I was recently gifted a bottle. A thoughtful and generous gift from some people who are not wine drinkers, but know that I am. I will enjoy it in that spirit regardless, but I would be interested in hearing impressions from anyone who has tasted this wine.
Thanks.
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High alcohol, high extract and noticeable (LCBO reports 10g/l) residual sugar.
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I would say wait until your 85th birthday, when your palate should be dead, but my pops is still drinking the fine stuff.
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What would we do without the Ontario LCBO to police R.S.?
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FWIW- a buddy gifted me a couple Caymus 40th anniversary (2012 vintage) bottles years ago. Served the first shortly thereafter at a party where he was present. He loved it as did a few other party goers, I thought it was too sweet, thick and grape-juicy. I tucked the remaining bottle into that cellar bin containing the Charles Shaw and all the Minnesota wine that acquaintances thought Iâd love to try.
Fast forward to two years ago- a guysâ night at our house, late in the evening searching in the cellar for more bottles to keep the party going with a few friends including my buddy (the Caymus gifter). He sees the Caymus and asks if itâs the one he gave me & begging to open it. I say itâs just been waiting for the right occasion when heâs at the house! I also grab a Becklyn 2019 Cab that Iâd wanted to try as an early peek at the 19âs.
The Caymus was as remembered, if not a bit muted. Half preferred the Caymus, half preferred the Becklyn. The Becklyn was really nice and unfolded beautifully over the next couple of hours.
The funniest part? My buddy (the gifter- whoâs a great guy) crowed the rest of the evening about what a great âWine Aficionadoâ he was because he paid $70 for the bottle and it was currently selling for $250+ on auction sites!
TL/DR-
The correct play may be to cellar it for 10 years and sell it at auction!
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I have a 2012 1L, a door prize win at a Flemings/Caymus wine dinner years ago. Iâll open it one of these days.
Tastes like it too. Jammy etc. We were gifted a bottle many months back which I eventually opened. Intended to be crowd pleaser I think, just a different crowd. Not sure of pricing, I suspect way over priced.
A polarizing wine!
Cellar tracker notes show generally good reviews/ratings overall with a sprinkling of very strongly negative reviews/ratings. Itâs a similar situation on Vivino. Negative comments generally include those mentioned here . . . over-extracted, too sweet. not complex, palate fatiguing, etc. I think WB may not be a place to hear too much good about this wine.
BTW, please help educate me
- how is a wine over-extracted and why would the winemaker do this? what are the tradeoffs?
- where does this high residual sugar level come from? grape ripeness, added grape concentrate or something else?
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whatâs 10g/l amongst friends. At least this vintage isnât around 19g/l like other past vintages.
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Like having your head half severed by an axe rather than the full Montyđ«
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Have you considered making new friends?
From a wine lover with no great knowledge of wine chemistry (me):
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If youâre asking how theyâre made, I think probably more time on the skins plus a hotter fermentation temperature, and higher alcohol tends to extract more stuff from the grapes and the barrels. As to why⊠big, ripe, concentrated wines have garnered big points from a lot of wine critics over the past two decades, and a lot of people genuinely love these. Thereâs a big market for these.
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If you start with very ripe grapes/high sugar levels, itâs easy to get adequate or even high alcohol levels in the fermented wine and still have sugar left. At a place like Caymus, Iâm sure the RS is calculated and deliberate depending on the nature of the vintage. Sometimes you can end up with RS without intervention because at a certain alcohol level (and these wines tend to be 15+%), yeast stop fermenting sugars, so you can end up with some residual sugar if you started out with very high Brix/sugar levels.
(Note: At high alcohol levels, a wine can seem sweet even if it is technically dry, but here we have the Ontario LCBO lab results showing the Caymus has significant residual sugar.)
Iâm curious: What is the alcohol listed on the label? Does the LCBO have a figure?
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14.6% ABV on the label
Wasnât the Caymus 40th the one Parker gave 96 points, and there were so many gasps of disbelief he went back and tasted it again and gave it 96 points again?
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My wife was just gifted a bottle of this. Iâll open it Christmas Eve for our kids who might appreciate it.
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I hope that you have a glass yourself, Jeff, and report back here with your impressions. 
I bought two six packs of the 50th Anniversary for the restaurant. They went fairly quickly. Some are absolute lovers of this wine, while others wonât touch it. FWIW, Iâve dropped the Caymus line altogether from our wine list. Doesnât matter whether the cab, Belle Glos, Quilt, or the Durif, they start out fairly quickly, but soon lose their following and become very slow movers.
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Honestly I find the 2022 Caymus to be drinkable - given a glass I would not turn my nose up and certainly with a fatty Ribeye it is more than sufficient. It is a bit sweet but the fruit is very bright and good. Where I find it lacks is in the finish - there is virtually no tannin - no mouth puckering astringency of any sort. This is where I find it totally lacking.
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Iâve noticed the listed ABV on recent vintages is not too high. I even saw one a few years ago in the high 13s. I assume they are watering back? But I donât know.
Jim, my wife and I did taste it. Black fruits, sweet chocolate covered cherries. Very soft and fruity. Lots of vanilla oak. She hated it. I could see the appeal for many, but it was was too sweet, oaky and soft for me and after a couple of sips I dumped it. My three children and their SOâs all raved about it. They were all smiles. Different strokes for different folks as they say.
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