Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
I was blown away by the 2002 Cariad (65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc). Aromas of Asian spices, soy, black cherries, creme de cassis, roasted coffee, new saddle leather, and game emerge from this black beauty. Again, seamlessness, exquisite balance, a taste of balsamic vinegar in the deep, concentrated black fruit flavors, and a monumental finish that lasts nearly 70 seconds are found in this incredible effort. It may be slightly more evolved and forward than the 2001, but will last just as long ... 2-3 decades.
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
I was blown away by the 2002 Cariad (65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, and 4% Cabernet Franc). Aromas of Asian spices, soy, black cherries, creme de cassis, roasted coffee, new saddle leather, and game emerge from this black beauty. Again, seamlessness, exquisite balance, a taste of balsamic vinegar in the deep, concentrated black fruit flavors, and a monumental finish that lasts nearly 70 seconds are found in this incredible effort. It may be slightly more evolved and forward than the 2001, but will last just as long ... 2-3 decades.
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
A blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot and 7% Cabernet Franc, this is the most open-knit, Pomerol-like wine of the tasting. Ripe and exuberant, it offers up notes of kirsch, blackberry liqueur, mocha, espresso and chocolate. A dense purple color with the same saturation point as the 2001, but with a totally different personality, it is a friendly, endearing, voluptuous, silky, viscous, hedonistic yet compelling wine of great complexity. Enjoy it now and over the next 20 years. I originally rated it 98 points.
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
A proprietary blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, and the balance equal parts Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, the 2002 Cariad (520 cases) is fashioned from the Madrona Ranch and Thorevilos vineyards. A California hybrid version of a big, rich St.-Emilion/Graves blend, it reveals a Bordeaux-like structure along with loads of tannin as well as a certain tightness. Extraordinarily elegant, exotic notes of orange rind, ground pepper, incense, and Indian spices are intermixed with chocolate and blackberry currant characteristics in a seamless, full-bodied style that coats the palate without any sense of heaviness. As it sits in the glass, meaty, bay leaf, smoked Peking duck, and new saddle leather characteristics also emerge. This singular red can be drunk early in life, or aged for two decades or more.
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