Michael Pinkus Wine Review - From the Cellar

Beringer 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (California)

30 Nov 2021

Details: Category: Uncorked Tonight

Beringer 2012

(January 19, 2021) ... This is a wine that I did both the bottle and decanter versions with (meaning I tried both methods to see which way I enjoyed the wine more) and here's how it turned out ...

Bottle - lots of dark berry fruit and spice with rugged tannins; the acidity is decent with mocha, earthy and smoky notes ... It opens slowly but does smooth out in the end with lots of dark fruit; an exciting way to enjoy a bottle of wine and watch what time can do to it.

Decanted - red fruit with chocolate still smoky with notes of cherry and tobacco but it never really changes from there. The drawback of enjoying a wine decanted is you miss all that middle stuff as the wine opens.

The more exciting version of this wine was the one from bottle, watching it open over the course of 3 hours is definitely more enjoyable than having it ready right away. Once again I prove to myself what I already know to be true - but it's nice to remind oneself every-so-often.

Cline 2001 Ancient Vines Mourvedre + Joel Gott (California)

23 Nov 2021

Details: Category: Uncorked Tonight

(January 17, 2021) ... Tonight it was a double dose of California:

Cline 2001 Ancient Vines Mourvedre ... Smells relatively terrible and tastes bitter, chalky, and pruney, there's acidity here but the big oak notes really get in the way ... There's also a Dutch cocoa note which proved to be the main source of the bitterness rather than enjoyable part of this wine - and based on all that I'm going to say this is a very disappointing wine from start to finish and no matter how long I kept it open it just never got better.

So I moved on to something else, hoping for a better result:

Joel Gott 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon 815 ... Much younger and still full of fruit and other pleasant notes: cocoa and spiced blackberry, with hints of cassis and even some mocha nuances - this is big on spiced-dark fruit and I liked it beginning to end.