Jan 2005 - drank Abacus VI - at a wine industry tasting - its was astounding - my fascination with the Solara process by which is it made - has held interest - ever since -
Thursday - at our regular tasting - a bottle of Abacus V was proffered for the group to ruminate about - perhaps even figure out its origin and/or namesake - of course we failed - but throughly enjoyed the wine as we went through our mis-directed detective work -
Thoughts were refinement - strong votes for Cabernet Saugvignon - with Zin like spice that kept throwing the taste bud identification system out of whack - split New World/ Old World -
Presenter threw everyone off by announcing - "the most expensive bottle of wine (he) ever brought to the group" - last time he made the remark - sweet Cambodian sugar cane wine ($4) - everyone was a bit skeptical - proving how "subjective" wine tastes are -
Abacus is made by ZD Vineyards in CA - they take a small percentage of the excellent ZD Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon each year - adding it to a common batch made up of small percentages of past vintages of ZD Reserve Cab - they bottle 15% of the common batch as Abacus - returning 85% to the common batch - sounds confusing but this blend has subtly and complexity - old flavors and new fruit -
Abacus I was a blend of 7 vintages - ABacus II was 8 vintages - the newest 2009 release of Abacus XI is 18 vintages -
Yes - its very expensive - but if you ever get the chance to indulge - Abacus is extraordinary -
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