2001 Abreu Madrona Ranch & A couple of Auberts

  • 2001 Abreu Cabernet Sauvignon Madrona Ranch - USA, California, Napa Valley (12/25/2011)
    Exceptional nose. I loved all the leather and earth. There are secondary aromas but still tons of red and purple fruit. Major yum factor. So tasty. Great balance. Big and bold in flavors with a middle weight body. The tannins resolve each sip perfectly. Tannins are in such a great spot so if I owned any it would be hard to keep my hands off. This was my first Abreu and for some reason I had in my mind that this could be an over hyped cult cab. Boy was I wrong. (96 pts.)

I was searching around and found out Ric Forman’s involvement. Did he make this? If so, I would have not thought this was overhyped.

  • 2007 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (12/25/2011)
    Showing much better than the 08 Lauren. A fairly rich nose but showing more than just butter. Some nice minerality goes with this from start to finish. Ripe and somewhat big but it wears it well. Seems to have everything in balance to continue to develop. (92 pts.)
  • 2008 Aubert Chardonnay Lauren Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (12/25/2011)
    Nothin shy about this one. Big butter cream & lemon nose. Not sure how this will develop but at this stage the palate is big and unfocused. Okay as a cocktail but you can’t have much of it without getting majore palate fatigue. There is a lot of acidity but I don’t know if anything is going to outlast the oak. (87 pts.)

Cheers,

Jason

Posted from CellarTracker

I’d check back on that Lauren in 7 or 8 years.

I’m drinking 04 Laurens now. You just can’t drink them young to really get what they will deliver IMHO. I agree with Glenn, 7-8 years sounds about right on Lauren.

echoing comments on giving laurens a good amount of time

J,
Agree on the Abreu, the Madrona is in a good place…Brad is doing good work there, not sure if Ric was involved back then.

I wish at least one of the three 2001 Abreus I have sampled in the last few years were at least this good. Two were downright nasty.

BTW, Ric’s 2001 Forman was a rocker of a 69 point wine. (laube)

We’ll see about the Lauren. Some Auberts handle the short aging … some don’t. Too bad he lost his best vineyard.

Is that for real? If so, this further shows he has a screwy palate. Seems like he can’t tell if a bottle is flawed.

J

Glenn, how do you wait that long? I just made the list last year and love them so much I had to hide my last 3 as I just bought one bottle of each.

My mistake. It was a 77. I always get confused with his Mondavi Oakville score of 69.

The excellent and unheralded Brad Grimes has been the winemaker for Abreu for some time. But if you have ever had the pre-1997 Abreu’s, I believe that Ric Forman made those. Some of those were just awesome Cabs.

Former poker player and poker is a game of a patience, sometimes surgery is too.

So Glenn I can just ship mine to you and then you send them to me in 5-8 years? I think that would be the only way I could make it.

Funny but I hold some Ridge for a friend for the very same reason!

+1. Had an '04 Lauren back in the Fall and it was singing. Opened an '06 Lauren on Xmas day and while good, it still needs some time to reach its peak. Going to pull out some '01 and '02 Aubert soon to see how the decade milestone sampling fares [cheers.gif]