There’s a ton of 1990’s Liparita wines on WineBid.com right now that say they were purchased from the winery. Anyone have any experience with the '90’s Liparitas?
IIRC their grapes also went into Caymus Special selection back then. The wines of theirs I’ve had from 90s have been good but not great. At those prices they would be fun to drink with low risk.
We spoke about this now-gone estate, when I crashed your recent Noo Yawk client event.
Three of my former analysts had pasta dinner with me last night, and we drank the 1990 and 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon and the 1992 Merlot.
From 1997 onward, the label and the legacy plots parted ways entirely, such that the wine has been made with purchased grapes, typically not from Howell Mountain.
Do I understand winebid.com correctly - that all auctions end at the same time? I’m currently the high bidder on way too many items (most at opening bid) that I expect I will get outbid on. But it’s not staggered at all, correct? So I can’t up some bids later if I get oubid on others earlier?
The cheapie beauties are largely gone, early on and certainly now, much to my cellar. Never again at these prices and bottle conditions. Another WineHunting success.
LOL. I won over 20 bottles - including a bunch of magnums and TWO of the 5 Liter monsters (1998 Enlace and 1998 Cab for about $160 each, including the commission). I put many of these bids in at the opening price, more as a fun tracking bid, but the joke was on me!
In December, I scooped up cases of the 1992 and 1995 Cabernet and Merlot for $20 per bottle. Plus magnums for $35 each. Delicious, with at least twenty years of upcoming enjoyment.
Since I got into wine, this has long been my favorite California wine estate, although now subsumed into Kendall-Jackson $200+ bottlings and spoofilated wine-making.
The only lesser year was 1993. Ignore anything after 1996. A couple of bottles had slight seepage via loose corks, but the wine was still fine. Notably, oak is barely noticeable across vintages and varietals.
From 1997 onward, the wine is merely a label, made with purchased grapes, as Kendall-Jackson bought the Liparita section of the legacy Liparita-LaJota Vineyard in 1996. The last vintage to contain Howell Mountain grapes was 1996. And the owner of the label favors New World, sweet, ripe, and oak-laden style.
You should snap up any remaining 1991 Cabernet, as it has some of the Old World cabernet franc notes which you like, albeit in an elegant, not rustic, manner. Quite beautiful, but super cheap.