TN: 1999 Renaissance Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Premiere Cuvee. (Gideon Bienstock)

This wine could easily fool you for Bordeaux. Easily. It did me, except for the subtle minty note.

Tobacco, dry earth/ground cover (sous bois), tar and red fruits on the nose, just a slight streak of mint that you can coax out with some swirling. A lovely, perfumed red wine. Nicely deft on the palate, mid-weight, tannins mostly resolved, acids keep this wine fresh, balanced. Juicy but tart cherries and wild raspberries, some soft darker notes, but not venturing too much there. Tobacco, tobacco. Mushrooms, ground cover, earth and other savory notes. Finishes with a dry, tariness. Just amazes me that a wine like this comes out of California, even the Cali Cabs that I love, like Dunn and Togni, have so much more power than this light-handed, but serious, herbal wine. Overall excellent wine, the dry finish keeps me from scoring higher.

The 1999 is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot.

Drink now.

(92 pts.)

Here is my recent note on the 1999 Renaissance Claret Prestige:

You lost me at herbal…

Did you get this from the CS wine club. I joined and have gotten tons of treasures… some from Gideon’s former haunts. Sounds delicious.

I bought a mixed case straight from Renaissance. I have a handful of the mid-90s bottles. Will pop one next time we pull some corks, which hopefully is soon.

Sounds great! So much great wiine out there.

The 96 Cab we had recently from magnum reminded me of early 90’s Montelena. BTW Gideon spells his name Beinstock.

I had a magnum of 1995 Renaissance cab that Gideon made, which I bought when visiting Clos Saron in December. Terrific wine, but really not yet at maturity either.

By the way, if you can ever swing a visit there, you’ve got to do it. Gideon is a brilliant and fascinating guy, and it was one of the best visits I’ve ever had.

So consider me confounded. Saved 1/3 bottle for tonight, and the dryness on the finish has receded. Now showing a grainier, but sweeter red-fruit finish.

Excellent.

Amazes me how much sediment this winery throws. A wine to be decanted.

What type of pricing are we talking? The website is archaic.

Thanks for the tasting note, Toddfather!

Robert,
I’m happy to see positive feedback on the '99. I have a bottle of the '95. Here’s Gideon’s note on that one: “1995 Cabernet Sauvignon “Once Upon a Time”. This bottling of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon came from a small microclimate on the Renaissance property, from vines planted in 1976. It was made with the goal of capturing the most distinctive expression of terroir we could through the lens of the Cabernet Sauvignon variety. It is my personal view that it has perfectly achieved that goal. This wine is finally entering its full maturity phase, and will drink well for the next decade or two if properly stored. 112 bottles released.”

How many bottles did u have to go through to finally get a good one?

I was 1/1 on the 96.

Lots of sediment.

I thought you made the wine! I kid.

You got your wines from a different source, Clos Sharon if I recall. I bought mine directly from Renaissance. They have a lot of library wines. I’m not convinced the wines are stored well, the corks suck and the delivery was not well-coordinated, shipping in questionable weather. I do not think the case I got is showing optimally, but none of the wines have been bad. Some bottles have seemed a bit more advanced than they should.

How would you know?

Did you sell this to us in Princeton way back when? It was the House Cali Cab at the Corkscrew for a couple of vintages at least.

No Jim I never sold Clos Saron.

The 96 was sold by Clos Saron and is a Once Upon a Time library release sourced from Renaissance.

I was thinking Renaissance, but probably not that one either.

And while I’m sure you know this, others may not, so I’ll mention that Gideon was the winemaker for Renaissance in the 1990s.

He said they had an enormous Cabernet vineyard, some parts of which produced great wine but most did not. So he has taken opportunities to buy certain ones from their inventory over the years. He offers them for sale occasionally, but he says he doesn’t really care how many sell since they’ll keep getting better with more age for a long time.