I'm not very good with Parker-style wine descriptors -- no crushed
stones or pencil shavings -- but I can tell you that this wine was (a)
very closed and somewhat tannic when first opened; (b) delicious
within 3/4 of an hour, becoming fairly complex and layered; and (c)
not as interesting consumed later with food, because it lost something
over time and/or the food overwhelmed it a bit (homemade linguini with
a bit of cocoa powder in it, not at all sweet, served with bolognese
sauce that also had a tiny bit of bittersweet chocolate in it, along
with a few drops of balsamic vinegar, and yes it was tasty, and no, I
wasn't responsible for the pairing).

I liked the wine well enough to stop at Freemark Abbey Winery on the
way home from Lake County and buy some more. Freemark is having a
"New Year's Blowout" sale, both at the winery and on their web site.
The 1988 and 1989 Sycamore Vineyards Cabernets, and the 1988 Cabernet
Bosché are all currently priced at US$19.99, and the 1988 Napa Valley
Cabernet Sauvingon is US$15.00.

I'm pretty sure that 1988 and 1989 are considered poor-to-average
vintages by the pros, and these wines are probably not worth the ~$100
that other Freemark Abbey cabs from that decade will fetch, but
they're certainly worth 20 bucks.

evergene > wrote in
:

>
> I liked the wine well enough to stop at Freemark Abbey Winery on the
> way home from Lake County and buy some more.
>
> I'm pretty sure that 1988 and 1989 are considered poor-to-average
> vintages by the pros, and these wines are probably not worth the ~$100
> that other Freemark Abbey cabs from that decade will fetch, but
> they're certainly worth 20 bucks.

I hope you are right!

I just bought 3 of each on the Freemakr Abbey web site.

I'll drink them some time this winter and put up tasting notes.

Thanks for the pointer.

Bill Hogsett