2013 TOR Black Magic
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Tasting notes
I was also able to taste a retrospective of their flagship cuvlée, Black Magic, which is always a selection of the best in a vintage. Starting with the 2013 Black Magic, this incredible wine shows how good this vintage was for Northern California, and while it’s a massive wine, it stays incredibly balanced, seamless and weightless, with truly a little bit of magic. An insane bouquet of crème de cassis, scorched earth, chocolate, and graphite, as well as tons of pencil lead, gives way to a full-bodied, deep, opulent wine that’s just about as close to perfection as you can get. It has the fruit and texture to offer pleasure today, but hold off for another 3-4 years if you can. It’s going to deliver the goods for 2-3 decades.
Critic scores
Robert Parker
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Black Magic captures all the richness and power of the vintage. Black cherry, plum, chocolate, leather, smoke and incense all inform this brooding, somber Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2013 possesses super richness and concentration, along with more than enough fruit to nearly cover the tannins. Readers should expect a bold, extroverted style. Surprisingly, the 2013 is more accessible than I would have expected given the personality of the year, but that is not a bad thing at all.
Complex aromas of blueberries, rose petals, black peppercorns, and black licorice. Full body, firm and silky tannins, and long and flavorful finish. Integrated and polished.
The virtually perfect, 150-case cuvée of 2013 Proprietary Red Black Magic is a selection of obviously what Tor Kenward thought were the best lots of wine in his entire cellar. The wine is heavily dominated by Beckstoffer To Kalon fruit, given the créme de cassis, licorice, cedar wood and lead pencil shavings that come across like a first-growth Pauillac. The wine has fabulous texture, a full-bodied mouthfeel, stunning purity, and almost unreal depth and length of close to a minute. This is as close to perfection as it gets, and I’m not sure it doesn’t merit a three-digit score, as it might with another 1-2 years of bottle age. Kudos to Tor for this profound effort, which should age effortlessly for 30 or more years.