May 2, 2013 – Wine: 2004 Miner Family Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon

After yesterday’s cork-taint disappointment, I was eager to enjoy something rich.  I recently made a pass over my wine inventory and isolated a few bottles that I thought might need opening in the coming months.  This wine made the list (but should not have) based upon my initial tasting back in 2009.  Tonight, this wine was opening up with a wonderfully complex palette offering all of what Napa Valley is best known for.  There is a plush texture developing that approaches richness, yet the wine retains enough tannin to last another four years or more.  The fruit flavors evolved and continually rebalanced themselves throughout the two hours that I drank this.  I noted cranberry, raspberry, black cherry, leather, black licorice, and subtle minerals.