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