I own older bottles, but as I’m home alone, I wanted something to drink over the next 2 – 3 nights. My first bottle out of a case that I normally would not have touched for quite a while.
Ruby-black color, opaque to the rim. Aromas have excellent intensity but are mostly primary. Black currant first and foremost, with black raspberry, a touch of conifer and a hint of black cherry.
The palate is even more primary, but not painfully so. The flavors are very intense, offering purity of black fruit and great intensity but little subtlety. The tannins are ripe and fine, but noticeable, some of them contributed by small oak barrels. The texture is excellent, rich and powerful with plenty of vivacity and lift but no rough edges. The finish is moderately long. The wine is as good as I hoped and as primary as I feared. Rated 91.5 tonight, I expect it to be much better tomorrow (it will go into the fridge overnight).
This needs to be held 10 – 20 more years. If it is, 5 – 7+ points of improvement inevitable.
20 - 30 years is a sweet spot, but they can live much, much, much longer.
A few years ago a board member hosted a charity tasting of older Mount Eden Cabs. The oldest was a 1973. By coincidence, I put that in a blind tasting of 15 year old California Cabs for Robert Parker in 1988. It was voted the best wine in company like Monte Bello, Mayacams, Heitz Martha’s, Freemark Abbey Bosche, Montelena &c. When I saw it on the table 30 years later, I figured it would be a goner. I was wrong. At 45 years it was wonderful, not old.
I left it in the (cold - 38 degrees F) fridge for two nights, because it wasn’t a good match for last night’s shrimp and vegetable tempura dinner.
the biggest differences are breadth and subtlety, both have expanded as I had hoped. There is no loss of freshness and immediacy, there is amplitude and there are nuances of fruit, mineral and earth that simply were not there. The fruit remains resolutely black, the only red in this is the visible kind (and that is also closer to black). it’s the intricate interplay of flavors (currant, conifer and others) and the broad texture, with tannins starting to resolve that make this special rather than merely good. Rated 94, I hope I don’t open another one for ten years.
Dan, thank you for the insightful notes. I’ve picked up a few bottles over the years but have held off opening after having heard how long lived they are. Your comments confirm that thought. I happen to have a 2008 along with a 1995 and a few 1997’s and it sounds like a I a few more years to go.
Slight thread drift. I have great luck with other aged Santa Cruz vineyards. Ridge of course, but Santa Cruz Mountain winery from the late seventies and eighties have been lovely. I just picked up a couple of bottles of the 1994 Bates Ranch with high hopes.
I have almost as much experience with Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard ‘Bates Ranch’ Cabernets as with Mount Eden and Ridge. And they are every bit as long-lived. No rush on 1994. I had a '79 about two years ago, it was in a sweet spot.
Ha! Back in '16 we had a pre-harvest party at one of the wineries, with the theme of “bring a great SCM bottle”. It was a mix of a tasting group and a mess of winemakers and harvest crew. One friend sourced a mag of that '79 Bates last minute and was very sheepish, worrying it’d be over the hill. When he was apologizing ahead of time, we very looked at each other and smirked. “Dude, that’s going to be the best bottle here.” Yeah, pretty much. A couple other contenders, but pretty much.
I’ve been lucky to have the 1947 Martin Ray Cab on two occasions over the last 10 years. Really wonderful, and with substantial life yet. As many know, Ray established the vineyards and winery that became Mount Eden in 1972. The 1947 Cab was likely made from nearby grapes, but that kind of aging curve can apply to the best current vintages. I know that Jeffrey Patterson has put a lot of work and thought into Mount Eden’s Cab program.
I believe the '47 came from La Questa Vyd., which had been grafted over to cuttings from Ch Margaux by Emmet Rixford. Ray restored and sourced cuttings from there to plant his Mount Eden Vineyard. A lot of the Cab in the Saratoga, Cupertino and Woodside areas is from those Margaux clones. Yes, Jeff has put in a huge amount of work figuring out the challenges of his site and ever improving, so the wines have great consistently and are better than ever.
I bought what looked like two good bottles of Martin Ray 1953. They were similar, and were more about showing past glories rather than being really nice beverages when we tasted them. While not completely over the hill, they were on a downward stretch. A 1953 DDC, by contrast, was beautiful.