There are worse ways to start a Saturday then tasting & talking wine with Tor Kenward & Andy Beskstoffer having the 1980 BV George Latour Private Reserve & multiple vintages of Tor. Wine 94 technically but age & style 9.6. The experience a 10.
Stunning. When To Kalon still had Cline 6. There is no more Cline 6 today in To Kalon.
Andy Beckstoffer sold fruit for $150 a ton in the late 1970’s, early 80’s. Today, $50,000 plus a ton and a percentage of the producers bottle price. . — 3 months ago
An excellent Napa floor Cab with tastes of blueberry, blackberry, kirsch and vanilla. Full bodied, well balanced. New World for sure. Will be good for many more years — 18 days ago
Fresh & very St. Emilion in the nose. Rich yet savoury. Cassis & gravel.
On the palate this is more Californian - broader & richer yet still very elegant, impeccably balanced and so elegant. And drinking very nicely right now. — 3 months ago
Intense, powerful Cabernet Sauvignon that needs steak. Extraordinary flavor and great elegance and smoothness in the finish. An excellent Napa Cabernet, and a paradigm of this big style of wine. — 3 months ago
Fantastic in all senses — 2 months ago
As always!!! — 2 months ago
A perfect wine? Perhaps. Not many Napa wines can have this kind of horsepower at 19 years old (I was always told Napa wines fall apart after 15 years). I’ve never had Screaming Eagle or Grace Family or any of the new “premier cru” wines. What I will say, though, is that I have a hard time imagining a wine being better than this. Plush, with a solid core. Very little fade. Let it breathe, but it was drinkable right out of the bottle, rich with refined tannins, so much fruit, so much pleasure. The oak is now seamless with the wine, not an addition, but a part of it. If you had told me this was a more recent vintage, I would have believed you. This was Cosentino’s top of the line and what a top it was. Age has allowed for more complexity (I did taste this when it was newly bottled) and development, but this is a young wine, still. Nothing out of place. It is one of the best wines I’ve ever tasted. Quintessential Napa, the best the valley has to offer. I forget the story of “the secret clone” but knowing what all the steps are in making great wine, having this clone was just one of the many right choices in making this. This one may outlive me. It is in its prime with no end in sight. Perfect? I’m not sure. But I’ve not had better. — 3 months ago
Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego
2014 vintage. Drinking nicely in a feminine style. Well-integrated oak waay in the background with delicate flavors throughout. Slightly dusty finish has staying power. 6.19.24. — 16 days ago