Notes from a small tasting with friends.
1998 The Napa Reserve - this is a private wine club offering made by Bill Harlan from fruit grown on club land and supervised by Harlan's viticultural team. A deep slightly raisined nose, mint that only really came through on palate rather than in the nose, a refined well made wine with good balance and very god length, the best cab from Napa I have tasted from this somewhat indifferent vintage.1995 Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou - this order was a bit hard on the next wine as we switched from new world fruit driven to leaner old world style. The nose showed a slight green component, lovely colour, still fairly tannic, and took a lot of time to open in the glass - we set it aside even though it had already been open for some time. Good structure, but the fruit isn't as expansive or as sweet as I'd like. I have a bit of this in the cellar and noted it as not to be tasted for another few years when the wine will hopefully have come into better focus.
1987 Ch. Montelena - oh yes! One of my favourite California producers and we found great depth of fruit in the nose, now becoming complex, dark wine, big bodied and still tannic but now showing what it is made of. All those who drank this earlier go stand in a corner. All those who still have it, hide it away a few more years.2002 Torbreck The Factor - lavish sweet fruit in the nose of this purple young wine. It had nice weight, not being cloying, though the fruit did seem a touch candied on palate at first, this seemed to rectify itself with air. The nose took on a smokiness that made it more interesting and the length was excellent. No rush here, but it would be hard to stay away, the wine is so tasty now.