Winery - Blackbird Vineyards
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A spectacular wine that gets better and better with every sip. It’s dramatic from the get-go, with rich, fine tannins framing extraordinarily good flavors of blackberries, black currants, anise, dark chocolate and cedar. Superb structure, great length and finish, with perfect acidity. A joy to drink. Now–2016.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Some wines are meant for immediate consumption. Others require age. This wonderful wine satisfies on both sides. It’s softly rich and polished in tannins, with accessible blackberry, cassis and oak flavors. Yet it has the structure and depth to go for years. Now–2016, at least.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Give this young wine some time in the cellar to let the tannins drop out. Right now, it’s a bit hard and astringent, although it’s so rich in fruit that a good decanting will let you enjoy it. Shows a molten core of blackberries, crème de cassis, cocoa and cedar, with a mineral undertow. Dramatic wine.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This Bordeaux blend has a terrific structure, with a molten core of ripe, sweetly complex blackberries and black currants, but it’s also a very tannic wine. The tannins are of the hard kind, tough and astringent, with a drying finish. The wine needs a year or two to mellow.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Made from 100% Merlot, this is a sort of junior, less expensive version of Blackbird’s Illustration bottling. It’s ripe in cherries and forward in smoky oak, with charred wood dominating the fruit. Feels simple and candy sweet in the mouth.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This ambitious effort at a Pomerol-style wine is made mainly from Merlot. It’s well-oaked, with 82% new wood, and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. There’s a good wine here, but tasted in June, 2009, it’s not showing well. It’s all primary blackberries and cherries, with unintegrated sweet charry staves and fierce tannins. Seems likely to evolve over the next 6–8 years.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Nearly all Merlot, with just 5% Cab Sauvignon, this Bordeaux blend is from a vineyard in the cooler, southern part of Napa Valley, influenced by Carneros breezes. Yet in this hot-hot vintage, it’s too ripe in jammy cherry and blackberry flavors, and the tannic structure has a rustic edge. Drink now.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Wonderful Merlot, rich and complex, with the classy mouthfeel that Napa provides so effortlessly. You might mistake it for a valley floor Cabernet for the new oak-infused blackberry, cherry and cocoa flavors and soft, immediate appeal. The tannins are there, but they’re melted, sweet and gentle. Drink now.
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July 21, 2011
I've enjoyed this wine across multiple vintages, and I'm officially declaring it my favorite rosé. It has that signature light and refreshing feel and taste you expect in a rosé, but it's relatively fruit forward with notes of strawberries and cherry. It has a nice balance of acidity, which for me, tends to be too much on many other rosés, and is just perfect in the Arriviste.
Tags:Summer wine
Blackbird Vineyards Arriviste Cabernet Sauvignon - 2010
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