Robert Young Estate Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Bob's Burn Pile

One of my faves. Long smooth, flavorful

Cooperage (or terroir?) is still really pronounced smoky scents on the nose and late palate. Fruit is starting to roll over already with soft acidity not providing the staying power. This was a better young wine.

A crowd pleaser for your caymus friends. This is big oak cooperage and nice graphite and moist earth terroir. Fruit pushes further to red but the wine sits back on the palette and isn’t particularly acidic, so I’m a bit confused by the fruit. Winemaking efforts are pronounced to the point of this feeling manipulated. I wonder whether they are making up for trying to pick early to beat some rains? No idea, but taste like fruit was picked early …

This particular bottle seemed quite disappointing. It’s 100% cab, but it drank very lean without much depth of flavor, or at least, not as much as we observed, when it was younger, and had it at a tasting at the montage in Healdsburg hopefully this was either bottle variance or just in a dumb stage.

Solid wine - definitely shows some smoke and char but with loads of fruit. Definitely a good wine to drink younger to preserve the balance.

Tasted this alongside other Burn Pile vintages and their other cabs. the '17 is drinking accessibly already. It's got nice weight but I really think the "burn pile" attribute in the soil adds a little extra darkness to the fruit. I'm not sure what the toasting is of the cooperage, but this adds some carbon without pushing into a dark coffee roast on the back palate.