and anise flavors and smooth tannins. Just flat out delicious! Excellent balance, and long finish.
Aroma score: A
Taste score: A+
Overall score: A
'94 Mount Veeder Reserve - Napa Valley. $32.99. Dark ruby garnet purple color. Cassis, anise, tar, and a hint of dill on the nose. Very nice strawberry and raspberry fruit. A bit green and flinty toward the finish, but the sweet fruit carries the day and smooths out all the flavors well. Very nice balance.
Aroma score: A
Taste score: A
Overall score: A
'94 Dunn Howell Moutain - Howell Mtn, Napa Valley. $n/a. (approx $49.99) Dark ruby purple color. Nose of cassis, anise, tar, dill, and earth. Very concentrated nose. Cassis and chalk just completely coat the mouth in this expansive massive mouthfeel. Ample tannins are in very much in control. Hint of bitterness on very long finish. Always a powerhouse wine, this Howell continues in the same tradition. No subtlety here.
Aroma score: A
Taste score: A-
Overall score: A-
___________________
Overall impressions: another nice job by the Exchange. Although I found no A+ wines in the flight, there were some otherwise fine wines, and more than a few surprises.
I wasn't expecting much from the Pezzi-King, but it really wowed me!
This is a fabulous wine for the price. Also, I'd been finding Silverado
to be a bit excessively acidic of late, but this '95 is very well balanced
- another surprise. The Grgich had gotten some good press, so I was looking
forward to trying it, and was disappointed. The nose promised much more
than the taste delivered. The St. Clement was particularly strange. Two
bottles so different, and yet both we nearly objectionable. Hopefully,
these were abberations. Because, of all the recent vintages, nobody deserves
to get the '94 wrong. Lastly, the Dunn was a very nice wine, but just
didn't grab me this time through, probably for seeming a little too austere.
___________________
Here is my relative ranking, by tier and in order of preference, of the wines tasted.
'94 Spring Mountain - Napa Valley. $29.99
'95 La Jota Howell Mtn Selection - Napa Valley. $27.99
'94 Mount Veeder Reserve - Napa Valley. $32.99
'95 Stonestreet - Alexander Valley. $20.99
'95 Pezzi-King - Dry Creek Valley. $16.99
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'95 Silverado - Napa Valley. $21.99
'95 Joseph Phelps - Napa Valley. $18.99
'94 Dunn Howell Mountain - Howell Mtn, Napa Valley. $n/a. (approx $49.99)
'95 Frog's Leap - Napa Valley. $17.99
'94 Beringer Alluvium - Knights Valley. $16.99
'94 Grgich Hills - Napa Valley. $22.99
'95 Rocking Horse - Robinson Vnyd, Napa Valley. $23.99
'95 Beaulieu Vineyards - Rutherford. $11.99
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'94 St. Clement - Napa Valley. $20.99 (bottle 1)
'95 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars - Napa Valley. $19.99
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'94 St. Clement - Napa Valley. $20.99 (bottle 2)
'95 Forest Glen Cabernet - California. $6.99
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Mail & Comments - Eric Anderson
