The 2004 Hall Cabernet

QOTD: Livingston Moffett “Stanley’s Selection” `04 Napa at Bin 54, Chapel Hill NC

No tasting notes, but it brought back excellent memories, which is what a good wine should do.

i agree the 04 hall cab is fantastic. we were serving it by the glass and blew through five cases in no time. and i know its a blend but the prisoner by orin swift can’t get enough. love the show

QOTD: Robert Keenan, Ramian Estate

QOTD: I really liked the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon 2005. its on the top end of the price range and out of my league for a regular purchase so cheaper suggestions would be appreciated!

Nice show. Short and simple (perfect for a break from my horrible schedule…*sigh*).

QOTD: $20-25 is too pricey for my budget! I rarely buy a wine that is more than $15 🙁 I haven’t tried any Napa Cabs yet. Waiting until I have a steady paycheck (or until I visit Napa!).

GV great show.

QOTD:
Had some really good $26ish Cabernet
from Terra Valentine, Napa Spring Mountain

damn i wish that wine wasnt so much. it sounds soo great to me. it looks great too. great bottle. and 15% 😀 ill take it. thanks

Gary & Chris, QOTD: Only one recently: ’04 Match Butterdragon Cab. – one word=fabulous!!!!! 🙂

Gary – LOVE the fuzzy face!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂

Interesting show and another “big boy” wine! I too love the blind tastings. They are always interesting and sort of like a cliff-hanger episode. You just can’t wait to see what the wines were! (Unless, of course, you scroll down the page before you watch the show….)

QOTD – The last Napa cab I had was last night, which was a Stags Leap Wine Cellars 2004 Fay Vineyard cab sav. As has my experience been with every freakin’ bottle of Stags Leap I have had in the last year (we drunkenly joined their wine club at the winery a few years back and stayed members for a few years, without drinking any of the reds – only a few whites – and now regret blowing stupid sums of cash!), it wasn’t very good and cost way the hell too much! This wine was fairly bitter/sour, tannic, had no obvious sense of place, and as such, drank as a cheap tannic cab! The only problem… I think it was about an $80 wine. I could get the same flavor profile from some cheap imports in the $8 range and feel a whole lot better about it. Heck – I could buy a $10 bottle of Columbia Crest Grand Estates cab and enjoy it more!

Other than that, we had a nice V. Sattui Napa cab a few months back – don’t remember the vineyard (I think it was a girls name – Suzanne’s Vineyard?? rings a bell), and it was a 2002 as I recall. It was pretty tasty and probably only $40 or so. It had a nice secondary tier of caramel starting to show up from the aging on the wine. Nice stuff!

Cheers!

I, Too, think there is room for the $45 dollar cabs in this world that taste like a $60. Revenant 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon comes to mind, a wine we recently that took us back a few years re its style, complexity and finish. And the bottle lasts forever when left open.

I, Too, think there is room for the $45 dollar cabs in this world that taste like a $60. Revenant 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon comes to mind, a wine we recently that took us back a few years re its style, complexity and finish. And the bottle lasts forever when left open.

QOTD: 2005 Provenance Rutherford ($30) is the best Napa Cab I’ve tried recently. I’m also a Turnbull fan (still have some ’99 in the cellar).

For great value-driven Cab I generally head over to Alexander Valley, where the wines are often better than their Napa equivalents at much lower price points. I recently tried a Pellegrini 2005 Cloverdale Ranch that blew me away, and it sells for under $30.

Another vote for 2005 Provenance – had at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse

QOTD….if I go Californian(which I don’t much….as we have such great local Cabernets here in Washington) I Like Justin…the first Vintage I had was 1995 and have never been let down by it before…

QOTD….if I go Californian(which I don’t much….as we have such great local Cabernets here in Washington) I Like Justin…the first Vintage I had was 1995 and have never been let down by it before…

Pop & pour is how a wine SHOULD perform! While decanting may arguably benefit some lesser wines, it is truely and optimally employed for pedigree wines such as Grand Cru Burgs. and classified growth Bordeaux of say, 10 years’ or more age. I’m sure other wines fit this criterion, but garden variety, esp. new world wines aren’t among them. A good glass (THIS is important), and a good swirl ought to be enough.

No doubt, minions out there are pouring their $10 wine into empty Paul Masson carafes, and hey – it’s their wine to do as they wish with. But really now – all the new world for several decades now, has been about having the wine come to you, rare, pricy jewels like the ultra tight Diamond Creek Cabs being the exception which might need a little coaxing out of the bottle.

It is widely known that the way to make a small fortune in wine is to start with a large fortune, and the people like Volta and Phifer Pavitt, regardless of performance, will have no problem selling out their miniscule productons. It is the first year for each, they have garnered some attention (we thank winelibrarytv for sharing with us), and despite varied approaches,(while P.P. wine is made from Pope Valley fruit, they are most likely trumped by Howell Mountain fruit in Volta) should see success,growth, and maturity in the coming years. Good luck to them, and we can only hope that for our wallet’s sake, their prices don’t skyrocket, as may be predicted.

No value at $60?

Watching back to back from yesterday and respect was shown to the guest claiming “value” at 75 bones for napa cab.. I think the “no value at” was what you wanted to say yesterday too..

QOTD: None, I don’t like Cabernet all that much

Totally agree with what Murso has written down : pop and pour is by far the most common way to drink wine by the majority of us “normal folks”. Murso also put it perfectly how “smart” wineries start nowadays…I guess a blind tasting (I’ve just seen that this was today’s show) will show where the wine comes first and at what price point this can be obtained.

QOTD : not a Cab fan really, and especially not at these prices!!!

Nothing wrong with popping and pouring. Just be sure to use the worlds most wonderful wine gadget ever … the Vinturi !

Quickie show!
QOTD – Stewart Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa – I have the 2002 and 2003 vintages in my cellar.

QOTD: 2001 Atalon from Napa

Most all of the Cabs (the few that I drink) are Sonoma County Critters……