**Tasted** 1996 Robert Mondavi 30th Anniversary Reserve Cabernet

WINE TALK
1

Notes for this are all over the place.
Bob loved it (RP95) and I have tried it twice and while young, and it had great potential. CellarTracker reviews are mixed.
With 1000 cases made there was not nearly as much as the standard 10k to 15k case production of Mondavi Reserve. I know this 30th Anniversary has a fair amount of To Kalon fruit, so that bodes well. Just picked up two bottles and wanted some drinking window feedback.
Has anyone here had one in the last while?
Thanks.
[cheers.gif]

2

In 1998 I was at the winery with a friend. We tasted through their whole range of wines and like this one best. We each bought one bottle. I suffer from OBS (One-Bottle Syndrome) where I never know when to open a wine when I only have one bottle. My friend doesn’t. He consumed his a few years ago. He did light up when he heard I still have mine, so next time I see him, I will pop it.

My guess is that now is as good a time as any to open it, esp. if you have more than one. It never seemed built to age a very long time.

3

Had this wine a couple of times in 2001 and loved it. Would be curious to know what you think now.

4

A little off-topic, but if you like old-school juice, then the 1995 [not 1996] Reserve is the best young-ish California cab that I’ve ever had - I got a chance to try it a few years ago as part of the big 1990s library release which was making its way around the distribution circuit.

Definitely not for the gobs-of-fruit crowd, however.

5

I picked up a couple of these at the winery in '99. It was really impressive then. Haven’t had it since. I was eyeballing a bottle to pull for drinking over the next couple of years, but nixed it…back to slumber until next inventory in '11 or '12. Please post a TN if you pop one.

6

Happy New Year! Decided to open up bottle one of the two I have.

This one is right in the proverbial window right now. I would say this is about fully mature - and while I believe this will age another 5 to 7, I think it is about as good as it is going to get.

Had a rich dark fruit nose upon pulling the cork. Popped and decanted and sampled immediately. Drank over 3 hours with a buddy. Telltale Mondavi Reserve mint and eucalyptus notes. Made me remember how much I can enjoy dry and rustic tannin and how that seems to be a lost art today. With so many concentrating on sweet tannin finishes, I really appreciated the older style which almost makes you go back to the fruit and appreciate how good it is.

While very pleasing right out of the gates, after 90 minutes added dimensions of cocoa powder and spice notes came into play. The flavors were rich, but the wine was not heavy. This was one of the last Mondavi cab releases with primarily To Kalon fruit before the Mondavis sold their plot. This one was light on its feat, yet delivered the goods. It was an intriguing profile which only got better and better over almost 3 hours. Wish I could have been more patient as I believe this would have continued to improve even more with additional air and time.

Will be very tough to keep my hands off of bottle number two, now my lone remaining one. This was very enjoyable and I am very happy with my purchase. 93+ with upward potential if given additional time to breathe.