David Arthur, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Classic old Napa!! The tertiary nuances are just right! The nose, the palate. Red fruit, cedar, leather, truffles. Bourdeaux style all the way! Alive and kicking still!

1998 vintage

Age certainly helps wine although is prob say this bottle with its storage was maybe even starting into the downslope it’s more secondary and tertiary missing the Napa fruit. But tasty as it is.

1998 vintage

Last bottle if the night. It’s good Cali can with a bit of age. Funny because I remember drinking one of these back in 2013 at a ‘finish the wine’ party. We got smarter since then. Not sure it’s getting better but plenty of life left.

1998 vintage

Drank over a steak meal. Was expecting more roundness and fruit. More acidic than my personal taste.

2005 vintage

Blackberries, currants, licorice, and some earthiness. Medium to full bodied and a long finish.

2005 vintage

Great dinner hosted by Doug and Debbie, this one brought by one of the other guests. Splash decant after a 30 minute slow ox - drank over 30 minutes. Medium/dark reddish brown color, a bit cloudy. Nose showing dark berries, leather, cocoa and earth. Palate showing dusted blackberry, blue fruits, cedar and smoke. Medium weight and finish. I would drink up here, still nice to drink. Nicely aged - elegant, still showing interesting fruits and secondary notes - but past …

1998 vintage

Entire cork saturated. My bottle was way beyond its peak. If you own this vintage, drink now.

1998 vintage

Dark garnet colored, medium bodied, complex but nicely integrated and polished black berry and black currant fruits accented by notes of tobacco leaf, tea, hints of anise and bit of tar leading to a long silky smooth tannin finish. https://unwindwine.blogspot.com/2018/03/cal-wine-flight-highlights-st-pats.html

2005 vintage

I quite enjoyed this. It leans to the ripe end for my traditional palate. Beautiful nose! Aromas of berry pie, mint, coffee, mixed berry compote, oak, dark chocolate, and leather lift nicely. The palate is of dark chocolate, compote, and smoke, with a sweet fruited edge and low tannin. Nice wine that could probably go a few more years. The 14.2% declared alcohol isn't noted except in the fruit ripeness. No reason to hate on the '98 vintage here.

1998 vintage

Nice big Napa cab. Drinking well right from the bottle, nice fruit concentration, firm but elegant tannins, and I'm sure this will improve with air or more time in the cellar. Nice texture as well.

2010 vintage

This is a fantastic, fully mature, smooth, silky and wonderfully sweet cabernet giant. Classic flavors reminiscent of cassis, a touch of licorice and a hint of tar. Beautiful long finish the lasts for over a minute and keeps you going back for more. What a beauty this has become.

2005 vintage

excellent , 4 days later excellent , great stuff

2005 vintage

Still a lot of life in this wine!

1998 vintage

Good not great. Fruit forward in typical napa cab style but lacking refinement and complexity. It was just one dimension and really lacked on the finish. Again good not great.

2005 vintage

thin in color with good legs. reddish brown. nose of some fruit but mainly cigar box with a vegetable character. Very one dimensional with no real fruit to speak of maybe just a trace but overwhelmed by alcohol. not necessarily past its prime (didnt have it younger) this is just showing poorly from a poor vintage IMHO.

1998 vintage

Medium garnet color leads to a nose of currant, black cherry and a hint of bell pepper. Medium plus body shows lots of red fruit with a under layer of darker fruit. There are some secondary flavors of anise and tobacco present. Finish lasts 20 seconds. Enjoyable bottle of wine. Drink over next 3 years.

2005 vintage

Nice and mature for a DA cab showing good Black Cherry, Currant, herbs, sage and nice minerally earth note. Plate is still dense, but showing a bit of secondary development. Awesome again.

2005 vintage

Decanted 4 hours. Nose of bright cherry, fresh caramel, and bright blackberry fruit. The palate indicated youth, but the color was somewhat bricked, indicating age. Excellent structure, complexity, and overall balance.

2005 vintage

DAVID ARTHUR TASTING with David Long (TWO CHEFS, MIAMI, FL) : The wine looks Purple colored. The legs are Slow. It smells like Blackberry, Blueberry, Black currant (cassis), and Violet. The body is Medium/Full. The wine has Polished texture. The wine finishes Long. Elegant as all David Arthu Wines appear to be.

2010 vintage

Big beautiful cabernet that is really showing very well right now. Drank with friends at our NY homecoming and it was almost universally the WOTN.

1998 vintage

Nice rich nose. Not totally balanced but nice flavors and still holding up nicely.

1998 vintage

dark fruit, leather, moderately tannic. ruby color.

1998 vintage

Dark fruit, a bit of leather and olives. Not that full bodied. Nice finish.

1998 vintage

Struck me as more of a young Left Bank Bordeaux. Less fruit than earth on the nose. Hints of tobacco and leather. Dark, subdued fruit on the palate. Probably needed a little more air; should have decanted.

2005 vintage

- Garnet color with slow forming legs and aromas of blackberry, raspberry and strawberry. It's balanced and has flavours of oak, raspberry and prune with a light/medium body. Polished texture with a medium finish.

1998 vintage

Nose: Blackberry, cassis, charcoal and some bitters. Palate: Plum, Blackberry, Racy Currant. Tobacco, Charcoal, cedar and licorice. Very dark on the palate with splashes of acidity that would brighten the wine up. Nice chocolate note occasionally as well. Palate weight is very full. Finish: Persistent wine with strong tannins, dark fruit and smokey licorice in the finish. Black cherry notes as well.

2005 vintage

tasted from barrel. vanilla bean, espresso and cola on the nose. well balanced, supple and smooth. highly restrained at this stage. another example of 2010s stellar potential which may very well rival 2007. will be an instant classic!

2010 vintage

Wow! The winery allowed for a barrel tasting 2010. Big vanilla, rich chocolate, espresso expressions penetrate the nose. Mid palate is very smooth for a wine this young age! Tones of clove and vanilla on the palate. Soft but firm tannins.

2010 vintage

Very good on opening and for a couple of hours. Nice terroir. Good blackberry undertones. earthy. faded after a day.

1998 vintage

Dark inky garnet color. Medium-full bodied. Bight vibrant black raspberry and current fruit flavors highlighted by a layer of soft cedar turning to a hint of anise and eucalyptus with a smooth silky tannin finish. Very nice drinking in this thirteen year old - still has life left, no need to hurry - a very nice wine from a vintage that was given a bad rap as many of the 1998s turned out reasonably well, beyond expectations set by reviewers …

1998 vintage

Decanted about two hours. Really dark black/ruby opaque in the glass. Nose sports plums, dark used leather, tobacco leaf, bitter herbs, light menthol and pine needle and lots of dark charred cedar and oak. In my experience David Arthur Cabs tend to be darker fruits, often plum or blackberry, coupled with the charred wood and leather driven secondary scents. There is always elegance on the palate with more of the same darker fruit, bitter chocolate and refined resolved tannin structure. …

2005 vintage

This showed very young. Decanted 1 hour and drank over the next two hours. Some sediment. Dark red, almost black in the glass. After an hour in the decanter this wine was still fairly tight. Seems like the right amount of balance between fruit, oak, acidity, and tannin, just young. Flavors of forest floor, blue and dark red fruits, and a slight touch of fresh cut tobacco. Great length. I suspect this wine will be much better in 3-5 years.

2005 vintage

Kind of a stewed character and oaky, enjoyable but just too large scaled for me on this night.

2005 vintage

Big, fruit concentrated Cab, but nice overall balance.

2005 vintage

Drinking very well for a '98 Napa. Probably won't improve from here, but it was very nice. The fruit is delicious and the finish is silky-smooth with chocolaty goodness.

1998 vintage

Reaching peak - only slight browning around the rim - the wine never had gripping tannins - very much as I remembered the wine when opening a bottle 9 years ago - very balanced with red fruit flavor, tart but pleasing - had with steak

1998 vintage

Previous poster mentioned Brett, but this bottle was unaffected. Upon opening the nose was very CA but when poured it resembled nothing so much as a cab-based bordeaux. The wine is quite nice at this point, though not so dense as would be expected. This may gain some weight with time and if so should be very good indeed. Hold.

2005 vintage

BLACK CHERRIES, BLACKBERRIES, AND LICORICE IN THE NOSE AND FLAVOR. MEDIUM LENGTH FINISH.

1998 vintage

Brett Bomb

2005 vintage

last of 98 DA appeared to be better than other DA bottles. opened up after 2 hours of decanting amazing.

1998 vintage

Solid but not exceptional. Lacks complexity but has a solid core of fruit and tannins that have mellowed resulting in a wine that is plesant and easy drinking.

1998 vintage

The color was beautiful - a deep clean ruby. Huge aromas coming from the wine. Raspberries, minerals, and tons of robust espresso beans. The palate was nice, but not in line with the nose. The finish was somewhat short and body was a little lighter than expected. Certainly enjoyed the wine, though not my favorite DA cab.

1998 vintage

Zepplan opened this bottle to enjoy with the wonderful dinner that Mrs. Z and he had prepared. Served alongside the '91 Kathryn Kennedy and the '02 Neal Fifteen Forty. One of the better '98s I've had, and for as much as the vintage was shunned, some of the better labels have produced well-made and pleasant wines that are drinking very nicely now, and can be found at very reasonable prices (this can be had for $40). Deep garnet color, with …

1998 vintage

A little less heavy and tannic than his other vintages by still good fruit and full, well-integrated flavors. The slight vinegery edge mentioned in the mag reviews is still there.

1998 vintage

New Years Eve filled with Fine Wines (Casa GolferChris) : A blockbuster from the '98 vintage. Garnet in color with a white rim to denote its age. Intense, deep and complex wine that delivers aromas/flavors of dark cherry, blackberry, currant, earth, oak and a hint of tobacco. Beautiful structure and fine tannins deliver an elegant wine. Now that the vegetal characteristic and heavy tannins of the '98 vintage has disappeared with bottle age, a rich, elegant wine has emerged. The …

1998 vintage

Drank just a few minutes after the bottle was open. The color was deep, with lovely flavors. The tannins were so fine that barely any were left at end of the bottle; the best part was a wonderful lengthy finish. A wonderful wine, currently at its peak I think.

1998 vintage

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David Arthur, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

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