Girard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA

吉哈德珍藏赤霞珠干紅葡萄酒

點擊次數：12010

A terrific offering from Girard. The 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon-Reserve is all of the above, but even more powerful, tannic, richer, and fuller. It is a huge wine, with fabulous sweetness of fruit and a blockbuster finish. Do not touch it before 1998; expect it to last for 20 or more years.

This wine stood out as one of the deepest and youngest wines of the tasting. With a barrel sample-like, dark ruby/purple color (with no hint of amber or garnet), it tastes three or four years old! The tight nose opens with extended airing to reveal rich, chocolatey, cassis aromas backed up by smoky new oak. Dense and full-bodied, as well as tannic and acidic, the wine possesses considerable extract and intensity. I hope the acidity and tannin begin to become better meshed. If not, this wine will ultimately begin to lose its fruit. Girard's 1986 is an impressive wine that should have an optimistic future. Cellar it for another 5 years, and drink it over the first 15 years of the next century. The tasting notes for this section are from two single blind tastings, one conducted in May, 1996, in California, and the other in June, 1996, in Baltimore.

Girard has produced some terrific Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons, particularly in 1984 and 1986, but the 1985 (which I have rated as high as 88) increasingly appears to possess a problematic and fragile balance between its component parts. It is now revealing a more herbaceous, greener character than I recall, and the tart, high acidity assaults rather than caresses the palate. There is a pretty, perfumed, cherry and spicy, oaky nose, but the wine is hard, tough-textured, and difficult to penetrate. It does not possess the requisite underlying depth of fruit to support the large-scaled framework and high tannin level. Look for this wine to dry out before it ever comes into balance. This winery can produce exceptional Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons, which, although backward, generally possesses much more richness and ripeness than is evident in the 1985.

Last Tasted 8/92 This wine behaves atypically for a wine from the flashy and precocious tasting 1984 vintage. The deep dark ruby/purple color is followed by a tight nose. Only vague aromas of blackcurrants, new oak, and weedy tobacco can be detected. The acidity is surprisingly high for a 1984. Full-bodied and concentrated, with a decade or more of aging potential, this is a 1984 to keep in the cellar for at least 3-4 more years.