Hi - Charbono was planted over 70 years ago in this particular spot in the Napa Valley - the Meyer Family Vineyard to be specific. The vineyard was planted from Inglenook cuttings.
UC Davis final discovery after DNA testing is that Charbono originated from the Savoie wine region in France - the far east near Switzerland and above the Rhone Valley. Oh and yes, it’s a red wine.
As promised, but not as expected, here’s my report:
Daughter went down for a really early nap, I did some dusting (SWMBO’s orders), took my bottle out of the cellar, cut the capsule, and NOOOOO!!!
My bottle has suffered heat damage in transit. There is major seepage all the way up the sides of the cork and the top of the cork is stained. I poured a small sample and sniffed. Smells like heat damage. I tasted to see if anything is discernible. Tastes like heat damage. It has a very bitter streak running right through it that I’m still tasting 3-5 minutes later.
Sorry everyone. 
I’m letting the bottle sit open for a few hours to see if I can get anything and will post back. In the mean time, I’m now going to read all the other notes and the rest of the thread as I was intentionally keeping myself in the dark.
oh so bummed for you!
Can you compare to Robert Foley or Summers, the only two California Charono’s I’ve tried? Here’s my recollection of those two:
I’ve only had the Robert Foley once in a restaurant and don’t remember the vintage. It was enjoyable with our tomato based Italian meal, but wasn’t all that memorable. I got the sense that it really needed to breathe as it started evolving towards the end of our 45 minute meal. I first had the Summer’s Charbono on the recommendation of a server at a little restaurant in Calistoga. It was an amazing pairing to a Margherita pizza. Usually the term “pizza wine” denotes a less than complex Tuesday night type of wine, but I was so impressed with this wine that the next day I took the short drive out to Summers and bought two cases. I drank it up over 5 years, but it was showing no signs of deteriorating when I opened the last bottle. It pairs well with red meats and does particularly well with tomato based dishes.
Both Charbono’s had a long finish, as you would expect with a big wine like cab, but neither had nearly as much tannin, with the Foley having noticably more than the Summers. Lots of layered red fruits in both. If it finished quickly, I would be tempted to say it was candy like and meh, but the initial bright fruit was tempered by an earthier finish that makes it tough to not finish the bottle.
I don’t know this wine, but I know something of Charbono. There was sometimes a bit of it in the great Inglenook Cabs of the Daniels/Deuer era. And, of course, for many years (going back to somewhere in the '40s, IIRC), Inglenook made a very little varietal Charbono, with a little of this and that in it.
I’ve probably had 25-30 odd vintages of the Inglenook Charbono from the '50s through the 80’s and have always liked them. It was sometimes a good wine in a bad year: 1969 and 1972 were really not very good (read, esp. with '72, damned lousy) years, but in both years the Charbono was very good. Not at the level of '55 or '59 or '66 or '68 or (the probably now peaking) '70, but very good.
Charbono tends to live almost forever - at least in the Inglenook incarnation, even from the post-Daniels/Deuer years when most of Inglenook’s wines drifted into mediocrity.
It’s not really a wine to be drunk young - the fruit isn’t where the interest lies, it’s in the complexity it develops with long bottle age. I think of it as, at its best, a near-great wine: sublime, but not quite at the level of great Cabernet (Napa or Bordeaux) or great Burgundy (Pinot rarely reaches true greatness outside of Burgundy…).
QPR was always spectacular - it was very cheap compared to Inglenook Cask or even regular Cabernet, and it was great sport to put down a case for around $12 in the late '60s. When I was in high school it was one of the few good wines my weekly allowance would cover the price of a case.
I don’t know how this was made, so I can’t make a cellar/drinking life suggestion for this wine, but for Charbono generally, I’d cellar at least 15 years. Longer than the minimum for Cabernet.
Thank you. I could have googled that, but I wanted to get my point across that the writers of this junk never give the simplest information.
Found my tasting note now that CT is up again! (Thankfully I only lost a single note!)
"Quite tasty! Initial PnP was very fruity with nicely ripe cherry and blackberry. Flavours were similar with some spicy nuances as well with great balancing acidity. Slightly oaky finish, medium length.
With a little time, the flavours got a bit brighter, and the fruit character turned a bit toward the red end of the spectrum. I bet this wine will be quite nice for the next 5 years or so, and it’s lovely now. It’s got a lovely combination of floral characteristics with a meatiness that makes me want to keep going back for another sip."
So yeah, I liked it. With rpm’s comments I’m intrigued at the idea of letting a bottle or two age 10+ years, but don’t have the space for it! What to do, what to do…
Actually $23.40; want one?
What’s up with the shipping lately? Even with places that have been able to ship to MO and now cannot?
After 2 days with the tiny bit of air left in the split and then an hour more here once poured I can say that this wine has fleshed out significantly.
The bright acidity throughout is still there and there is a very nice earthy dark fruit note below it. The tannins are gone. If I had this blind I’d likely guess this to be a Spanish Tempranillo.
This is certainly a wine made for food with its acidity and I can easily see what RPM says about this wine being good aged.
I’ll give this wine a “B” grade… With potential. I’m not going in on it though. Not my style, too much bright not enough of everything else.
Sure…what’s one more bottle… 
If you get 2 sets I’ll take 2 if you want.
There’s a thread on the WoW thread.
could do. Do we then have another taker for 1/3?
Oh fine, count me in. Darn enablers. 
So, I order and we save 0.0075% on tax, or you order and it goes to the locker?
Or,
I could order and it could go to the locker.
I like that…
What address?
Not sure why I even check wine.woot anymore. delivery has shriveled. Shame.
Nifty…so two bottles each! Delicious wine…enablers. OK, real SIWBM in effect!
on the way to Sparky’s.
Seriously what is going on with the minimal shipping states? This was going to be a buy for me in AZ.
Wine.Woot is not able to offer Wine deals in those states currently, but will be opening up additional states as laws and regulations regarding selling wine online continue to evolve.
The regulatory landscape is changing all of the time. We are diligently working through the issues.