I am inspired to pull out an 07 or two to take a peek back. Thanks for the comments. Would it be fair to say that Napa is like Burgundy in one respect? It’s not where your vineyard is, it is more important who the producer is…
Steve Gautier wrote:
On the few wines I own, I was struck by the significantly lower rating than his original reviews.
This is one of the reasons why I enjoy reading retrospectives, to see which wines have changed for the better or worse for the particular reviewer. I have not read this article or seen the reviews, FWIW. But I have had quite a few 2007’s and liked most of them.
Thanks,
Ed
That’s why I like getting these retrospectives, so I can see how the wines are evolving (without having to open them myself). Even if you disagree generally with the subjective assessment, it is a point of reference. As with any review of wine, you have to take it with a big grain of salt.
One would expect scores to have changed from the original over time due to a number of different factors, including bottle variation, changes in reviewers tastes, and changes in perspective in terms of perhaps what a specific wine should taste like.
All of us, including these reviewers, see the world a little differently now than we did seven or eight years ago when the original reviews came out.
Does anyone know if multiple bottles of each wine were opened as part of this retrospective?
Also, any indication of how many corked bottles there were?
Cheers.
I really liked this retrospective - found it helpful and informative. It was great to see so many wines considered and reviewed - nearly 150 reviews. Perhaps these didn’t cover the exact producers or wines we have in our cellars but it’s hard to complain that these weren’t representative. I also found it interesting that Tanzer mentioned ‘nearly three dozen’ wines reviewed that were low scoring and not included in the article. So there are certainly wines from this vintage that didn’t fare well. Names? We’ll never know.
Corked wines - Tanzer only mentions one. Dunn, sadly.
My perspective on 2007, based on a small sample opened in the last few years, is that it’s a very good vintage with a lot of ripe flavors. Not perhaps the longest aging, except among high end/small set of producers. Still the wines have been crowd pleasers when I’ve opened them. At the higher end I’ve had some Schrader (G III) and Morlet (the BTK was particularly outstanding). Also quite a few EMH Black Cats and Rivers-Marie Cabernets - all of which were excellent QPR and I always am on the hunt for more.
Any feedback on Laurel Glen 2007? I bought some recently for $25 each. Thank you.
As befits the Winehunter, you scored well. And as it happens, I was just there yesterday and tasted that wine side by side with the 2008, along with a few earlier ones. It’s one of the best $25 Cabs you’re likely to find anywhere and it isn’t going to be anywhere like that price any more. The original owner sold after the 2010 vintage. I had no idea he was as small as he was - he did pretty much everything himself, other than picking and vineyard management because of his handicap. But wine making and marketing were all him. He had distributors in 36 states but only made a few thousand cases a year. So they pulled back. Also changed the wine making quite a bit - it’s not so old-school any more. Now they have sorting tables, cleaner grapes, small boxes for picking, and a much cleaner winery.
The wine was good though. For my money, I’d bet on the 2008 for long term, just like the 1997s and 1998s, but it was totally worth drinking right now. May have a few years on it. The 2008 is still a bit more tannic. They’re $100 these days, probably less if you don’t buy them at the winery, but no longer $25. Still nice, some of the best Cabs out of Sonoma IMO.
Thank you. The 1990 to 1997 vintages remain on my radar, and are still quite young. So, the 2007 LG will slumber.
Easy peasy using Cellartracker but note that I lean towards real wine instead of that insipid flavorless stuff. It appears that I did not write notes on a lot of the wines. 2007 Scarecrow - OUTSTANDING. 2007 Colgin IX. OUTSTANDING. Side by side with the Scarecrow and Outpost True. On Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, I like the Scarecrow better. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday, the Colgin is better. Sundays it’s a tie. The Outpost True is delicious, but suffered by comparison.
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2007 Two Hands Cabernet Sauvignon Charlie’s Patch - USA, California, Napa Valley (4/7/2015)
Popped and poured to celebrate my son taking his USMLE Step I exam. He wanted his kind of wine, which is Scarecrow, but since I am a meanie and wouldn’t open a Scarecrow, I picked this. It is REALLY DELICIOUS. An incredible, outstanding wine. Extremely dark with red highlights around the edges. Nose is dark red fruit with plum. Palate still has tanins with red fruit, acidity and, in an odd way, a tiny touch of sweetness on the back of the palate. For a TRB wine, this is actually more sexy than brawny. There are tiny hints of other flavors, like a bit of chocolate, coffee and spice, that I am convinced will flower with some more age. Takes on additional red fruit flavors as it gets some air. Give it an hour or two decant. Long finish. This is no where near its peak. Space out the remaining four bottles over the next decade or so. (95 pts.) -
2007 Two Hands Cabernet Sauvignon Charlie’s Patch - USA, California, Napa Valley (6/28/2014)
An outstanding Cali Cab. This was a joint venture between Michael Twelftree and Thomas Rivers Brown that blew up after the 2008 vintage. Too bad because it was outstanding collaboration. This has great power and depth. Meatyness. Herbs, coffee, some chocolate, earth and red fruit. (92 pts.) -
2007 Two Hands Cabernet Sauvignon Charlie’s Patch - USA, California, Napa Valley (6/28/2014)
Strong Cali Cab baby. needs time. Intense flavor but rustic despite the strong fruit. All sorts of dark red fruit and earth spices. Strong but not astringent tannins. Too bad this joint venture is gone. (92 pts.) -
2007 Outpost Cabernet Sauvignon True Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain (8/13/2011)
Opened out on the back deck with Flannery Hangar Steak. Joining us were the US rep of a number of well known right bank wineries and his brother, a composer who also owns a winery in the Dordogne. Let’s just say that their impression included the use of the word “fantastique” more than once. This was a GREAT bottle of wine. An expressive red fruit and spicy nose. A fantastic mouth feel and a palate oozing cherries and plums with tobacco and coffee notes in the background. The finish was moderate to long, but I didn’t pull out a stop watch. I washed it down with the Flannery instead. The Flannery steaks had been rubbed with our own fresh ground spice rub and then grilled at 600 degrees to an outside char and an inside very rare, making a perfect combination for the wine. I opened this bottle after first opening the Outpost “regular” Cab which was almost as good, but when that one was so well received, I opened this one to really blow our guests away, which it did. Thus it was a pop and pour. If this is not your style, then that’s OK, but I feel sorry for you. The pleasure level that this wine delivers is extraordinary. This is a Thomas Rivers Brown wine that is not like his tannic monsters of the early 2000s but is instead lusciously approachable. I have no idea how this will age but it really doesn’t matter because it is so good right now. Not quite as good as one of the really rare top of the line Schraders rthat he makes, but very close. I do not raste very many wines 95 and above, maybe a handful to a dozen every year at most, but this one deserves that level. (96 pts.) -
2007 Rivers-Marie Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley (8/4/2011)
This definitely gets a WOW. Popped, decanted and then drunk over the next 3 hours at Mortons. This wine oozes red fruit and cassis, with a mocha/chocolate/coffee component in the background if you search for it. Sweet red fruit nose. No direct oak flavor. Did not notice any vanilla. Color is very dark. Surprisingly drinkable despite its youth. The mouth feel on this is wonderfully smooth with your flavor receptors firing well on all cylinders. There’s ZERO astringent tanins. Maybe the massive fruit is hiding them, but I can’t tell. Some people have expressed the view that the 2007 Cali Cabs will fall apart because of lack of tannic structure. That’s a possibility, but it’s not a huge concern to me because these are so good now that I expect all but one of them to be gone before the risk of falling apart rears its ugly head. I’ll keep one for aging just to see what happens at the end of this decade. PS - both my drinking companion, whose sweet spot is anything made from Nebbiolo that’s over 10 years old, and the restaurant manager, gave this wine a wow as well. (93 pts.) -
2007 Two Hands Cabernet Sauvignon Charlie’s Patch - USA, California, Napa Valley (10/29/2010)
Popped and poured at Ben and Jack’s Steakhouse. I drank this directly after a 2006 Saxum Broken Stones. The difference in the flavor profile was clear and distinct. This is obviously cabernet while the other is obviously syrah and grenache. Anyone who says Cali cabernet tastes like syrah has never comared them side by side. There is more meatyness, a bit of saddle leather, and some cocoa/chocolate. A bit of mocha/cocoa. And some vanilla and some earth to blend with the red fruit. Tanins are there but not ferocious despite the youth. (94 pts.) -
2007 Outpost Cabernet Sauvignon True Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain (6/5/2010)
Double decanted and then sat in the bottle for 8 hours before drinking. Nose is undifferentiated red fruit. Palate is red fruit, pepper spice, vanilla, and some chocolate. I do not know fro sure where this wine will go in 10 years, but you do not have to wait that long. The tanins are sweet - no astringent implosion. After the rater long decant, the wine was drinkable and approachable now. There are lots of flavors waiting to break out, and Ithink this will improve with age as tertiary flavors develop. We brought this bottle to X2O in Yonkers, one of Peter Kelly’s great restaurants. I drink this wine with their braised short rib ravioli, which is a lot more about the short risks and a lot less about the ravioli.It was an extremely strong dish and an excellent pairing with the wine. The color was quite dark and thefinish was long. Not that this needed the decant for sediment, as well as for air. There was a lot of dark crud in the bottom of the decanted after I poured 99" of the wine back into the bottle. (95 pts.) -
2007 Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Reserve - USA, California, Napa Valley (5/29/2010)
This is an outstanding California Cab with excellent fruit flavors, strong but not obnoxiously astringent tanins, matiness and power, and a long finish. Tasted along side the 2006 at Zachy’s today. The contrast between the two wines was clear and sharp. As someone else put it, the 2006 is a mroe elegant, feinine wine while the 2007 is the brawny, powerful big-shouldered version. Noce balance, purity of fruit and a very dark color in the 2007. The 2006 was lighter in color and more delicate. I bought 2 of these to add to my work in progress - a 2007 CAli Cab verticle to be held in 2017. (94 pts.)
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Victor Hong wrote:
Thank you. The 1990 to 1997 vintages remain on my radar, and are still quite young. So, the 2007 LG will slumber.
The 1990-1995 vintages for Laurel Glen Cabernet are exceptional, IMO. I have not had as many of the '96 or '97 Cabs. These are wines that are well worth looking for.
Thanks,
Ed
The 1997 is a bit rich but still honors the old style of California reds. The 1996 remains backward in a good way.