How were the contents? Think I have a fifth and a mag of the '05 BN 30th but haven’t tried either.
Very good … low-level Excellent, really. Drink the 750, hold the mag.
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Oh hell yeah. Very glad to hear that. Know that you have not had uniformly positive experiences with the pinots. (Nor have I!)
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It’s the second-best I’ve had from this big ABC haul so far, behind only the '03 Bauges (sp?)
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Although a bit different in shape, the Larmes de Grappe, Isabelle and Knox wines were also bottled in heavy, heavy bottles. I’m guessing it’'s pretty similar and will weigh it the next time I open one out of curiosity.
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Funny that the Bauges showed so well, isn’t it sort of the “one step up from the appellation bottling” multi vineyard cuvee?
Just goes to show that the usual obsession with single vineyard/“terroir terroir terroir” for Pinot may not always and inevitably be the best lens. The Isabelle cuvee same story I guess.
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Yep, the ‘fallacy’ that a single vineyard offering is somehow ‘better’ or ‘offers more’ does not always equate . . . These wines are oftentimes priced higher - not because of the perceived ‘increase in quality’ but often because of the ‘increased price’ of working with a specific vineyard site where the grapes are more expensive
Cheers
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I still have an ‘01 Knox in queue, too. Like you said, BIG bottle! I can only imagine what lifting 12 bottle cases of these wines must have done to workers’ backs, arms, and legs. 
I’ll try to remember to weigh the full bottle of Knox, too.
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Probably because of the heavy bottles, Isabelle and Knox were cased in 6 packs and I believe all others were as well.
Thank goodness!! Otherwise I’m sure we’d be looking at 60lb+ cases!
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@Brian_G_r_a_f_s_t_r_o_m was right about the 2005 Bien Nacido 30th Anniversary Pinot. Real note TK but this is singing in 750.
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Quick hitter TN on the 2008 Los Alamos Pinot Noir:
2008 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Los Alamos Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County (7/5/2025)
– decanted immediately before tasting –
– tasted non-blind over 1 - 2 hrs. –
Warm red fruits on the palate. Showing some age, but not yet tired. Seems to be in its prime window, so Drink Now and over the near term.
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2005 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Sanford & Benedict Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Ynez Valley (5/27/2025)
– decanted 1.5 hrs. before initial taste –
– tasted non-blind over 2 - 3 hrs. –
NOSE: high-toned, and red-fruited; some obvious tertiary development creeping-in (fallen leaves); moderately expressive.
BODY: dark garnet color with bricking throughout; color is of medium depth; medium bodied.
TASTE: quite tertiary; coffee-leather wash, with aged plummy fruit; medium acidity; slightly-drying superfine tannins still present; plenty of aged Pinot leather and earthiness. I likely would have enjoyed this more a few years ago, but that’s not to suggest it isn’t nice now – it is. Drink Now.
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I felt the same about the bottle of this I opened earlier this year.
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Also sounds consistent with other 2005s I have tried from this library release. I think it mostly speaks to that particular vintage.
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It feels like that hot vintage may have produced a wine that didn’t age as elegantly as maybe some others?
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just had this last week and it was excellent!
threw out my back lifting the case box that has 12 of these heavy ass bottles though!
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Guess I never wrote a real note up for that bottle. Wish I had, it was really good and I wish I could remember it in more detail! Ah well, next bottle (magnum!)
We’ve done the heavy bottles to death I know but they really are something else. Sounds like you’ve got some fun ahead of you if you have a whole case of blue labels.
There are lots of (way too many) wines out there in pointlessly oversized bottles. The thing that was always weird about these ABC ones is that usually it’s the 15% wines with lots of new oak which are in them.
Weird dissonance between the producer and style relative to the bottle. I think someone explained it once but I don’t remember the explanation.
The explanation upthread from Mel, who I think was the one who sold Clendenen the big bottles in the first place, was basically “eh it was the 90s, it seemed cool at the time” which fair enough. If you’re going to put anything in a big huge bottle makes sense that it’d be the reserve wines. Though based on memory from the bottles I’ve consumed, I think only the Nuits Blanches chard trends higher octane than the non-blue label wines. The pinots were barrel selections rather than an intentionally different winemaking so I don’t think they’d naturally be systematically higher proof than the regular wines.
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