2005 Cabot Vineyards Klamath Cuvee- USA, California, North Coast, Humboldt County (4/24/2009)
This wine is outstanding. $15 bucks … you have to be kidding. Aromatically we got sweet blue and red fruits along with rocks and flowers. We drank about 1/3 of the bottle and then corked it. This wine really needed that day. Do not pop and pour this unless you enjoy dominating structure. When we drank this, I did not know what the blend was (its not on the bottle) but the wine reminded me of CdP … not often do get that impression from Cali wine. I loved the fruit, minerality and rusticity. Along with the good amount of fruit and acid, there were big tannins. The tannins gave the wine the desired texture. This shows what Cali can do. Tasty sweet fruit without being a bomb. I did find this very ripe but it did not lose its texture or structure. I will drink more before the year is out but wisdom says wait 4-6 years. (93 pts.)
Syarh, Cab Sav, Zin & Merlot.
2000 Château Haut-Bages Averous- France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (4/24/2009)
I tried this when it was very young in 2003 but I was unmoved. But most 2000s were way too wound up for me. I hoped this had evolved and it most certainly did. It still needs a little decant but after about 60 minutes it is ready to roll. Leather and fruit on the nose. All night I enjoyed the earthy and fruity aromatics. This wine is showing great balance. I like how it is currently drinking because there is still lots of fresh fruit but the tannins are resolving and in sync. Nice long finish. (92 pts.)
Jason is spot on with the air/time needed for the '05 Klamath Cuvee. It’s ‘ok’ when opened, certainly not bad for the money, but after 3+ hours open, or even better, overnight, it really picks up weight, and gets much better, with bigger, riper fruit, more bacon (yes, even this Cabot wine has bacon!), and overall just a finer wine.
It was fantastic with Santa Maria style Tri-Tip tonight - smoked for 3 hours on the grill. I have one bottle left, and I just received 4 bottles not a week ago…
05 was a late, cool year here in Humboldt. The fruit, though ripe, was pretty high in acid and tannins. We struggled with the idea of releasing varietals that probably needed five to ten years to mellow thier intense structure. After playing around with various blends, we came up with a wine, that to us, resembled some of the more structured vintages in the S. Rhone. We decided to bottle the 32 barrels of this wine and price it in the range of the CdR’s, as to not be outdone by our bretheren across the atlantic. It has always been our goal to produce an affordable red wine that brings nice fruit and complexity. It deffinately needs some serious air time to show it’s stuff, as do all of our wines.
I can’t wait for the 100 degree weather to break here- in what 4 months, so i can get my bottles. I guess thats the easiest way to keep my hands off of them.