This is from a posting today on a relatively new wine blog,
"It’s been nearly two years since the last tasting of our 1994 california cab horizontal, and that time, the wines were nowhere near as impressive as their pedigree (and their price tags) would have suggested. So it was with a bit of trepidation that we popped the corks on the batch of ‘94s Sunday afternoon.
No worries, mate. The best of the bunch had rebounded nicely, and overall, the wines showed better across the board, with only a few minor disappointments.
Tasting notes of these 1994 cabernets in ascending order of preference:
--Caymus Napa Valley (NOT the Special Select): medicinal on the nose, lacking fruit in the flavors and a short, clipped finish, this wine appears past its prime.
--Pine Ridge Andrus Reserve: meaty-but-not-quite-gamy nose, with tannins smoothed out while retaining good acidity. Fruit is starting to fade, and the finish isn’t quite up to its peers.
--Robert Mondavi Private Reserve: This is one of the two wines that changed the most during the three hours of sampling and nibbling. At first, the nose was muted, and a strong tannic core overshadowed the fruit. But the wine opened up a bit later, and the fruit peeked out. Still, a leaner style of cab.
--Spottswoode Napa Valley: This is the first of three grouped tightly together, and all three very good. The wine boasted a complex array of aromas from dark fruits to a bit of camphor, with a solid core of lush, sweet fruit and a long finish.
--B.R. Cohn Olive Hill: Dark fruits and just a hint of toasty oak in the nose, with dense fruit and solid tannins in the mouth. The tannin cuts the finish just a bit short, but this wine still has a ways to go to reach its peak.
--Chateau Montelena Estate: Similar in structure to the BR Cohn, this is a deep and brooding wine with a tannic edge at first sip. The tannins later step aside to let the dense core of ripe fruit emerge. A lengthy finish bodes well for the future as well.
--LaJota Howell Mountain: This wine boasts everything you’d want in a California cabernet. There’s a purity of fruit evident beginning with the nose, and it delivers on the palate with ripe, beautifully balanced dark fruits and a long, luxurious finish. Fruit, acidity, tannin and oak are all aligned in the proper balance. One sip begs the next, and you won’t want to put the glass down.
--Dominus Napanook: About 10 years ago, I attended a tasting put together by the Arrow Wine folks that pitted 1990 Bordeaux against 1990 California cabs. The tasters were served several wines blind and had to guess which was the country of origin. It was more difficult than I expected, and the one wine I was slam-dunk, ain’t-no-doubt-about-it certain came from France was … the Dominus from California. The 1994 also smells and tastes like its French brethren, with hints of brett, lead pencil and iodine alongside fruit in the incredibly complex nose. In the mouth, the wine has a full array of complex but still ultimately fruit-driven flavors. And what a finish.
Hmmm . Maybe we didn’t waste our money after all …
Cheers!
"Uncorked"