A thread today about the current release of this small winery by Mike the Cali Cab Guru Pobega reminded me that I still have a few bottles of this wine that I think are probably ready to drink.
A very small but lovely vineyard that I had the privilege to visit with Heidi Barrett, their now former winemaker in 1999. The Estate Cabernet was their sole release until they began to release a second less expensive ($50ish) bottle known as The Sisters at the turn of the century.
My last recollection of this wine was that it had an explosive nose right out of the gate so I poured a small glass after releasing the cork and uh oh, no nose. I quickly swirled and except for a thinly veiled creme de cassis finsh the wine was totally muted.
I have been popping and pouring all of my 97 Cal cabs and Merlots of late except the Montelena that actually still needs more time to make sure that I don’t lose the wine in decanting. Some have clearly not aged well. This is a wine that does need some decanting.
After 1/2 hour the nose is still rather tepid but I now get blueberries, creme de cassis and toasty mocha. The wine’s balance is lovely, to me a hallmark of Heidi Barrett’s wine making excellence.
I will report after more of a decanting but I think it is coming around.
One and one half hours in and the wine is fine. The nose is still not what i remember though that may be a sign of age. I do get plums, coccoa and slight blueberry but not the explosive nose I remember.
The palate and grip are presnt as stated above with a little more finesse and the Heidi B balance.
A very nice wine, but this bottle has not shown as a great one as I recall.
JB
Three and one half flirties but half the bottle left for tommorrow.
My impressions from a bottle of 1997 opened a couple of weeks ago are similar. A big, ripe, bruiser of a wine, still good, but the fruit has faded a bit and the wine comes across as rather heavy-handed and a bit dull, lacking enough verve in the fruit. While still pretty good, I think this has turned the corner and should be drunk up relatively soon. The 1996 is more vigorous at this point and will last longer, IMO.
I’m a long time member of the Jones Family mailing list and a fan of their wines. I happen to be at my dad’s place at the beach this week and there is 97 Jones in the Eurocave. He originally introduced me to the wine in the late 90’s (He’s a Heidi fan from way back). We’re going to open one and report back after it has time to air out. Stand by…
On day two the 97 was pretty much the same as day one. Not great, not bad. I expected more and remember it as a better wine when last tried. I will not wait long to drink my last of these.
![[thumbs-up.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f84c5acc11486ee4baba6dee6cf61dbd133abb18.gif "[thumbs-up.gif]"){kind=small}