Ratings and Reviews
WEDDING VINEYARD, CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Sonoma County
| Vintage | Rating | Publication |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 93 Points | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar |
| Vivid ruby. Cherry-cola, black olive, tobacco and cracked pepper on the nose; almost smells like a syrah. Fleshy dark berry flavors are given a serious mien by chewy licorice and sweet tobacco qualities, with firm tannins adding structure. The tannins gain strength on the finish, which leaves bitter cherry and licorice notes behind. | ||
| 2005 | 92 Points | Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar |
| Ruby-red. Musky aromas of currant, black raspberry, espresso, tobacco and dark chocolate. Supple and lush but with a restrained sweetness to the flavors of red and dark berries, minerals and dark chocolate. Ripe acidity gives this suave, nuanced wine plenty of verve. Finishes subtle and long, with a juicy minerality and a late hint of raspberry. | ||
| 2005 | 91-93 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| Fisher's renowned Wedding Vineyard (a 9.3-acre parcel situated directly in front of their home) has been replanted, and the first offering since that occurred is the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard. This has always been a top-notch site, and the 2005 is terrific. Its deep ruby/purple color precedes a bouquet of licorice, blueberries, blackberries, crushed rocks, and acacia flowers. An elegant entry on the palate is followed by a medium to full-bodied wine with abundant fruit, a beautiful texture, and a symmetrical mouthfeel and finish. It will provide immense enjoyment during its first 10-15 years of life. | ||
| 2002 | 91-94 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| A year of great ripeness is obvious with the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard. Boasting tremendous extract, richness, and intensity, it offers hints of blackberries, blueberries, cassis, and minerals in its sweet personality along with a big, full-bodied finish. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2020. | ||
| 2001 | 91-93 Points | Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar (May/June 2003) |
| Saturated deep ruby. Black fruits, violet and spices on the nose; more exotic than the Lamb example. Fat and dense on entry, then considerably less sweet in the middle than the Lamb, with an impression of lower alcohol. Offers a lush, creamy texture for this bottling, but comes across as youthfully unevolved. | ||
| 2001 | 91 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| The brilliant 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard shows what good phenolic maturity and an easier vintage can produce. Notes of graphite, melted asphalt, black currants, blueberries, and white flowers jump from the glass of this medium to full-bodied, tannic, classically proportioned Cabernet Sauvignon. This beauty should age impeccably. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2018. | ||
| 1999 | 93 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| There are no reservations about the 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard (430 cases). It boasts an opaque purple color along with gorgeous aromas of graphite, sweet barbecue smoke, earth, licorice, creme de cassis, and a hint of prunes. It is dense, full-bodied, and layered, with considerable power and tannin as well as exceptional extract, richness, and balance. It will be its finest between 2005-2020. | ||
| 1997 | 99 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| The potentially perfect, opaque purple-colored 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard (400 cases of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon) is made from 27-year-old vines, and is aged in 100% new French Taransaud barrels. This prodigious Cabernet Sauvignon has only gotten better since my tasting last year. The finest Cabernet I have tasted from Fisher, it represents a California interpretation of La Mission Haut-Brion. The wine offers sweet, tobacco-infused, scorched earth, blackberry, and blueberry notes, with a liquid minerality. The aromatics are matched by the immense, concentrated, seamless, staggeringly rich, powerful palate. This wine will benefit from 4-5 years of cellaring, and keep for 35-40 years. A modern-day California legend, it is one of the most profound California Cabernet Sauvignons ever made on the Sonoma side of California's North Coast viticultural region. Anticipated maturity: 2005-2040. | ||
| 1996 | 95 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| The 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard (produced from one-fourth ton of fruit per acre) continues to remind me of a hypothetical La Mission-Haut-Brion made from California's ripe fruit. The roasted tobacco, cedar, scorched earth and creosote nuances are present, in addition to copious blackberry, blueberry, and cassis flavors. This is a terrific, full-flavored, highly-extracted wine with plenty of tannin. However, the tannin is sweet and well-integrated, as is the wine's lusty alcohol (14.1%). This is a profound example of Cabernet Sauvignon that should be accessible in 4-5 years, and last for 25-30. | ||
| 1995 | 92 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| The 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard is a massive, full-bodied, black/purple-colored wine with gobs of fruit, as well as high tannin. It offers up mineral, black cherry, spicy, and charcoal-like notes in the nose and flavors. Extremely dense and powerful, yet needing 4-5 years of cellaring, this wine may evolve for two decades or more. Anticipated maturity: 2003-2025. | ||
| 1994 | 92 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| The 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard (500 cases) displays a knock-out Graves-like nose of sweet, medium to full-bodied, rich, concentrated flavors, good acidity, high tannin, and profound concentration and length. It comes across like a race horse ready to burst from the starting gate. This wine needs 4-5 years of cellaring, and should keep for two or more decades. The Wedding Vineyard cuvee is the flagship Cabernet of the Fisher winery. Made from a vineyard planted in 1974, this wine possesses a striking aromatic profile consisting of cedar, cigar smoke, tobacco, and minerals. In that sense, it resembles California's version of Bordeaux's famed Chateau Haut-Brion or Chateau La Mission-Haut-Brion. This wine can also test the patience of readers, as it is rarely accessible when released, but it does possess 20-30 years of aging potential. | ||
| 1993 | 93 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| Proprietor Fred Fisher produces 600 cases of a Wedding Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, which is extremely chocolatey and concentrated. The 1993 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard is a rich, authoritatively flavored, gorgeously pure, intense wine with plenty of smoky, toasty oak married to ripe, super-intense fruit. This full-bodied, tannic, large-scaled Cabernet Sauvignon should drink well upon its release next year and last for 20 years. It was interesting to see how crisp, restrained, and less concentrated Fisher's 1994s were when compared to the extremely rich and successful 1993s. | ||
| 1992 | 95 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| The 1992 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard (to be released September 1) is an awesome example of California Cabernet. It is opulent as well as tannic, with huge, chocolatey, roasted herb, cassis aromas, magnificent flavor concentration, a big, graceful richness on the palate, and stunningly focused components that coat the palate with viscous flavors and superlative purity of character. This is a staggering Cabernet for drinking over the next 20+ years. | ||
| 1991 | 93 Points | Robert Parker's Wine Advocate |
| The two current Cabernet Sauvignon releases, the Coach Insignia and the Wedding Vineyard, are both exceptional wines. They are among the finest of the outstanding 1991 vintage. The 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon Wedding Vineyard is more backward than the Coach Insignia, as well as strikingly rich and unequivocally superb. There are only 100 six-bottle cases of this Sonoma Cabernet. The wine exhibits a black/purple color, and a tight but promising nose of cassis, underbrush, vanillin, and chocolate-covered black-raspberries. Full-bodied, with superb definition, structure, and tannin, this wine possesses immense concentration and a wonderfully natural mouthfeel. It should open up with 2-4 more years of cellaring and keep for at least 20 years. Fisher Vineyards, perched high in the mountains not far from the Sonoma/Napa county line, is making a bevy of profound wines that merit considerable interest. The rise in quality, complexity, and potential of Fisher's wines is one of the bright shining stories in recent California wine history. Proprietor Fred Fisher deserves considerable praise for moving his wines away from the tart, lean, highly acidified and processed, oenologically correct style, to wines bursting with personality, flavor, and high quality. | ||
Join Our Mailing List