This event was organized by Pyang, and held last evening up the beautiful winery at Neal Vineyards.

Attendees included: pyang, Eric White, JO, DJ Hombre, CHICO, ttepper, Mr. & Mrs. winebrat, Jennifer & Herb Lamb, Louis Kapcsandy, Mark Neal and Gove Celio.

We started the event off with three flights of five wines each, all selected at random and served blind. Following the formal tasting we were treated to an outstanding meal, all provided by our generous and gracious host Mark Neal.

All in all a fantastic event, despite the nasty weather and miserable drive up on a Monday evening. I have notes on all the wines of the formal tasting, and will get those posted shortly, but I figured I'd kick things off with the ranking and voting info:

Our scorekeeper of the night was Pyang, here are his results:

Scoring: Each flight is ranked by individual from top to bottom, 1pt for 1st place; 5pts for 5th place. With 13 people in attendance, 13pts would be the best possible score while 65pts would be the worst possible score.

Result of Flight A - Group Ranking
1. 2001 Herb Lamb - 30pts (five 1st place votes; two 5th place votes)
2. 2001 Neal Family Napa Valley - 31pts (five 1st; zero 5th)
3. 2001 Lewelling Wight Vineyard - 40pts (one 1st; two 5th)
4. 2001 J. Davis Diamond Mountain - 46pts (zero 1st; two 5th)
5. 2001 Del Dotto Napa Valley - 48pts (two 1st; seven 5th)

Result of Flight B - Group Ranking
1. 2001 Karl Lawrence Morisoli Reserve - 31pts (three 1st place votes; zero 5th place votes)
2. 2001 Herb Lamb E II - 34pts (four 1st; one 5th)
3. 2001 Pride Reserve - 36pts (two 1st; two 5th)
4. 2001 Bressler - 38pts (four 1st; two 5th)
5. 2001 Tor Clone 4 - 56pts (zero 1st; eight 5th)

Result of Flight C - Group Ranking
1. 2001 BV Georges de Latour - 24pts (seven 1st place votes; zero 5th place votes)
2. 2001 Neal Family Second Chance - 37pts (three 1st; three 5th)
3. 2001 Fisher Coach Insignia - 40pts (one 1st; two 5th)
4. 2001 Clark Claudon - 42pts (two 1st; one 5th)
5. 2001 Caymus Special Selection - 52pts (zero 1st; seven 5th)

And my personal ranking:

Result of Flight A - my ranking
1. 2001 Herb Lamb
2. 2001 Lewelling Wight Vineyard
3. 2001 Neal Family Napa Valley
4. 2001 J. Davis Diamond Mountain
5. 2001 Del Dotto Napa

Result of Flight B - my ranking
1. 2001 Bressler
2. 2001 Pride Reserve
3. 2001 Karl Lawrence Morisoli Reserve
4. 2001 Herb Lamb E II
5. 2001 Tor Clone 4

Result of Flight C - my ranking
1. 2001 Neal Second Chance
2. 2001 BV Georges de Latour
3. 2001 Clark Claudon
4. 2001 Fisher Coach Insignia
5. 2001 Caymus Special Selection

Notes to follow.

Oh, one more thing. If there was one singular message that come across loud and clear from this tasting it was:

Don't touch your 2001 Cal Cabs for at least another five years!

Eric

How long were these decanted if I may ask? The 2001 BV GDL receiving 7 first place votes - holy cow.

And, 5 years wait - can I be that patient?

vtyro

Decanting - I can only speak for the Bressler, which I brought. I decanted this the night before for about three hours, then stuffed the cork back in good and tight and off it went. I don't believe any of the others saw decanting, which many could certainly have benifited from.

GdL - not bad for a 69 point wine, eh?

EW - Thanks.

Re: GdL, exactly, RP 88 beats out all those wines, what happened? Any explanations?

vtyro

5 years you say..well if you say so eric i'm with you.

I was very sad to miss this one, but I should add that, not only are some '01s very tight right now, but some are in the process of closing down. A couple of friends and I had the '01 Neal SCV last week and it got tighter and tighter the more it decanted.

a

And, tasting notes posted!

Flight #1

2001 Neal Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Del Dotto Estate Cabernet

2001 Lewelling Wight Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Herb Lamb Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 J. Davies Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon

Flight #2

2001 Bressler Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Karl Lawrence Morisoli Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Tor Kenward Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 4

2001 Herb Lamb EII Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Pride Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

Flight #3

2001 Clark-Claudon Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Neal Family Second Chance Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Fisher Coach Insignia Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon

2001 Beaulieu Vineyards Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon

sounds like it was a great event. once again eric thanks for the very professional write up and drinking information.

Eric -

Curious if Louis K. brought any of his wine for sampling?

Thanks!

Eiger - nope, I actually didn't even know he had his own wine

I could be mistaken, but I thought Kapscandy Family was one of Helen Turley's new ventures?