It’s my Step-daughter’s birthday today and we had her over for dinner so I popped a special wine. Yeah we were having tacos but I don’t care. Damn this was good.
2012 Carter Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Coliseum Block- USA, California, Napa Valley (3/30/2015)
Dinner over, guests gone, dishes washed, sitting with the final glass of this wine after 4-1/2 hrs open. This sure was a hedonistic plunge on a monday night. Dark as night, deep pure dark ripe blackberry with tobacco and saddle leather. Intense, concentrated and layered dark fruit flavors, chocolate and a hint of vanilla. The acidity pierces through all the fruit before the tannins kick in and balances out the entire package. Just a baby but it’s not my first infanticide/rodeo/corkpuller moment. Painfully delicious.
This thread has me considering a '12 Quivet Las Madres for dinner tonight. Anyone pop one recently? It seems the delayed (by train-wreck) Quivet/Myriad shipment is due to reach my porch today - good times!
At this point I would opt to hold my 2012s and open up an earlier vintage instead. That said, I’d give it at least an hour in a decanter if opening now, 2-3 preferably.
I had a 2010 Quivet Kenefick Ranch Cabernet on Sunday. This was the best cab that I’ve had in a long time. A remarkable wine and I wish that was not my only bottle.
Its not exactly tonight, rather over the weekend. Guys golf trip to Streamsong, $25 corkage at a resort, can’t beat it. Two Mike Smith wines made the journey.
2012 Myriad Napa Cab, was just amazing. Great fruit profile, integrated tannins, just in a really good spot. It was the fourth bottle of the night so that could have slightly jaded my judgment.
2012 Patine Gaps Crown Pinot. This was the first bottle of the night and absolutely rocked. Great fruit profile, balance as can be. A hint of acid that made you want to continually come back for another sip. Finnish that really lingered for a pinot. Probably the best Mike Pinot I have had to date. Check that, the 2013 Patine Sangiacomo vineyard I had with Jimmy Fox was just killer, but this was in the same league. Only mistake was opening this bottle right before dinner when there were 6 guys around. Should have been done earlier during the gin game of 4.
2011 Myriad Three Twins Cab. Opened 3 hrs ahead, drank over 2 hrs. Very casual social environment, so it didn’t get a tremendous amount of focus or appreciation. I can say it was a solid balanced cab without fault but didn’t make a strong impression as particularly notable or distinguished. Still have 2011 GIII and Crane so will seek to open these when I can give them a little more attention.
Wow. This a great Napa Cab, the best yet I’ve had from the 2012 vintage that was made by Mike. Had a great 2009 Paloma Merlot next to it but the 12C still killed in most every respect.