Walt Disney said "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." For many, 2011 was an impossible hard vintage. For Linked, it was a chance to show how good this vineyard and this team really are. With late bud break, a cool summer and rain whenever it wasn't wanted, the vineyard required a lot of TLC. Drew did a little extra fruit thinning to make sure things had a chance to ripen, additional leaf removal to give the grapes just the right amount of sunshine, and VERY selective picking. Then Luc worked his magic, sorting the grapes both mechanically AND by hand, bringing out the beauty of this vineyard and showing his mastery of the art and science of winemaking.
The reward is a wine that is deep, rich and complex. At first glance, the wine's color is strikingly dark and intense. The nose reveals a medley of aromas. Red fruits and blackberries intermingle with bits of cocoa, allspice and bay. The flavor shows another level of complexity and sheer joy in a glass. Notes of olallieberry, blackberry and dark plum are interspersed with hints of vanilla bean, violet, nutmeg and star anise. The tannins are lithe and effortless. Soft, round, seductive, the finish lingers on the tongue. While this wine can be cellared for a decade or more, why put it away? It's so deliciously drinkable now!
96 POINTS
#7 Wine of the YEAR From Wine Spectrum. "We took the thousands of wines that we tasted and narrowed it down to the best of the best. Our rankings are based upon our staff’s ratings during tastings, as well as popularity with our clients. We taste and score wines with our entire sale’s team – the owner, the wine buyer, the sales manager, and all of our sale’s advisors. It’s not only one person’s opinion and rating of the wine, but a total average of the whole tasting panel. That adds up to decades of combined tasting experience to ensure that we bring only the BEST wines to our clients.
It is because of this and many other factors that our clients have come to respect our score and use it to help determine what wines they want to procure for their cellars and display on their tables."
Blog post - https://winespectrum.com/blog/varietals/cabernet-sauvignon/7-2011-linked-vineyards-cabernet-sauvigno...