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Wine Type Vintage Name Variety Locale Date Posted Score Helpful Comments More...
White

2009 Martín Códax Albariño Rías Baixas Burgáns

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2/14/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 84 points

Underwhelmed by this wine. I enjoy albino quite a bit, but this one struck me as a little flabby. To be fair, I maybe prefer a little more acidity than most.

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Red - Sparkling

2007 Marenco Brachetto d'Acqui Pineto

 Brachetto d'Acqui DOCG more
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4/12/2010 - mjnickel wrote: 88 points

Honestly don't have a lot of experience with dessert wines, but I found this to be swee and refreshing. Plenty sweet to stand up to the chocatw raspberry custard I served it with

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Red

2006 Carrefour Vineyards Cabernet Franc

 Napa Valley more
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3/25/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 86 points

After an hour in the decanter, the nose remained very closed off, and that seemed to be true when tasting. Fairly weak attack, and a thin, but pleasantly green and fruity finish. Probably won't buy again, though I enjoy this producer's other wines.

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Rosé

2009 Domaine de la Pépière Cabernet Franc La Pépie

 Val de Loire more
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2/21/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 87 points

Loads of minerality and acidity. Sour cherries in the middle and something like candy on the finish.

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Red

2005 Carrefour Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

 Napa Valley more
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3/11/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 92 points

I'm really enjoying this wine. Decanted for 1.5 hours and it open up with fruity dark aromas with coffee notes, which carries over on the tongue. Slightly herbal, too. And the oak, tannins and acid combine to give the impression of appealing charcoal. Got even better with another hour of decanting.

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Red

2010 Roots Run Deep Cabernet Sauvignon Hypothesis

 Napa Valley more
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12/28/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

thus is to wine as Gary Buaey is to teeth: over the top, unnatural, and seemingly made from wood. Seriously.

I would have rated it lower, but some like that over oaked style. and to them, you can have my share.

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Red

2007 B.R. Cohn Cabernet Sauvignon Silver Label North Coast

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5/12/2010 - mjnickel wrote: 84 points

A little thin for Cabernet with very little in the way of structure. Not completely unpleasant with it's black fruit flavors, but one dimensional. Had I tasted this blindly, I might not have even recognized it as Cabernet

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Red

2009 Waterstone Cabernet Sauvignon

 Napa Valley more
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11/15/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

This is actually very good wine. I mean, if I had a woman I was trying to impress over for dinner and I was sure I'd get awway with it, I'd serve this and say it was $100 a bottle instead of $25. after all, it says Napa right there on the label. And I'm an unrepentant liar
My notes: purple color, midnight dark fruit, milk chocolate mouth feel, tastes a little lukeblicking a cedar chest made by a prisoner in the 1950s. I mean that as a compliment. This is a good wine made with character. I have more, but am greedy and wish I hade even more, still. This is the equivalent of a nerdy girl in a teen comedy who removed her glasses and becomes prom queen.

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Red

2006 St. Francis Cabernet Sauvignon

 Sonoma County more
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12/30/2010 - mjnickel wrote: 87 points

I got quite a bit of fruit on the nose, but the finish was a little hot and chalky. I think this will be better on the second night than on the first.

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Red

2007 Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

 Napa Valley more
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9/18/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 85 points

This was thin and astringent, and never opined into what's described in other reviewer's notes. Not a horrible wine but uninteresting.

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Red

2007 Long Shadows Wineries Cabernet Sauvignon Feather

 Columbia Valley more
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2/16/2015 - mjnickel Likes this wine: 90 points

My three-day Presidents Day weekend was pretty much spent eating a steak so obscenely large it would make Larry Flynt blush. The son-of-a-bitch weighed over 5 pounds and cost $100, but went down easier than Lindsay Lohan for cocaine money

It was a dry-aged tomahawk ribeye and the meat I trimmed off the handle got ground up and yielded six of the tastiest hamburgers I ever had (actually, two of them are still in my refrigerator). And the steak was thrown onto a cast iron griddle, went in the oven until medium rare, and finished back on the griddle with garlic, butter and fresh thyme. If I had a time machine, I'd like to take that steak with me and dance with it on Soul Train to Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough." What happens after that is between a consenting adult and his Tomahawk Ribeye.

Don't judge me! I'm a tax payer and a licensed driver!

I'd like to say I chose the wine because I thought its bright Washington State fruit would carry the beets and turnips I roasted with the steak (which it marvelously did), but really, I just grabbed the first Cabernet I wasn't saving for a special occasion. As it turns out, it's dang tasty. Fruit forward and savory at the same time. Cherries, firm tannins and fresh herbs on the finish that carry the thyme-butter all the way through. It was my last bottle, so I can't share any with you when you invite me over for dinner, but could I interest you in a Syrah so tasty it'll make you excuse yourself to the back yard to contemplate the direction of your life?

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Red

2006 d'Arenberg Cabernet Sauvignon The High Trellis

 McLaren Vale more
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2/18/2012 - mjnickel wrote: 87 points

Even more fruit driven than I expected. Jammy, sweet and almost confected. I'm sure there are some who would really enjoy this style, and maybe I would on occasion, but I was hoping for something more food friendly.

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Red

2009 Broc Cellars Carignane Carbonic

 Alexander Valley more
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4/18/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

Bright, fresh and fruity...like a Katy Perry record. It's pretty simple and would be a good wine fir people who don't like wine. Drink on the porch in summer, but only worth about $15

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White - Sparkling

NV Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut

 Columbia Valley Champagne Blend more
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6/8/2010 - mjnickel wrote: 86 points

Underrated, I think, because of it's price, but still pretty good. There's a subtle yeastiness here, but more acidity. The bubbles are short lasting, but for a casual sparklers, it's easy to drink.

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White

2010 Etude Chardonnay

 Carneros more
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4/2/2014 - mjnickel wrote: 88 points

This is going to be an odd tasting note, but hang with me and don't over think it. But this wine makes me want some biscuits and gravy. You know, the southern staple of fresh homemade biscuits and sawmill gravy.

This is not to say this wine tastes like either of those things, or would go well with either, but there's something here that is fatty and thick, but uplifting enough that you could full yourself with it for half a day.

There's some nice tropical fruit here, with just a hint of a grassy note, that takes a backseat to the oily, oakiness of the, um, well, oak. It's not overbearing, but about 15% more acid would have made this kinda special. As it is, it's still pretty good. I'd drink it again if you gave me a bottle. Hell, I'm drinking it right now as I type this. But I could also pick up a bottle of La Crema at just about any wine shop for $10 less, and enjoy it just as well.

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White

2009 Chalone Vineyard Chardonnay

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11/5/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 89 points

The oak is balanced very nicely with this juicy chardonnay that leans more the tropical style. Nice acidity and just a touch of butteriness keeping it smoothed out.

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White

2008 The Hess Collection Chardonnay Su'Skol

 Napa Valley more
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7/11/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 87 points

This is a tough wine to score, because it accomplishes what it sets out to do, but I found it to be just a little too oaky for my preferences. The oak and the fruit weren't quite together here, but still not bad.

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White

2009 Sparkman Cellars Chardonnay Lumière

 Columbia Valley more
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7/14/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 86 points

I can see how others might Luke this more, but I found that the oak overpowered the fruit.

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White

2008 Luca Chardonnay

 Valle de Uco more
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6/16/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

Really enjoyed this wine which had loads of pineapple, tropical fruit and citrus all kept in check with crisp acidity. This is a high elavation wine and and tastes like it. I'll be buying. more.

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White - Sweet/Dessert

1997 René Renou Bonnezeaux La Montagne

 Chenin Blanc more
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12/31/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

If you'd told me this was Madiera, I'd believed you. Old, hot and flabby, like Kathleen Turner.

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Red

2009 Marziano Abbona Dogliani Papà Celso

 Dolcetto more
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11/28/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

I never understood why "pizza wine" is used as a pejorative. Everybody loves pizza, and with its tomato sauce, buttery crust and myriad toppings, it takes Alan acidic and versatile red to stand up to it. And so I use the term here as a compliment. This is a pizza wine. Blackberries up front along, with some anise that's that will work pretty well with pepperoni and sausage (the two beet parts of the pig, by the way). Good acidity, too. Dry tannins on the finish, though a little hollow in the middle. The pizza set me back $12 and the wine $20. Good deal on both counts.

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Red

2008 Domaine Sarrabelle Gaillac Croix Blanche

 Duras more
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6/20/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

maybe I'm being unfair because Im not very familiar with the blend, but this tasted to me like someone set a pencil on fire. d
Dry, woody tanins, graphite and a slightly bitter finish where I expected a little more fruit. bought it as a curiousity.

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Red

2007 Marcel Lapierre Morgon

 Gamay more
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4/21/2011 - mjnickel wrote: 92 points

Excellent example of gamay. Well structured with an acidic backbone carrying thin tannins as you'd expect from the variety. Sour cherries on the nose and palate, and some earthy notes, as well. I often tend to think of Morgon as the poor man's Burgundy, but this compares surprisingly well to some pinots I've had.

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White

2010 Domaine Weinbach Gewurztraminer Réserve Personnelle

 Alsace Gewürztraminer more
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5/10/2013 - mjnickel wrote: 93 points

Gewürztraminer is a woefully underrated grape, and this is the best I've ever had. Made in Alsace, which has been passed back and forth for years between France and Germany, this bottle is bright, floral, Aryan, spicy, feminine and beautiful, much as I recall Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall. For those who are allergic to uppity tasting notes, please excuse yourself now or give yourself that Epinephrine injection you so often have to administer when reading about wine.

With this, I get apricots (no, not peaches you pedestrian sons of bitches...apricots!) all over the mid-palate and this thing I want to call grapefruit marmalade on the finish. Is grapefruit marmalade a thing? If not, you can have that idea for your own start-up specialty food business provided you give me a few jars and a shout out at your bankruptcy hearing. At 14% abv, the alcohol is really well integrated. I would have guessed something closer to 12-13%. Yes, the acid and spice make this a great pairing for curry, as one expects from Gewürztraminer, but to paraphrase Cousin Eddie in National Lampoon's Vacation, it does just fine by itself.

P.S. Patti Labelle just texted me to say that "Grapefruit Marmalade" is her cat's drag name.

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White - Off-dry

2008 Emile Beyer Gewurztraminer Cuvée de l'Hostellerie

 Alsace Gewürztraminer more
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12/4/2012 - mjnickel wrote: NR

This is sweet, spicey and mouth filling...justvlikebRosie Perez. With this I find quite a bit of residual sugar as with an Auslese Riesling, but with just a hint of cinnamon and cardemon. Mango, orange peel and crisp acidity is in there too, along with a want for an extra bottle or two.

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  • Tasting notes: 119 notes on 118 wines

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