TN: 2005 Neal cab. It sucked.

Humberto_Dorta · February 17, 2009, 4:24am

This wine is too alcoholic for me to drink. Wha?!?!?! Thats right. Hot on the nose, hot on the palate. The fruit is lost in the heat. I dont see how this could improve, and I have liked other Neals very much. Dunno what to make of this. I mean, I LIKE Mollydookers but I could barely drink this.

And before Neal lovers say it…I dont believe this to be a bad bottle, its not cooked and certainly not corked. It just sucked because it was so horribly out of balance.

Gordon_Fitz · February 17, 2009, 4:33am

Could you please tell us the alcohol content listed on the bottle and where you believe it to be.

The alcohol percentage is not the tell all, of course, particularily if the wine is not in balance, but it gives us a good reference point for analyzing you comments.

Roy_Piper · February 17, 2009, 4:41am

Is this the “Napa” or a vineyard specific wine?

ToddFrench · February 17, 2009, 5:15am

That’s interesting, as the '04’s are pretty dang good right now, even though they are still young. Definitely not too hot…

Humberto_Dorta · February 17, 2009, 12:35pm

I hear you Burger King. I like Neal generally speaking. This was just the “Napa.” I bought it at a local restaurant, and in Meadville, a local restaurant means a shit hole. They usually have 2-3 drinkable wines and I was excited to see a Neal on there of any kind. Happily paid the $100, yes $100 and was greeted by agua ardiente. For context: about 1/3 of my cellar is Napa cabs and I own several hundred bottles of them, its not like this is an unusual route for me to take. And I like heat in my wine, like I said I like MD, and drink almost exclusively full throttle wines. When people go “man this is hot”, I usually go yum! The alcohol is listed at 14.6% For reference the Boxer is listed as 16% The thing is there wasnt much fruit to tame down the booze. A little acid helped but it was just out of whack. On day two, a little mellower but still hot. Shit, I love tasting and buying single malts, alcohol certainly doesnt bother me…but this was just too much. FWIW
[heat.gif]

Humberto_Dorta · February 17, 2009, 12:40pm

Oh and Gordon…You can NEVER have too much alcohol, just too little of everything else.

Bill_Tex_Landreth · February 17, 2009, 3:05pm

Interesting. I have had a single bottle of '05 and found it neither hot nor overly alcoholic.

Dave_Morris · February 17, 2009, 3:43pm

This wine was bought in PA and went through the PA LCB “process”? Based on that fact alone unfortunately I can’t place a lot of reliance on this bottle being representative of a typical 2005 Neal cab.

Humberto_Dorta · February 17, 2009, 5:00pm

Yup I hear you Dave, that was the only caveat in my mind. I unfortunately have none in my cellar right now to compare, but Ill find some eventually.
The only thing is when they cook em, they freaking nuke em, you can usually tell off the bat. They tend to taste like stewed raisins, this one didnt seem cooked, at least not with the PLCB recipe.

Gordon_Fitz · February 17, 2009, 9:01pm

Humberto; My first thought was,since you had it at a restaurant, it didn’t receive proper decanting. But since it still tasted hot the next day, tht denotes other problems.

We will have to agree to disagree on alcohol levels. I do not believe wines like pinot noir can sustain alcohol levels above 15% (probably 14.5) and be balanced without the "hot’ phenol/gasoline effect. That doesn’t mean that some producers don’t try to defy that level. Several other varietals likewise cannot withstand high alcohol levels nearly as well as cab, zin, or syrah.

Humberto_Dorta · February 18, 2009, 1:51am

Oh yeah, I was just kidding Gordon. I happen to have a high tolerance for higher alcohol, I like a little bite, but “no such thing as too much alcohol” was just an exageration. Ill keep my day job. [suicide.gif]