Weekend Cabs - 80's style

[MikeE]

We had a couple wonderful wines this weekend.

'84 Dunn Howell Mountain - beginning to show some brick edges, this is still a large wine but after airing it was very enjoyable to drink. Suprisingly nice aromatics for Dunn, the taste was a typically focused core of cassis fruit buttressed by well integrated tannins. I found it a bit dry (vintage maybe?), but I still love how Dunn can get such great extract from his fruit. Not overly complex, but a great example of CA cab.

'87 Montelena Estate - can you say "still young" at 12 years old? No signs of brickiness whatsoever, this is still a brooding monster. Enormous complexity - dark curranty/blakberry fruit, earthy/soily, strong acidity, and very present, but not dry tannins. The tannins are still huge, but they don't rip the enamel from your teeth like some young wines. I have no clue when this guy will come around, but it should have a long and distinguished life.

All weekends should be like this!
ME