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| 2006 Chappellet Pritchard Hill Cabernet Franc |
Monday, May 7, 2012
April 8, 2012 – Wine: 2006 Chappellet Pritchard Hill Cabernet Franc
I bought this wine based on its performance in previous vintages. I loved the 2003, 2004, and 2005 vintages and have always used them to impress my friends and family. It helped that the 2006 was on sale for nearly 40% off, so I purchased two bottles. Two and a half years later, I opened the first bottle and decanted it about for 30 minutes (my mom was growing impatient). At first, the wine had a nice fruit presence, with dark cherries. The finish was a little off and the wine was a little edgy, but the Chappellet richness was there. After two hours of decanting, the fruit and richness had begun to wane and the finish turned awfully bitter. I tossed the last bit from my glass into the sink. I continue to have great faith in Chappellet products, but I wish that the winery had had the strength of character to withhold this wine from the market. Selling this bottle of wine, even at a generous discount, does nothing but tarnish their brand.
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Here are a couple recent reviews of this wine from Cellar Tracker
ReplyDeleteCommunity Tasting Notes (average 91.3 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 29 notes) - hiding notes with no text
Tasted by Fishboy on 4/27/2012 & rated 89 points: Great cab franc (182 views)
Tasted by psoals on 3/31/2012 & rated 91 points: Still drinking wonderfully, and just an awesome example of how good Cab Franc can be from Napa. Wonderfully smooth tannins, hints of crushed violets on the nose, and a finish of mocha that last for 30 seconds plus. (379 views)
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If you like Cab Franc we will always do our best to make a quality wine. We confidently stand behind our releases and if one isn't your favorite we can only hope that you appreciate the effort, care, and pride we take to produce consistent world class wines vintage after vintage. We certainly don't feel our character is compromised by any wine we put on the market.
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Sincerely,
Dominic Chappellet
On occasion, a bottle from any batch of wine can turn bad, and perhaps this was my misfortune. My good fortune was that the kind folks from Chappellet Winery have already contacted me to correct my disappointing experience. Indeed, this demonstrates the strength of character among these folks.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I opened the second bottle. For the first two hours, the lush fruits in this wine masked the bitter finish, but after 3 hours open, the bitter finish began to dominate. While this second bottle was more service worthy, that's hardly the minimum criteria I set for a bottle in this price range. If you tend to finish a bottle of wine in under 90 minutes, this should not be much of a problem for you. Otherwise, I would stick to the other vintages of this wine. The 2004 & 2005 are truely remarkable.
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