Starts out just how I Iove my cabernet. Red fruit, cherry liqueur, kirsch, cedar. Slight tobacco, licorice. Subtle spiciness. Dies on the mid-palate and fails to live up to the promise. Okay finish. Surprisingly, improved greatly when drunk with food.

Not as good as expected. Could use another few years in bottle.

Deep blood red hued wine with thin, slightly colored legs. Well balanced with beautiful acidity. Tannins are smooth and for the most part completely ameliorated. Cherry, earth, plum, and mineral characteristics ? tastes like a mature Napa Valley Cabernet (the Syrah?s influence is for the most part gone). Excellent length on the finish. 55% Syrah and 45% Cabernet. While this wine is drinking a point right now it should last for another five years.

Excellent colored wine with a nose of funky stewed plums and hot gravel. I would like to see more fruit than this wine has to give.

A mature rather ho-hum Cabernet with gritty unresolved tannins in the finish. Can easily last for another five years or so but this wine is likely at its apogee now.

Morisoli Vineyard usually shows its breeding regardless of which winery is using its harvest. This wine displays deep color with little evidence of aging. Persistent fruit in the nose with black cherry, a touch of toast and light herb. Smooth and plush on the palate ? the wine churns out fruit through to the end. Frankly delicious right now. It is difficult to think that this wine will get any better but it shows no signs of slowing down.

A brilliant medium garnet with thin, clear legs ? the color really is quite remarkable and shows little evidence of aging. An entrancing perfume of chocolate, a bit of sandalwood, cherry, light well-crafted oak, sweet herbs, and almost exotic toasted coconut (not sweet but savory coconut rather like coconut milk as used in Southeastern cuisine). Velvety with gossamer tannin and completely integrated acidity. Backus is a hillside vineyard located east of the Silverado Trail and south of Oakville Cross Road. When this wine was made the Backus Vineyard had about seven acres of Cabernet under vine. (The planted acreage substantially increased after 1996 when Phelps bought the vineyard.) 96% Cabernet and 4% Merlot (the Merlot was not from Backus) that was aged for 25 months in French oak. Seemingly ageless, this wine can be drunk now with great pleasure or held for up to another decade.

The deep golden color suggested some age, but there was no amber in sight. My initial reaction to the aromatics were in line with the intense, boytritis end of the spectrum. Boy was that misleading (as the wine was Arabian desert dry), but attractive none the less. Explosive notes of sunflower and rich honeysuckle began to evolve quickly into dried flowers, bee pollen, waxy fruit and a distinctive oily undertone seemed to wrap the eccentric package together (even my fiancee, whom shuns most of my odd-ball descriptors, concurred that the fruit was indeed WAXY!).Waxed fruit continued through to the palate, coupled w/ dried peach, apricot, honey and a sharp limestone driven minerality that carried the flavors to a nice linger. Although this wine has evolved, and continued to do so in a relatively brief amount of time, I wouldn't suggest that it's over the hill. Other than the flavor profile being a relatively new one to me (bringing that novel question of 'I'm not sure if I love it or hate it' to mind), the only truly troublesome component of the wine seemed to be it's acid spiking abit much for me, which felt almost sour at times. Visit my website: Unidentified Appellation

One lesson to be learned from great producers in mediocre vintage conditions is that they can still conjure some dazzling aromas from their wines (even if it is declassified fruit). Nearly paralyzing, scintillating scents of graphite, plum, cigar smoke, bittersweet cocoa, aged coffee beans and red cherries filled the room with ease. Unfortunately acts like that were difficult to follow in the palate with the conditions that ?92 offered up, leading to a racy, lighter weight claret that fell short upon its conclusion. Such class can'tgo unrecognized and certainly can still be enjoyed today Visit my website: Unidentified Appellation

This is probably the 5th '92 I've had and they keep getting better. Solid Cab with cassis, cedar, smoke. Well integrated, long finish. This is not your fruit bomb cali cab and will evolve for another 10 years. I can't get enough!

Good - drink up

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This along with the 2001 are the best Montebellos I have ever tasted. Length and youth are evident

excellent fruit, soft tannins, blackberry

Still very young.

Fully mature but still vigorous; light golden color; long and complex; classy in an elegant style.

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