| Wine Type | Vintage Name Variety Locale | Date Posted Score Helpful Comments More... |
|---|---|---|
| Red |
2006 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valleymore |
7/22/2023 - Goldstone wrote: 88 pointsDrank contemplatively over several hours at home on a Saturday night. Totally opaque ruby-black colour lightening to transparency on the meniscus. Visually, in the light, it lacks any reflected brightness and presages a dull wine. The nose has an acceptable Napa Cab Blend character with some ground coffee bean elements and ripe belly-filling black-red currant fruit being the main elements on the palate. I used to love Silver Oak a couple of decades ago but they seemed to have homogenised a good and previously characterful wine into something ‘meh’ in its price range. Will be a crowd-pleaser at a good barbecue….which is the perfect time to offload it, I think. 88 |
| White |
2020 Jean-Paul & Benoit Droin Chablis 1er Cru Mont de MilieuChardonnay more |
7/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 88 pointsSeveral bottles drank on the terrace of the Castello Di Bellagio near Sattahip, Thailand as the sun went down. |
| Red |
2002 Quartz Reef Pinot NoirCentral Otago more |
7/22/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 93 pointsUnscrewed and slowly drank at home contemplatively straight from cellar temperature over several hours. Beautiful transparent but deep ruby gemstone appearance..really bright and alive. Nose is slightly muted whilst at cellar temperature but a distinctive whiff of pomegranate and some slight toffee/caramel in the background, damp woodland earth and some definite cherry fruit in there. Definitely getting Burgundian as it warms up in the glass and the damp earth emerges more. Palate is immediately a lovely balanced tension between sour white cherries and stewed red rhubarb, and sweet ripe wild woodland strawberries. Loads of fresh acidity and with a spine of coffee grounds tannin to counterbalance it. Gorgeous elegant but rich black cherry and earth mouthfeel that shows off the quality of the winemaking, which has a hard to achieve ‘power without weight’ quality. Lingers inside the head on a moderate-length but very elegant finish. |
| Red |
2005 Roberto Voerzio Barolo CerequioNebbiolo more |
7/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 94 pointsSplash decanted then drank to accompany a beautiful USDA Tomahawk as the sun set on the terrace of the Castello Di Bellagio near Sattahip, Thailand. Translucent jewelled ruby colour with a very wide transparent meniscus. Nose is beautiful mid piano scale notes of the purest perfumed rosewater, strawberries from a woodland, then higher piano notes come in. All quite compelling but so different from the equally beguiling Rampolla 1998 we drank beforehand. Palate is immediate fresh acidic but perfectly balanced attack followed by high-toned slightly tart but perfectly poised Japanese strawberries. Gosh, all power without weight….. moderately resonant on the finish but very long and reverberant like a single quiet final piano note left hanging in silence before the audience can react. Is in its very early stage of maturity. Very memorable. 94 easy. |
| Red |
1999 Castello dei Rampolla d'AlceoToscana IGT Red Bordeaux Blend more |
7/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 94 pointsTaken to the Castello Di Bellagio near Sattahip, Thailand and drank on the terrace after a 1-hour decant with Khun Ayi, the owner, as the sun set. |
| Red |
1998 Domenico Clerico Barolo Ciabot Mentin GinestraNebbiolo more |
7/13/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 92 pointsDecanted for a couple of hours. Deep almost impenetrable cherry red colour lightening to purple at the meniscus. Nose is an OMG blast of damp Piedmont woodland soil where the wild boars have left their traces, quickly followed by a lovely blast of fresh, richly ripe blackberries. Wow, so earthy. Touches of white Dulux emulsion paint. Hints of coffee beans, vanilla pods and sweet ripe flogs. Camphor. Palate is very similar expression of the nose….not overly sophisticated in that it doesn't elevate to a higher dimension, despite the promise of the nose Having said that, it has lovely wild blackberry fruit and forest earth. A touch acidic on the back end, which is the only slightly off note. Big and growly and resonant on the finale. Absolutely gorgeous. But it did fade with extended time in the glass. Cannot see this improving and will drink my two remaining bottlies within a year or so. |
| White |
2020 Gaja Langhe Chardonnay Gaia & ReyLanghe DOC more |
7/13/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 90 pointsLight lemon-gold colour. Nose is deep, melted unsalted butter, lightly bruised lemon balm leaves. Lovely lemony and fresh palate with good delination. Very crisply elegant. Nice buzz on the finale. Perhaps drank too cold but we were in Thailand on a beach. Always a perennial favourite but ridiculously expensive anywhere and even more so in Thailand by a factor of three. 90+ |
| Red |
2001 Roberto Voerzio Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata TorriglioneNebbiolo more |
7/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 92 pointsAngela's Belated Birthday Lunch (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Decanted for several hours then re-bottled and kept in the fridge overnight for Sunday lunch. Pristine cork barely stained beyond the bottom end. Translucent, slightly rust coloured with a distinct wide watery meniscus. Palate pre-decanting is very tightly coiled, unyieldingly tannnic.. After the overnight double-decant, the rust colour has disappeared to reveal a lovely dark garnet red. Nose is ‘oh wow’ blast of deeply confit cherries and raspberries, espresso coffee, high cocoa chocolate, all very bass piano and guitar notes. Very complex and clean. Palate is is equally ‘wow’…extremely precise and well-delineated winemaking, great slightly bitter black cherry fruit, high acidity. Too young to have unfurled more than halfway so the finale needs another 5+ years to blossom. 92+ for now. |
| Red |
1985 Pio Cesare BarbarescoNebbiolo more |
7/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 93 pointsAngela's Belated Birthday Lunch (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Carefully uncorked but not decanted. Very dilute and transparent advanced amber colour. Nose of rose water, anthracite and freshly ground nutmeg. Beguiling. It keeps blossoming and unfolding like a rose in the glass. Palate is light on its toes but immediately billows inside the head mind-expandingly. Dry semi-air dried black and red cherry fruit balanced by still quite sharp tannins. It keeps revealing a different and additional plane, like an abstract modernist painting. It gets very contemplative and near silence-creating with an hour in the glass. Multi-dimensional. A real treat as we were anticipating that it might fade quickly whereas it did the opposite. 93-94 |
| White |
2020 Walter Hansel Winery Chardonnay Cahill LaneRussian River Valley more |
6/24/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 90 pointsVery light lemon colour. Nose of yellow meadow flowers and fresh mown hay. Palate is lightly blowtorched whole lemons and a beautiful minerality. High piano notes but with a double bass thrumming slowly and quietly in the background. Great lemon pith high acidity finish in the mouth with hints of pineapple. Quite precise and resonant. Displays some restraint and elegance. Drank from the wine list over a light lunch with Daniel in the wine cellar at the Hong Kong Country Club. Crazy good value at US$39. A solid 90. |
| Red |
2007 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La CrauRed Rhone Blend more |
5/14/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 93 pointsDrank over Mothers' Day lunch at Comptoir. First of a case that Herald bought on release. Decanted for 3 hours. Semi transparent garnet. Nose is immediately beautiful plush, velvety warm black cherries…. very rounded. Palate is similar velvety roundness but with a sharper delineating cherry acidity before the velvet floods in again. Very clean and precisely delineated. Good breadth and resonance inside the head on the finish. Gorgeous. |
| Red |
2001 Château Gruaud LaroseSt. Julien Red Bordeaux Blend more |
5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 90 points'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): My contribution as I wanted to check its evolution from a case I bought en primeur. Decanted for 2 hours before serving. Totally opaque black/red. Lovely deep growling black and red fruit on the nose. Palate is is immediately tannic attack… should have decanted for longer. But it quickly mellows in the glass and gets very rounded but still with a nice tannic edge. Growing but still coiled resonance on the finale. Needs more years to unfold. 90 for now but could grow to 93 easy in the next 3-5 years, I think. 2001 Bordeaux, is a much overlooked vintage because it lives in the shadow of 2000 except in relative QPR. |
| White - Sparkling |
NV Henri Giraud Champagne Esprit NatureChampagne Blend more |
5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 90 points'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Gifted by Emanuele. Recent disgorgement. Light hay gold colour. Lively mousse with strong beads of very small bubbles. Fresh nose of mown grass and hay. Palate is very petillante in the mouth with lots of Pinot. Low dosage but not at all austere.....because the 'Nature' on the label refers to biodynamic winemaking not absence of dosage. Elegant and with a lovely freshness. Nicely resonant inside the head. I think I prefer this as an accompanyment to seafood rather than as an aperitif. Very enjoyable and more-ish. 90 easy. |
| Red |
2003 Pavillon Rouge du Château MargauxRed Bordeaux Blend more |
5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 90 points'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Splash decanted. Deep totally opaque red/black colour slightly lightening at the meniscus. Understated but velvety nose of fermented raspberries. Palate is wonderfully velvety, mellow and followed with a super mounting resonance and reverberance. It rose up to a silence-creating element but soured somewhat with extended time in the glass and ended up disappointing. Drank in parallel with the Pontet Canet 2003, which is a league higher. |
| Red |
2003 Château Pontet-CanetPauillac Red Bordeaux Blend more |
5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 93 points'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): I bought two cases of this wine en-primeur, which I am one-third of the way through....but this one was brought by Neal. Decanted for 2 hours before serving ( I would recommend a lot longer but circumstances don't always permit).Totally opaque deep red colour. Nose is quite immediately perfumed, loads of cedar and deep almost-pastilled blackberry. Palate is really young, heavily tannic. Gorgeous depth and precision of fruit with a good rounded surround of oak. Massive resonance and reverberance inside the head on the finish. Gosh, what a finish despite a somewhat un-matured middle. I always love this. 5 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (1) |
| Red |
1994 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-PapeRed Rhone Blend more |
5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 90 points'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Splash decanted. Beautifully rounded yet still with a good tannic backbone. Great with a pre-dinner cigar. I preferred it quite a lot more when I last drank it 18 years ago, when it had more feral 'wow factor' on the nose, but still very enjoyable. Thanks, Daniel! |
| Red |
2005 Kilikanoon Shiraz OracleClare Valley more |
5/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 91 pointsTuesday Dinner at Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong (The Conservatory, Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Splash decanted then drank over beautiful artisanal strong French cheese. Deep purple red semi-opaque colour. Beautiful nose, boysenberry and some oaky spicy classic Clare Valley Shiraz character. Quite rounded and well integrated on the palate. Satisfying, in a way that puts a nice calm smile on your face. This has lots of time on its side but is already ready to go. Bought on release as part of a quest to find 'the next Grange', it is finally entering its early drinking window. However, I would recommend a much longer decant, maybe double-decant overnight. 91 easy. |
| Red |
1995 Chateau MusarBekaa Valley Red Blend more |
5/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 93 pointsTuesday Dinner at Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong (The Conservatory, Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Decanted for 3 hours (I would recommend longer) then drank over the next three. Captivating nose….initial blast…and I mean blast… of cherry liqueur and then it quickly dropped down a couple of piano scales to tamarind, liquorice root, star anise, lots of other eastern spices. Palate similarly was initially quite bitter and alcoholic but soon became beautifully mellow. Deeply fruited in a succulent ‘Napa Cab Sav does Bordeaux’ style. Gorgeous…and still keeps a fresh acidic/tannic structure. Good contemplative length on the finale. A real delight from one of my favourite vintages. My French guest hadn’t experienced Ch Musar before and was blown away. I have scored this a fair bit higher in the past if given an overnight double-decant. 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (1) |
| White |
2021 Kumeu River Chardonnay Estatemore |
5/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 91 pointsTuesday Dinner at Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong (The Conservatory, Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Semi canary yellow. Very young and crisp. Finely engineered and very precise. Like a very young Meursalt. Need 2-3 years to round out. Extremely impressive QPR and easily punches in the top decile of its price category. A joy. 91+ |
| White |
2020 Marchesi de' Frescobaldi Pomino Castello di Pomino Bianco Riserva BenefizioChardonnay more |
4/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 91 pointsDrank off the 'Wine of the Month' list at the Hong Kong Country Club over a relaxed lunch on the cafe terrace after a long and hot morning hike. Light lemon gold colour. A lovely deep nose of almond nuts and lemons grilled whole on a barbecue. Palate is almost like a white Amarone, it’s that far off the normal Chardonnay path and hard to put into words. Rich, ripe, almost late harvest but with a very clean and zingy lemony spine in the mid-late palate. Great to re-visit a well-loved wine after nearly 20 years when it was a very regular go-to wine for a group of us. Revisiting my notes from 2004, I think there is some Muscat in the blend, which might explain that 'white Amarone' character. 91+ |
| White |
2001 Tasca D'Almerita Chardonnay Siciliamore |
3/25/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 91 pointsGifted by the sommelier the Otto Y Mezzo cellar. Darker but still fresh-looking lemony gold. Nose is perfumed lemon verbena and a medium bass note of oak. Palate is beautifully mellow, rounded harmonious lightly blowtorched lemon skin, fresh-peeled hazelnuts and a lovely bass organ note. Pleasing resonance and length. Contemplative and more-ish. I hadn't expected Italian Chardonnay to be so age-worthy until I remembered drinking the 2005 from the same cellar a year ago and where I remarked that it was still very young. This is considerably futher down the maturity path but will hold its charm for several more years. 91+ |
| Red |
2006 Thicker Than Water Shiraz Squid InkMcLaren Vale more |
4/10/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 92 pointsDeep, concentrated opaque black-red colour but with a fresh brightness that suggests a younger vintage. Immediate nose of deep cocoa-rich milk chocolate that almost reminds me of ‘Toblerone’ because there in a nougat nuttiness in there too. Espresso coffee undertones too that add a deeper richness. Lots of deep red concentrated berry fruit in the background that shows the c100- year age of the vines. Palate is immediate deep and surprisingly melodious and harmonious matured red and black plum and berry fruit but with a thick chocately and deep-fruited structure of semi-resolved tannin and still lively acidity as a backbone with strong single- espresso coffee bitterness in a good way that adds to the spine. Bitter black cherry emerges too with an hour or two in the glass,including the stones. This is a big wine that leaves an impressive brooding, rolling thunder resonance on the finish. Not for the faint-hearted but I think this is hitting its stride nicely now and has at leasst 5 years or more to improve as it mellows further. 92-93. |
| Red |
1996 Château TalbotSt. Julien Red Bordeaux Blend more |
4/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 93 pointsEaster Sunday Long Lunch (Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Opened two hours in advance then decanted for an hour before serving….seemed about right. Beautiful ‘bright’ and jeweled semi -transparent colour. Nose is deep bass piano notes of rich, plump mulberry fruit, sun-warmed cedar shingles....quite perfumed. Deep, rich rounded palate that is like cuddling up on a sofa in front of a log fire. Really nice rolling resonance. A gorgeous St. Julien in its probably optimal drinking window with a few more years not to worry about it. It reminds me of the best of 2nd tier St. Julien’s from 1990 and could reach that level. 9th of a case of 18 bought en primeur and the best bottle so far. Paired perfectly with simple baby French rack of lamb.93 easy |
| White - Sparkling |
2002 Delamotte Champagne Blanc de Blancs MillésiméChardonnay more |
4/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 94 pointsEaster Sunday Long Lunch (Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Light hay gold colour. Very fine bead. The nose is insanely good …ozone and toasted ‘Hovis’ brown bread and close to perfect. The palate follows through and takes in to a higher level…pinpoint acidity, very high piano notes, totally refreshing, crushed oyster shell. Long and explosively resonant in the head. Absolutely beautiful between four of us over a long Easter Sunday lunch. Bought on release and a considerable step up from the others I have drank from the case. This is an unusually high score for me. 94+ |
| Red |
2005 Château Mouton RothschildPauillac Red Bordeaux Blend more |
3/25/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine: 96 pointsFrom 6l. Decanted only 2 hours in advance and then drank compentatively between 6-8 of us over the next 3-4 hours at Otto Y Mezzo in Hong Kong. All my expectations were that this would be infanticide, especially in this format but, boy, was I wrong! WOW..WOW....this was totally beguiling, rounded and captivating from the first whiff of the nose and the first impact on the palate....and then it just grew from there into what were progressively mounting levels of 'reveries' territory. One of the gang is a tier-1 wine trade guy and is normally fairly low key in his scoring, but he thought my 96+ pts should more be knocking on the door of 100. My only defence the sublimity of the 1959 Mouton and Latour I have drank. But I can only go back is to how stupendously beautiful this is and...at any moment...how many angels can dance on your tongue? 96...and beyond! |
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