2016 Cliff Lede Cabernet Sauvignon SongBook

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 95.3 points

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  3/19/2022 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Black cherries, violets, sandalwood and spice box on an exquisite nose. Hits the palate in a linear way, with significant acidity. The mostly blue fruit is dominated by the structure of the wine, with wet stone and mineral driven elements taking the lead. While it's fresh and pure, right now it isn't expansive and it's relatively coiled up. The finish has good length. In my mind the jury is out a bit as to whether this will come into its own over the next 5+ years and live up to the high 99/98 pt scores, or whether the fruit isn't quite at the level of other wines sourced from this legendary terroir.

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  4/30/2021 - csimm wrote: 97 Points

  3 days in Napa: Arkenstone, Memento Mori, Maxem, The French Laundry, Christopher Tynan, Kinsman, Harlan, Vice Versa, Accendo, Fairchild, Macdonald, and a truckload of others (Napa): Though knowing Tynan is the winemaker here might have influenced my mindset, upon first sip of the Songbook, I was instantly reminded of the Tynan MGs we had sampled earlier that morning (of course, that seemed like eons ago since it was something like 50 wines we’d plowed through that day). The Songbook was tight and tannic, with a reluctance in flavor expansion until a few hours into its service. In fact, it was absolutely singing the next day (24 hours open in bottle). Blackberry seed and crunchy minerality on the first pass, finally opening into an awesome and skillfully fashioned push of dark berry, gothic wet cave rock, and subtle spice flavors.
  
  Day 1 was in that 94-95+ range for me. Day 2 jumped into the 96-97+ point range. I sensed there was something special on the first day, but by day two I was in love with this wine.

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  2/7/2021 - awise45 wrote: 94 Points

  Shows lots of promise, but not ready yet. Dark cherry and blackberry flavors and a long finish -- a little disconnected now and should come together with time.

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  5/17/2020 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Black cherry, forest floor, black licorice, soil and cedar on the nose. Tightly wound fine grained tannins and relatively high levels of acid show immediately, owing to the need for some bottle age. That said, this displays really impressive depth and concentration without even a hint of oak or anything overdone or sweet. It's got a huge core that shows excellent layers which will need to unfold over time. It combines a good core of mostly red and blue fruit with serious mineral driven flavors and lots of crushed rock and earthy notions. Seriously long finish. Lots of upside from here.

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