Two Jakes Cabernet Sauvignon by Clark Smith (4)


Grape Debater Report!

Hubby and I opened this up the day after receiving it, and in the beginning, had the exact same conclusion: bland, even after aerating. That being said, we finished up the following evening and it was wonderful! I think aerating and opening it up a bit ahead made all of the difference in the world.

On the nose, definitely cherry, a tinge of chocolate and a little pepper.

On the taste buds, this wine is incredibly smooth; I noted absolutely no tannins or harshness that would make me want to pucker-up. Definite cherry (always a big hit for me) and a tad’s worth of cocoa, with a little pepper on the back end. This is not a huge wine, but that says a lot, making it pretty compatible with just about any kind of entrée, but I’d drink this with meat any day of the week.

Drink now? Definitely. Hold for later? Definitely. A good buy? Definitely.

Do you bottle your clones separately or do you prefer to blend?

Looking forward to trying the Clone 15. Bought a very expensive bottle of Clone 6 Cab from Anthony Bell on the last RPM Tour. Amazing juice and somewhat of a labor of love for him dating back to his BV days. He also mentioned the small berries and extremely low yields, thus the high price tag. While I would love to see you try your hand at an exclusive Clone 6 bottling, this Clone 15 + your Lodi Cab and 2 vintages of Crucible should tide me over nicely in the meantime. :slight_smile:

I would love to get these, but unfortunately both wine orders I’ve received from Woot this summer have arrived cooked and heat damaged. Is there a way for you to hold these until fall/winter for shipment?

Sadly, no. But please be sure to contact Customer Service about any bottles that arrive cooked during shipping.

Yes, sadly we’ve had a few reports about this. Our devs are working on it, but I’m not sure when they’ll have it resolved. Sorry!

The wine’s drinkability and longevity have to do with early treatment with enological oxygen. There’s much to read about this counter-intuitive technique at http://www.vinovation.com/MOxmain.htm.

In brief, challenging a wine with oxygen early on has a homeopathic effect, building a sort of immune resistance to oxidation and yes, a bit of reductive strength which makes it require breathing in youth but also gives it decades of staying power.

MOx done right gives very refined, smooth tannins. Additionally, the technique integrates aromatics so that oak, varietal pyrazines and microbial elements recede into the background and the fruit is in center stage.

This technique is the subject of Chapter three in Postmodern Winemaking. Jake’s grapes have ample color and tannin to be well suited to this approach.

It depends. Some clones are standalone, others benefit from blending. In the old label Diamond Ridge Aspects, we wanted to show off different aspects of the vineyard in one blend, so we combined the lollypop fruit of clone 4 with the density of clone 337 (that’s what Crucible is made from) and the cocoa of clone 10.

In this case, we wanted to show off a pure example of our best clone.

In all candor, Jake’s Cab Sauv is so popular with his grape customers that I don’t get to work with it at all most years.

Yes, if you purchase from the winery direct, we can arrange to hold until Fall. Call Sandra at 707-332-0056 on Monday.

Thanks for the offer! Did not get in on the mystery case last month but it was fun to see (and read about the wines) when the WD community “blew up” with comments!
Looking fwd to trying this CAB soon and shelving a couple as well.

Yes, indeed. Never to be repeated, as my stock of tiny lots of reserved vintages is seriously depleted now - 23 years of WineSmith history.

I hope some of you who got rare library wines and could not resist cracking into them will share your impressions today.

Yes we do have clone 6, and 4,7,8,10,15,337, along with six Entav clones, on various rootstocks selected specifically for the placement and soil type.

Our intention was and is a spice rack.

Hi Clark. Can we send a note to Mike if our states are not on the list? I’ve received the last 5 offerings directly with Mike since woot hasn’t been able to ship to MO.

Yes, you bet. Just handle it as before. He’ll be in Monday.

Alas, the wine says it can be shipped to my swell mountain home in Idaho, but the Amazon site says this wine doesn’t ship to Idaho. How to clear this confusion, as I’d like to Order. “This item cannot be shipped to ID. Please remove this wine from your order.”

Magic to my ears – even though i’m in-state i got a bad batch once. This would be fantastic!! Thanks!

Surprised this isn’t a sellout… thanks again, Clark & Jake!

It looks like Idaho is not a valid state for Woot orders of this wine. Sorry! It was put on the valid state list on accident. However, you can probably contact the winery directly to see if they will ship it to you. (I have a feeling they will!)

I’m in. I have loved everything I’ve gotten from Clark so far.
Surprised the board has been this quiet today. I guess everyone is off doing weekend things.
Thanks Clark and Jake for the great deal here!