Sunday, June 7, 2015

2007 Stonestreet Bear Point Cabernet

This one was a splurge purchase from Stonestreet, ordered after tasting it at the winery and comparing it to a Harlan (i.e., a $500-700 bottle). Something about the depth of the fruit, yet elegance and balance and very long finish reminded me of Harlan. So opening this one last night at 18 Seaboard with a friend was an interesting reality check. It is still quite dark, and the palate a celestrial variety of black fruits, boysenberry, blackberry, maybe blueberry, with spicy licorice, vanilla, pine woods and cream. The nose was rather restrained even with some time in the glass, but the taste varied from sip to sip, always soft (tannins now 80% melted away) and drinking like a mature Pomerol. I don't know why the nose wasn't more perfumed given the complex taste but this was a lovely balanced, complex medium bodied cabernet with a very long finish. 95 points.

Parket gives it only 92 points, but that was 5 years ago and the tannin has largely resolved as noted above: Another big, earthy, tannic, Medoc-styled wine is the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Bear Point. There are only 231 cases of this cuvee, which offers abundant amounts of black currant, cedar, spice box, and earth notes in a full-bodied, tannic style. Give it 5-8 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 20 years.