The Spec got it right when they gave all of Cornerstone's Napa Valley Cabs mid-90s. I have bottles of each of them and I decided to open the Cornerstone Vineyard Bottle last night. This is an intense wine, a little hot at 15.6% EtOH, but underneath is something you don't typically find in Domestic Cabs, multidimensional can't-put-your-finger-on-it complexities that need time to express themselves. If anybody else has these low production wines, hold on to them for a special occasion, and decant several hours ahead of time. You're in for a treat!

How long did you decant the Cornerstone Vineyard? I have 4 and Stemor got me scared saying that his last was shut down.

MM,

I've been burned by this wine twice in the past year, both at tastings (in Victorville and Denver). It wasn't BAD, mind you, but it didn't show particularly well in either case either.

I'm down to my last four bottles and plan on holding them for awhile.

I decanted the wine one hour before dinner. This was not long enough at all as I could easily tell with the last of it after dinner was over.

While I am not a professional taster by any means, for the first time I could really tell that the wine was big, bold, and balanced, but just too young to drink. Perhaps it is "shut down" but there is a lot of evidence to suggest good wines can have temporary dormancy and that it can vary among bottles. I intend to hold on to the others and to decant several hours before drinking.