TN: 01 Artesa Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Napa Valley

WINE TALK
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  • 2001 Artesa Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Napa Valley - USA, California, Napa Valley (6/17/2009)
    Not something I’d buy again. Jammy, oaky nose of cedar, cassis, chocolate and vanilla. Full, smoky, and sweet on the palate, with a cough syrupy strong berry-menthol finish that I really don’t like. I don’t recall what we paid for this, but the WineBid quarterly avg of $28 makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than the CT average value of $62.
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That’s a Cab right?!?!?!?! hahaha, Melissa’s drinking Cab everyone!

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[rofl.gif]

In our defense, neither of us could finish a second glass.

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Artesa made decent cab back in the '97 vintage and I got quite a bit when I was just getting into wine. Since then, the wines have fallen off tremendously and a visit to their winery/tasting room is about as commercial as one could get.

5

I loved their 97s when they were on store shelves, both their Cab and Merlot. I assumed that my palate had evolved far more than their style-- but the quality dropped off between '97 and '01?

I absolutely agree that their tasting room is very commercial, but it sure is interesting to look at!

6

Too bad. I don’t buy Artesa but did have a few of the 99 regular bottling that I thought progressed very well … especially at the $25 price point.

Jason

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I can only echo the comments here. Liked the '97 and '99 a good bit, but didn’t pay much attention beyond that. The '01 sounds pretty terrible guys. Yuck.

8

This one has room to age, but with all that oak, I don’t see how I’d ever enjoy it. I wonder, though… this was a Reserve. Maybe the regular bottling is far less oaky?

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I tasted with Dave Dobson (who was the winemaker at the time) at an Artesa event in Baltimore last year. Overall I found the wines good, but too much oak for my palate. I think they were all 04s, some chard, pinot, tempranillo, and cab.

Dave was a great guy though, very interesting to talk to and if i remember, an ex-Baltomoron.

10

The regular bottling had a lot of oak but I enjoyed it. I would imagine the Reserve sees more new oak and probably spends more time in barrel.

Jason