We brought one of our 2000 Joseph Phelps‘ Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons to friends the other night as I was thinking it was probably getting close to drinking time (we have/had two so why not try one?!). First off it was not close to end of life, and second this may be one of the top ten wines i have had in the past five years, and for sure top two in the past twelve months. So quickly, before you skip to the bottom to find out, I purchased this on one of my many trips to California and at last search I could not find these at the LCBO. Good news is the 2005 vintage can be found in fair quantities in the vintages section. Joseph Phelps Vineyards is one of my favorite Napa vineyards with almost all of it’s wine being produced from it’s own estate grown grapes. While not an inexpensive wine, this is for sure a bottle that will impress your wine snob friends no matter if they are Bordeaux or Piedmont leaning. Well on to the tasting (aka enough blabber):
Immediately upon decanting the nose bellows at you with licorice and vanilla, quite a nice surprise from the usual wood and cherry of Napa based Cabs. With a couple of swishes a bit of tobacco. The first couple of sips brought out the fruit, raspberry and cassis for sure. The balance and finish very much reminded Mrs CWG of our recent trip to the Brunello region and if you closed your eyes you may have thought you were drinking a wine from the region. After a while the wine finished opening up and without a doubt had become an excellent wine from start to finish, leading me to believe that at least two to five years of cellaring would allow this to change subtlety and for the better. It is my belief that if you can get a half dozen of these you would be pleasantly rewarded with a fine glass or three over the next few years. Definitely worth the price of admission!
Ratings are subjective (my common disclaimer), but I am putting this at a comfortable 90 out of 100.
Mrs CWG says
“bring back more CWG!!”
Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon
