A generous style that’s attractive now for its bold fruit and acidic finish pop. It’ll age a while as well! A Gold Award winner at the 2021 Critics Challenge International Wine & Spirits Competition.
Best OGDN Napa Cabernet deal?
One of the last wines I purchased before the fires, this Napa Valley Reserve-designate Cabernet Sauvignon retails under its original producer’s bottling for well over $80 per bottle. A mix of hillside fruit split evenly between Calistoga and Saint Helena, it offers ripe, lush fruit, plenty of structure, and routinely scores 91- and 93-points from the Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, and The Wine Enthusiast. I would anticipate that in a fantastic vintage like 2018, you are looking at the upper end of that spectrum. It offers unparalleled richness and depth for $29/bottle - definitely a candidate for the Best OG Value so far. For a program renowned for value, I think that’s saying quite a bit.
Ripe blackberry, vanilla, and crème de cassis are pure and cleanly delineated with white flower, and red rock mineral notes lifting the bouquet while dark chocolate, graphite and mocha add the bass notes. Ripe, lush, and smooth on entry with blackberry and plum anchoring the palate with pretty cherry and molten licorice top notes perfectly balanced against a robust, firm tannin structure complemented with toasty oak. The finish is lengthy and powerful but also very elegant which speaks to deft winemaking here (not to mention the judicious deployment of high-quality oak).
Check-in tasting 6.23.21
big brother wine to N.76. Darker fruit, more graphitic character, and toastier oak profile. While it is dense with fruit and oak, it’s lithe and sexy on the palate and comes together very nicely despite its youth. Vibrant and lively with savory depth, powdered violet, black cherry, toffee, and tobacco, you can really see the layers here. Silky and sexy in the middle with a backbone of freshness and excellent length. Day Two: sexy, complex, dark, and sensuous aromatics with a juicy freshness that runs throughout. More to come but this is nicely knit together at this point.
Specs
Blend: 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Malbec, 3% Petit Verdot, and 1% Cabernet Franc
Barrel Regime: 30% new French oak
Alcohol: 14.8%
200 cases available
Bottled December 15th, 2020
2018 Lot 43 Napa (Oakville/St. Helena) Cabernet Sauvignon
Tasting Notes
This is an absurd deal. With a history of consistent 90-92 pt scores from the Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, James Suckling as well as Decanter magazine, this delicious 2018 Cabernet is 69% Oakville Cabernet from the producer’s estate vineyard and 31% St. Helena Cabernet. Sourced from an Oakville estate winery with an original list price of well over $65/bottle, it’s a screaming deal at $25!
Dark/opaque in the glass with barely perceptible crimson on the rim. Black cherry, black currant, cigar box, and fresh turned earth are framed against baking spice, dark chocolate, and toasty oak. Generous yet seamless on the palate with layers of ripe plum and cherry framed against the ample grip of toasty, big-grained Oakville tannins. Tons of length in the finish with plenty of mouthwatering tension. This is an incredible Napa Valley Cabernet for $25/bottle!
Check-in tasting 6.23.21
Mostly Oakville Cabernet. Lovely cassis aromas mix with old school brett/leather (this is the good brettanomyces, not the “band-aid” smell, but for the sensitive, you’ll want to avoid). Plentiful acidity needs time to calm down so, for now, enjoy with richer dishes. However, this wine is headed in a very good direction and patience is required.
Check-in Tasting 1/14/2022
Oh my! This wine has arrived - beautifully complexed aromas with layers of cherry and cassis mingle with brown sugar, vanilla, anise, and savory notes of soy, dark earth. Bright and vibrant on the front of the palate and the spice and earth evolves and complexes throughout the palate.
Purchased prior to the fires and kept in barrel until last December, N.76 2018 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is from one of Calistoga’s premier producers. Their estate vineyard occupies the alluvial washes draining down from Mt. St. Helena and the Palisades. And, while I often find Calistoga Cabernet’s to be a bit too “open knit” and light in color due to the northern Napa Valley heat, here the gravelly drainage keeps yields naturally low for proper ripening and color density. Also helping balance things out is hillside fruit from St. Helena which makes up about about 40% of the winery’s final blend. The final product is an archetypal Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with broad appeal, a perennial 91-92 pt Cabernet that’s as comfortable on Tuesday night as it is on Saturday night. It sells out of the winery tasting room for $65/bottle - a steal at $25/bottle.
Deep ruby in the glass - almost opaque. Opens with a jubilee of cherry, dark, dusty plum and mocha adding creme de cassis and raspberry notes with air. Allspice and pretty red rock minerality lift the nose. Terrific weight on entry ripe with creme de cassis and vanilla-flecked cherry notes dominating the lush but well-balanced palate. The finish is long and clean with pure, pretty fruit throughout. Exquisitely balanced and built to drink well now and over the next decade.
Updated February 2022 - Drink or Hold –
this wine has ebbed and flowed quite a bit in the bottle but seems to have settled in nicely now. It requires a good decant but opens up nicely now with an hour or two of air.
Updated June 27, 2021 - 60% Calistoga, 40% St. Helena
The warmer climes of Napa Valley make this a more fruit-forward and approachable style with less high-toast wood dominance. Singing cherry with vibrant backbone, succulent and seamless across the palate…silky smooth and beautifully integrated with excellent complexity - total crowd-pleaser.
Specs
Blend: 97% Cabernet, 3% Merlot
60% Calistoga, 40% St. Helena
Barrel Regime: 30% new French oak
Alcohol: 14.7%
300 cases available
Bottled December 15th, 2020
What’s Included
6-bottles:
2x 2018 Lot 80 Napa Valley “Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon
2x 2018 Lot 43 Napa (Oakville/St. Helena) Cabernet Sauvignon
2x 2018 Lot 76 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Case:
4x 2018 Lot 80 Napa Valley “Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon
4x 2018 Lot 43 Napa (Oakville/St. Helena) Cabernet Sauvignon
Since the end of Prohibition, layer-upon-layer of government-mandated middlemen and cumbersome state-by-state distribution policies have created the world’s most inefficient wine market. Only in the USA does a wine that costs $10 to produce end up costing you $50.
Enter de Négoce. With 20+ years of global wine sourcing experience, we have become the #1 direct-to-consumer wine brand in the country in just one year of business. How? We source excess exceptional wine from icon and boutique wineries and sell it directly to you at incredible prices. Simple.
de Négoce Mixed Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons OG N.xx
6 bottles for $104.99 $17.50/bottle + $1.33/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $199.99 $16.67/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
I got two Lot 43s in a mixed case, and thought it was very good. Day 1, “Opaque, vanilla”, Day 2 “Really came together, very good wine”. Drank Feb. '22, and plan to drink the 2nd one Feb. 23. I suspect it will have improved.
What can Brown do for me? Drop off a Napa Cab! Thanks WD, Alice, Terry, and OgdN. Unfortunately, my better-half cannot have red liquids right now so she will have to be my assistant nose.
Gracie the 13-year-old pirate-eye is a teetotaler; we like to think in a previous life she was a winery dog. Obligatory dog tax picture.
10/20 2:00p Initial PnP at 63. Being a 2018 Napa Cab at almost 15% abv, it was boozy and quite closed to no one’s surprise. Aggressive swirling gives hints of tar, eucalyptus, black berries, Mexican vanilla, plum, and a pleasing clean floral aromas that remind me of a line-dried laundry by a windy pasture.
First sip is bursting with fresh juicy cherry, wet stones, graphite, laurel. This a sexy feminine Cabernet, not a jammy fruit bomb. Dense chewy—annoy the other tasters—tannins. An incredibly long finish fades gently away leaving fresh fruit tastes. Nice wine!
Here are some attempts at showing off the color of this wine.
10/20 10:00p The better nose has arrived. The wine has been sitting uncorked half full at room temperature. She instantly claims bright tart cherry from across the kitchen. She added tobacco, tar, wood, and blackberry. I pressed her to detect the floral scent I was getting and she could come up with something bright and fresh: “I don’t know, almost like a cut honeydew melon?” She did say it smells like a wine she would enjoy, and she didn’t know it was a Cab and identified it without me asking. I found a keeper.
My notes are mostly the same as earlier, noticing that the alcohol is dissipating and the fruits, although there, are now more harmoniously balanced with the more brooding notes. I tried this with leek-braised pot roast and it was a very nice pairing, great tannins and acidity, but did not find that the wine changed the food or vice versa. It did a lot more for me with 73% dark chocolate, making the fruits pop and the finish linger even longer. It also was really good with salted caramel ice cream, with fruits coming in second to toffee, butterscotch, brown butter, spices. In summation, this wine does not need food, but will hold up to all but overly gamy meats.
10/21 2:00p Poured from the bottle which was corked at room temperature since last night. What a difference! Much deeper dark notes. Plums, damp forest, flint, menthol, and the cherry has taken a sabbatical. It is a bit less chewy, mouthfeel a bit more rounded, but similarly long finish and juicy acidity. I would recommend giving this wine some air; as good as it was day one, this feels even more complete.
In conclusion, I like this wine a lot. It is my style of Cabernet Sauvignon and wine in general: balanced, smooth, but with complexity. I love that this is a mix offer too. I have another glass left for today, and I will check back in. The case price for my bottle is a steal, and I assume the other two are good as well.
Now some of you are probably thinking, knmeh7, what happened to that other half of the bottle? You argoning half of your free bottle for keeps you shyster? No! Mamma and Papa knmeh7 got the other half and they took notes. I just want to make sure I got them correct and will post theirs later today.
@KNmeh7 Good review. It’s a great cab and these big wines require a lot of decanting to drink now, but will age gracefully, I would expect, for 15 years or more.
10/22 7:45p Aromas: strong tobacco, tar, bay leaf, cherry jolly rancher, vanilla. Mouth-coating white chocolate with berries. Little bit of floral hints. It has sat gently corked at room temp. This is singing!
@KNmeh7 Thank you for posting the pic of Gracie. She looks quite content, perhaps on “her couch,” and blessings to you for giving her a long, happy life. Oh…thank you for the notes on the wine, as well.
I was delighted to see an email from Alice a couple days ago informing me I would be a rat. On day of promised arrival I vigilantly waited for UPS…. And waited. As I was walking out the door to pick up the kids from school I saw the big brown truck down the block. I ran down to get my prize- making me just a bit late picking up the kids. Sacrifices must be made.
Later that evening, upon opening the package, I found a bottle of de Négoce 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 43, Napa Valley. We were going out that evening, so I decided to wait to pair it with dinner the following day.
Dinner was a medley of leftovers which turned into rigatoni with a roasted vegetable and short rib ragu. While the sauce was melding on the stove I decided to sample the wine with some Gouda and salami from the fridge. Pnp- very dark almost opaque, not going to lie, got me very excited to taste, nose is a bit one noted, dark currants. Swirled around the glass, medium legs. First taste is sour cherries and alcohol. And that is about it. Upon first impression it seemed to cry for food. With the Gouda it seemed to become more structured and had a nice mouth feel; however with the salami it seemed to fall apart and was overwhelmed.
I poured a glass and let it sit, and with dinner I poured a glass through the Aervana. Through the Aervana the wine was a touch more muted but rounded out. Got more bright cherry and dark berries, a touch of chocolate. The alcohol also disappeared. (Ha, if only). Paired well with dinner and the acid from the sauce seemed to brighten the wine a bit.
While cleaning up I returned to the wine I had poured earlier- about an hour and a half later: more green pepper and leather, no alcohol, the tannins had also dissipated.
I recorked the bottle to see how it would be the next day.
Day 2: time didn’t do it any flavors. Less mouthfeel, everything more muted, but a touch of “chalkiness” on the back of the tongue.
Overall not my style of cabernet, and it may be a bit young, but I prefer a bolder Cab with strong flavors.
@jshaver Did you get any brett? Maybe in the leather you note…how strong? Cam’s initial notes said “Lovely cassis aromas mix with old school brett/leather (this is the good brettanomyces, not the “band-aid” smell, but for the sensitive you’ll want to avoid).” I avoided this then, b/c IMHO there is no good brett.
In for a dozen. I got Lot 100 several months ago, and it’s excellent but seems quite restrained; it needs some time in the cellar. Based on other comments about these wines, cellaring seems the norm for de Negoce wines. Is that what others have noticed?
@sjlee11 I have been buying Cam’s offerings for over 17 years. For domestic cabs, you are right. They almost always could use some extra cellaring, as they typically are not made to be drink now, supermarket wines. For special releases (like 100, 200, etc.), that is especially the case.
@sjlee11 Cam often recommends a “24 hour decant”, in which you open, decant, wait an hour, return it to the bottle and drink the next day. this gives oxygen exposure and time to evolve. For his tight wines, I usually Vinturi any drink-now glasses and just leave the rest under cork, un-refrigerated, for an experiment the next day. About half the time this reveals that yes, the early glasses were less satisfying and the 24-hour wait would have been better.
I did more reading on the de Negoce website, and I highly recommend prospective buyers to read the FAQ, specifically on bottle shock. It adds useful context to all these comments about cellaring, decanting, etc. Also nice to know that they use the good corks that should offer fewer flawed bottles.
I apologize for being late. I thought this was going up on Monday.
I have the pleasure of ratting on de Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon OG N.76
Initial impressions:
Nose: Cherry, plum, and tobacco with a decent amount of alcohol.
Color: dark and very plum on the edges of the glass.
Taste: it initially feels a little flat on the tongue, but quickly comes alive and provides notes of plum, raspberry, and chocolate. The tannins are there, but not tightly wound, after about an hour in the decanter. Plenty of alcohol, as would be expected with a cab. You could easily pick this out as a Napa Cab in a blind test as it is classical in style.
It is drinkable right now, but I would hold some back in the cellar. It has a tannin structure that should improve over time.
I’m not big into wine points, but 90 to 92 seems to be about right for this bottle. It is a solid offering, but nothing mindblowing.
$17/bottle is a relative bargain for the bottle. I couldn’t find a similar offering from Napa at the local store without spending $50+.
I will check back in later tonight with some further observations.
After more decanting, the wine has changed considerably. The nose is the same. However, the taste profile is different. Most of the fruit is gone (it wasn’t a fruit bomb at the beginning, but it was dominate on the palate). The taste is much more earthy, with notes of tobacco, dirt, and chocolate dominating. This is consistent from start to finish.
This now feels like a more well-rounded wine. I prefer this to the version I initially encountered earlier today. The tannins have largely subsided. This is more reminiscent of a Rutherford cab.
Unless you like fruit-forward wines, I recommend giving this one plenty of air or laying it down for a while. I think you will be rewarded for your patience.
@Winedavid49 That is true, but when he has something interesting, I buy it. I have a lot of cabs in my hallway stack. That is the reason I am skipping this offer. Please keep bringing him around here.
I have no room and there is less than a 5% discount for the case, so the 6-pack makes more sense, right? The devil on my other shoulder said I’ll want more than two of each and they can’t improve with age if you don’t have any left. The devil wins again! In for a case.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2018 de Négoce Mixed Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons - $10 = 4.76%
2018 Lot 80 Napa Valley “Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon
92 Points, Gold Medal, 2021 Critics Challenge Wine Competition
Tasting Notes
Check-in tasting 6.23.21
Specs
2018 Lot 43 Napa (Oakville/St. Helena) Cabernet Sauvignon
Tasting Notes
Check-in tasting 6.23.21
Check-in Tasting 1/14/2022
Specs
2018 Lot 76 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
92 Points, Gold Medal, 2021 Sommeliers Challenge Wine Competition
Tasting Notes
Updated February 2022 - Drink or Hold –
Updated June 27, 2021 - 60% Calistoga, 40% St. Helena
Specs
What’s Included
6-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$316/Case for 4x 2018 Lot 80 Napa Valley “Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon + 4x 2018 Lot 43 Napa (Oakville/St. Helena) Cabernet Sauvignon + 4x 2018 Lot 76 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at de Négoce
About The Winery
De Negoce - How It Works
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Nov 14 - Wednesday, Nov 16
de Négoce Mixed Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons OG N.xx
6 bottles for $104.99 $17.50/bottle + $1.33/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $199.99 $16.67/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2018 Lot 80 Napa Valley “Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon
2018 Lot 43 Napa (Oakville/St. Helena) Cabernet Sauvignon
2018 Lot 76 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
I got two Lot 43s in a mixed case, and thought it was very good. Day 1, “Opaque, vanilla”, Day 2 “Really came together, very good wine”. Drank Feb. '22, and plan to drink the 2nd one Feb. 23. I suspect it will have improved.
@FritzCat I bought a case of 43, and really liked it as well. Haven’t had one in months. May try to dig one out today.
@FritzCat I enjoyed n.43 as well. I think it has great aging potential. It’s to me a more classically styled cabernet, which I love.
de Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon OG N.80
What can Brown do for me? Drop off a Napa Cab! Thanks WD, Alice, Terry, and OgdN. Unfortunately, my better-half cannot have red liquids right now so she will have to be my assistant nose.
Gracie the 13-year-old pirate-eye is a teetotaler; we like to think in a previous life she was a winery dog. Obligatory dog tax picture.
10/20 2:00p Initial PnP at 63. Being a 2018 Napa Cab at almost 15% abv, it was boozy and quite closed to no one’s surprise. Aggressive swirling gives hints of tar, eucalyptus, black berries, Mexican vanilla, plum, and a pleasing clean floral aromas that remind me of a line-dried laundry by a windy pasture.
First sip is bursting with fresh juicy cherry, wet stones, graphite, laurel. This a sexy feminine Cabernet, not a jammy fruit bomb. Dense chewy—annoy the other tasters—tannins. An incredibly long finish fades gently away leaving fresh fruit tastes. Nice wine!
Here are some attempts at showing off the color of this wine.
10/20 10:00p The better nose has arrived. The wine has been sitting uncorked half full at room temperature. She instantly claims bright tart cherry from across the kitchen. She added tobacco, tar, wood, and blackberry. I pressed her to detect the floral scent I was getting and she could come up with something bright and fresh: “I don’t know, almost like a cut honeydew melon?” She did say it smells like a wine she would enjoy, and she didn’t know it was a Cab and identified it without me asking. I found a keeper.
My notes are mostly the same as earlier, noticing that the alcohol is dissipating and the fruits, although there, are now more harmoniously balanced with the more brooding notes. I tried this with leek-braised pot roast and it was a very nice pairing, great tannins and acidity, but did not find that the wine changed the food or vice versa. It did a lot more for me with 73% dark chocolate, making the fruits pop and the finish linger even longer. It also was really good with salted caramel ice cream, with fruits coming in second to toffee, butterscotch, brown butter, spices. In summation, this wine does not need food, but will hold up to all but overly gamy meats.
10/21 2:00p Poured from the bottle which was corked at room temperature since last night. What a difference! Much deeper dark notes. Plums, damp forest, flint, menthol, and the cherry has taken a sabbatical. It is a bit less chewy, mouthfeel a bit more rounded, but similarly long finish and juicy acidity. I would recommend giving this wine some air; as good as it was day one, this feels even more complete.
In conclusion, I like this wine a lot. It is my style of Cabernet Sauvignon and wine in general: balanced, smooth, but with complexity. I love that this is a mix offer too. I have another glass left for today, and I will check back in. The case price for my bottle is a steal, and I assume the other two are good as well.
Now some of you are probably thinking, knmeh7, what happened to that other half of the bottle? You argoning half of your free bottle for keeps you shyster? No! Mamma and Papa knmeh7 got the other half and they took notes. I just want to make sure I got them correct and will post theirs later today.
@KNmeh7 Good review. It’s a great cab and these big wines require a lot of decanting to drink now, but will age gracefully, I would expect, for 15 years or more.
10/22 7:45p Aromas: strong tobacco, tar, bay leaf, cherry jolly rancher, vanilla. Mouth-coating white chocolate with berries. Little bit of floral hints. It has sat gently corked at room temp. This is singing!
@KNmeh7 Thank you for posting the pic of Gracie. She looks quite content, perhaps on “her couch,” and blessings to you for giving her a long, happy life. Oh…thank you for the notes on the wine, as well.
de Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon OG N.43
I was delighted to see an email from Alice a couple days ago informing me I would be a rat. On day of promised arrival I vigilantly waited for UPS…. And waited. As I was walking out the door to pick up the kids from school I saw the big brown truck down the block. I ran down to get my prize- making me just a bit late picking up the kids. Sacrifices must be made.
Later that evening, upon opening the package, I found a bottle of de Négoce 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Lot 43, Napa Valley. We were going out that evening, so I decided to wait to pair it with dinner the following day.
Dinner was a medley of leftovers which turned into rigatoni with a roasted vegetable and short rib ragu. While the sauce was melding on the stove I decided to sample the wine with some Gouda and salami from the fridge. Pnp- very dark almost opaque, not going to lie, got me very excited to taste, nose is a bit one noted, dark currants. Swirled around the glass, medium legs. First taste is sour cherries and alcohol. And that is about it. Upon first impression it seemed to cry for food. With the Gouda it seemed to become more structured and had a nice mouth feel; however with the salami it seemed to fall apart and was overwhelmed.
I poured a glass and let it sit, and with dinner I poured a glass through the Aervana. Through the Aervana the wine was a touch more muted but rounded out. Got more bright cherry and dark berries, a touch of chocolate. The alcohol also disappeared. (Ha, if only). Paired well with dinner and the acid from the sauce seemed to brighten the wine a bit.
While cleaning up I returned to the wine I had poured earlier- about an hour and a half later: more green pepper and leather, no alcohol, the tannins had also dissipated.
I recorked the bottle to see how it would be the next day.
Day 2: time didn’t do it any flavors. Less mouthfeel, everything more muted, but a touch of “chalkiness” on the back of the tongue.
Overall not my style of cabernet, and it may be a bit young, but I prefer a bolder Cab with strong flavors.
Thanks for the opportunity! Cheers!
@jshaver Did you get any brett? Maybe in the leather you note…how strong? Cam’s initial notes said “Lovely cassis aromas mix with old school brett/leather (this is the good brettanomyces, not the “band-aid” smell, but for the sensitive you’ll want to avoid).” I avoided this then, b/c IMHO there is no good brett.
@jshaver @slinger42 Oh for the days of Cordier brett!
@slinger42 it was very faint. After reading the initial notes and reflecting back it could have been brett.
Thanks for the notes everyone.
In for a dozen. I got Lot 100 several months ago, and it’s excellent but seems quite restrained; it needs some time in the cellar. Based on other comments about these wines, cellaring seems the norm for de Negoce wines. Is that what others have noticed?
@sjlee11 I have been buying Cam’s offerings for over 17 years. For domestic cabs, you are right. They almost always could use some extra cellaring, as they typically are not made to be drink now, supermarket wines. For special releases (like 100, 200, etc.), that is especially the case.
@sjlee11 Cam often recommends a “24 hour decant”, in which you open, decant, wait an hour, return it to the bottle and drink the next day. this gives oxygen exposure and time to evolve. For his tight wines, I usually Vinturi any drink-now glasses and just leave the rest under cork, un-refrigerated, for an experiment the next day. About half the time this reveals that yes, the early glasses were less satisfying and the 24-hour wait would have been better.
I did more reading on the de Negoce website, and I highly recommend prospective buyers to read the FAQ, specifically on bottle shock. It adds useful context to all these comments about cellaring, decanting, etc. Also nice to know that they use the good corks that should offer fewer flawed bottles.
@sjlee11 @slinger42 aint nobody got time for that!
I apologize for being late. I thought this was going up on Monday.
I have the pleasure of ratting on
de Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon OG N.76
Initial impressions:
Nose: Cherry, plum, and tobacco with a decent amount of alcohol.
Color: dark and very plum on the edges of the glass.
Taste: it initially feels a little flat on the tongue, but quickly comes alive and provides notes of plum, raspberry, and chocolate. The tannins are there, but not tightly wound, after about an hour in the decanter. Plenty of alcohol, as would be expected with a cab. You could easily pick this out as a Napa Cab in a blind test as it is classical in style.
It is drinkable right now, but I would hold some back in the cellar. It has a tannin structure that should improve over time.
I’m not big into wine points, but 90 to 92 seems to be about right for this bottle. It is a solid offering, but nothing mindblowing.
$17/bottle is a relative bargain for the bottle. I couldn’t find a similar offering from Napa at the local store without spending $50+.
I will check back in later tonight with some further observations.
An update.
After more decanting, the wine has changed considerably. The nose is the same. However, the taste profile is different. Most of the fruit is gone (it wasn’t a fruit bomb at the beginning, but it was dominate on the palate). The taste is much more earthy, with notes of tobacco, dirt, and chocolate dominating. This is consistent from start to finish.
This now feels like a more well-rounded wine. I prefer this to the version I initially encountered earlier today. The tannins have largely subsided. This is more reminiscent of a Rutherford cab.
Unless you like fruit-forward wines, I recommend giving this one plenty of air or laying it down for a while. I think you will be rewarded for your patience.
@kookie00 How long did you decant this for? Just for reference when care shows up in a few weeks!
@andrewharry91 ~6 hours in a balloon decanter
I bought a case of this last round and another now, great wine!
/giphy bewitched-wild-pixie
Bam!
Any SoCal’ers want the OG N.43?
@rjquillin sure.
@CorTot otw bestial-pagan-clown
Got a case of the 43 at release, don’t need additional.
@rjquillin this was received.
@CorTot
Thanks, saw the delivery notice earlier.
Been a busy day…
@CorTot there was some OG N.80 as well I see; now that I found the source for the 76 you had me puzzled about.
In for a case. Looks like a great value. Going into the cellar for a while
this is the best place to buy de negoce on the planet. i think that’s missed by some folks. oh well.
@Winedavid49 That is true, but when he has something interesting, I buy it. I have a lot of cabs in my hallway stack. That is the reason I am skipping this offer. Please keep bringing him around here.
I have no room and there is less than a 5% discount for the case, so the 6-pack makes more sense, right? The devil on my other shoulder said I’ll want more than two of each and they can’t improve with age if you don’t have any left. The devil wins again! In for a case.
/giphy nasty-horrible-carrion
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2018 de Négoce Mixed Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons - $10 = 4.76%