2004 Ghost Horse Cabernet

I went to a charity tasting/auction last night where...to my surprise...Todd Anderson was pouring his 2004 Ghost Horse Napa Cabernet. Considering that at the next table was a wine called "Sassy Bitch" I was a bit surprised. Ghost Horse is a wine made by the folks who make Anderson's Conn Valley a longtime Napa wine family. I had heard and read a lot about the wine and Todd Anderson (the wine sells for huge sums of money) and was surprised to find Todd to be a pretty down to earth fellow with a ton of patience. He poured a lot of wine for a lot of folks who knew nothing about wine and even less about his wine yet he took the time to explain vinification, site, clone, etc. I found the wine a bit underwhelming at first. I guess when you read about $500 wine you expect those huge, thick overblown monsters...this wasn't one of those. The wine was well balanced with a nice Napa blueberry, black cherry, cassis note. I noticed a real purity in the fruit and the tannins were present but well balanced. Five minutes later I could still taste the wine, and five minutes after that so it was a looong finisher. Overall the wine was quite good but I'll save value judgements fo $500 a bottle wines for the experts.