Reviews
2003 Barlow Cabernet Sauvignon

****San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competion
****GOLD Medal

     Deep in aroma, in flavor, in depth and finish, this Cabernet fulfills your Napa Cab expectations. The mouthfeel is all velvet and silk, the tannins are perfectly sculpted, and the blackberry and coffee flavors are ripe and satisfying without being overwrought. Best now and for a decade.

Wine Enthusiast Magazine 91 points


2002 Barlow Barrouge

****San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competion
****DOUBLE GOLD Medal

      Very smooth and ripe, with a rich complex of black currant, cassis, cocoa, green olive, smoke and oak flavors. It is a soft wine , but far from simple. Finishes with Asian spices.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine 91 Points

       80% Cabernet Sauvignon 20% Merlot.  Emphatic ripeness is the marginally dominant partner to a generous measure of juicy young fruit both in the outgoing, abundantly oaked aromas and in the slightly succulent flavors of this well-stuffed young wine. If not forbiddingly tannic, it is still rough and unpolished just now, but fruit fights its way gamely past its astringency and invites five years of low risk aging.
Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine 90 Points 0ne Puff

2002 Barlow Merlot

****San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competion
****GOLD Medal

      Takes the usual formula of cherries, blackberries, cocoa and oak and kicks it up a notch. It has all that, but the extra layers of dusty Asian spices and a wonderful integration of oak with ripe tannins add interest. The bottom line is elegance.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine 91 Points

2002 Barlow Cabernet Sauvignon

****San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competion
**** GOLD Medal
An uplifting bouquet of rose water, plum and vanilla. Rich, round and satisfying blackberry jam flavors. Youthful tannins are well integrated, while the opulent fruit picks up a mineral nuance in the lengthy close. $40
Wine News 93 points

2001 Barlow Cabernet Sauvignon
         Ripe in black currant fruit and nicely balanced in rich tannins and good acids. Just oozes flavor and character. Almost a food group of its own. Keep the food pairing simple, like a grilled steak or rib roast.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine 92 Points

         Nicely concentrated cassis-like fruit is joined by touches of loam, dark chocolate and a nicely measured element of sweet oak in the young, slightly closed-in aromas here, and the same mix of attractive oak-in-fruit qualities is reiterated in flavors that are a little more open and accessible than advertised. While not too tannic, the wine closes with enough astringency to warrant at least four to five years of keeping.
Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine 88 Points 0ne Puff

2001 Barlow Merlot
         This big, fat, sexy wine is just what Merlot is supposed to be. It's softly accessible, yet complex with rich, sweet tannins and a delicious array of cassis, plum, cherry and herb flavors. As good as it is, it possesses a feminine complexity that suggests pairing it with food.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine 91 Points

2000 Barlow Merlot
         Textbook Napa Merlot. Flavors of green olives, blackberries, white chocolate and herbs, plus slight meatiness, are wrapped in delicate, fine tannins. The wine is very dry and feels great in the mouth. Has the stuffing to improve in the cellar for a few years.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine 91 Points

          Smelling variously of cherries, toast caramel and roasted nuts, this solidly fruited and somewhat compact
mid-sized Merlot balanced to firmness and framed in youthful tannins. It's sense of consistency and basic depth earn
it better-than-average standing, and, while never likely to be an effusively rich or broadly complex wine, it has the stuff in place to develop nicely for several years.
Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine 89 Points 0ne Puff

2000 Barlow Cabernet Sauvignon
         Made in a classic Napa style, with pronounced aromas of cassis and black currant and considerable layering of
well-charred, toasty oak. Doesn't disappoint on the entry and then it spreads currant and herb flavors all over the palate, wrapped in rich, fine tannins. VERY GOOD.
Wine Enthusiast Magazine 90 Points

         From an upper end Napa Valley estate located north of St. Helena and south of Calistoga, this is an excellent 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon, a year that produced a huge majority of duds. Barlow's offering exhibits a deep ruby/purple color as well as a sweet nose of black fruits and subtle creamy oak. Supple-textured and medium bodied, with admirable purity as well as texture (an anomaly for 2000 Cabernet), it can be drunk now or cellared for 7-8 years. Readers should check out this winery, particularly given the high quality of the 2001 and 2002 vintages in Northern California.
The Wine Advocate
Robert Parker 89 Points

        This substantial wine serves as further proof that success can be had in a difficult vintage. It is ripe, well-fruited and very long on extract, and its mix of tactile flesh and firming tannins strikes us as just about right. Like any serious Cabernet, however, it needs a bit of patient cellaring to reach its full potential, and, if four to five years would be a good idea, eight to ten would seem to be the better choice yet.
Connoisseurs' Guide To California Wine 92 Points Two Puffs