I opened my first bottle of this last night as a treat.

I splash decanted this, and poured myself some to see how it tasted directly out of the bottle. On the nose, it had a lot of alcohol, going into deep, abundant dark fruit. Lovely aroma. The nose overplayed the taste IMO, as the wine seemed restrained -- tightly wound. Tannic and tight would be my best descriptor. Some evidence of fruit, but not what I expected and the fruit continued to regress as the night progressed. I hope that this was an off bottle, but it may be another year before I open another...

RRV

Felt like Spring here in Southside Virginia today as we hit 70 degrees for the first time this year so Steph and decided to grill a couple of steaks. I pulled one of my two '99 Shafer Cabs to have with them. It was a beautiful wine but the other one won't see the glass for at least 2 years. It has all the components to be sublime then...and actually...2 years might be pushing it.

The modest water, awed by power divine, beheld its God and blushed into wine. - John Dryden

Merris-

Do you mean that 2 years from now would still be too early?

I have been sitting on mine as the first one smelled great, but didn't taste as well. Hopefully this will come around with some more sleeping.

RRV

What you must realize is that there is no spoon...

I have been drinking one a month, and can report that it is evolving into a bit more drinkable wine now. I would highly recommend though, that you decant for several hours bofore drinking. I enjoy this wine the most on the second and even third day still. It really does open up into a nice wine with a great smoke flavor being a dominant flavor to me. You really should try this on the second day!

It used to be beer, the old lady, & TV. Now it's wine, American Express, & this stupid forum!

Tasted the 2000 last night at a California wine fair here in Edmonton. Big, fruity, round and drinkable now. I didn't think that it had the balance or structure to be ageable, but it did taste great last night. At a retail price here of $80 - 85 CDN, it is just too high a price now to be a regular buy.

[This message was edited by gwl on Mar 06, 2003 at 03:36 PM.]