01 Sunday Sep 2013
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Great fruitiness on the nose with hints of Cherry and Plums. The plum component gets a dose of dark currants and perhaps a vegetal thingy… Very smooth and rounded, this wine is balanced and the tannins are fine. This wine drinks beautifully by itself and will do so for another 6 years minimum. 91 points and at $27 it’s a 4 star offering.
11 Sunday Aug 2013
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A friendly bartender gave me a sample of this stunner. Straight up one of the best Chardonnays I have had in a long time. Classic California Chard, but not over the top. Buttery, without being flabby. Citrusy, without being sour. Oaked, deftly. This is multi-dimensional and offers apricot and pineapple to go with the green apples. Crisp acidity, but not too sharp left me feeling refreshed, not flabby. I reckon this may need to be bought by the case and will be the champion at the next Salmon dinner I serve, or the next Chicken I grill, or I might just drink it for the hell of it…. 5 stars, 91 points (no brainer!). Salut….
11 Sunday Aug 2013
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A younger, more primal version of the Carpe Diem 2009 I tasted several months ago. Much more Blueberry and less plums than the older brother. Strong aromas of the berry and a hint of oak came through for me. On the initial attack, the fruit was somewhat sidelined by the young tannins. Almost mouth-puckering, these will have to meld over the next two years for this wine to really shine. It is too young to really appreciate, yet I believe it will fill out, mellow out and really soar to a potential 91 point finish. I bought this bottle for $25, and think it would be a 4 star wine after being cellared for 2+ years. It should last well into 2020.
05 Monday Aug 2013
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The second wine of a Second Growth from an amazing vintage in Bordeaux. I usually cellar Claret for 10 years, and 5 for their little brother ‘Second’ wines. The wine may be a second, but it fires up like a baller. This thing is way too young, tannic and in the dumb phase of its maturation. I could have decanted, aerated and maybe even stuck it in the blender- but I doubt it was ready to play. Drinking window starts in 2015 at the earliest, and should last another 10 years after that.
What I did get, besides the gripping tannins was dark, brooding blackberry and cassis. Tobacco and leather were very faint, being secondary flavors and all. A long finish, helped by the puckering tannins tell me this is going to be awesome when it comes around. It’s a shame I wasted such a bottle, but we drank it with Jerk Lamb and thick Ribeye steaks. The components of the food were very much complemented by the structure of the wine. In the future, when the real drinking window opens up, I am going to pair the next bottle with filet or some other less fatty cut. Can’t wait…91+points and perhaps 4 stars if it comes out of the shell. Salut…
03 Saturday Aug 2013
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I’m not sure why my buddy opened this $70+ wine at the end of the evening, it should have been opened at 6 pm and decanted for an hour. It was inky purple in the glass, with dark, piercing fruit on the nose. Relatively young, it had a good structured tannic frame that hovered around the blackberries and licorice. Very smooth and balanced, it drank easily, yet offered some complexity. Unfortunately, at this price point, I am expecting much more in the layers and secondary flavors. Technically speaking, a 91 pointer, but only 2 stars in my opinion.
25 Tuesday Jun 2013
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I ordered this bottle on our recent Napa trip to pair up with Duck Confit. Three words come to mind when I think of this Napa Cabernet Sauvignon……. Atypical, amazing and obvious.
Atypical because this wine does not follow the Napa Cab profile. It offers delicious Napa fruit, but in a Bordeaux style, with cassis, tobacco and a hefty plum flavor. On the nose there is a huge amount of blue fruit. Fine grained tannins and a balanced acidity make this easy to drink, very smooth.
Amazing, because value for money this one is a home run. At $25 or less you are getting at least 91 points IMHO of excellence. This wine paired up to the duck with no effort, it would easily handle a juicy New York strip and I would even serve roasted chicken with it. Talk about versatile.
Obvious, well that stems from the fact that I was so impressed with this wine that I had to research it some more- the winemaking team behind Dominus make this as a second-second label. Now that I know the pedigree and the lineage, it resembles it’s big brother Dominus, but in a softer, more approachable way.
5 Stars for its value and flavors, 91 points as mentioned on its technical merit. I am on my way to the local store, hoping for a case or two….
27 Monday May 2013
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Wow. What a beautiful Zinfandel. This wine was absolutely delicious. Plums and blueberry galore, on the nose, the palate, the finish. Not jammy, like many over-the-top Zins, but smooth, mellow and refined. I can see a lot of care has been put into crafting this wine. The winemaker has worked the old vine grapes into a powerful wine, yet hiding the massive 14.5% alcohol behind a balanced canvas of sweet tannins and bright acidity. Very complex once you start to delve into it, the wine offered up some nuances that will no doubt further evolve when the wine is cellared. I imagine it will develop over the next 6 years and drink beautifully until 2020 at the least. For sure a 5 star wine and 91 points in my opinion. If you can find a bottle of this, snag it… Well worth the effort.
PS. This wine was a gift from a friend, I am duly grateful that he was able to share this spectacular bottle.
08 Wednesday May 2013
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A St. Emilion Grand Cru from the heralded 2009 vintage that is predominantly Merlot based. Delicious, fruity and possessing 10+ years of aging capacity, shame about the price though. Solid purple in the glass, it offered up a nose of blueberry and black fruits. On the palate, some oak integration to go along with a cassis and spice concoction. Very nice tannic framework is allowing this relatively young wine to be enjoyed now, but giving it the ability to last. Somewhat complex, this is a good wine, worthy of 91 points easily , but 3 stars for its $30+ entry fee. It’s a shame as I reckon a case of this in the cellar would reward your patience: one bottle/year so you could watch its evolution would be rather fun too. Oh well, yet another reason to seek out the excellent 2009 vintage from the Bordeaux region.
05 Sunday May 2013
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I normally put the picture after my notes, but in this case I figured it was worth a thousand words. Who does not recognize this wine? It is widely available, decently priced and always a consistent performer. NV means it is of no particular vintage and signifies two points. The wines were not of a quality for the Champagne house to ‘declare’ a vintage, and 2: The wine is consistent with the house style of previous years.
On the nose, bright apple mixed with some interesting yeast notes. On the palate, very smooth bubbles open up a spicy citrus laden apple pie thingy. It’s hard to explain, but a very interesting mix of flavors. This is by far the best bottle of VC I have had. Its acidity was well defined and the balance of the key components was excellent. When you buy a real ‘Champagne”, it’s going to cost. At around $45 per bottle, this is a 4 star wine that I would give 91 points to. A crowd pleaser for most occasions.
I was going to Sabre the bottle, but ran out of time. Here’s how I did it in the past- a neat party trick.
05 Sunday May 2013
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Syrah is synonymous with Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage. This is land where the French have perfected fine Syrah for hundreds of years. Made in a traditional style, respecting the grape, the soil and the palate. These wines are about complexity and balance, leaving the extraction and over-the-topness to New World producers who refer to it as Shiraz. This wine has started to evolve and is now taking on what I yearn for in aged wines- funk.
Purple in color, the nose had a definite pepper note mixed with some blue fruit and dirt. Sounds funny, I know, but when a wine matures and picks up barnyard, earth or other non-fruity attributes, it excites me. This wine came through with earth meets blackberry on the palate. Very smooth tannins are almost imperceptable and the acidity was in check. For an 8 year old wine, it has certainly evolved, yet I fear it will only last a few more years. It is at peak right now and would accompany a Filet perfectly. A gift from a friend that in my opinion should be a 91 pointer and worthy of 4 stars. I decanted the bottle and let it open for about an hour as it had some sediment and I figured it would benefit from ‘opening up’.
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