WTN: An awful 2004 Estate Cab from Mount Eden

2004 Mount Eden Estate Cabernet Sauvignon:
Utterly awful, and I don't think it's because its closed.
Greenbean, coffee-oak, turpentine, and black fruit on the nose. Just awful on the nose; smells like one of those household products that require use in a well-ventilated area.

This is very smooth and has virtually no tannins, but is also dilute, completely lacking in fruit or concentration of any sort, and is flabby. Drink now, if you dare. I wouldn't taste this with Bea Arthur's tongue.

Tasted over several hours over two nights, with no improvement. I love past vintages of this and Monte Bello and other wines with Central Coast Cabernet fruit (eg, Smith & Hook from the early 2000's). This is such a disappointment.

Ouch. I have one sitting on deck. It will/was probably going to go down this week. Do you think there was a problem with your bottle? Household product?

I'll check mine and report back ... but I hope my results are different.

Jason

Your results should differ.

I've had multiple bottles of this wine. All have been great. One of the top values from Cali.

Sounds like the bottle in question was cooked.

mark

Your results should differ.

I've had multiple bottles of this wine. All have been great. One of the top values from Cali.

Sounds like the bottle in question was cooked.

mark

Cooked? Unlikely. I've had cooked; this was not cooked. Not a drop of seepage. Cork was rhumb line-straight with the top of the bottle.
I don't deny the possibility that this was flawed, but (a) the flaw was in the bottle, not my glasses and (b) it wasn't TCA or heat: I'd recognize those. This smelled more like industrial solvent. If I had to make a wild-ass, PUMA guess, I'd say something got messed up in the bottling of this one.

Mind you, I've had the Saratoga Cuvee from Mount Eden for the last couple of years: I have some idea of what this should taste like. What was really weird was the dilution- this was amazingly watery.

The second night it was opened, we finally gave it up and poured it down the drain (FWIW, my girlfriend thought it was vile too) and opened a half of the Beringer Knight's Valley Cab. I'm not a fan of that wine, but the difference in concentration and structure was obvious, and if Knight's Valley is showing you up, then you're not a good bottle.

YM, obviously, MV. But I question whether the emperor is, in fact, wearing the latest see-through fashions from Paris.

I'm not sure, then, what was wrong with the bottle. But something obviously WAS wrong with the bottle.
Was this:

"YM, obviously, MV. But I question whether the emperor is, in fact, wearing the latest see-through fashions from Paris."

part of your response? I've absolutely no idea what its supposed to mean.......

Anyway, you should have a much better time if and when you try the wine again.

mark

Well I finally got around to drinking this. See here http://tiny.cc/i0fNx Certainly sounds like you had an off bottle.

YM, obviously, MV. But I question whether the emperor is, in fact, wearing the latest see-through fashions from Paris.

Like Mark, I am a little confused by this.

Jason

[David M. Bueker]

One word sticks out for me: turpentine.

That is not right. Something had to have happened to that wine.

One word sticks out for me: turpentine.

That is not right. Something had to have happened to that wine.

I agree, turpentine, that's difficult to figure what happened.

Well, turpentine might be related to VA problems...but there's also lack of tannins, and no fruit, and apparently no acidity ("flabby"), so either something happened to this wine or it has a multitude of problems.

[David M. Bueker]

Looked at reviews on CellarTracker as well as Tanzer/Parker & nobody has reported anything remotely like David's bottle. Hopefully it was just an unfortunate case of a bad bottle for some reason.