Pnp, waited an hour in glass and drank 2 glasses that evening. It was unimpressive - green vegetal taste with little to no discernible fruit. Recorked and refrigerated and then slow ox next day for 2 hours. That made a real difference. Integrated with dark fruit and fine tannins. Hint of green 2nd day. I only got 1 bottle due to the tough year and low expectations. Probably should have waited 5 years or let it breathe 8 hours..
Popcorn toast note I also noticed in the 2020 Estate chardonnay. Bright red fruit, lighter in depth, but still features some nice herbal aromatics. Gritty tannins with bright acidity. Quite frankly, a touch shrill. There is definitely some iodine on the finish, kind of like a Laphroaig. I'm not confident enough in my ability to avoid psychological bias to say this is definitively tainted, but I definitely enjoyed the '19 more, although this is still quite good.
Leaving the last few drops in the glass definitely reveals some ashtray / cigar butt smell, which makes me rethink my prior statement. This has smoke in it.
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Thought this would be undrinkable from the first sniff but turned out to be ok. Crazy vanilla and some nice fruit but definitely a fair amount of smoke too. Blew off a little with air but finishes with a gritty, ash, aftertaste. C doesn’t want to fight through it so getting her a different bottle and I’ll finish this it off (or most of it).
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Still quite young, but was quite enjoyable nonetheless. When the bottle is first opened the American Oak influence was quite strong, with sweet spice, coconut, and dill. Over time, the oak incorporated and revealed dark black fruit (blackberry, black cherry).
Palate has moderate high tannins and acidity. Finish is long and pretty intense once the wine had breathed for 1-2 hours. Fruit/oak flavors give it a high yum factor, but it is still fairly elegant (for California standards).
Update: 2 days later came back to the bottle and it was still quite good. Coconut and dill were much stronger on day 3. Still long, oak forward finish but very enjoyable.
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5/14/2024 - Elkcims wrote: 93 Points
Pnp, waited an hour in glass and drank 2 glasses that evening. It was unimpressive - green vegetal taste with little to no discernible fruit. Recorked and refrigerated and then slow ox next day for 2 hours. That made a real difference. Integrated with dark fruit and fine tannins. Hint of green 2nd day. I only got 1 bottle due to the tough year and low expectations. Probably should have waited 5 years or let it breathe 8 hours..
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3/29/2024 - JLCFan wrote: 87 Points
Popcorn toast note I also noticed in the 2020 Estate chardonnay. Bright red fruit, lighter in depth, but still features some nice herbal aromatics. Gritty tannins with bright acidity. Quite frankly, a touch shrill. There is definitely some iodine on the finish, kind of like a Laphroaig. I'm not confident enough in my ability to avoid psychological bias to say this is definitively tainted, but I definitely enjoyed the '19 more, although this is still quite good.
Leaving the last few drops in the glass definitely reveals some ashtray / cigar butt smell, which makes me rethink my prior statement. This has smoke in it.
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3/15/2024 - domco wrote:
Thought this would be undrinkable from the first sniff but turned out to be ok. Crazy vanilla and some nice fruit but definitely a fair amount of smoke too. Blew off a little with air but finishes with a gritty, ash, aftertaste. C doesn’t want to fight through it so getting her a different bottle and I’ll finish this it off (or most of it).
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12/25/2023 - MikeDB Likes this wine: 93 Points
Still quite young, but was quite enjoyable nonetheless. When the bottle is first opened the American Oak influence was quite strong, with sweet spice, coconut, and dill. Over time, the oak incorporated and revealed dark black fruit (blackberry, black cherry).
Palate has moderate high tannins and acidity. Finish is long and pretty intense once the wine had breathed for 1-2 hours. Fruit/oak flavors give it a high yum factor, but it is still fairly elegant (for California standards).
Update: 2 days later came back to the bottle and it was still quite good. Coconut and dill were much stronger on day 3. Still long, oak forward finish but very enjoyable.
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12/24/2023 - pkouchu wrote: flawed
Heavy oak and dark fruits but it doesn’t mask the campfire flavor on the back palate. For sure smoke tainted, pretty bad too. Disappointing
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