Many thanks to skwid for hosting yet another fantastic BAWE event. In need of some cellar diminishment, skwid offered to supply all the wines for the tasting – which he did (except for the 2000 Lail which Davidn so kindly supplied). Terrific wines, excellent burgers, and always delightful company made for a superb Sunday afternoon/evening.

We changed the format a tad for this tasting. All wines were tasted double blind by all but skwid, but they were not tasted in formal flights, rather as a more casual walk-around atmosphere, tasting one wine at a time. I fear I am really getting hooked on the hamburger and Cab thing .

The top wines of the night were:
#1 – 2000 Quilceda Creek Cabernet, 3 votes for 1st place and 4 votes for 2nd place
#2 – 2000 Lail Cabernet, 3 votes for 1st place and 2 votes for 2nd place
#3 – 1999 Pride Cabernet , 2 votes for 1st place
The rest of the votes where spread out quite a bit, with I believe at least a few people abstaining.

On to the notes!

2001 Pride Cabernet Sauvignon

1990 Montelena Estate

2000 Pride Cabernet

1999 Pride Cabernet

1999 Montelena Estate Cabernet

2000 Montelena Estate Cabernet

1998 Chateau Montelena Cabernet

2000 Lail Cabernet

1998 Duckhorn Estate Cabernet

1998 Duckhorn Estate Patzmairo Vineyard Cabernet

1996 Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet

1998 Duckhorn Napa Cabernet

1998 Duckhorn Cabernet Monitor Ledge Vineyard

2000 Quilceda Creek Cabernet

I long for the day when these are the kinds of wines I would offer in order to diminish my cellar.

I decided to have mini verticals of Montelena, Pride, and a horizontal of the 1998 Duckhorn Cabs (you will have a tough time duplicating that since there wasn't much of the single vineyard cabs made). I threw in the older Montelena and 2000 QC. I had some other wines at thre ready should be have needed them but alas there is plenty of wine left over. I'll be using the "silly straw" this evening to finish things off.

Skwid, thanks for providing all of the wines. I ended up cooking, but I guess there is no such thing as a free lunch.

There wasn't that much of gap between the 1st and 13th place - the 90 Montelena seemed a little off to me. I remember someone saying that they thought wine #14 (later unveiled as the 2000 QC) was Two Buck Chuck. I'm still trying to figure out if this was tongue in cheek.

It was interesting to see the 99 Pride Cab open up and the 2001 Pride Cab start to shut down. It is entirely possible that the 99 Pride is going to teach us a good lesson about the importance of drinking timeframes.

The 2000 Lail appeared to be at its peak.