Afternoon wine tasting near Silicon Valley

Aug 17, 2019,16:49 PM
 

Some good wines here. At the price, the Cliff Lede was the stand out. Many will recognize the Caymus Special Selection, the Kathryn Hall and the Stag’s Leap Cask 23. Some good stuff here for the California Cabernet and Cabernet-blend lovers.

The Hall surprised me at 15.9% alcohol—a huge amount in my opinion, but there was plenty of fruit to counterbalance the alcohol. This one had the longest finish of the group, with good intensity on the back-end.

The Special Selection was good, as always. Tons of fruit and easy to drink young. Not a whole lot of structure but so very smooth with a nice finish.

The Stag’s Leap Cask 23 was more classically structured—good fruit, acid, alcohol and tannin here, and given the structure, this will probably be the longest-lived of the group and most likely to develop with age.

We have a few good bottles in the line-up for dinner tonight: a Henri Boillot Puliny-Montrachet Premier Cru Mouchere and an East Block Rochioli. Looking forward to those as they are admittedly more my style than big California Cabs.

Cheers,
John





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That’s a great day.

 
 By: emcquillan : August 17th, 2019-16:53
The Rochioli is such a lesser known gem is on the East coat. Enjoy

I am a stags leap fan. Need to see what i have in the cellar.

 
 By: Bill : August 17th, 2019-17:08
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Bill

Found a few stags leap in the cellar.

 
 By: Bill : August 17th, 2019-18:12
1999 cask 23 A couple more years of stags leap cask 23 SLV ...  

That's quite a collection ,as usual,from you.

 
 By: halkcb : August 18th, 2019-04:15
Would be interesting to see how the twenty year old Cask 23 is developing I think I'm now driven to drink my 1994 Cask 23 in the next few months to see what's left in the wine. best

Big fan of Rochioli: both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

 
 By: TheMadDruid : August 17th, 2019-18:44
I’m assuming you had the white?

The Chardonnay is great, but we had the red tonight.

 
 By: vitalsigns : August 17th, 2019-20:53
2006 East Block. Just a lovely, well-balanced wine. Delicious... For white, we had a Henri Boillot Puligny Montrachet white burgundy.

My cellar never disappoints.

 
 By: Bill : August 18th, 2019-00:56
I don’t know Henri but i have met Jean Marc in beaunes. I have a nice selection of jean marcs wine. ...  

Ah....that is similar to our other choice, a J.M. Boillot Combettes...next time

 
 By: vitalsigns : August 18th, 2019-06:36
I think we should play a game here. Six Degrees of Separation from Bill's Cellar. When any of the rest of us has a nice wine, post details and I'm sure you'll find the same wine or some close cousin . Magnificent cellar, Bill. Cheers, John ...  

Indeed...although I drank only about half and spit half, favoring the nicer wines, of course.

 
 By: vitalsigns : August 18th, 2019-06:39
Then we had to gear up for dinner and more wine. Groggy morning, but nothing a gallon of coffee and some running won't fix Cheers, my friend, John

Great line up!

 
 By: halkcb : August 18th, 2019-04:12
What a treat--- but i think the Cask 23 is just wee bit too young to really appreciate it--need lots of years Good luck with the white Burgundies!

Yes, much too young indeed, but I could appreciate the structure and fruit of the wine...

 
 By: vitalsigns : August 18th, 2019-06:42
which signaled a well-balanced, ultimately long-lived wine. But some serious mouth-puckering tannins for sure.