Saturday, August 15, 2009

Wine Musings Vol#86


Had the pleasure to spend some time with Roy Piper and Aaron Pott at Seven Stones last weekend. At the time we tasted the 05 and 06 from bottle, the 07 from barrel. The notes are in the order we tried them. All of these wines are of merit:

***+Seven Stones, Napa Valley, cabernet sauvignon, 2006: Decanted for an hour or so. A lovely wine by all measures. Perfumed, ripe nose of plum and black cherry, licorice root, hint of sage. Some earth and espresso grinds. The palate is coating and velvety, nice mineral focus, not blousy at all, fine tannic ledge front to back.

***++Seven Stones, Napa Valley, cabernet sauvignon, 2005: Popped and poured. Very similar notes to the 2006. Even better structure and depth. Slightly more focused, slightly better delineation. Pretty consistent. 93 pts.

****+Seven Stones, Napa Valley, cabernet sauvignon, 2007: From barrel. Wow. Home run. Not that the others are not worthy...but this wine is clearly very special. Much darker, concentrated blue/black berry fruit, deep, chiseled lead pencil, hint of chocolate mint. Rockin. Even more focus, depth, texture and minerals on the palate. Deft integration and balance. Extended minerals and a fine, super long finish. Slightly floral. Somehow, even at $150+, this wine seems like a steal when compared with others of its ilk (Araujo, Harlan, Abreu come to mind). Superlative. Run, don't walk!