Rosenthal The Malibu Estate Cabernet Saubignon (Malibu Newton Canyon), 1999
This entry was posted on 2/15/2006 9:46 PM and is filed under California Cabernets.
I really got a kick out of this wine. I thought tht it would be a joke, but it turns out that the Malibu Canyon has fairly good wine growing conditions. Warm days, ocean breezes to prevent scorching heat, and cool evenings. The wine is very good, but is much different than a Napa Cab. There is a lot of menthol and mint in the bouquet (think poor man's Heitz-Martha's), mixed with leather and boysenberry. The tannins were well balanced, and the wine drank quite well. I think I will buy more if I can find it. They also make a more expensive reserve bottling. I give it 3.5 stars, my wife was less impressed, and did not like the menthol component. She gave it barely 3 stars. The wine did improve with a short decanting.
VinoCritic.com