Had the 94 Rsv with steak tonight. Had the 96 last Fri.

94- WS-94;WA-97
Color: Dark ruby
Aroma: Raspberry and plum follow the waft on initial alcohol
Flavor: Dark cherry spills into the tongue, coated by tobacco, and a tocuh of anise, and vanilla. Clearly residual moderately integrated tannin supports the substantial fruit. Not massive; more elegant, but not weak. Moderately long finish.
93-94 pts

96- WS-95;WA-92
Color:Maroon; ? early maturing
Aroma: slightly muted but mulberry fruit
Flavor:The fruit is there but submerged by noticeably drying tannin and anise. This resulted in a flatter taste with less midpalate fruit than I expected. Cook this be slightly cooked? No prior experience, but this wine came out when RP criticized the winemaking direction at Mondavi. Will need to retry
89-90 pts

DrT

DR T,
Thank for the notes, although I am unlikely to get either wine here in NZ.

Last month on Board-o recommendation I bought the 86 Mondavi Reserve Cab(I had the choice of the 85 or 86 and as Napa cab is so rare here..well you know the rest) and although good I felt it was too expensive.

DO you feel Mondavi Reserve Cabs are representative of Napa Cabs?

Jeremy-

My condolences about 2003.

Mondavi Rsv 1994 is as representative as any, particularly like Beringer PR, of the quality in Napa from 1990-1994. While both have slipped a notch and other wineries have risen to prominence since then, they are classic Cal. Cabs as much as any wine can make that claim. Exception may be later wines 1996,1997 where Mondavi had some stylistic experimentation issues well documented in both WA/WS.

DrT

Thanks Dr T

Dr. T, I have one bottle of the '94 Rsv, would you recommend drinking it now or do you think it still has some improvement ahead of it?

Also interesting on your '96 reserve notes, I haven't had this in a couple years, found it very stylistically similar to the '96 Opus One (who'd have thunk it?) which (quickly duck hail of bullets) I liked a lot. Any thoughts?

I haven't had the '94, but I opened a '96 Reserve back in March with some friends. I totally agree with Dr. T's notes on that one. I think Spectator gave it 96 pts.....way off IMHO. This was an 89 pt. wine by my book. Another thorn in the side for Tim and his winemaking crew.

-DRAB

My 2 cents on the 96 is that with time, it will be a beautiful wine. Parker has been critical of the Mondavi PR since 96 but I think most of his criticism is simply becuase Mondavi wines no longer fit Parker's preferred flavor profile.

Tim Mondavi believes that Napa cab is headed down a dangerous road. Everyone wants to produce highly concentrated, fruity wines with less aging pontential and higher alcohol. He believes Napa cab. is losing the cab typicity and he is betting consumers will eventually become bored with the fruit bombs and begin to look for more austere and complex wines.

I love the newer style and think the 96 and 97 Private reserves are the best PR's since the great 84, 85, and 86 vintages.

I agree with Stealth in that the PR's are similar to Opus One in style. Give them time and they will reward.

Steve

At what point in their life do you most enjoy drinking Mondavi PR Cabs?