HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!

This is, without any doubt, the single best CA desert wine I've tasted. This is not cloyingly sweet at all. Probably like a Beerenauslese but with a bit less acidity so it comes off as a bit sweeter. This is the wine version of an orange creamsicle but it also has mango, tangerine, maybe just a slight hint of ruby red grapefruit (but none of that tartness). Then there is this vanilla/caramel flavor. The flavor dissipates so slowly, I'm still tasting the wine well over two minutes after my last sip. I have no idea how to rate this, but it is a big number. Before tasting this wine, I did not know a wine of this genre could taste so good. Perhaps I am basing my score on ignorance, then, but to me changing your perception of what wine can be is what a 94+ point wine is all about. Therefore, I'll rate this somewhere between a 94-95.5 with my best guess being a 94.5 on my scale.

a

I have had the '98 and '00 versions of this wine. Very good stuff. I wouldn't quite call it a 94, but probably 90 pts. Very good value. Glad to see the '01 is a winner.

jb