TN: 2009 Arnot-Roberts Cabernet Sauvignon Fellom Ranch

WINE TALK
1

2009 Arnot-Roberts Cabernet Sauvignon Fellom Ranch - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (3/27/2013)
Jesus, this is fabulous. Just about as delicious as Cabernet can be, and textbook, cassis and plum and cedar and herbs and loads and loads of graphite. So complex - I’m barely scratching the surface in describing whats going on with this wine. Medium bodied, but insanely concentrated. Remarkably fresh acid, with a fair bit of structure but quite drinkable alongside rich Passover food. Best young cab I’ve ever had. Worth every one of the (many) pennies this cost. Can’t believe how good this is. (94 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

2

Priceless.

(I will have to start Sunday’s note with a Moses.) [wink.gif]

Arnot-Roberts Cabs are very much under the radar, and that’s a good thing.

3

Melinda and I got to taste the 2010 recently and even thru our colds it basically blew us away. Want to have one next to a Monte Bello, around 2025!

4

Cannot wait to get my shipment!!

5

Just what I was thinking!

6

MB is my favorite wine, and my fiance’s as well, and as we were drinking this we were stunned at how much this tasted like MB . . . but not young MB, more like MB when it is 15 years old. This was remarkably complex for its age.

7

Fellom is basically a driver, 7-iron away from MB.

8

So where does that put A-R cabs in 15 years? Can try go the distance?

9

I had a '92 Fellom Ranch Cab about a year ago. Stunning with a long life ahead. The fruit can handle it and there’s zero indication the A-R folks are doing anything wrong. Wouldn’t be surprised if their Felloms are still peaking at 40.

10

Best young cab ever and only a 94? Wow, you have high standards! Seriously, sounds like really good stuff.

11

I bought this on David’s recommendation and did not have nearly the same experience. Hard to say how much is palate preference (I tend to like riper wines than David does) versus bottle variation.

  • 2009 Arnot-Roberts Cabernet Sauvignon Fellom Ranch - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (5/16/2013)
    Magenta colored, not quite opaque. Exceedingly focused and powerful pencil-scented nose, with some mixed dark fruits lurking in the background. Medium-bodied, though a bit thick for its restrained flavor profile. Strikingly little fruit on the palate. Not particularly tannic but a nudge sour. Persistent finish. I can’t believe this is a New World wine–it tastes like a slightly more extracted version of a lower-classed Bordeaux, or a 2nd/3rd growth from a rather modest vintage. (88 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

12

I think this was his more recent tasting note:

Arnot Roberts SCM Fellom Ranch
Ben Franklin advised that a penny, you save
This wine costs his likeness; he spins in his grave - 90 points

For what its worth I tried the 2010 version of this as well as the other AR cab offerings including some aged ones at the winery a month ago. Outstanding, but aging is essential.

13

I’m with you, Dan. I thought the acid was simply too pronounced and I didn’t get any cab character:

(See end of post. Ignore 2010 in heading. That preserves a mistake in the original post that was later corrected.)

14

I tried the same bottle as John, served blind. I liked the wine and didn’t find it overly acidic, but I did think it lacked varietal character and I didn’t like it nearly as much as David did in his first note. It’s a good wine but staggeringly overpriced at $90. For that money you might as well just buy Monte Bello.

15

The wine I wrote the snide note about, and that Corey and John tasted, was the 2010 Fellom. The wine I praised was the 2009.

16



Sorry, but I’m confused. Was the wine that has Ben Franklin spinning in his grave a 2009 or 2010? I thought it was finally figured out that the tasting reported in quote-unquote doggerel was of '09 Cali Cabs???

17

2010 Fellom had Franklin spinning in his grave
2009 Fellom had my fiancé whispering in my ear “holy shit, what did you blind us with?”

18

David, do you think there’s any realistic chance with a wine this young of bottle variation, or different aeration? (I gave my bottle just a half-hour decant.) Or do we just look for different things in Cabernet?

19

Both are possible; the latter far more likely, given your preference for sweetly fruited reds.

20

Certainly our glasses of the 2010 had nothing to do with sweetly fruited anything. I’ll check in again in say 2012. Mag will last until my son’s 21st.