2018 Amici Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

Community Tasting Notes (12) Avg Score: 91.3 points

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  4/12/2024 - MichielV wrote: 91 Points

  Gift from Jamie & Greg. Solid Cali cab with long live ahead. California vanilla absolutely but with enough dark fruit to make it a solid wine. Give it air (2 hours +)

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  3/22/2024 - mcflytfc Does not like this wine: 90 Points

  Natural cork. Purple in the glass. On pnp it was very acidic and not a lot going on.
  Someone described this as medicinal, the nose has some menthol/licorice notes. The wine is still tannic and dry. Primary flavours are light red fruit.
  I expected jammy given the source but it's quite restrained. Hard to pin point why but I found this wine flat and simple. An OK wine but not great.

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  4/2/2023 - Franken Berry Does not like this wine: 90 Points

  My last of five bottles. No change since the last one a year ago, still tightly wound black and red fruits, tannic, tart. Similar to many 2018s I have had, was absolutely delicious in the early drinking window, now not so much. I bought the first few at total wine, the rest from various web based retailers, for what that is worth.
  
  82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Malbec, 6% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc, aged 22 months in 100% new French oak.
  
  I am saving most of the bottle, under cork, for the next day, to see if there is any change.

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  1/29/2023 - Dfortin9 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Intense showing blackberry, spice and unriped cherry. Medium to full bodied, bright acidity and well integrated tannins. Alluring but not the oumph of the 2016 and 2017. Still a good wine though. NI:4, FI:22, FC:8, B:4, L:4

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  9/16/2022 - Jmf17 wrote: 89 Points

  From the label: "delivers an intense, rich wine that is pure Napa Valley."
  
  Yep: and that's the problem....
  
  This is the first California Cabernet I have tried in several years. Those of you who have read my reviews know the disdain in which I hold what's going on out there these days.
  
  Why did I try this? Only because my wife had tucked it away in the winerack in the kitchen. I had no idea it was there, and I don't know who gave it to her. Perhaps a happy client.
  
  So in preparing to depart from New York for our home on Sanibel Island in Florida I grabbed it and included it with 11 other bottles of French and Italian. First night here, so I served it to get the testing out of the way.
  
  The only reason is wine is drinkable, to a point, is that the Cabernet grapes have been cut with Cabernet Franc to the tune of 12% plus or minus.
  
  It adds a nuance and a dimension -- a point of interest straight California cabs can't muster.
  
  The initial short pour, after only a couple of hours of decanting, pulls one down a hospital corridor infusing the nose with various medicinal aromas, and a taste that is unique. Bitter, then peppery. One's interest is piqued.
  
  But, alas! after the second or third short pours, the pallet is dead, clubbed into Oblivion by an unrelenting heaviness. No more nuance. No more subtlety. Just like a California. You can't eat anything with this. All known foodstuffs are overwhelmed by it.
  
  I just don't understand why California wine makers have to be so brutish. There are exceptions, and I've mentioned one or two of them here before.
  
  You want to sit around and drink this with friends, as the label suggests, I guess that's okay. But it's not an experience that develops, wafts into the consciousness, teases you, annoints you with insight.
  
  Alas, no: it's just another in the too long line of higher-end California wines that punish the palate with an overwhelming barrage of unmitigated heavyweight punches.
  
  You can have it. You can have them all, almost.

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