1971 Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (5) Avg Score: 96.6 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Nanda's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/1/2024 - Nanda wrote: 99 Points

  Thanks ACYSO for the generous share. What a spectacular wine with beguiling, pronounced sweet red cherry and red strawberry fruit and florals. Almost like a Volnay or Rayas meets early 70s Napa. Texturally concentrated yet weightless across the palate and layered with sweet herbs and spices. Insanely delicious. A point short of perfection as I'm not sure I would have called Cabernet blind . . .

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View acyso's profile
  • Report Issue

  5/1/2024 - acyso wrote: 100 Points

  To Tony (La Grange Park, IL): Stunning, gorgeous stuff. This poured a little cloudy at first, which had me worried, and the nose, like so many of the other wines tonight, didn't seem to be as expressive as it could have been. Again, those 15-30 minutes of air did wonders here. This manages to hold its whopping 13.9% abv (in 1971!) incredibly well. Would that Napa be able to do the same nowadays. The most un-cabernet-like of all the wines tonight, this had a delicate, strawberry perfume that might have been more at home with Rayas. It's certainly on the higher end of the register here. The palate presence of this wine is similarly stunning -- delicate, perfumed, and ethereal. For me though, it was the texture of the wine that really sealed the deal: it was so silken and resolved, but still with enough of a structural core that gives just enough pushback.
  
  71 Cabernet Sauvignon, Eisele, bottled May 1973
  The Eisele vineyard is on gravelly soil up against the eastern hills of Napa Valley. Production in 1971 was low and the grapes attained full ripeness. Fermented dry on the skins and allowed to macerate an additional seven days, the wine then went through a full malolactic and was racked to small cooperage. This excellent wine is big, with the potential for at least ten years of bottle aging. PD (10/73)

  4 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View dream's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/23/2013 - dream Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Dinner With Paul Draper in NYC - older vintages of Ridge (Cafe Boulud): A very rare wine indeed and the only Ridge Eisele ever made. This is riper and sweeter that the Montebello offerings with good intensity and an open, fleshy texture (according to paul, the alcohol level here was 1.5% higher than the typical Montebello given the early ripening of the vineyard). Best on the finish with complex notes of grilled nuts and dark spices. Much lighter in color than the Montebellos and not nearly as mineral-driven but still a balanced and delcious old cab that is very ready now.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View Jeff Leve's profile
  • Report Issue

  6/8/2013 - Jeff Leve wrote: 97 Points

  There are some wines that due to their extreme rarity and so elusive, I never think I am going to taste it. 1971 Ridge Eisele was one of those wines. I will probably never see another bottle. But the experience is not one I will forget. Spice box, coconut, earth, black cherry liqueur, tobacco, cedar and fennel notes were enough to keep my interest. On the palate, the wine is soft, clean, fresh and packed with blackberry and cherry notes. This was still going strong at over 40 years of age.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View rnellans's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/19/2013 - rnellans wrote: 93 Points

  This is a beautiful wine and holding up well. SOme secondary notes. Slight amber edge. Still good fruit. Super well balanced. Long finish...wish I had more of this one.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.