Myriad 2022 Portfolio release (2020 wines)

Thoughts on the 2020 Portfolio release from Myriad?

This release features the following wines.

2020 Myriad Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2020 Myriad Cellars Peterson Family Cabernet Sauvignon
2020 Myriad Cellars Beckstoffer Bourn Cabernet Sauvignon
2020 Myriad Cellars Beckstoffer Georges III Cabernet Sauvignon
2020 Myriad Cellars Beckstoffer Georges III ‘EMPYREAN’
2021 Myriad Cellars McGah Vineyard Semillon Low Inventory
2021 Myriad Rose’ of Pinot Noir - Tall Grass Vineyard Extremely Low Inventory
JULY 12th: TIER ONE/LOYAL BUYERS: will receive an email at 9am PST Tuesday July 12th with a link to your personal account. You will have until Tuesday July 19th at 9am PST to secure your offer. All offers are first-come, first-served as inventory allows.

JULY 19th: TIER TWO / NEW MEMBERS: will receive an email link at 9am PST on Tuesday July 19th offering any remaining available wines.

Here are my impressions from a January tasting of 5 barrel samples.
That’s all I’ve got.

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Just got home from blind tasting 2020 Myriad Cabernet barrel samples of 5 different vineyards along the valley from Calistoga to Yountville/Oak Knoll. We were not told what we were drinking or where they came from. We were asked to be brutally honest in our assessment of whether we felt any of the wines were tainted. Note, these were all barrel samples, not finished, racked, blended wines. These notes are not indicative of the final product but merely a look to see if we felt they had flaws.

Wine 1 - Herbal nose, good concentration of fruit, stony minerality, finish cut short by tannic infusion. Tastes like a wine that needs time rather than one with an issue.
Impression - No taint

Wine 2 - Herbal+, touch of pyrazine, dark dense fruit, mocha, nice tannic structure, more polished than #1.
Impression - no taint

Wine 3 - Not as aromatic as 1 & 2, red fruited, very tannic, more classic styled of the 3.
Impression - no taint

Wine 4 - Musty, almost damp mold whiff on the nose, dark fruited, big fruit, very dense, finish is bitter and biting in the back of the palate. One of these wines is not like the others.
Impression - Tainted

Wine 5 - Big expressive nose, purple and blue concentrated fruit, mineral streak, great purity. Favorite of the bunch.
Impression - no taint

On reveal
Wine 1 - Kenefick Ranch
Wine 2 - GIII
Wine 3 - Peterson Family
Wine 4 - Steltzner
Wine 5 - Dr Crane

Around the table we all tagged Steltzner as being off. Mike said someone else called it out for taint as well and they are now not going to release it. As for the rest of them, I’ll buy with confidence.

Hope this helps those wondering about Myriad. Nobody is putting a gun to your head. If you’re queasy about 2020 just pass. Mike says his 2021s are the best wines he’s ever made in his opinion. You can have that to look forward to.

Sitting on my wallet for the '20s and will grab as much of the '21 Peterson, Empyrean and especially Elysian that I can.

A couple people that I trust claim that the smoke camped out in the Valley for weeks right before harvest- so the medium to longer term uncertainty around taint, and the plus $200/per bottle prices is an easy pass for me…

Now if these wineries were to introduce a “no questions asked, return unwanted bottles for a credit” type of policy, then I may be more inclined to take a flyer knowing that there was no downside. But its uneconomical for them to do so, and they wont, so I wont.

Myriad release email said that fruit was picked prior to the Glass fire, so there shouldn’t be any issues with smoke taint. The Steltzner barrel tasting note sounds more like mold/bacterial problem rather than smoke taint. Smoke taint tasting notes reference ash tray, not mold/musty. Just guessing of course. I’ll buy with confidence knowing Myriad’s great customer service.

My understanding was that there were two separate fires right around and during harvest.

And I am not making a direct statement towards Myriad but is generally the approach that I am taking (the exception being MACDONALD) with every 2020.

In five years time, hopefully I am proven wrong and the wines have no issues. For me, the worst part would be that my verticals were broken. At the end of the day, there are worse things than that.

Thanks for posting! Had to dig their email out of my spam folder. Hoping something is left for the Tier 2/New Members on the 19th

Every winery bailed on ToKalon except for Myriad and Macdonald.

I passed on last offering of the 2020 wines. I did buy the whites from 2021 to keep my allocation.

With the release coming up tomorrow, I’m wondering if anyone has had a chance to get more recent impressions of the cabs. Brian, or others…any updated sampling of these in the last 6 months?

Thanks,
Andy

Hmm, I had my calendar marked with two different dates and placed my order last week. When I check now it looks like it’s tomorrow so I’m not sure what happened but I guess I ordered early.

Just checked my account, offering is out there

A-List closed today.

Same here, took a flyer on some Crane!

The Vertical pressure… In for the Crane.

Even though email I received this morning didn’t say Dr Crane was part of my allocation, when I clicked on the link to purchase I had the ability to purchase 2 bottles of Dr Crane and 6 Elysian. Ran out to do 20 minutes of errands before purchasing and now all signs of Dr Crane are gone from my offering. I guess you snooze you lose.

Wife and I tasted barrel samples of the 2020s with Leah and Mike on July 1. No smoke taint that we could perceive in any of the ones we tasted: NV, Peterson, Bourn, or the G3 Empyrean. Hope that helps

Went in for some Peterson and NV

Im not a regular buyer of Myriad but had the distinct pleasure of hanging with Leah and Mike all day at Brian’s shindig. They brought a bunch of their Myraid 2020’s. All the wines were outstanding and some exceptional. No reason to question these wines and their integrity in releasing them. Buyers of this release will not be disapointed at all. The Believers who bought this vintage are gonna find themselves rewarded and something tells me even more so in the future

+1 on this. I was also at the event and met Mike and Leah. David is spot on with his assessment of the 2020’s, and the only other item that I would add is that Mike and Leah strike me as the type of people who value their integrity, value their clientele, and would not put either at risk for the sake of putting out wine that does not meet their standards. Great wines and great people.

Was camping all last week. First time buyer and was able to pick up NV, Peterson & a bottle of Empyrian that were left. Bought a couple of bottles of Myriad at auction to sample some aged ones. Really enjoyed the NV 2015 we opened a few months ago.