Last night with grilled venison chops and oven roasted beets and
yams. I haven't opened a '97 Beringer PR for a number of years. I
opened and decanted (there was a fair amount of sediment) and started
drinking upon decanting. The wine was still deep inky almost black
with just a hint of clearing at the rim. The nose was pouring from
the bottle while I was decanting. Great depth in the nose of crushed
currants, creme de cassis and smoke. In the glass the nose continued
to evolve showing black fruits, vanilla, anise, and that distinctive
Napa dust aroma. Still fairly hefty in the glass with substanitial
forward concentrated black fruit, berries, plums and cassis. Smooth
as silk and well framed by plush yet firm tannic structure. As with
most '97's fairly low acid but the wine wasn't cloying nor did it
overpower the food. So far I've been impressed by most all of the '97
Napa Cabs that I've opened recently and the concerns about them
falling apart hasn't happened as far as I can tell. Certainly an "A"
on the Dale Scale.

> So far I've been impressed by most all of the '97
> Napa Cabs that I've opened recently and the concerns about them
> falling apart hasn't happened as far as I can tell.

'97 was an extremely good year for cabs in Napa and Sonoma (and other
full bodied reds in Northern California too). Alas, all mine are drunk up.

Jose
--
Humans are pack animals. Above all things, they have a deep need to
follow something, be it a leader, a creed, or a mob. Whosoever fully
understands this holds the world in his hands.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

I'm still sitting on a couple '97 Gallo of Sonoma's (standard bottling).
The biggest over-achieving wine of all time. I did have one 6 months ago
and it was showing VERY WELL. I think it has at least another 10 years of
life left in it.

Sean


"Jose" > wrote in message
et...
>> So far I've been impressed by most all of the '97
>> Napa Cabs that I've opened recently and the concerns about them
>> falling apart hasn't happened as far as I can tell.
>
> '97 was an extremely good year for cabs in Napa and Sonoma (and other full
> bodied reds in Northern California too). Alas, all mine are drunk up.
>
> Jose
..

In article .com>,
says...
>
>Last night with grilled venison chops and oven roasted beets and
>yams. I haven't opened a '97 Beringer PR for a number of years. I
>opened and decanted (there was a fair amount of sediment) and started
>drinking upon decanting. The wine was still deep inky almost black
>with just a hint of clearing at the rim. The nose was pouring from
>the bottle while I was decanting. Great depth in the nose of crushed
>currants, creme de cassis and smoke. In the glass the nose continued
>to evolve showing black fruits, vanilla, anise, and that distinctive
>Napa dust aroma. Still fairly hefty in the glass with substanitial
>forward concentrated black fruit, berries, plums and cassis. Smooth
>as silk and well framed by plush yet firm tannic structure. As with
>most '97's fairly low acid but the wine wasn't cloying nor did it
>overpower the food. So far I've been impressed by most all of the '97
>Napa Cabs that I've opened recently and the concerns about them
>falling apart hasn't happened as far as I can tell. Certainly an "A"
>on the Dale Scale.

I've had this one, almost since its release, both decanted and poured-n-
swirlled, and have declared it quite good. I've been tapping into my '97s, and
have found few, if any, "falling apart." Thanks for the TN's. I'll get
analytical with a few of my last bottles of this, and do a comparison set of
notes.

Ninety-seven might not have matched '94, or '85, but was still, IMHO, a very,
very good CA vintage, especially for Napa.

Hunt

Hunt wrote:
> I've had this one, almost since its release, both decanted and poured-n-
> swirlled, and have declared it quite good. I've been tapping into my '97s, and
> have found few, if any, "falling apart." Thanks for the TN's. I'll get
> analytical with a few of my last bottles of this, and do a comparison set of
> notes.
>
> Ninety-seven might not have matched '94, or '85, but was still, IMHO, a very,
> very good CA vintage, especially for Napa.

'85 is an interesting vintage, as I think that many of the wines didn't
develop the way that had been envisioned at release. To wit, many of
the wines dried out prematurely. OTOH, '87 was IMO the best of the
decade for both Cabernets and Zinfandels. And, to me, '94 -- as good as
it is -- has been overshadowed by '91... but my judgment might be
clouded by the insane price increases that took place in the interim. I
agree that '97 looks to be a good year, perhaps a great year, but alas I
bought very little from that year because I'd been priced out of the
market. FWIW, I bought quite a bit more from '98 and have been *very*
favorably impressed (so far) with how they've developed.

Mark Lipton

On Feb 22, 10:37�am, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> Hunt wrote:
> > I've had this one, almost since its release, both decanted and poured-n-
> > swirlled, and have declared it quite good. I've been tapping into my '97s, and
> > have found few, if any, "falling apart." Thanks for the TN's. I'll get
> > analytical with a few of my last bottles of this, and do a comparison set of
> > notes.
>
> > Ninety-seven might not have matched '94, or '85, but was still, IMHO, a very,
> > very good CA vintage, especially for Napa.
>
> '85 is an interesting vintage, as I think that many of the wines didn't
> develop the way that had been envisioned at release. *To wit, many of
> the wines dried out prematurely. *OTOH, '87 was IMO the best of the
> decade for both Cabernets and Zinfandels. *And, to me, '94 -- as good as
> it is -- has been overshadowed by '91... but my judgment might be
> clouded by the insane price increases that took place in the interim. *I
> agree that '97 looks to be a good year, perhaps a great year, but alas I
> bought very little from that year because I'd been priced out of the
> market. *FWIW, I bought quite a bit more from '98 and have been *very*
> favorably impressed (so far) with how they've developed.
>
> Mark Lipton

I too have been impressed with the '98's and since it was considered a
vintage that wasn't "up to par" with other 90's vintages the pricing
was almost reasonable. I found the '97 vintage to be very, very ripe
with very low acidity, very soft plush tannins and tons of
concentrated fruit. Many folks in the wine world wondered about the
ageability of these wines. I've found, for the most part, that if
properly stored they've held up well and have lost a bit of the baby
fat and have gained a bit of complexity.