TN: 2017 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley

[Brian_Glas]

You are both in a timeout.

[ToddFrench]

Let’s not devolve into a petty argument, please

[Andrew_K]

All this commentary and we still don’t have an answer on how the 2017 is wearing a 2012 label?

[ToddFrench]

All this commentary and we still don’t have an answer on how the 2017 is wearing a 2012 label?

But it has a post-it note or something attached to it that says 2017!

[N_Weis]

All this commentary and we still don’t have an answer on how the 2017 is wearing a 2012 label?

But it has a post-it note or something attached to it that says 2017!

That’s our new packaging concept. Like it?

[Anton_D]

All this commentary and we still don’t have an answer on how the 2017 is wearing a 2012 label?

But it has a post-it note or something attached to it that says 2017!

That’s our new packaging concept. Like it?

It’s a lot like my filing system.

[Anton_D]

Hopefully locals! Can you imagine going there and ordering Caymus with all the other discoveries on the list.

Except some people here on WB don’t have that kind of money. Or say they don’t and cry poverty and buy Davenport. Or maybe they are wasting their money on Porsches. Or all the above?

Or they can’t use their real name on wine berserkers because they don’t want people to know who they are.

In my mind, I pronounce it B Decline, and he’s pretty awesome!

When I come to think of it, I’m pretty much always happy to see Jong Las here, too!

Love ya both!

[Mariano_Chiaramonte]

We actually still have a 1974 “North Coast” Silver oak that was lovely when we last tried.

I have a 1972 North Coast, inaugural release if I’m not mistaken. Planning to open that bottle this Nov 24th for my 50th birthday, hopefully the wine has aged more gracefully than I did

[Rich_Brown]

I’ve never had any Silver Oak either. I have a bottle of this the '86 Alexander Valley on the way and looking forward to trying it.

I opened a 1980 in Dec. 2020 and it was awesome. Bested a 1980 Mouton. Happy to have a couple left as it felt like it had a LOT of time left.

[Ravi_Raju]

Coincidentally, I just (tonight) tasted this wine blind as a pop and pour (same 2017 vintage). In reading Adam’s original TN, the tasting note is dead on in all ways (for me) other than I think the sweet tannins and coconut are very prominent (particularly blind). Not cloying by any means and I suspect this aspect will integrate with air, but it is a defining characteristic IMO. This wine is NOT over-extracted, but at least on P&P, it IS very oak driven. I still think it is a solid wine and there are more expensive California Cabs that I do not like as much. It’s a wine I would love to pair with a Cowboy ribeye.

[Tom_Reddick]

I have very limited experience with both, Silver Oak and Caymus, still I don’t understand why people put both of them in the same bucket. Regardless of the style, I find Silver Oak Alexander Valley to be wine that I can drink with great pleasure (At least up to 2008, that was the latest vintage that I have tasted), while I was never able finish a glass of Caymus. When it comes to the Silver Oak Napa Valley, I only tried it once at the tasting room (It was the 2007 IIRC) and as many have mentioned earlier in this thread, I found to like the AV better than the NV.

I imagine most people think of SO and Caymus in the same way because they are so widely available in grocery stores- kind of like Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label. For the experienced taster, their paths diverged long ago.

I remember working in wine retail in the late 90s while in college and grad school when the 1992 Silver Oak AV came out. It was gorgeous wine and the vintage that really made them in demand nationwide. At a time when the wine markets were really starting to take off in the US, 92 Silver Oak AV was one of the first broadly sought “must haves” by both the new and older generations of wine lovers. It was $25 a bottle and we kept it in the back room. 2 bottle limit and we were not allowed to tell people we had the wine- they had to ask for it. Similar allocations were in effect at other stores. The 1992 vintage has a few peers at SO, but none better. It is certainly my favorite vintage of all time.

The 1993s were also exceptional, but 1994 is when things began to go awry- with the 1995s, especially the Napa, being the gooey overoaked monsters that many think of to this day. I stopped tasting the wines in 1998 for a while because they became unbearable to me, so I am not sure when things came right again- but I remember the 2008s being a dramatic improvement. For the last several vintages, I think the AV has come just about back to its former high standard and unique character, and I now buy a few bottles each vintage plus occasionally pick up really big bottles for occasional celebration events.

As for the different cuvees, the Napa has always been a bit too oaky for me. The 80s and early 90s vintages aged and improved nicely, as have the AVs, but always there was that little bit of raw oak. Though some like that. The Bonny’s is the one I could never really come to love - the pickle and eucalyptus were just too strong for me and got stronger with age. But Alexander Valley- aside from the dark days of the mid-90s to sometime in the 2000s- is a really great and unapologetically California wine.

It is a pity many critics no longer review it- but that says more about them than it does the wine. It certainly merits being reviewed.

[Andrew_K]

I got a 3L of '94 Alexander from Ben. Popped it for a business dinner a couple of years ago and it was a big hit. It wasn’t anything special, but it was very enjoyable, smooth tannins. Even the “I only drink whites” people enjoyed it.

[John_Glas]

I got a 3L of '94 Alexander from Ben. Popped it for a business dinner a couple of years ago and it was a big hit. It wasn’t anything special, but it was very enjoyable, smooth tannins. Even the “I only drink whites” people enjoyed it.

94 being a good year I am not surprised it showed well. Plus the 3L always impresses!