All wines in this blind tasting were supposed to be at least 75% cabernet.
2000 Burrowing Owl Pinot Gris - not too hard to figure out the varietal, that it was a BC wine and which winery as I'd had the 2001 a couple of days earlier. This one is showing a good varietal nose, with some complexity, and good clean acidity. It is at peak now, and seemed a tad better than the 2001.
1977 Wolf Blass Black Label - from the host, and starting off by violating the rules as it is 60% cab and 40% shiraz in that vintage. Mellow sweet nose with none of the horse sweat one can see in old Hunter Valley wines. Well balanced and long, it belied its age - we figured it to be in the mid 80s!
1981 Mondavi Reserve - interesting as I've been tasting some old ones lately, though not this vintage. Sweet mature cherry nose, fair bit of tannin, and lots of acid. The fruit is dropping out of this one and it would have been better several years ago.
1985 Buena Vista Private Reserve Cab (Carneros) - excellent depth and development in the nose, and some sweetness, dark fruit and good length. Perfect drinking now.
1990 Hess Collection - rubber, tar and licorice nose, fair bit of tannin, good fruit - will not improve.
1990 Santa Cruz Mountain Bates Ranch - salty low tide seaweed nose with some dill in it. Medium bodied, bright with a dry finish, the fruit coming in late at the end.
1986 Haut Bages Liberal - not the first time I've been fooled by this vintage recently. After years of being harder than hard, it seems to be coming around quite quickly. The vanilla and plum nose was an instant give-away to it being a Bordeaux, and while it seemed leaner in comparison to the Cal-Cabs, it was well integrated and drinks well. I think it will continue to drink well for quite a few years, but if you have it (I was pleased to find that I did), you can start enjoying it now.
1995 Gallo Stephani Vd. Cabernet - a ripe hot climate nose carried through some of the heat to the palate. High in both tannins and acidity, the wine showed as lacking fruit with nowhere to go from here.
1997 Torres Mas La Plana Black Label - mellow sweet well integrated nose, simple and straight forward in the mouth and it dropped off a bit quickly on the finish. I am probably in the minority, but I think they made a mistake when they dropped the small amounts of Ull de Llebre and Cabernet Franc they used to blend into the wine in the pre 1980 or so period. Don't believe me? Taste the
1978 some time!
2001 Montes Alpha Cabernet - the nose of mint and pepper seemd very slightly cooked and there was a candied impression to the wine. Soft, with fairly low acidity. I have had much better bottles of this, so we were seeing a bit of bottle variation or the results of poor handling.
2001 Hollick Coonawara Cab-Merlot - always interesting to taste a new (to me) producer for the first time. Sweet forward nose of currant fruit with a hint of coffee. Not much tannin, clearly made for early drinking, the fruit sweet and pleasant on palate. Very nice.
1986 Smith Woodhouse LBV Port - lots of heat , a big silky feel in the mouth, and good length. Lots of weight for an LBV.