Araujo Estate Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 750mL

1997 Araujo - Hedonist's Gazette August 2001: With respect to the wines, we started at the bar with a mini-blind tasting of 1997 California Cabernets. I picked three of them blind, which was good as Hedonist's Gazettewe did not know what was being served. However, there is no question that the 1997 Harlan, a modern day California version of the 1947 Cheval Blanc blended with the 1947 Mouton Rothschild and 1947 La Mission-Haut-Brion, is an amazing wine. It is akin to a dry vintage port. Showing well, the 1997 Signorello Cabernet Sauvignon is from a winery that makes very fine wines, but does not get as much press as it deserves. The 1997 Colgin was slightly off, and may have had a touch of cork on it. It clearly was a bit funky and not totally clean. A spectacular bottle of 1997 Dalla Valle Maya seemed to need a decade of aging, but it is loaded with potential. The most French-like and elegant of these 1997 Cabernets was the Araujo Eisele Vineyard, a beautifully-knit wine that had Medoc written all over it.