Good People. Great Wine.
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This is really a first-class Cabernet showing not only the beauty of the vintage but the blender’s craft. Drinkable now for its finely grained tannins and refined black currant and cassis flavors, it has the dry balance for the cellar. Elegant and sophisticated, it’s best now through 2008. 1 Note
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A hard wine to like. It’s very dry and somewhat overripe, with a pruny, raisiny edge, and the acidity sticks out in a harsh way. This also is the highest alcohol wine of Benziger’s trio of 2008 Pinot Noirs, and it feels hot in an unbalanced way. 1 Note
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Still dark and incredibly aromatic, with classic cassis, sage, and mint scents, framed in well-integrated, toasty oak. Dry, with soft, plush acids and vigorous but intricate tannins, it's approachable now. A fine example of its appellation. 1 Note
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A really young wine, almost black in color, and sharply aromatic with cedar, cassis and minty -clove note. Below woody influences are herbal-fruity aromas, including sage, oregano, and blackberry. Very dry and somewhat tannic, it's well-made and elegant, despite the vintage's shortcomings. 1 Note
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Benziger pulls out all the stops on this estate, Cabernet-based Bordeaux blend, from their hilly vineyard above Glen Ellen. It’s a beautiful effort. The flavors are very close to Napa Cab, namely deliciously sweet cassis, roasted coffee and cocoa, but there’s a tannin and acid structure that in some respects outclasses even Napa’s most prestigious chateaus. This is a great red wine. 1 Note
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Made from biodynamically grown estate grapes, this Cabernet-based wine is as massive as any I’ve tasted from this great vintage. It’s like drinking liquid steel, with deep, ripe flavors of blackcurrants, chocolate and cherries, and plenty of new oak. Despite the size, the texture is gentle and velvety, but it’s an ager if you want. Now through 2015. 1 Note
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A very refined Pinot Noir, high-toned and elegant, with alcohol well below 14%. There’s no lack of richness. The wine bursts with cherries, rhubarbs, pomegranates, cola and raspberries, wrapped into a silky texture, and finishing long and spicy. A shame to drink now. Should develop bottle complexity over the next 6–8 years. 1 Note
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Tight, acidic and dry in youth, this Pinot has a don’t-drink-me-now austerity. It resists efforts to break it down at every point. However, it seems well able to age, given the balance, and the wealth of cherry, pomegranate, persimmon and rhubarb fruit. Cellar this fine wine until at least 2014. 1 Note
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Softly lush, complex in flavor, this Cabernet-based Bordeaux blend impresses with power and authority. Thoroughly dry and firm in tannins, it shows classic flavors of black currants and cedar, with intricate notes of cherries, violets, tobacco, mocha and beef jerky. Beautiful now, and should develop for a decade. 1 Note
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Ripe, forward blackberry, cherry, currant and licorice flavors mark this Cabernet-based Bordeaux blend. It’s dry, and the tannins are ultrarefined. But there’s an astringent feeling that shuts down the palate’s appreciation of how good it is. This is a wine you want to cellar for 4–6 years. 1 Note
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Benziger Cabernet Sauvignon - 2002
