TN: 2001 Guilliams, Spring Mountain, Napa

TN: 2001 Guilliams, Spring Mountain, Napa. Decanted with an hour of air, this is firing away. First, the nose is not gigantic, even reticent at first, but it actually smells of straight Cabernet fruit - not always the case with Napa Cabs imho. No make-up here. That is a big plus for me. Velvet with a kick on the end in the mouth. Hey, a touch of acidity in Napa, bravo. Ok, it is mountain fruit, but still. No sense of heat. Surprising as it says 14.3% alc. Perhaps it lacks a bit of complexity, but, as I said, it is Napa. $40 at the winery back in 2003 or 04. 91 points for me, if just. Odd but pleasant accompaniment to my duck mushroom pasta.

Interesting coincidence, I visited them in 2003 as well, probably tasted (and bought, but I can’t find records) that same wine. Wish I could remember having drunk it!

I think I only bought one bottle of the cab (several merlot), but it did quite well after its long sleep!

Mine are all gone. I was there in the same time frame too. They also did a Reserve as I recall. They have since retired and sold the property. And I loved the story of the house- built from old wood tanks, dismantled and shaped, and for a time they had bee problems…presumably all that grape stuff took time to completely dry out.

An excellent Napa winery offering Cab, Merlot and I believe Cab Franc. Mine are long gone but they were a great value even back then. Big Spring Mountain fruit but always with good structure to keep it fresh. One year I even helped Shawna with the forklift while John was back east at the Hershey Auto Show, I think it was 2001.

What impressed me the most about Guilliams was for the 5 years we purchased their wines they didn’t go up a penny but the quality was consistent. A pleasure to do business with these people.

Tom

I have one bottle of their '03 cab remaining. Really good wine at a fair price and really personable owners.

Count me as a fan of their wines. Our first visit was maybe 15 years ago, and along with several other customers, we tasted with Shawn in the vineyard. At the end of the tasting, she said if any of us were interested in buying any wines, they only accepted cash or check, but if we didn’t have either with us, just take the wine and mail a check when we get home. Hard working, and trusting, people making terrific wines that age beautifully, and I bought a few bottles just prior to them selling the winery.

The exact same thing happened to us in 2004. Bought a few bottles, but didn’t have enough cash or a checkbook. Shawn told us to send a check when we got home… amazing.