Gemstone Vineyards

Estate Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

9.5

Gemstone tasting graciously arranged by Al Buis. Tasted from Magnum. This was a rather awesome piece of Gemstone history opened tonight. In Magnum, it seems as though this bottle has done very little aging. It is a very powerful wine that has lost the sweeter front characteristics that the current releases had, which were tasted as well tonight. But the maturity of the black fruit shines through. Lots of chocolate on the middle of this wine. I was getting some sort of a dried herb and nutty component towards the Finish. This one is perfectly balanced. Ready to go! — 8 years ago

with Dan, Benjamin and 2 others

Shay, Dawn and 20 others liked this

Shay A

A wine that is in perfect balance. En mag and drinking so well. Never seen a mag with the y’all and skinny bottle shape. This was tasted alongside Gemstone’s current releases and although the sweet fruited nose had left, the palate was still young with its cranberry and ripe blackberry notes. Plum and cocoa dusted dates. I believe Melka made these wines before TRB took over a few years ago.

9.5

Jeantet Olivier

Mas Haut-Buis Les Carlines Coteaux du Languedoc 2011

Rohit Gupta

9.0

Pretty decent "value" at first, but came alive after almost a week. — 12 years ago

with Lyle

Lyle liked this

Lyle Fass

Rohit, you just summarized all my wines. Need a job in marketing? They all need time, even the small value wines as what is value at Fass selection is usually 2-3 X the price via 3 tiers. Glad you enjoyed. The costs cauda is a stunner

9.3

Preciado Wines

Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Blend 2016

Mark Flesher

9.4

@Delectable Wine this is Preciado Cabernet 2016. Inaugural vintage released a few months ago. It was not in your database. Gemstone tasting graciously arranged by Al Buis tonight! I don't know if I should really be putting a number rating to this wine. Its best days are definitely ahead of it. This is a combination of coombsville, outpost, and gemstone Vineyard fruit. At the price this inaugural vintage fetches, this wine rates a 98. Reeling it back in, reality tells me that this is a 94 right now, which means that I feel this one should be able to go 10 years, but not entirely sure as it is extremely approachable now. I do believe it will age well for the first three to five years. It has a lot of sweet black fruit right on the opening. I was getting a little bit of molasses, chocolate in the middle, herbs toward the Finish. Very solid chalky youthful black backbone. Finishes with a lot of heft, and a lot of tannin. I recorked and took one bottle that had about 50 ml missing. I plan on opening that in 2 days to see how this develops. — 8 years ago

with Benjamin, Keith and 2 others

Shay, P and 24 others liked this

Shay A

This is a 9.4 all day for me, with the possibility of increasing 1-2 points with additional bottle age. Brand new wine and an incredibly nice owner and winemaker behind it. The fruit (mainly blackberries and black cherry) is incredibly rich...fresh squeezed like. Dark chocolate, cinnamon, and cassis. Approachable with a short decant. Lights out for $60!

9.4