2016 Turnbull Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label
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Tasting notes
The most expensive of the three releases I was able to taste, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label is bigger, richer wine and reveals an inky purple color, fresh yet perfumed notes of blueberries, violets, crushed rock, and graphite, full body, and a focused, tight, streamlined texture that's going to benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age. It has thrilling purity of fruit and is a long, elegant, seriously impressive bottle.
Critic scores
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
A big, huge wine, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label shows the more exotic personality of the year. Super-ripe dark cherry, plum, new leather, licorice and sweet spice notes build as this flamboyantly ripe wine shows off its personality. Readers should expect a full throttle, intense wine built on pure power. Blackberry jam, chocolate, spice, new leather and new oak gain volume in this striking, explosive wine from Turnbull.
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label opens with a beautiful perfume of red roses, black tea, menthol and fragrant earth scents over a core of cassis, warm plums and kirsch plus wafts of cedar and truffles. The palate is medium to full-bodied with exquisitely ripe, fine-grained tannins and oodles of freshness lifting the bright, vivacious fruit layers to a long, perfumed finish.
Sampled from barrel, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label is one of the most exciting, viscerally thrilling wines I have tasted at Turnbull. Crème de cassis, pencil shavings, lavender, cloves and violets infuse this exotically ripe, flamboyant Cabernet Sauvignon. The long growing season vis-à-vis 2015 resulted in a wine with beautifully ripe tannins. At present, the Black Label is a blend of ten barrels, three of which are puncheons.