From the winery storage to my wine refrigerator, so good storage history!
With Joe and Donna and their trust grill. New York Steaks with a nice peppery rub.
Opened and allowed to semi-breathe through the bottle neck for an hour or so.
Inky in color with no real sign of bricking. A ruby rim. Plenty of lovely cassis and tobacco on the nose.
The first few sips were amazingly primary. Beautiful Stags Leap red cherry fruit and red currant with an underpinning of tobacco. As the wine breathed over the evening, the primary fruit became less dominant, and the underpinnings of tobacco and sage and leather came to the fore. The fruit doesn't die off by any means-it is still there in spades, but the adolescent lovelyness of the other flavors comes to the forefront! Very smooth, but there is still some good acidity.
Although this is the "basic bottling," this cab has held up very well and really worked well with the steaks. More elegant and lighter in body than the Heitz, which may also have been a little more complex, but I still could drink this beauty any time./ A beautiful Napa Cabernet.
but the gentleman at the winery tasting presented the wine like it was very fragile. He recommended no decanting, for example. My bottle could have withstood decanting EASILY! 