Just tried Caymus 40th.....

WINE TALK
61

Fair enough. I do not believe that this wine had any resemblance to Kosta Browne pinot noir (at least not from 2007 onward), but each person can reach his own conclusion. And Mark and I worked it out and backed off our initial, probably overheated, statements later in the thread. Certainly, I won’t have any disagreement if this wine wins Mark’s award!

62

I had it at a TW tasting and was not impressed. Certainly not worth the $$$ nor the label.

63

Or their honesty.

64

Chris, you just drank it too early. This bad boy will be drinking like a charm in 2075! [snort.gif]

65

I tend to think things are getting a bit overstated here.

However, the amount of agreement here is such that 1) I am happy I only bought 1 of these, even at what seemed like a steep discount, but 2) hope I can sell or trade it at a steeper discount.

I hate having any wine north of $20 that I’m scared to open amongst anything but close friends or family who will love me even if they want to vomit.

66

I must say that at this point in the discussion, I am dying to try this wine!

67

Very true Charlie. The last one I had was the 2006 at a party several years ago. I honestly couldn’t get past a few sips (just enough for a TN: oaky, raisiny, pancake syrup) before sharing it with the arborvitae. Some of the early 90s efforts left a positive impression…R.I.P. They’ve found a market and critical acclaim with their current direction. More power to them.

RT

68

Merrill, if you do try it would you consider sharing your opinions? Understood if not!

[cheers.gif]

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69

I am not sure my opinion would count any more than anyone else’s. (I assume you are asking me specifically because I also produce Cabernet.) My policy has always been to not comment on other domestically produced wines unless I find them great. I might offer a general comparison (as in X was better than Y, or this vineyard designate was better than that vineyard designate from the same producer).
We are a very small ITB oriented community, and there is little to gain from publicizing negative views on a “competitor’s” wine. Generally, a wine I drink and post on has to be in the “very good” to “I wish I had made this wine” category. Two recent wines that earned that status and I posted on are the 2011 Thomas Pinot Dundee Hills and the 2010 Spottswoode. Loved those wines.

I will add that I admire the marketing success of Caymus and Rombauer - two neighboring producers that get beaten about here now and then about the styles of wine they produce.

70

Merrill, completely understood. If you do taste and can’t post, please PM your assessment if you’re okay with that.

Agreed on the marketing of Caymus and Rombauer!!

71

Caymus made excellent wine way back when, especially late '70s and early '80s Special Selection and those they made for Dick Grace. A shame, really.

1 Like
72

Captain Renault: “And what in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?”
Rick: “My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.”
Captain Renault: “The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.”
Rick: “I was misinformed.”

I guess that I am having trouble sorting out those critics (here) who are complaining about this wine because it did not meet their expectations from those who are simply stating (tongue firmly in cheek) that they were “misinformed.” WineBerserkers - Wine discussion forum and online community

When I had a chance to taste this recently, I found that all of my expectations (drawn largely from reviews and comments on this forum) had been fully met. Let’s review my expectations shall we?

Color of India ink Check
Nose of blackberry, cassis, licorice, chocolate, maple syrup? Check
Flavors of … same as nose Check
Overall “fruit bomb” (nttawwt) Check
Absence of any discernible Rutherford fruit Check
Body that would make Sparky Marquis green with envy Check
A spoonful of sugar to make the medicine (alcohol) go down Check
Lack of minerality Check
Lack of (or hidden) balancing acids Check
Tannins present but buried deep in the background Check
Purple Drank – I have no idea what that actually means but strongly suspect that if I did know, this might be it. Check

Alright, no one else mentioned it, so I didn’t see the maple syrup note coming, but as far as everything else that people have spoken about here, I found this wine to be exactly as expected and more. (The more part relating to the fact that it was even more bigger than I was led to believe – like Mollydooker on steroids big). Again, not there’s anything wrong with that (nttawwt).

Did people really not see this coming? This did not come out of the blue folks. Caymus has been on this track ever since I can remember, and I started drinking Caymus cabernets with the 1979 vintage (as well as some of the single digit lots of Liberty School – yum). Their cabernets (estate bottlings at least) were always richer, riper and fruitier than everyone else’s. Acids were almost always soft and they were all finished with a healthy dose of American oak. They have made steady progress working to expand on these themes over the years until they arrived at the current vintage product. As far as I can tell, they have, with this current release, nearly perfected what they appear to have been trying to accomplish all along. I can’t say that I saw this coming, but looking back, I am not at all surprised.

My tasting occurred at the Southside Grill in Northampton, MA a couple of weeks ago. The 2012 Caymus “Anniversary” Cabernet was listed on the dinner menu as “Glass 15 57.” Having followed all of the hoopla surrounding this wine, I was in for the glass, but the second number made me curious. I called the waitress over to ask what the “57” meant. “Surely you don’t mean that you are going to sell me a bottle of this for $57.00?” She said that it was a “special bottle.” Ah, here it comes… She went on, “You see sir, that bottle is a full liter.” “For $57.00?! You don’t, by any chance, mean Thirty-seven fifty do you?” She looked puzzled for a moment (and I let it go), and then assured me that Fifty-seven dollars was indeed the correct price. When she brought the bottle, it was a liter sure enough, and when asked, she once again assured me that the price was $57.00 (as it was on the bill when it came).

Let’s break this down (rationalize this), shall we? Restaurant prices are roughly double retail, so that would make the equivalent retail price for this bottle $27.50. A liter is 25% larger than 750ml, so reduce that by an additional $6.87 to give us an equivalent retail price of $20.63 for a standard bottle. With me so far? From that point of view, all things considered, this was one of the better $20.00 bottles of wine I have ever had. That said, I have also noticed that I have not yet made the return trip to the Southside Grill for a repeat performance – on the off chance that are still selling this wine from the list at less than retail. Guess I am voting with my feet.

Tim

73

$57 is about standard retail price for this bottle. That would mean a restaurant would usually charge about $170 for it. You got off easy, but the wine still isn’t worth $20.

74

I find it interesting that the overwhelming number of posts in this thread bash this wine. Yet, when I logged into Cellartracker today, and it showed in the “popular wines” section on the front page that the third most owned wine of all wines held by CT users is this particular wine with 20,376 bottles held. Actually it shows more than 23,000 purchased and more than 3,000 consumed already. Cellartracker users are certainly not the “general public” drinkers but are probably like most on this board, a very small sliver of the wine-drinking universe.

I have none, and only one of my 17 CT linked friends have any (and it’s two bottles for the one). Which of you nay-sayers bought the other 23,374 bottles?

newhere

75

This particular naysayer has none.

76

I bought 4 bottles. Gave the other three away after I tried one. I would rather drink J Lohr (which I am not fond of either) than that mess.

77

50%disposed of as a Christmas gift. 1 to go.

78

Someone blinded me on this. Thought it was some Petit Verdot gone horribly wrong. [bleh.gif]

79

Restaurant price is usually based on wholesale cost. With a 3X mark-up of wholesale it would more likely be in the $120 neighborhood.

80

It’s worth negative dollars. You’d have to pay me to put any more in my mouth. [gags] (96 pts.)