2016 Carlisle Alicante Bouschet Pagani Ranch- USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Valley (4/6/2020)
Decanted 6hrs. As others have noted, this is really a dark hue of purple when I was decanting it, any darker, it would have been Pennzoil! Maybe it was just the planets aligning or I was under the spell of homemade chili verde nachos, but this was just on fire last night. As dark as it looked in appearance, and certainly had density, I never really thought of it as ripe nor jammy. This was in part to some well placed acidity that was pretty constant from start to finish. Solid tannic structure but less so than a Petite Sirah, more playful too. If this bottle was representative, worth an early look, but if one only has a bottle or two, give it time, I’ll open my second in 5 to 8 years, perhaps longer. Excellent. (94 pts.)
I recently opened a 2013 version. I evidently thought I liked A-B (last one was over 15 years ago), but this was definitely not in my wheel house anymore. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the wine, but who knows… Pretty bummed since I had been sitting on this one for awhile. Cheers!
Opened a 1998 version of A-B from Pagani from St. Francis over the weekend, still alive and well after 22 years. I’d guess the 2016 from Mike makes it to 2040.
Dino Amantite was the vineyard manager at St. Francis back in 1998. Ironically, his family vineyard is Pagani. All of the stuff St. Francis did from that vineyard back when was spot on including the AB and Zin/field blend. BIG fruit forward wines…
Rich, The pandemic has me a lot less worried about when to pull corks - if you have 13’s AND 16’s, open one Man! Versatile wine too, I can see this working with a lot food pairings given the acidity.
Can’t argue with that my friend! I might just have to check in on a 13!
Side note, I scooped up some Angelo Papagni AB from the 70’s a few years back for a song. Mix of 750’s and magnums. 78 magnum last year was solid, but a 750 of the 1975 a few years ago was awesome! Literally still dark as night and full of fruit. Must have been a MONSTER of a wine in its youth, but super fun to drink now. Still have a handful left. Might have to check in on one of those as well!
All the color comes from the fact it is one of few vitis vinifera that presses purple juice in addition to color gained from skin contact, so naturally it is always darker than a wine that presses clear juice and extracts color only from skins.