2014 Roy Piper Cabernet Sauvignon- USA, California, Napa Valley (1/15/2018)
First time with Roy’s wine…open in bottle for an hour…dark and extracted red berry color…WONDERFUL nose of kirsch liqueur, dusty white pepper, blueberry pie, red licorice. Surprisingly not as tannic and dry as I thought it would be for such a young cab…has a nice softness and silky feel, very inviting and graceful. Yet with subsequent sips, firm dusty dry tannins flex their muscle, showing a great structure to support the ripe liqueured berry fruit. The fruit is pure and amazing…you can taste the very high standards to quality that you see in Roy’s vids! Complexities of chocolate covered blueberries, cedar spice box, cherry vanilla cordials, licorice, slight green tobacco leaf, crushed earth. Perfectly ripe fruit, with the right amount of sweetness to dryness. This is world class Cabernet here…and seeing the passion that Roy has in his videos, and the VERY informative information in the winemaking process…it translates to the glass, and makes drinking this wine that much more special! Bravo!! (96 pts.)
We killed on last week but I hadn’t gotten around to posting, so will just add here:
My notes on this were more impressions than narrative…
Structure.
Perfect blend of old and new California Cabernet style.
Some tartness with good acidity.
A tough sensation for me to describe: menthol without mint. Perhaps a very faint Eucalyptus note. Perhaps even a very faint evergreen component. Sometimes I can get this impression from really well made deep wines.
Fine but ample tannins.
Long finish on the top back of the hard palate. Lingering.
Dark (black) fruit that is not overtly fruit forward.
No oxidized notes (a very high compliment, IMO.)
My wife simply started with, “Deeeelicious. Worthy of being a cult wine.” Then she said, “I would almost guess a hint of American oak,” which might be similar to my arboreal impressions in different language.
I admit to lusting for more.
Imagine a life with this as a weekly drinker!
We tasted it with some Flannery ground meat, I forget the combination, that we cooked and ate like it was a steak.
