Impenetrable black denseness throughout with just the tiniest rim of bright ruby. Classic Nickel & Nickel huge round floral inundates the nose, a spicy black showing closed-in concentration of berry and elegant gameyness clean and brilliant but OHHHHH so decadent. So young and so dense, the earthiness and pixelated delivery are several years from showing to full extent but it still peels off layers and layers of cassis and dusty complexity. It drinks well at this age, but those willing to forget a few in the cellar will be rewarded substantially as this baby polishes itself out.
In the mouth, black fruit again takes center-stage, the berry desiccated by dark bitter tannin but laid on in such quantity impossible to ignore. Coffee-grounds, wet leather, Granny Smith tingly-ness and 90% cacao chocolate scream at everything in sight, causing teeth-wiping reflexes to get the structure out of the way of the plump fruit. Methodically raspy in the finish, the tannin on this thing is second-to-none.
I’ve never had a N&N single-vineyard cab I didn’t like. Despite the eye-rolling that can come with over-the-top Far Niente bottlings–and the new fleshy 99% darling-child: Post & Beam–the things they do with THIS sector of the brand is never short of amazing. Buy as many Nickel & Nickel’s as you can afford every year and stash them aside. Disappointment is an impossibility.
2018 NICKEL & NICKEL Cabernet Sauvignon Bear Track Vyd Napa Valley 14.5
Stephen McConnell 