Levy McClellan, Red, Napa Valley

At home with the family, these bottles purchased circa 2009 at auction. Last tasting note was 2012. Pairted with brisket and "Jimmy's Italian potatoes". Splash decanted, drank over an hour. Clean cork, some sediment. Dark, opaque purple color, no thinning. Nose showing some blue fruits, plum and baking spice. Palate was a bit pruney, also showing plums, sweet cherry and licorice. Tannins still present. Medium body and finish. The pruney element was a bug, not a feature. It masked the …

2004 vintage

PNP. Started out tight but opened up over an hour. Could have benefited from a decant of at least an hour. Fresh and vibrant and showing no age. Inky purple with no signs of bricking. Big blue streak of fruit on the palate and finishes with minerals and fine tannins. Great balance. No need to hurry. Enjoy it over the next 2 decades.

2007 vintage

Jim's main wine for the night. I believe he said a 1 hour decant? Just a prototypical L&M nose and palate to start at the beginning. The cedar and fruit is always so great.....To me this one drank its best right after we started in on it tonight. A 96 then. As time went on it got a little blacker in profile and the cedar backed off a bit on the nose. By 5-6 hours of total air, this one …

2007 vintage

Core of dark fruits, currants and chocolate. Silky and smooth, nice texture and weight on the palate.

2007 vintage

This bottle was much worse than the one we had about 4 years ago. Decanted off the sediment about an hour before tasting. Color was deep purple with a tinge of brown, opaque and a little murky. The fruit had faded, allowing the heat and volatility to move to the forefront. Drinkable, but not very pleasant. Glad it was my last bottle ...

2004 vintage

My last of three bottles, and finally one that lived up to its reputation. A little closed upon opening, but after a couple hours of air, it was a beautiful behemoth. Tasted 5-10 years old, not 20. Napa all the way, but a beautiful bruiser. Open one if you have any left.

2004 vintage

Decanted and served within 30 minutes. Wine is fully integrated compared to last bottle. Still has a very nice core of blue and black fruits. Great balance and long finish. Still young but in a very good drinking window.

2007 vintage

Decanted for a few hours before serving. A fair amount of sediment. Opaque, very dark purple in color, with no lightening around the edges. Plum, spice, and a hint of VA on the nose. Strong anise/licorice and earthy flavors initially evolving into something more pruney. Slight volatility evident throughout. Very full bodied and lush mouthfeel. Medium finish. Not a bad or defective wine, but not a top tier Cabernet either. It worked OK with a dry-aged NY strip steak with …

2004 vintage

It’s been over seven years since my last bottle, and my sense is that time hasn’t treated this well. The initial nose was very stewed and pruney, which never fully blew off. Color was good - didn’t look like a 15+ year old wine. But, the fruit seemed off, so the secondary traits never fully integrated. It was fine, but for me, not better than many competitors, and not worth the tariff. I have one more, which I hope I …

2004 vintage

Lots of rich concentrated black fruits in the nose and flavor. Blackberries, black cherries, black currants, black raspberries, and plums along with chocolate, coffee, licorice, and some earthiness. A full bodied wine with nice complexity, a long finish, and many years still left in the bottle.

2004 vintage

Silky cabernet with loads of fruit. Dark purple color. Showing no age. Long finish. Still has a long life ahead it.

2007 vintage

Double decanted for sediment and served a few of hours later. Good dark rich flavors of cocoa, blackberry, and toasted oak. Fairly ripe with a solid spice of tannin and acid being perhaps a touch grippy for the fruit. Very solid and a good drinker overall, yet not quite delicious or amazing. Decent spice. Feels like a very well made wine with a just ok fruit source. No rush to drink up, but not sure what will happen as fruit …

2004 vintage

Dark rich and intense currant with some sweet fruit, integrated tannins and rich mocha and tobacco

2007 vintage

Thanksgiving dinner, opened for several hours. Dark red, rich, mild oak, chocolate. More mellow and smoother than I had expected. Very nice, but steep price for the experience.

2004 vintage

Dark, rich and intense plum, currant and dark fruits with integrated tannins and fabulous finish

2004 vintage

BYO - US wines (M&H) : Lovely and juicy black currant fruit but still with a dense core. The tannins are soft and developed and it seems to have matured very nicely. There is a lot to love in this wine and it will continue to improve. A pleasure to taste such a rare bottle!

2004 vintage

From a magnum. I really do enjoy this wine. It's got the very intense fruit, but this spice cabinet that keeps it really interesting. Vanilla, violets, pepper. Almost a potpourri of sorts. Very nice.

2007 vintage

Clearly this has depth and concentration, along with ripe, fruit and round tannins, but it was hard to move past that point, due to the excessive amount of oak that was coming through. Others will probably like this more than I did.

2004 vintage

One of the best Napa Cabs I have ever drank. On Par with Hundred Acres Kyle Morgan. Decanted for 2 hours which was plenty of time. Silky smooth and layered, beautiful nose and finish. The wine looks purple colored. The body is medium/full. The wine has silky texture. The wine finishes medium. The wine has low acidity.

2007 vintage

extremely ripe, almost port like. But there is a healthy dose of acidity to balance the fruit. Sadly I feel that the wine lacks structure and it is purely fruit driven. But make no mistake, it is a great fruit forward wine that goes well with greasy food

2004 vintage

I have mixed feelings about this wine... It was delicious, bold, balanced and paired well with red meat and foie gras. Truly a great wine that my wife and I enjoyed. My mixed feelings is that I only have one bottle left!

2004 vintage

I thought that this wine qualifies for one of the most un-napaesque wine that I have had from Napa in a long time. The only other wine that comes to mind is the Colgin iX from 2005, but I tend to remember that one being a softer wine. This too, drank more like a bordeaux, at the very beginning of its drinking window. It was extremely powerful, structured, and very, very long. Behaved like a big 2003 Left Bank, cabernet …

2004 vintage

Rich ripe dark cherry fruit oriented. Quite good with very enjoyably round broad flavors and a tart edge with nice lingering finish. Drink or hold, but doubt it improves from here. Very nice wine, but would not confuse it for a Harlan or Bond.

2004 vintage

Zachys Fine & Rare Wines - Apr 2016 & an evening w/friends (Smith & Wollensky (48th & 3rd Ave)) : Traded for these wines about a month ago and wanted to see how they were. Opened and decanted fairly early in the day and didn't pour for prob 3 hours until we were serving the steak. There's a hint of heat here that I wish would blow off, but overall really liked it. Good red fruits and standard big Napa …

2004 vintage

Escape from the Cold; 2/12/2016-2/15/2016 (Sunny & Warm Florida (Del Ray Beach, Jupiter)) : Opened this one and gave it a bit of time before we poured. After the first pours it went into the decanter and that helped it along quite a bit. This was our first time with this wine and I was quite impressed. Total baby and needs quite a bit more time, but liked the balance of pepper and oak and leather with the fruit. Unfortunately …

2007 vintage

Amazing.

2004 vintage

Cooking School Finale Lunch Cabernets WA98-100 (Loretta Paganini School fo Cooking) : This seemed to divide the crowd. I thought it fantastic and better than I remember it being a few years ago. Purple in color, ruby at the rim. The nose starts out a bit dusty, but then the cassis enters and starts to dominate. Also a bit of charred wood. On the palate, slight warm barnyard; hay mixed with merde. Lots of cassis. It starts monolithic but with …

2004 vintage

All the wonderful tasting notes are there. My bottle needed a few hrs to decant. This wine is rich and very easy to drink. I could still taste the great flavor of this wine the next day. Worth every penny at $350.

2004 vintage

Once again, a really impressive, full-bodied wine which, if you didn't know its price, would be a good heritage. But when you look at the price you hit yourself on the head and say "D'oh!" Or at least I did. Dark, dark fruits, lots of tannin, a whiff of cocoa. But I'm not going to weep because this was my last bottle.

2004 vintage

In the end, a fairly significant disappointment. The fruit is solid, but the wine lacks complexity and carries a surprisingly short finish. Feels over-extracted. I don't know if more time will help, but for the sake of my last bottle, I hope so!

2004 vintage

Decanted an hour before the first glass. I wrote a response to another CT member's comment, after the first taste. The wine was average and definitely not worth the price. After decanting for 2 1/2 hours, the wine started to show a little more of itself. It is by know means a $350 wine! This wine lacks a heart and sole. The only reason it was memorable is because I was an idiot for paying $350 (x2 btls). We also …

2004 vintage

Cali Cab Dinner with 10+ Years of Age - 02 HSS, 04 Levy, 01 Madronna and etc. (Charlie Palmer - Washington DC) : Extremely ripe fruit expression, sweet spices, anise, mineral and a hint of alcohol as the end note. Good concentration, a bit dry fruit driven palate impression, nicely integrated tannins and a bit of heat at the end. IMO, this is a controversial wine, YMMV significantly. In hindsight, I could have bought two bottles of the 01 Rousseau …

2004 vintage

This bottle was popped and slow oxed for about an hour before being poured from bottle. The wine was initially a little closed, but it opened beautifully and became a complicated, engrossing California Cabernet with a new facet at almost every sip. The bottle went way too quickly!

2004 vintage

Opened up after a while in the glass but closed to start with. Initally grainy tannins but it all came together nicely and improved with food.

2004 vintage

very good- i can taste the salt and the earth

2007 vintage

a heavy wine- our friend Howard would like it

2007 vintage

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Levy McClellan, Red, Napa Valley

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