2005 Black Hills Nota Bene

Celebrated Canada Day yesterday with my first bottle of this vintage received from southern Okanagan Valley, BC vineyard upon release a few months ago.

Roughly decanted it .... lots of splashing ... about an hour or more before dinner was ready as I have found past vintages needed this.

Dark, purple/black colour. Nice spicey but somewhat restrained nose with some black fruit. Some coffee, a little syrah like in some respects. Not a heck of lot of tannins at least for me. It may just be that they are still tight so not much astringency.

This vintage is 43/37/20 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cab Franc.

I was not "blown away" by the first bottle but I quite enjoyed it nevertheless.

I will have to check on the past vintages and see about the % breakdown. There might have been more cab franc than 20% in them.

It did not have any of that green, weedy nose and/or aftertaste that occasionally I like but can be off-putting. In some of the first vintages '98 or '99 when I open them I can be uncertain if it is just the blend or the wine is off.

I believe I will be enjoying it for the next few years

[Jenise]

Bob, the only baby Nota Bene I've had definitely showed more CF character than anything else, that was about two years ago so the vintage would have been 02 or 03--it had just been released. I wasn't crazy about the young wine, but if that other bottle I referred you to the tasting note of from several months back is any indication of how these wines develop in the bottle, then I will always want to wait for that.

Bob, thanks for the note. I had an '04 Nota Bene on the weekend.

I found the Cab Franc olive-like elements to be predominant, but I sort of like that. After some time, it really smoothed out and was a wonderful wine.

Unfortunately, I can't recall much else about it - the Nota Bene was bottle #4 that evening.

Mike B.:

I was going to have a bottle of the 2004 as well but decided against it. Will however check it out perhaps later in the week or the week-end and see about those olive characteristics

Jenise:

It is the green, vegetal CF character that I always associate with Nota Bene. It has been there at least for me from the first time I tried a glass.

The 2005 was the first time I did not immediately react to it but that may have had something to do with the decanting a long time earlier and longer than I customarily remember to do.

Bob, that vegetal characteristic you refer to is probably the same thing as the olive characteristic. Specifically, it reminds me of green olives.

Mike B:

I think you are "spot on" with the suggestion of the green olives aka vegetal characteristic.

Last evening I opened up a bottle of the 2004 vintage when I had a late dinner of stroganoff/goulash that I made during the week-end.

Did not decant it at all as I desperately needed a glass of wine after my first training session with our new puppy....I am not sure who is getting trained, me or him?

Still young colour, fairly purple but more garnet than the 2005 with some hints of bottle age around the edges.

Nice but more subdued nose than the 2005 without the gushing fruit I tasted in the latter. More like what I remember about Nota Bene but in a positivel way rather than over the top Cab Franc.

I was looking for the olives you mentioned and quite frankly did not find it.

However, I was looking for something completely different because when you mentioned that in your most recent post, it hit me. Must be my affinity for Kalamatta olives because when you said olives that was what I was looking for but their taste is so different than green olives.

Nice mouth feel about this wine. There is something there that I find difficult to describe. It is what I usually what I refer to as "dusty tannins".

Initially, I had a difficult time assessing the fruit. A lot of alcohol on the first glass coming in at 14.5 % but with some dark fruit in the middle and finish. My wife said blackberries, it was more cassis for me with a slightly confected taste like you get with creme de cassis.

I enjoyed it.

This is what happens when you have finished all of your everyday drinking wines and you check out some wines you have not had recently. Good excuse it having been Canada Day and all.

I emailed Black Hills inquiring about recommended "drinking windows" for the Nota Bene and although the winemaker was way, I think it was Sue who got back to me saying they usually say 4 to 5 years.

If that is true I better cracking on the 1999 through 2002.

Ah yes, what a wonderful excuse to crack open some more .... hopefully ... good Canadian red.

eeer uuum, when are you thinking of cracking those reds Mr Bob!!!

Which breed of whoofie do you have? Best train him/her to catch corks instead of throwing a ball or stick.

LOL....golden retrievers....Wizard who is almost 13 years of age and Mystic who is 14 weeks...yes, I have both ends of the spectrum....they follow my first golden, Merlin and our Magic who we unexpectedly lost to cancer 2 months ago at 8 years of age.

Our training at present is more "no bite" than anything else but I like the idea of "go get another bottle of wine from the basement" rather than cork or screwtop fetching......

Bob, just seen the `05 on DeVines shelf!!