I am already a case down on this wine, and not a single bad or off bottle to speak of. I hope that the 2008 can live up to this quality and price point.
I’m kind of suprised that I’m the only person who is not raving about this wine. I thought it was good for the price point, but I don’t think this would fool anyone into thinking they were drinking a significantly more expensive bottle as others have suggested, but hey, that’s just me.
Matt, no worries. I don’t understand how peoploe can spend what they do on Burgundy.
I didn’t think this wine was a blind tasting ringer, but it was very well made and tasty for me and to me, most Napa cabs disappoint on QPR. Of course, for $12+ship it was a solid qPR and well balanced. Did you save any for nights 2 or 3? Additional complexity for me then.
Interesting, this has 35 notes on Cellartracker, and sports a modest 87.7 average (even though it includes Mike Heyse’s 94 score). Only one other person besides Mike scored it over 90.
Not that this proves anything whatsover, and there is probably an extent to which people subconsciously score an inexpensive wine lower drinking it non-blind, but it’s an interesting contrast to the enthusiasm on this thread.
I’m going to stop by Hi Time on my way home and give one of them a try, anyways. No real downside at that price, other than the risk I’ll think it’s terrific and buy a bunch, putting me still further over my storage capacity.
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this wine absolutely needs some air. I don’t think it’s fair to pop and pour it and expect the same results. It’s simply (or really, complex-ly) a totally different wine after airing it out. And it lasted for 5 days; that’s absurd for a $16 bottle.
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I stand by my 94, but please note my scoring caveat included above that I add points for outstanding value/QPR. While I’ve not had a case of it like Bill, I think I’ve opened 3 now, and shared two of them with friends and family; some who know wine and some who don’t. It was consistently a crowd-pleaser. One taster wrote down the name and bought a case the next day.
Well I often find that rating a wine, just like a restaurant, can be a big mistake with just one visit. Having said that, I must say that my one bottle of '07 Educated Guess, purchased in Atlanta, bore no resemblance to those tasted by Tex and others. It was thin and watery with almost no bouquet, and not worth the $20 I paid.
I do trust Tex’s palate, but wonder if the production volume of this wine might be so large that bottle, or batch to batch variation, is a big factor in each individual’s review.
That sounds like a problem a few Spanish wines have had in the past after receiving glowing reviews from certain critics.
You don’t think they started see this stuff fly off the shelf and went back and whipped up another batch, do you? (like those crazy Spaniards supposedly did)
I still have yet to try it, but I’m looking forward to doing so and would love it to be in a blind line up. I like CT reviews, but this board is the upper echelon of CT tasters IMO.
Chris
I actually cracked another bottle tonight. Still representative of my first. So much so, that I am getting two more cases from the West Coast.
Have seen bottles of this everywhere but have not had it. Have no idea how he got “Beckstoffer Rutherford” since that must be Georges III (what other Beckstoffer Rutherford is there?) and fruit from G3 goes for enough per ton to equal the entire bottle price of that wine. But no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth. Will hunt this down and try a bottle.
I ordered a bunch because of this thread and have blown through quite a bit and getting ready to order more. I was a bit sceptical at first but people that have come in and bought it love it.
One guy came in today and was looking for a reasonably priced wine to have tonight, I suggested the Educated Guess, he was so excited to see it. He said he had not found it anyplace ![[scratch.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/4/42a16863a8714da3c1604419e3eb9206bb87aa50.gif "scratch"){kind=small}
and the last time he had it was in Tenn.
Thanks guys, I guess you aren’t so bad afterall 
Hmmmmm…I smell finder’s fee.
I actually cracked another bottle tonight. Still representative of my first. So much so, that I am getting two more cases from the West Coast.
Bill,
Were are you ordering it from? I would also like to order a case.
I got your finder’s fee, your beak is deceiving you ! 
![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
Got a case yesterday @ $15.99/btl from Vintage Wine on Miramar, just E of La Jolla. Very cool retailer with sweet prices for those with access to SD area. Very nice fellow named John Lindsay showed me around his store yesterday and I got some 08 Chablis and 09 Beaujolais too. He told me he has been blowing thru Educated Guess and his customers were uniformly pleased with the wine.
I bought a bottle and tried it over 3 days (it was definitely better the 2nd day). For me the American oak (too much) kind of ruins it for me. Maybe in 2-3 years it will be better (gonna pick up 2 bottles and store it). With 25,000 cased produced there should be plenty to go around for everyone who loves it.
Think Jerry would have liked it?
A few thoughts…
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Peter Simpson: There’s no way one could describe what I had as thin and watery. Aside from different batches or low level TCA stripping the fruit, I’m at a loss to think of how a bottle could be described like that.
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This isn’t a 94 point wine objectively (unlike MIke H I don’t adjust for price/value). This is a solid 90-91 points. Maybe 92. That is, for me, it makes it solidly into the Outstanding category, but just.
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The Beckstoffer isn’t actually listed on the datasheet. it might well be there but be a small percentage of the blend.
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I wonder if people react to things like American oak because the know it’s there or because of the flavors. No way to answer that of course. Same issue with the 'there’s Beckstoffer fruit here!" Does the wine get a boost psychologically because of that?
I like it quite a bit. Does it compete with $75 cabs? No idea, I don’t drink Cali wines in that price range. Of course a blind tasting would reveal a lot… my personal bias is that very few $75 wines are really significantly better than $25 wines… they offer a marginal increase but for some the added X (complexity, ageability, etc) is worth the price. For the way I drink Cab, it’s not. For Burgundy… sometimes it is. Different strokes…
One thing I like about it, though, is that the supermarker half a mile from me has a bunch on the shelf at $18. I don’t have to buy cases of it or order and have it shipped… I can just go grab a bottle when I want one.
I can only speak of myself. I thought it had that funky american oak strange vanilla flavor that turns me off so I did a search for the winery and looked at the data sheet afterwards. I would place this as an 86-87pt wine tops but that is the great thing about wine; it’s a personal thing.
jerry probably would have liked it with vanilla ice cream…
I might have to adjust my score … but not the direction you think. Had a fantastic bottle of '07 Turley Ueberroth Zin last night (a 94 point wine per Steven Tanzer) and EG can easily hang with it.