Earlier today I mentioned I had the itch to try the 1997 Cardinale… and so here we are.
At a restaurant with one of the largest wine cellars in Montreal. The price was very fair Approx 535 CAD.
Paired with beef tartar and then duck which was absolutely rich.
The cork crumbled into a million pieces. Sommelier had to decant and filter. Initially I probably wanted to slowly ox from the bottle but I’m happy everything worked out.
Lights are very dim so having trouble seeing the color but looks quite obviously dark with some garnet hues. The nose is dark fruit (sorry can’t seem out more than this). The palate is filled with dark cherries, other dark fruit, and immense amount of chocolate on the finish. It is a very dry wine with perfect amount of acidity and soft tannins. In fact, it is just pure class. Velvety and silky. Honestly, this wine is drinking very young for its age. Superb all together.
Cardinale really hit its stride in the 2000s when KJ hired new winemakers and started to rank priority for top fruit by price so Cardinale got second or third choice behind Verite and perhaps Lokoya, if I recall correctly. Most of the 90s I have had were pretty dried out. Good luck as there have to be bottles that show younger.
99% sure he made this wine and pretty sure he did the 2002 that was the first vintage I said wow as I was selling that portfolio back then. He was consulting or head, can’t recall, but around 2000 the fruit sourcing changed to by bottle cost within the Jackson empire of vineyards so it wasn’t all Chris as he got access to better fruit while Lokoya was AVA specific and Verite was Sonoma.
Took the time to actually acknowledge your input and makes sense to me. As the Jackson family purchased new vineyards and Chris gaining more experience with the fruit across the various AVAs i’m sure the early 2000s are even better.
La Jota Cab Howell Mountain 2019 is coming out next week at my local liquor store. Ever try it? Thinking of grabbing it.
Haven’t had any modern La Jota, but 1992-1997 was a pretty epic run, so if I see those at auction I grab em. 1993 Anniversary was a particularly epic wine.
