Winery - Reverie
* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
The vineyard is directly across from Diamond Creek’s, just a short walk, but with different soils and exposures. The wine is completely different, showing firmer, harder tannins and a youthful stubbornness. This is a tight young wine, but five to seven years should soften and sweeten it.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Here’s a ripe, polished Cab, brimming in cherry, plum and new oak flavors. It’s soft and gentle enough for immediate drinking, although it has the structure for five or six years in the bottle.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
You’ll want to cellar this one, because it’s tight and hard in tannins, as befits a well-made Diamond Mountain Cabernet. Entirely dry, it has a strong heart of cassis. But the structure is impeccable, and all it needs is time. Best after 2011 and probably well beyond.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Petit Verdot on its own is hard to make complex, as this wine shows. It’s classically structured, with a superb tannin-acid balance and beautifully applied oak. But the cherry and currant flavors are one-dimensional and thin. Drink now.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Compelling for its ripeness, balance, harmony and the way those tannins work to pull it all together. This Cab-based wine has it all, blackberries, cherries, cocoa, great acidity, wonderful oak. Ultimately, it’s the soft, intricate tannic structure that makes it complex.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Rather too soft, although the chocolate, black cherry, blueberry and blackberry flavors are lipsmackingly tasty. But flavor isn’t everything. Still, it’s a very polished wine.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
When Cab Franc succeeds in California, which is rare, it can be very good. When it doesn’t, it reminds you why in Bordeaux it’s usually a blending wine. This wine is pretty, but light, with earthy, meaty cherry and oak flavors, and is dry.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is more tannic and full-bodied than most Cab Francs, more akin to Cabernet Sauvignon, and with darker berry and stone fruit flavors. That must be because of Reverie’s steep mountainside vineyard. The black cherry fruit is ripe, but it’s elbowed aside by those tough tannins. Still, it doesn’t seem like an ager. Best now with a great steak.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A little sharp and rude for a reserve, thick in tough tannins, and somewhat overripe. This may be a case where the winemaker exaggerated the good qualities of the regular Cab, creating a situation of imbalance. That regular Cab, at $55, is a better wine.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is a wine that requires concentration to appreciate. Tasted blind, it’s hard and impenetrable. When you understand its origins, it becomes clearer, a mountain wine of strong, shut-down tannins, but with a core of black currants. The vintage was not a great one, but the wine will benefit from up to six years in the cellar.
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