Wine reviews
Also possessing a Graves-like minerality and earthiness, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Missouri Hooper is backward, tight and reserved, with serious notes of plums, currants and blueberries carrying ample wet stone, tobacco, bay leaf, spice and scorched earth nuances. Almost primordial on the palate and atypically structured and dense for a 2014 (I’d have guessed 2013), with huge concentration, high, yet integrated acidity, a stacked mid-palate and building tannin, it needs to be forgotten for 4-5 years and will be the longest-lived of these three releases. – JD
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Missouri Hopper Vineyard has an opaque purple color and a youthful blackberry and black raspberry-scented nose with some notes of lead pencil shavings, forest floor and tobacco leaf. It is full-bodied, rich in fruit, and incredibly youthful and backward for a 2014. A big boy at 15.2% finished alcohol, it would benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age. It is certainly capable of lasting 20 or more years. - RP