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Focus on California’s North Coast (May 2005)

(85% cabernet sauvignon, 8% cabernet sauvignon, 4% petit verdot and 3% merlot) Red-ruby. Cool, shy aromas of currant, blackberry and licorice, with a leafy, medicinal aspect. Dense, fat and structured but also quite penetrating and powerful, with black fruit, licorice and herbal flavors and a strong impression of extract. This offers noteworthy energy in the…

Vintage Retrospective: The 2007 Napa Valley Cabernets (May 2017)

(14.1% alcohol): Saturated dark red with ruby tones. Bordeaux-like scents of currant, black cherry, blackberry, cedar, mocha and spicecake, with a cool medicinal note adding interest. This very suave, fine-grained wine starts closed but juicy, then builds steadily along its length (like a good Cuban cigar!), with flavors of dark berries, licorice and sweet spices…

Napa Valley’s Extraordinary 2016 Cabernets (Dec 2018)

The 2016 Dominus is a dark, somber wine. I don’t quite see the explosive energy of the 2013 or 2010, not the seductiveness of the 2012, but the 2016 has a distinct charm that is all its own. Quite frankly, I can’t remember a young Dominus with this combination of fruit density, freshness and polished…

Five Vertical Tastings (Jul 1999)

Deep red-ruby. Initially rather mute nose hinted at roasted plum with aeration. Supple and ripe in the mouth, with Graves-like notes of hot bricks, tar and roasted plum. A wine of very good but not outstanding depth. Finishes with chewy, slightly drying tannins. May be at its best now, but should hold at this level…

Vintage Retrospective: The 2001 Napa Valley Cabernets (Jun 2020)

Bright, full ruby-red. Dark, reticent scents of blackberry, cassis, licorice, mocha, toffee and minerals. Broad, dense, dark and savory on entry, then thick and vibrant in the middle palate, and still quite youthful in spite of its breadth and richness. Shows little easy sweetness but really spreads out to saturate the palate without leaving any…

Napa Valley Trilogy: 2014, 2015 & 2016 (Dec 2016)

Lokoya’s 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain offers good immediacy, which makes it the most accessible of these 2014s. Medium in body, the 2014 is a bit light in structure and overall intensity. It will be interesting to see if the 2014 gains a bit more volume and body in its aging. Today, it is decidedly…