My first post. Been lurking for a while now, great board (!!) and I buy and enjoy many of the same things I see posted here (Bedrock, Carlisle, Rivers Marie). Thanks to you all for creating a wonderful community with so many great contributors…
Interesting - this wine. I probably would not have bought if not for the score and for the surrounding opinions. I had a recent Martini cab from 2010 or 2012 (don’t remember) and found it OK but nothing more than that. Probably right pricewise in the mid/high teens for what it gave, but wouldn’t look for it or even buy it since I didn’t find a ton of character. So I go to open the bottle a few nights ago, and out jumped Pamela Anderson. Figuratively, at least.
I found most everything you would expect in a modern powerpurple Cab from Napa – started with a lot of fruit, pretty bright but deep and plummy and fairly intense. Arcing on the palate right up to “sweet” and then pulling back some, with even a touch of mineral. That part was definitely interesting, the way it got close to sweet but just short of too far. Then, tons of oak, in waves. Vanilla and chocolate at the same time. Then grip. So these pieces were there, but they weren’t even close to integrated, and were really closer to “super chunky”. And each of the elements was basically on steroids and BIG. Which is what leads me to Pam Anderson. Big fruit – yep. Big oak – here you go. Some grip – sure, here we are. But it’s not in a way that would ever suggest to me that it is a whole, natural, “wholesome” wine. Back to the Pam analogy, it’s fun in some ways but probably not something you would want to spend a ton of time with. It feels more like a modernized Jedi mind trick of sorts. I may be biased and suspicious, knowing the price and pedigree ahead of time, I’ll admit it. But what I note above was pretty dead-on to my experience with this, and the free association to a Baywatch star came out right away. Quite a ride for $20 in any case….
On day 2 the grip was more pronounced, and I can’t say the wine came together much better. Those chunky elements were still there for me, and muted a bit, but still not whole. I don’t know what that says about the years this wine needs, or if it ever will mesh, but I would imagine it’s at least a few years from changing significantly, and not sure how it will hold longer than that. Sorry if I’m offending anyone who is certain this is the buy of the century, or anyone related to Pam Anderson, I’m just trying to paint a vivid picture of my own experience.
So – my first post and I’ve probably offended those lovers of both Martini and Baywatch. Ah well. I’ll have to work on clawing my way back with analogy ridden insights on more wholesome wines.
