1986 Heitz Cellar, Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Bottle (750ml)

The 1986 Martha?s Vineyard is still an impressively young wine and a bit bound up in its adolescence crankiness at the present time, though the underlying quality here is quite evident. The nose offers up a deep m?lange of black cherries, a bit of tariness, eucalyptus, cigar ash, fine soil tones, cedar and a topnote of Rutherford dust. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and still quite tight, with a rock solid core of fruit, moderate tannins, tangy acids and fine focus on the long and still quite closed finish. I may be underrating this vintage a tad, but the wine is still quite reticent and needs a handful more years of bottle age before it really starts to stir from its extended hibernation. Drink between 2016-2050. - JG??(5/2011)
Heitz Cellar, Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley