May 23, 2025
[Napa cab. Natura numquam extitit et partem capitis quae naturam praetermisit. So, we take that, start salting?]
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[Napa cab. Natura numquam extitit et partem capitis quae naturam praetermisit. So, we take that, start salting?]
Oh Brenda
(title drawn of course from one of the greatest films of all time: Bagdad Cafe) These started showing up at GO some time ago, a Zin, a Chardonnay, a red blend… and several followers noted fairly positive things about them to me privately but I resisted even after googling the source because I just wasn’t curious about those offerings. Recently I stumbled into a location I rarely go to and BAM:…
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Bullish
Formerly one of the greatest values in Napa cab on the shelf, I have noticed lately the prices creeping up into 50-60-dollar range… which still denotes a bargain by Napa standards, but long gone are the $25 days. I bought these back when they were still really affordable, and 12 years from a VINTAGE OF THE DECADE seems to be pushing it about far enough for me. Smoky and rather dull in the nose,…
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Leap from High
A fair number of these showed up on deep discount the other day–the whole set: Spring Mt., Stags Leap, Rutherford and Napa Valley–and you KNOW I couldn’t resist. I mean–ya GOT to! I’ve found gems with far worse labels and provenance before. This one quickly shows signs of *why*. Deep ruby with a thin clear rim, a nose of bologna. Seriously: it smells like fresh-cut, moist, pink lunch-meat.…
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Howell Ghost
Another 2018 *mountain* Napa cab, this one from pretty much the opposite end of the spectrum: a no-name producer, most likely bulk juice, and advertized at double the price of last night’s winner. Dark ruddy ruby in the glass, opaque right out to the rim–and quite glass-staining. No nose. And I must warn the uninitiated: that is not necessarily a bad thing in a stupid-young cab. I actually look…
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Scattered Dreams
The first thing you notice about this wine is the 1200-gram bottle with 3″-deep punt and a great cork. Taken with the ridiculously low price, one wonders how the packaging costs factor. Dark, glass-staining purple ruby with an abrupt edge. Thick and elegant on the nose, deep soiled cherry, gorgeous oak and luscious hillside Napa fruit jammed chock-a-block with chocolate, leather and fatty…
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Kul and the Gang
Black ruby glass-staining gunk. Beautiful nose chiming all the bells Napa Valley consistently brings to the table, crazily dank earth–no, it’s way beyond that–it’s straight up petrichor, gritty decomposed granite, thick sticky clay, wet shale shufflin’, a little BBQ smoke over rich salted dripping steak, fresh tortillas, enough glossy mud-puddle barnyard to really make it interesting, and fruit…
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LEAVE THE 11 AND NOBODY GETS HURT
Dark garnet–ruby at the core–with a definite band of brick at the edge. lots of mint and eucalyptus in the nose, gorgeous sharp juxtapositions to a ker-THUNK of rich fruit majoring in blackberry cola, with all the briar and earth that goes along with both of those, but the fruit turns brighter and redder and the petrichor takes on a shrill galvanized steel.
I don’t know when the last fresh Napa…
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