| Wine Type | Vintage Name Variety Locale | Date Posted Score Helpful Comments Comment Date Community Score More... |
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| Red |
2016 Château Pichon-Longueville BaronPauillac Red Bordeaux Blend more |
10/27/2019 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 99 pointsEpic wine, and if you can manage to acquire enough to save some for your kids and grandkids (or great-grandkids, or your own cryogenically frozen head, this ain't cracking up anytime soon), they (or your defrosted future self) will thank you. Interestingly, for many years, the Comtesse was the more classically styled of the Pichons, but for at least the last couple vintages I've found the Baron markedly more old-school, at least if you are measuring that in terms of youthful austerity. This starts out very clenched with a serious bite (not just from tannin), but it isn't closed because it is expressive of a huge array of stuff on both nose and palate, from blackberry to cedar and sandalwood, gravel, and even a savory, succulent element reminiscent of crisp, browned chicken skin. All classic Pauillac, as the Comtesse was, but altogether more muscle-bound than the more loose-knit Comtesse and while both are in very dark tones fruitwise, here it comes across closer to the bleeding edge of ripeness with a nice snap and bite. And yet a couple hours later, it somehow turns cashmere-soft, so if the only thing holding it short of having it all was a shortage of first-growth refinement, somehow it manages to pull that out of its pocket too. |
| Red |
2014 Château Ducru-BeaucaillouSt. Julien Red Bordeaux Blend more |
10/27/2018 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 98 pointsThis is a stunning Ducru right out of the gate and a must-have wine for any Bordeaux fan given its pricing relative to other top vintages - it's right up there with the '95 in delivering a first-growth quality experience with absolute masses of material and structure that should give it a functionally immortal life span. It opens up with piercing blueberry fruit laced with pencil fillings, gravel, and metal shavings so intense it's a liquid rock quarry. "Beaucaillou" means "beautiful stones" but these rocks aren't gunning for any beauty pageants, this is a rugged manly man of a wine with an intensity and raw muscle that almost suggests Taurasi though it still has those luxe claret manners at its core. I'm not sure whether this wine or the ravishing Pichon-Lalande is my pick at the moment for Wine of the Vintage, but that sums up the style difference - the PLL is the sleek feminine beauty and this is the high-torque powerhouse. It seems likely to close down hard soon, although given its structure it's kind of remarkable it hasn't closed down *yet*, as some other stars of the vintage (Montrose) have started to do. It finishes with an almost Latour-like walnuttiness, and like many St.-Juliens there's something very Pauillac about this with a twist of something else, in this case maybe just even more oomph.
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| Red |
2004 Emmanuel Houillon (Maison Pierre Overnoy) Poulsard Arbois Pupillinmore |
10/19/2012 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 98 pointsWonderful wine. And a great argument for aging your Overnoys, if you're lucky enough to have any. This is why you age wine, to get the depth and all the wild things and the seamless integration and the total metamorphosis. The aroma alone was packed with character, just a quick whiff of the neck of the bottle told you you were in for a treat. It was vaguely reminiscent of old Burgundy with a little whiff of the barnyard but there were all sorts of other things going on too. Structurally, almost everything is resolved. There's no noticeable tannin left at all, although there is still a quiet high note of acidity that maybe helps hold it all together. The result is just ridiculously seamless and comfortable, it doesn't just glide across the palate, it gives the palate a cuddle and a back massage. It's totally past its fruit and into pure savory stuff and if you tried to catalog it all in the traditional tasting note lingua franca you could go on forever. Mushroom broth, pine needles, oatmeal cookies. That's just for starters.
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| Red |
2014 Château Ducru-BeaucaillouSt. Julien Red Bordeaux Blend more |
10/27/2018 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 98 pointsThis is a stunning Ducru right out of the gate and a must-have wine for any Bordeaux fan given its pricing relative to other top vintages - it's right up there with the '95 in delivering a first-growth quality experience with absolute masses of material and structure that should give it a functionally immortal life span. It opens up with piercing blueberry fruit laced with pencil fillings, gravel, and metal shavings so intense it's a liquid rock quarry. "Beaucaillou" means "beautiful stones" but these rocks aren't gunning for any beauty pageants, this is a rugged manly man of a wine with an intensity and raw muscle that almost suggests Taurasi though it still has those luxe claret manners at its core. I'm not sure whether this wine or the ravishing Pichon-Lalande is my pick at the moment for Wine of the Vintage, but that sums up the style difference - the PLL is the sleek feminine beauty and this is the high-torque powerhouse. It seems likely to close down hard soon, although given its structure it's kind of remarkable it hasn't closed down *yet*, as some other stars of the vintage (Montrose) have started to do. It finishes with an almost Latour-like walnuttiness, and like many St.-Juliens there's something very Pauillac about this with a twist of something else, in this case maybe just even more oomph.
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| White - Off-dry |
2019 Stein Alfer Hölle Riesling 1900Mosel Saar Ruwer more |
1/30/2021 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 98 pointsCould be the best-ever vintage for Alfer Holle. A geyser of riesling that hits the palate with the bandwidth of the Keystone XL pipeline (RIP) and blows you back like the guy in the armchair in the Maxell cassette tape ad. The fruit is crisp and citrusy and covers a broad spectrum with lemony elements hitting the high notes and mandarin orange elements striking the deeper chords, the latter of which become more dominant over the next few days. But it's quite full and rounded partially on account of a sweetness level that makes this feel much closer to feinherb than trocken (maybe even past feinherb, even at 12% alcohol) and partially on account of its sheer concentration, which gives it a thick, oily-textured body. While the sweetness smooths over a lot of the edges, it crystallizes back to solids on the back end, leaving a wake of salt and crunchy fruit brittle.
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| Red |
2000 Château Léoville BartonSt. Julien Red Bordeaux Blend more |
1/22/2013 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 97 pointsWow, remember when this wine was a blockbuster? Now it's practically a ballerina. There is so much that is impressive about this already but one of the most remarkable things is how svelte its figure is, with the tannins commensurately fine-grained and lacey. I never would have guessed this could turn into something so feminine and elegant. That's the impression in turns of mouthfeel and shape, anyway, but the actual flavors are serious and deep. You get a twist of blue and black fruits tinged with cedar and iron; at times the minerality seems almost more prominent than the fruit, but both are probably less emphatic than they otherwise might be because the tannins are still wrapped around it all, as elegant as they are. They certainly do not compromise the drinkability in any way. This wine keeps you coming back to it so compulsively I was almost tempted to open a second.
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| Red |
2019 Château Durfort-VivensMargaux Red Bordeaux Blend more |
3/15/2023 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 97 pointsBest yet in a string of marvelous Durforts in the renaissance that's been going on over there since around 2014 or so. This is the essence of Margaux. I'm not even sure I've had a (Chateau) Margaux or Palmer that came as close to this as the Platonic ideal of the appellation. You will practically have a synaesthetic experience from the pure redness of the fruit and other elements on display here - think strawberries, raspberries, and bright red roses. They leave a vivid impression, but rendered with a light hand - Bordeaux in watercolors. Bright, maybe even bold, but transparent. It hits its zone after maybe an hour or two of air, when it shows firm contours on the entry but then dissolves into silk, and then dissolves further into the realm of the ethereal. And that's ultimately where it seems it wants to be this year. Even the next day, when the fruit turns darker and blacker, it holds on to its finesse. Some of the prior recent vintages have shown earth and grit, and done so in the best way, but this one is pure fruit and perfume. The others might turn out longer-lived, but they'll never be this seductive.
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| Red |
2012 Domaine Joël Champet Côte-Rôtie La ViallièreSyrah more |
6/16/2016 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 97 pointsMind blown. How is it possible I've never even heard of this producer before? Thank you to Mannie Berk and Rare Wine Co. for putting Champet on the radar. This fully lives up to the sales pitch. It is about as ultra-classic a Cote-Rotie as I've ever had, almost like a cross between Levet and Jamet. Even the label design is hardcore retro. The material is red-fruited, savory, and succulent, with a pronounced stony/graphite streak. The stems are immediately evident giving the wine some spine and tension and a bit of a green snap. On some sips the tannic muscle is evident, on others it's fully absorbed into the wine and the texture is almost velvety. Thus, while the flavors have that meaty syrah succulence that you could sort of describe as rustic (more beefy than bacon here), the texture here is actually quite refined and civilized. No funk going on here either. It seems pretty close to straight soil-to-glass transfer Cote-Rotie.
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| Red |
1995 Château Ducru-BeaucaillouSt. Julien Red Bordeaux Blend more |
6/25/2020 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 97 pointsFaded label had me worried this bottle had been mistreated, but pouring it in the decanter reveals an astonishingly youthful, healthy ruby hue and no-doubter, room-filling aromatics heavy on the cedar and cigar-box notes. The fruit comes across more bricked and crimson-toned on the palate than that ruby color indicated, but the real shocker here is the texture, as the tannins on this have been brutish in the past, but this time it was cashmere-like in refinement almost from the starting gate.
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| White - Fortified |
NV Bodegas Hidalgo Manzanilla La Gitana En RamaManzanilla de Sanlúcar de Barrameda Palomino Fino more |
9/21/2012 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 97 pointswoah. Now I'm no sherry guy but this is easily the best one I've ever had. I wouldn't mind having a whole barrel of this in the kitchen on spigot. There's definitely a family resemblance to the normal La Gitana but there's so much more here. In fact the sheer amount of material packed in here is staggering. You take a sip and it's just huge and then somehow a second wave of mouthfilling flavor comes in as though there were some imaginary pastry filling bag filled with sherry that someone decided to squeeze into your mouth; where is all this extra stuffing coming from?? It lingers forever as you'd expect and segues from some orange-type citrusy fruit and an oceanic seabreeze and salty notes on the front end to contrails of tobacco smoke on the back. The only problem is, why are they acting like this has the shelf life of milk? Can that really be true?
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| Red |
2014 Château Calon-SégurSt. Estèphe Red Bordeaux Blend more |
1/12/2018 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 96 pointsRocking vintage for Calon-Segur. A no-doubter from the first sip. Deep inky blackberry fruit accented with pencil shavings, saturating and slick enough that you barely even feel the tannins. But it has the classic clenched grip of cabernet sauvignon and it gets its structure as much from this tensile sensation as anything else. Despite the intensity of its flavors it's lithe and even slender in form.
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| Red |
2000 Château Clerc MilonPauillac Red Bordeaux Blend more |
6/17/2019 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 96 pointsThis is in an absolutely beautiful place right now, probably the best bottle of Clerc-Milon I've ever had. Fresh, pure aroma of saucy red fruits follows through to an exquisitely refined palate delivering more of the same on a slender, feminine frame with a silken texture so seductive it's hard to resist immediately going back for another sip. The level of finesse here is almost Burgundian and in Bordeaux terms the sheer classiness of texture here isn't something you see on this rung of the classification ladder - not even something you see much below the super-seconds. This still tastes on the youthful side, with fairly simple, straightforward red berry flavors (hey, you can't have it all), but it is certainly at some kind of peak regardless what the future holds.
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| White |
2019 Domaine de la Côte Sainte-Epine St. Joseph Blanc Vieilles VignesMarsanne more |
11/17/2020 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 96 pointsThis is really a tremendous wine in a humble little wrapper and I wish I'd bought more of it. Better than any white Rhone I can remember having, and for that matter I like it better than any of the producer's reds. Apparently it's made from centenarian vines, and I believe it - it has that feel of supernatural density from the inside out that just screams old vines and tough little berries. The flavor spectrum covers both the low notes and the high notes, with a chenin-like patina of something honeyed or beeswaxy enriching fruit that's otherwise pure, bright, and lemony. It's spackled with chalk and quartz dust giving it a tactile, filigreed texture.
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| Red |
2009 Marcel Juge CornasSyrah more |
1/8/2014 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 96 pointsThis is such an old-style Cornas that it hardly even bears a resemblance to any Cornas in my memory, yet a Martian could probably recognize it as Cornas going just by the descriptions of Cornas in old books. It is rough, rustic, and wild, a wine for the Marlboro Man, with searing sandpaper-textured tannins of the type almost nobody has the guts to make (or drink) anymore. The body of the wine manages to stand up to all that muscle as it is just packed with grip and grit; you've got to scrape it off your tongue every couple of sips. It's concentrated and dense with something but not anything remotely fruit-like; it's full of savory, dry-aged flavors (but not really meaty, just the patina of dry aging) and a snap of something fresher and greener on account of the stems.
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| Red |
2015 Château La DominiqueSt. Émilion Grand Cru Red Bordeaux Blend more |
4/16/2018 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 95 pointsTerrific St.-Emilion from fancy environs near Cheval-Blanc and the Pomerol border. The property has had some big hits in the past (like the 1989) but doesn't seem to get a lot of buzz for some reason. This has enough power to be called a "tour de force" without any irony, but at the same time is giving me a legitimate petite madeleine moment recalling Bordeaux from the wayback machine. The aromas are hugely expressive with perfumed cedarwood, red fruits, and a richer layer of sweeter, more compoted blueberry fruit, but it doesn't carry over to any jamminess on the palate. The flavors are bold but all the coloring stays within the lines, and it manages to be both plush and well-defined.
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| Red |
2017 Dominus EstateNapa Valley Red Bordeaux Blend more |
11/25/2020 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 95 pointsSomehow I've managed to be at this for a good two decades without ever trying a Dominus, at least not that I can remember. Figured I may as well remedy that. This has a little pop of California sweetness on the entry but from then on it's about as Bordeaux-like a California wine I've ever had. Initially more Pauillac/St.-Estephe like, but by the end more like a Graves with its singed, scorched character. The oak is doing a lot of heavy lifting here but it's as fancy as barrels get, not "oaky" in the sense of having any oak or wood flavors, just the full array of stuff that's derived from the oak (and the toast) - all those smoldering cigar and Graves-like charcoal elements. All of that is in the foreground, I can't say much about the fruit other than it's deep black in tone, mainly on account of that scorched sensation. The 15% alcohol doesn't throw the wine out of balance but does manifest itself when it comes to sip size and sipping pace. It is like it is nine tenths table wine and one tenth after-dinner libation.
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| Red |
2014 Domaine de ChevalierPessac-Léognan Red Bordeaux Blend more |
8/22/2017 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine: 95 pointsVery successful vintage for Domaine de Chevalier. This is much more accessible and well put together than the 2012, for example. It's silky and finessed from the very first sip, and has a whole lot going on, running the spectrum from Graves-typical smoldering charcoal aromas to a stony minerality and botanical flavors that are almost Barolo-like. Deep and black-fruited while still having sharp focus. The structure flexes its muscle with time in the glass, eventually showing some fierce screeching tannin that wasn't even hinted at in that soft, supple first glass.
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Search Results - Save This Search
Comment posted by Keith Levenberg:
10/29/2019 8:58:00 AM - Still working through them... Pichons at the top so far, followed by Calon and dark horse Durfort-Vivens
Comment posted by Keith Levenberg:
11/10/2019 6:47:00 PM - Really liked DdC and have been meaning to stock up, pretty good value around $75 too. Have not yet had enough Graves yet to figure out whether I like '15 or '16 better though.
Comment posted by Keith Levenberg:
3/7/2020 1:04:00 PM - 2016s:
5. Lynch
4. Comtesse
3. Cos
2. Las Cases
1. Baron
value play: Fonbadet, Grand Puy Lacoste
2015s:
5. tie / Beau-Sejour Becot, La Dominique, Vray Croix de Gay
4. Brane-Cantenac
3. Calon
2. Haut-Bailly
1. Comtesse
value play: Berliquet