Gary- Great job on calling the expensive wines as you see them. I don’t usually buy in that price range (OK never) but I did receive a 1993 Opus One as a gift and that bottle got me started on wine.

Gary,
I agree 100% on the insignia had a bottle the other day when I went out to eat. I couldn’t help but thinking maple syrup its the first thing that came out. Quite shocking acutally, and i must say i was pretty dissapointed with the effort and i drink a lot of these cult wines. No structure it tasted like a wine that had no real direction. Great show, especially for a first time viewer. Thanks!

Gary, Another one of those episodes where I could see you pausing and perhaps thinking “jeeezuz am I going to get blitzed in the background for delivering this news”. But you did it as you always do, and I so thank you for that. I’ve had enough great/classic wines in my day to know that they can provide a valuable dimension of education, and for that they are worth it to me to spend the big bucks. The problem has always been having big confidence, some kind of strong assurance that the so-called classic will be what its supposed to be when I crack it. I just don’t have major cushion cashola to buy “hundy-plus” major leaguers but a couple times a year. So thanks for the straight shot reviews and perspective. BTW, your QOTD doesn’t even deserve a response (dude). Cheers, C

Gary-

Nice gutsy job on calling it as you taste it. Yes, it was comical when you tasted the Insignia. It became sad when you tasted the Caymus SS. Here’s too highly priced wines not holding their own. Thank goodness the Mondavi Reserve saved the show. With that company and the recent Mondavi history it was like the Jets beating the Pats…Keep it going.

How did I miss this episode? Loved the spirit of that “Braveheart” opening!

Really interesting episode!

I started watching the wine library TV out of curiousity. I am a regular on wineloverspage.com and saw your “ad”. I really, really enjoy watching these videos. Gary is a very lively character, WITHOUT BEING ANNOYING! I like the way the comparisons are organized and look forward to your future videos. Unfortunately, my wine cellar is full…there are many wines I love to buy from your show, but I have to pace myself (for now!) GREAT JOB, KEEP IT UP!

Going back to today’s episode..I am glad Gary is not intimitated by the reputation of these wine, and grades them honestly. Many times I have been at a wine tasting, with famous and not-so-famous wines for comparison. Sometimes I felt the famous wines were a let-down as well.

Great job with the Caymus 04 scoring. You said Parker came in low at 91-93. You said it was a 95 pointer. I just got the Parker update today. Parker just re scored the Caymus 04 at 96! Damn, you are right on the money with this one! Also went to Caymus last fall for a tasting. Pretty great vineyard that almost nobody can seem to find. It took me about 45 minutes to find it driving with a map. Anyway, I am a huge Caymus fan and was psyched to see you predict the high score before Parker. Go Jets!!!

i had a bottle of caymus 2004 cabernet this past weekend. not the “special select,” just the regular vintage. nonetheless, my impression was virtually identical to your assessment of the special select 2004 cab. i thought it was a fantastic wine, probably the best i’ve ever tried. 3-4 hours decanting. i am glad that my assessment matches gary’s, i now have a good benchmark to gauge how well these reviews synch with my palete.

Gary–How do you square the vegetal nose (by your description, broccoli, asparagus) on the Caymus with your final rating? Don’t you think those flaws tend to come out more with time in the bottle? Would be a bummer to lay that down for 10 years at that price and end up with veggie stew.

This was a great one I had seen Caymus at my local store at 79 dollars and wanted to know if it was worth it now I know it is :-). Thanks Gar

Gary 🙂 Sorry about that I hit submit by mistake 🙁

Gary, I’ve been meaning to ask (N3WB alert!) what is “structure”?

I totally agree with the calls made regarding Opus One and Joseph Phelps. My wife and I recently visited those two wineries and were very bummed. At Opus One it was a $25 tasting for one wine that that did not meet up to our expectations. It is a shame that they think that since there are big names backing this production that they can expect the public to drop $160.

This supports my view – when you are paying for the big names in wine, you don’t always get what you pay for!

Um, you just SPIT OUT and then POURED OUT Opus 1.

Swallow it, you wine snob.

Great episode its good a heavyweight battle now and then. I’d love to see one with some of the seconds growths vs some of the first growths. I have bought Overture from Opus for the past few years and have always been fairly impressed especially at the reduced price point.

Hi Gary,
I’m your fan from Hungary! I’m sadly noticed that you are here in my country, now that I am not there! We are leaving to Tuscany early in the morning. We (few wine enthusiasts) would be honored to welcome you on an experience if you are still in Hungary after the fifth of Aug.
Please let us know!!!
yours,
Zoltan and Andrea
Vayniacs

so this is Gary’s favorite episode. cool.

AP

I can see why it is his favorite. Some good wines. Even though he did not like the Opus One, I have had a 1994 Opus One that was awesome (enjoyed it in 2000). And of course he loved the other Robert Mondavi, his stuff is also awesome.

Opus One was the wine that made me realize that I’m missing something in not understanding wine. I’ve always enjoyed wine, but it seemed like I really didn’t understand what ‘good’ wine was or how to go about picking it. I think the problem was that I never really had wine that was really, really good…

Then I was out on a business dinner with a partner and he was pissed at his boss – so he bought a $300 bottle of wine on his expense account. It was either an ’82 or an ’88 Opus One (can’t remember) which we had with dinner at Bareli’s in Secaucus. As I was tasting the wine someone asked me what I thought and the first thing I said was ‘kool aid’.

Everyone laughed at me, but that was the only thing I could think of – it wasn’t sweet, but it was the first wine that I had ever had that was so enjoyable, it brought back memories of hot summer days when I was a kid and the perfect thing to drink was kool aid…. That wine was the perfect thing to drink that evening and I realized that, although I wasn’t going to be popping a 20-year old bottle of wine on a regular basis, I needed to understand a little more about something I had been missing out on for far too long…

Sorry to go off on you here, but just felt I needed to say all of that apparently. It’s too bad the Opus One failed to impress on this vintage, but you mentioned a soft spot for the Insignia – I’ve got one for Opus One.

Gary,
Good to see how you bring legends back to earth.
Similar things could be said about a lot of first-growth
Bordeaux, too.

Gary, a few other great cabernet’s are Puriri Hills Estate 2005 which is made in Australia. Another one is the 2002 Chateau Pontet Canet Paulliac, Chateau Haut-Bages Liberal, and one from Spain which is Torres Mas La Plona 2001.

Gary

A correction for Pats. Saying Puriri Hills comes from Australia is like saying Opus One is from Canada.

Puriri Hills is the genius of New Zealand.

Also if any cab sauv is present it is only in very small quantities. It is Merlot Carmenere predominant. The Estate version is the third tier wine behind their Reserve and Pope.

are you sure Gary?,that sometimes maybe your nose does not get it,and you might be irracional in judgment hey sometimes got to check twice