Barnett Vineyards, Rattlesnake Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Open That Bottle Night wine #1. A little past its peak, I’m sure. Not much fruit, but hints of other flavors and aromas - chocolate, green pepper, oak, cinnamon. Short finish.

2006 vintage

Wow! What a nose on this wine. While still just a baby, this wine sings from the glass with beautiful creme de cassis. It is a tightly wound ball of energy that explodes in the glass with a few swirls. There are firm but sweet tannins on the finish suggesting this will benefit from a few more years in bottle or at least two hours in the decanter.

2017 vintage

A big wine with powerful mountain berry fruit. An explosion or fruit in the glass. Long but firm finish on the backend. This is a well made wine. That said, to think I could buy an aged bottle of Pichon Lalande, Pontet Canet, or Leoville Las Cases, etc… for the same price or less, there is no question which one I would buy. It’s all personal preference.

2017 vintage

Drinking very well. Smooth dark fruit a wine almost all will enjoy!

2017 vintage

90 min double decant. Opaque electric purple magenta color. Stewed plum, honey, toasted pumpkin seed, and subtle mustard. Smooth, tongue drying palate. Firm tannins on the longish finish. This continued to improve over an hour of drinking. My score is where it ended up. Very solid for the poor vintage, but not a bottle I’d seek out.

2017 vintage

Dark inky in color with a short purple rim. Strong nose of blackberries, figs, raisins, vanilla, cedar, licorice, tobacco, spices and black pepper. Full bodied and smooth, with medium acidity and long legs. Dry and very fruity on the palate with blackberries, black plums, cooked cherries, cedar, earth, vanilla, spices, espresso, tobacco and herbs. Long finish with fine grained tannins and cherries. This is a delicious Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. Fruit forward with nice complexity and mouthfeel. Good right …

2017 vintage

After two hours in the decanter, this started to open up. A very balanced wine, but still very primary. I would hold this for 3 more years and then try again to see if it puts on more weight.

2017 vintage

great juice. Well balanced, with good fruit balanced with tannins and acid. Lots of ripe red fruit, but will develop over time Try again in a year

2017 vintage

Putzi's Napa 2017 new arrival tasting : A new Napa arrival tasting hosted by a wine merchant. A total of 30 wines mostly from 2017 (with a few 2018 whites and new releases from 2016 and 2015 in the mix) were presented in various price brackets ($40 to $200+). For 2017 my takeaways were 1) 2017 is already approachable and offers immediate drinking pleasure. But 2) the wines also came across lighter and less layered. 2017 doesn’t seem to have …

2017 vintage

Bright fruit; Good acid

2017 vintage

Delicious and drinking well now. Hints of dark fruit, oak and vanilla.

2017 vintage

The 2017 Rattlesnake is opaque purple at the core with a dark purple rim. At this very young stage the nose is expressing pure cassis concentrate, black plum, ground cocoa nib and anise. Numerous spices start to emerge from the glass; clove, pepper and bright cinnamon. Every return to the glass brings a new round of descriptors. Round upon entrance the wine is very quick to the big chalky tannins at this stage. Coffee grounds, cooking chocolate and dark volcanic …

2017 vintage

Still very good.

2006 vintage

Big Cali Cabs are not my usual style, but I thought the friends we were visiting would like this with their Osso Buco, and they did. Dark and full-flavored but tamed by the dozen years of age. Pretty cassis nose with only a dollop of oak. Structure enough, but easy to drink. So we did! The only bottle I've had, so I'm guessing this is a good time to drink. Might have been more exuberantly fruity in the past, and …

2006 vintage

Good maybe very good after air time but less than I recall and expected from Barnett tastings. One bottle left and just need to find a nice holiday reason to pop and enjoy!

2006 vintage

Seemingly almost profound fall-off. Still good, but glad it was our last bottle

2006 vintage

Pretty consistent in taste profile with my 8/2/14 notes. Indeed, it still continued to open up a bit over the evening. HOWEVER, I am beginning to question how much time the wine has left, and is it starting to flatten off. We probably won't wait much longer on the last bottle in our cellar.

2006 vintage

Not a fan of the over-the-top packaging. Almost opaque color with nice complex aromas. Dark chocolate, dark berry, and olive flavors. Integrated tannin with decent acidity.

2006 vintage

Initially the wine was shut down. The bouquet was very muted. Medium body. After about one hour in the glass it started to open up. The fruit started developing. Began to develop a floral bouquet with some cherries, plum, mild cocoa and mild leather Mild tannins. This wine continued to get better over the night.

2006 vintage

Even eight years out from harvesting, this wine is still an intense, extreme Spring Mountain cab. That having been said, tannins are integrating and softening to some extent. Aeration is an absolute must, or possibly decant for an hour. We drank after pouring through a Vinturi, and that helped right off the bat. Over the three hours we enjoyed the wine, it continued to evolve. Not that it "improved" (it was really good on first pour), rather, it evolved and …

2006 vintage

This was a pleasure. Purple and opaque. Nose of blueberries, black plumbs, earth, cedaar and chocolate. The tannins are well integrated with the acidity balancing the fruit exceptionally. Full mouth feel and the finish approaches a minute dominated by blackberries. Happy I bought the last two at the winery. 5+13+17+9=94

2006 vintage

Another Jim L. from Spectator miss. 82 points? Wonderful fruit with blueberries, cherry, spice and earth. Balanced and complex this wine has over a 45 second finish. Should age another decade. Decanted 2 hours. This again shows the lack of preparation that reviewers do to wines and the questionable scoring they exhibit. If you are getting paid to review wines you should have a better system in place to treat higher end wines to show better.

2006 vintage

Blueberry and savory sweet pepper on the nose and taste. Deep cabernet that benefited from 2 vinturis and 3 hour decant. A lot going on in this wine, it is complex and showed well.

2006 vintage

Minneapolis Wine Club: Cali Variety Pack with Ridge, Barnett, Pride Hobbs and more (Tracy's, Mpls) : Very dark purple red color. Decanted for 2+hr and aerated. Drank 1 glass over 30 minutes. Nose has ripe blueberries sweet creme de cassis, damp earth, cedar, spices. The palate is dense and layered, round nicely integrated tannins, wood spice, cassis, blueberry. Long finish. My WOTN and group #2 by hair.

2006 vintage

Slightly disappointing. Tasted at the winery several years ago and it was delicious. Seems to be closed down a lot from what I remember it being like then. Decanted an hour before drinking. Muted dark berry and currant flavoras with a slight earthiness. Definitely not what I would call fruit forward. The tannins are well integrated now. They were huge when first released. Seems to have a good back bone, but overall balance is not there. Not good QPR by …

2006 vintage

Disappointing. Drank along with 07 & 08 Barnett Cab and felt the STD Cab were better and much less expensive.

2006 vintage

Popped and poured. Drank over 2 nights. Initial nose of dark cherry chocolate and earthy bramble. Palate very closed, dense, tightly wound, rich cassis, black cherry, and leather. Took 3-4 hours to become more expressive and nimble. 2nd night was the sweet spot: great balance of tannin, acid, fruit, and complexity. Primary flavors gave way to more of the coffee, tobacco notes, but the dark rich fruit never receded too far. Incredible Spring Mtn Cab, on par with Pride, fueled …

2006 vintage

Delicious. Found a place that allows BYOB for a $5 corkage and has delicious food. Sofia is he name if you are in Houston, TX. This wine was fabulous and very, very dense. We did decant and that mellowed it a bit but this is everything a Spring Mountain Cab should be. POWER and depth and complexity. Tobacco and leather laid over bright fruit and cassis.

2006 vintage

Wine Warehouse Grand Tasting. Tasted side by side with the 2007 which I liked better, nose of dust, dark fruit, touch of saddle leather and cassis, so slightly better nose but one year older, more of the same on the palate, less power, less fruit than the 2007, big body, long finish.

2006 vintage

nice acidity tannins and dark fruit/chocolate. good balance.

2006 vintage

November 2008 Napa Trip; 11/7/2008-11/10/2008 (Napa) : Just bottled. Great wine, good fruit. A little lacking in complexity to score much higher.

2006 vintage

August 2008 Napa and Santa Cruz Mtn Trip; 8/9/2008-8/15/2008 : Barrel tasting.

2006 vintage

Tasted barrel sample at the winery. Very difficult to tell with this wine, prior to bottling and final blend. I found it lean and somewhat tannic. That may just be due to its extreme youth, but I am not sure the fruit is there to support the backbone. Time will tell.

2006 vintage

Are you sure?

Barnett Vineyards, Rattlesnake Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Vintages

No vintages

Community Reviews