2014 Daou Vineyards The Pessimist- USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles (1/29/2017)
Dark and Inky in the glass. Long, Long legs has me concerned before I taste. Blackberry syrup and alcohol on the nose. Palette of vanilla, blueberry and blackberriy syrup with a pile of tannins and oak. This is a giant SWEET , hot and oak filled mess. Not corked, just a poorly made wine, IMO. It feels over engineered and forced. There is no synergy of flavors. Someone trying to disguise cough syrup as wine. I’m puzzled by the other scores. This should be advertised as a late harvest wine because of the residual sugar content. Spouse says it smells and taste like prune juice mixed with Robitussin. No one drank it, Popped another bottle. (75 pts.)
I snagged a 14 Daou Reserve the other day from Costco as I know many peeps have said the regular bottle is a solid value…but the reserve was pretty rough unfortunately. Heavy on the oak and the fruit was way more extracted and fakely sweet than I was expecting. Blind, i honestly might have clocked it as a current Orin Swift wine or something in that ballpark.
I enjoy ‘bigger’ wines and knew this wouldn’t be a delicate flower…but it felt like they were trying too hard or something. Terrible value at the $45 I paid.
I’ll have to try the regular bottle sometime, but I cant recommend the reserve.
I does not surprise me given that the regular 2014 Cab is a lot like the description of the wine you had without the tannin. The 2014 Cab is probably a baby version of what you had and therefore I cannot call it cough syrup but rather blueberry pie juice. Still way too sweet and no structure…
For me it was first time with this producer. Took a flyer since it was only $14.99 at Costco. Was excited to try. I enjoy new world wines, I’m not an AFWE. That bottle still sits on the counter undrank. Wife tried some more on day 2 and promptly opened a bottle of Zin afterwards. I will drink some cheap Zins (OVZ) and Chardonnays (KJ for example) which have a fair amount of residual sugar but something in the pessimist doesn’t work for me. Headed to Paso next month and will still probably visit this producer and give them another chance. For me though, this was the least favorite wine I have drank in 2+ years that wasn’t corked/premoxed or brett infested.
The 2014 regular bottle is one of the most insipid bottles I’ve had in recent years; a candidate for the most oaked wine I’ve ever had thread. I paid $18 for it and my friend sold me hard on it. Oak, sweet and insanely extracted, cough medicine-y, and an oddly short finish based on the style.