Blind Pobega-ing all 2018s: Yesterday Oakville, Yesterday Howell, William & Mary (Final notes and reveal posted)

I will update this post throughout the day.

I am not your typical “Pobega” drinker. I like my Napa Cabs aged typically 10 years before drinking. For example I wanted to serve 2012 Myriad regular Napa Cab for a party last Saturday but when I sampled it ahead of time, found it to be a bit tight. For the party I aerated, double-decanted, and let it sit for 2+ hours before serving. It was fabulous.

Due to the intriguing story with these Wine Access Yesterday private label wines that for $35 are supposed to drink like better, more expensive name brand wines, with grapes that are sourced from possibly names like Harlan or Dana Estates, I felt I should take the plunge and see if they live up to the billing.

To create a “control” I put the Yesterdays against the recent release 2018 William and Mary Napa Cabernet that is $75 on release.

Each glass was aerated via Coravin and let sit for an hour before smelling.

Bouquet update:
Wine #1: Fragrant full bodied nose of rich blackberries. Delicious, powerful, and meaty.

Wine 2: Muted and much lighter. Almost shut down. A shrinking violet compared to #1

Wine 3: Smooth solid nose. Soft blackberries and signs of a pleasant easy drinker.

First drink at 75 minutes post Aerate:

Wine #1: The nose softens to a nice, even plushness that accurately signals what is to come – smooth and velvet on the mouthfeel, vibrant blackberries and black cherry fruits resolve into a meal of a wine. Excellent rich finish that cries for a red meat pairing.
At 2 hours: The nose remains plush but the vibrancy of the wine separates itself from the pack – young, dark fruits; soft, chalky mouthfeel with a smooth, long finish.
Hour 3: Really hitting its stride right now. Fragrant, rich bouquet resolves into a wonderful wine that gels the previously identified fruits into a lush, savory finish. A wine in full.
Hour 4: With the steaks the wine was delicious while also displaying a flavorfulness that contrasted more than complimented the medium-rare rib-eye. The steak seemed to take away from the wine rather than enhancing. No slight to the wine as this contrast really highlighted the rich, vibrant, and complex flavors already on display but did not pair with the steak as I would have expected.

Wine #2: The nose seems to be coming around. Soft, jammy, and quite enjoyable. Easily the lightest wine in this grouping, tart but thin. A fine if unspectacular wine.
At 2 hours: Settled into a nice, pleasing wine. Nose does not sing but the juice is enjoyable without displaying much opulence.
Hour 3: Coming into its own as well. A delicious wine that only suffers in comparison. Delightful but not overbearing nose, youthful tart flavors still sing nicely albeit with a thinner, shorter finish.
Hour 4: Continued to be a fine wine that complimented the steaks well. Good wine that needed more time to evolve than the others. Not a wow wine, but not a disappointment. A comparatively simple, easier drinking wine.

Wine #3: Nose still fragrant and wine is quite fruit forward. Fruits of blueberry and cherries with a grainy mouthfeel. Youthful but expected. A really nice wine with an enjoyable lingering finish.
At 2 hours: Rich, smooth nose of cassis. Meats and cheeses brought out deeper flavors for this classic Napa Cab – full-bodied with blackberries and black cherry fruit. Wine #3 is giving #1 a run for the money but wine #1 continues to shine.
Hour 3: Really pacing itself well with wine #1. Excellent bouquet remains while the wine has an pleasant inky texture with a smooth finish. The biggest differences between #1 and #3 are the vibrancy and potential staying power of #1 over #3. Both are joys.
Hour 4: Paired best out of the group with steaks – possibly because of its more angular flavors relative to the complexities of wine #1. Despite its better showing with steaks, the simplicity only highlighted the superiority of wine #1.

Reveal and final thoughts:
Wine #1: William & Mary, Napa Cabernet – the star of the day. Complex and age-worthy I expect this wine to evolve and outpace better known and similarly priced peers. Lived up to the hype as possibly the “next big thing.” Get on the list now before it’s too late.
Wine #2: Yesterday, Oakville (Napa Valley) – excellent wine that came out of the gate far slower than the competition. A genuinely delicious wine that only suffered compared to its more muscular peers.
Wine #3: Yesterday, Howell Mountain – the clear #2 of the day often rivaling W&M at different points. Lacked the complexity and likely age-worthiness of W&M but the wine punched well above its weight.

Bottom line:
W&M – believe the hype.
Yesterday Wines – for a “roll of the dice” wine from Wine Access these wines were well worth the risk.

Love it. Hopefully you’ll run the experiment in triplicate

well now, this should be interesting, thanks for doing it!

Wine 1 is W&M
Wine 2 is Howell
Wine 3 is Oakville

I am hoping I am wrong.

This is my guess, too.

Great post, very informative!

Thanks for the information!

Fun comparison, you write well and your notes are very informative.

Wait til you try the Shifflet, it’ll blow you away.

Yes, terrific notes. It was nice to see the evolution of the wines over time. I’m happy to have several of the William & Mary and Yesterday Oakville in the cellar.

Kevin the Napa MVP

Great notes! I got a WM Napa '18 a couple weeks ago and really started to come out on day 2. I was a bit disappointed with the Yesterday Oakville(probably cause of the hype), but could see it evolving more in a couple years. Didn’t get the Howell Mountain but sounds like a winner. Thanks!

If that was yesterday what was today?

I’m really interested to see where the W&M’s go with some age on them. Delicious now, but I have no idea where they are headed.

I opened a 2018 W&M Napa Cab last weekend and drank it over 2 days. I’d also first use “delicious” as the first descriptor, and the rest are going to bed for a number of years. It was a big treat.

Thanks for the positive feedback. It was a fun late-afternoon sampling really tasty wines.

One final takeaway implied in the original post but not maybe not properly highlighted is that all three wines were genuine quality products.

Since I only had three glasses of wine over the four hour period, I was looking for a wine to cap off the evening. I had about 2/3 remaining in a previously Coravined mid-level (~$40 - 50) bottle that I went with. Despite it being a fine wine I enjoy owning it was clearly a decided step down from what I had been drinking earlier. This provided a nice epilogue on the evening really highlighting the quality in that original flight of wines.

With a little aging, I expect these wines to provide a lot of enjoyment in the years to come. The only concern is possible bottle variation associated with Wine Access private label offerings. But we shall see.