1985 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Mountain- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Mountain (1/31/2010)
A Winebid purchase. The bottle condition was good, fill was bottom neck. The cork was dryish but stained only about 1/4 inch. Little sediment. The color was a nice deep red with light edges. The nose was excellent, some barnyard and tar, forest floor. Medium weight and lovely with mulchy, organic, Med spice flavors with a medium length finish. The fruit is restrained and there’s little remaining tannin. I’m betting this would be tagged as Bordeaux fairly often blind. It’s probably a bit past its best but still quite good. It’s listed only as a table wine with no alcohol level which IIRC is defined as less than 14%. A fun experience. I’ll be in interested to see if the remaining 1/3 is surviving tonight. (90 pts.)
Great note, Chris. A bunch of us had this over at Zach’s last March from a bottle I bought from Dick K and your impressions were right in line with mine, though I recall being more inclined to think it worthy of further aging. Thanks for the impressions!
got a case of pretty old California Cab via the secondary market recently and have been itching to bust one, which i did prior to flying to NOLA last Thursday.
really interesting 2-night bottle. cork saturated one third of its length but fine and easily removed via Ah-So. initially the wine was light in color, truly just a shade darker than 100% Zin, with very fruit bright in the nose. mouthfeel fine and taste a bit one-dimensional though that dimension was sweet, bright cherries. finish medium length and also sweet. not much in terms of secondary nuances. had ~ 60% of the bottle night #1.
stored the rest in a 375 and my food refrigerator overnight. the next day, once brought back to nearly room temp, the wine was considerably darker in color and a bit cloudy. taste was full of darker fruits and finish lengthened noticeably. neither night showed the tannins to be biting or harsh in any way.
i believe this bottle is still youthful in many ways.
You and Glenn agree on the aging. Could be bottle variation or personal preference. It is definitely still a good wine.
Last night it was browning (unlike Glenn I just left the 1/3 in the 750 – oxidation happens) but had become more sweet and light. Also very cloudy – so much for me thinking it had little sediment! Still nice but not like night 1. Next up the La Jota Howell Mtn 85.
