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Wine Type
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Vintage
Name
Variety
Locale
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Date
Posted
Score
Helpful
Comments
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Red
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1975 Château La Mission Haut-Brion
Pessac-Léognan
Red Bordeaux Blend more
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This little darling was “found” in a box with my name on it in a warehouse Miss managed by heritage auctions Los Angeles— depending on who you believe there are 8 more bottles worth 3500 or 38 more bottles worth 43,000 dollars left at this particular auction house. It’s crumbling cork was misinterpreted TWICE as belying bad wine.
I say here absolutely for the record and all time that unless you are selling thru Hart, Spectrum, Sotheby’s or Bruun— you are an idiot, andor know more than I do about this graft-, contempt- and corruption-plagued industry.
[Yes: Getting your fully priced wines out of those salt caves and onto American soil is a-whole-nother animal, BUT THE STARK HONESTY OF THE DANES I WILL PAY A FAT PREMIUM FOR UNTIL MY DYING DAY, as will anyone who has been put through ringers named things like A.M.C. & K+L Wines ((shudder, flinch, vomit)).]
Long Live Bruun Rasmussen!!
If properly stored the ‘75 LMHB is a melange of stewed plums, baking spices, pencil lead, teak oil, bruised strawberry liqueur, singed granite, smoldering cedar and bay leaf. Outstanding.
This wine was deemed unsaleable (though apparently stealable) by some lords of HALA, and I popped it on the spot with the warehousemen therein. COUNTERPOINT EFFECTED!
Delicious.
Superb.
-Dillard.
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Red
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2014 Melville Pinot Noir Emery's
Sta. Rita Hills
more
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From OC
Perfect.
Hazy Ruby to the Rim.
This beauty is singing right now.
Elevated floral notes and raspberry cobbler on the nose, and her notably LIFTED palate follows exactly with bits of thyme, duff, flowers & plum.
Thumped a trio of pinots at 2-3x her price point, but no surprise here: Melville, like Calera and Brewer-Clifton and still Hitching Post, is one of the houses who does the heavy lifting to keep the following statement safely and utterly true:
“The Top Deal in Fine Wine is Californian Pinot Noir.”
The 2016 Sandys is similarly stunning.
94
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White - Sparkling
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1996 Salon Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut
Chardonnay more
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From Wood.
One Owner.
Ok— It’s like this:
The 96 KCM is better with beluga, as its cut is a touch sharper.
And the 96 KV is the toasted nut/richness champ of the bunch... so, along with being most affordable, it’s a great aperitif and the best of these with chocolate/dessert.
But the 96S, under 8 bills per unit, is the star, IMO.
It’s the most difficult of these Champs to find fresh, however, and I might switch the 1996 Salon to “magnum only” status shortly. I admit that the Krug Mesnil’s price is distracting.
98-99 pts
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Red
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2005 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin-Clos de Bèze
Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru
Pinot Noir more
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A behemoth.
Probably the best burgundy I’ve ever tasted.
If it’s cherries here, they are very dark and very sweet, but my previous note is closer on flavors..
(She just kicks the shit out of the 2005 La Tache.)
98-99 pts.
*An absolutely must taste wine —like a 1996 Salon or 2007 Eagle. It’s really as simple as that, bud. The concentration is like top Petrus— it simply does NOT oxidize noticeably over 2 days IN A GLASS...
Dillard
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Red
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2010 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
Oakville
more
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Shiny Dark Red Purple
Out of Wood Perfecto
Goblet See-Saw/Red Meat Entrée “Decant“
I was worried when I kept bribing the X with “2007 Sloan” or “2007 Harlan” because I had decided at the last minute to sell those cuvées to justify drinking a 2010 Eagle here in the Merry Marmot Motel in Los Angeles. (I prefer the Anjelica Huston/New York Wop Mafia pronunciation of “Las Angle-Ease.”) My refusal to remember i had the 2010 Eagle suggested to me that I knew that this wine was the wrong choice, and that I should have taken only a 2007 Harlan and, you know, really Slummed it Up On the Strip some...cuz the 10E is two young.
Deliciously deep, dank, drifting, decidedly dryly decadent black currant, bramble-berry and beef blood nose noted, now noticeably fresh ferns fun forest flowers, sweet cinnamon stick supporting some sexy saline minerality mainly mid-palate-marked at maybe plus/minus forty minutes. A Very strong wine.
The much mentioned magic mouthfeel some say so specific quintessential cult cuvée king rises rather remarkably right on the hour, replacing all astringency and any “angular amped acidity affliction” besetting my big buck bird bottle by me bought, brought, and basically balanced blithely ybetween beauty and beast.
The ex-girl said “oooh: black cherry pie!” and also, after a long lacuna between burrata and beef to chase down her 2 year old twins, admire my car, and hear through tears that, sadly, her marriage sucks, “it is SATINY like Margaux in Paris and there’s baking chocolate and nutmeg or something, too!”
I told her that the “SILKY or VELVETY” mouthfeel phenomenon of some better Margaux vintages in many individual bottles actually continued beyond the boundaries of the Isle de France. Susan looked sad. “Are you sure? Our relationship didn’t.” Her twins were suddenly staring at me, and the uglier one said something utterly unintelligible. Susan gave him the shades off my face...
I reminded her that we lived in the East Village awhile after Paris, that I thought cloves and mint were trading places between the attack and mid-palate, and with perhaps a pinch more passion, that her shot-shoulder husband should at least do the caviar/über shuffle and “SHOULDER” more family shit. “I mean exactly what kind of womanizing weasel wetback does this godless greaser/grifter he think he is anyway?!” The table next to us is eight arms waving wildly for their check.
Better back below barrio bedroom.
Big. Beautiful. But Brawny.
Better beg-off buddy.
Best beside bloody bovine bbq.
95 Nasties.
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Red
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2016 Beaux Frères Pinot Noir Beaux Frères Vineyard
Ribbon Ridge
more
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translucent reddish purple
there is indeed some pink and grape bubblicious on the nose, along with tart strawcherry, a medicinal note more common to northern rhônes, some animal funk, alfalfa and muddy boot leather. also heat.
palate jumps around like a skittish muddy colt bolting through a marion berry thicket then flying thru a cherry tree, and bucking you into a pond, where floats a bit of hay soaked in moonshine.
Persistent finish of tart raspcherry, heat and edible flowers maybe.
This wine is young.
Hope the marion berry and loam win the steeplechase.
The non-pinot drinkers liked it better today and tonight. No complaints—disappeared quickly—and much more going on than within and without the 45 dollar la crema sonoma coast nearby-but also more volatile.
Saved a bit in tumbler under saucer might report back.
better with food - or a drink in u.
93+
hold
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White - Sparkling
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1996 Krug Champagne Clos du Mesnil
Chardonnay more
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i’m basing my score on the last half glass drunk warm from a hotel crapper tumbler the next day. with a hangover not just from alcohol.
after a swig of the 1989 Petrus, “stored” similarly, which was eye-bulgingly delicious, i felt smo ready to be disappointed by the 96KCM revenant.
NOT AT ALL. These wines defy logic and simply do not oxidize by any traditional understanding of the word, nor according to any normal schedule.
delicious. still a tiny bead too— apples and flint and honey and warm almond croissant batter and i forget..
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White - Sweet/Dessert
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1967 Château d'Yquem
Sauternes
Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc Blend more
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For those of you contemplating, say, the merits of a five-hundred dollar bid on something like a 1976 Chateau Y versus a nine-hundred dollar bid on the 1967 Chateau Y....
The answer is Buy the ‘67 Yquem.
It was The Summer of Love and The September of Sauternes.
Jerry Garcia Forever.
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Red
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2016 Book of Shadows Zinfandel
Lodi
more
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The weight of this wine is considerable, and it will crush any flavors but the strongest cheese or spiciest barbecue. That said.
Is a spiny round Mace being swung by an angry and drunk black-armored knight “well-rounded?” Well: there’s a steel ball in there somewhere, but you won’t see it until it shimmers with your blood.
THIS WINE WILL MAKE A GREAT SANGRIA —and a lot of it - cut 2/3 with raspberry orangeade..
Very Strong stuff.
crazy eights.
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Red
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2013 J. Rochioli Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
more
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Plum
Brine, cherries vanilla and plums on the nose.
Yummy fruit on the mouth. Some so-called toasty oak ta boot.
Haven’t had the 2014, but who thumbs their nose at cherry coke with 15% alcohol? In any case, you can get some cola out of this 2013, if you squint a bit, but it’s really more like sassafras or “notions of mr. pibb.”
Yes, the 2005 La Tâche tastes better, but not MUCH MUCH better!
Rochioli- if i gave a shit about money, I’d have begun buying every bottle 15 years ago— THANKS ROCHIOLI FAMILY.
dillard
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Spirits
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1965 The Macallan 36 Year Old Fine & Rare Series Cask #4402 Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 56.3%
Easter Elchies
more
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Wine Lovers of The Earth:
I Was Sold the Irish decanter bottle of 1965 M filled with stale Macallan 12 and made to look authentic by counterfeiters whom are either attached to, or nearly attached to ACKER MERRAL & CONDIT in Hong Kong. Very glad i opened this fraud with the attorney gf present, and promptly took it to a closed bar where i know a guy—to begin comparison tasting.
A ten-thousand dollar PLUS rip-off, which i had taken lying down, until they [Acker Merral & Condit, NY] recently neglected for a year to ship me 20k of my wine, then decided to leave three (3) 2012 Steaming Eagles out of the box. And then stopped replying a fortnight hence to requests for recommence. I will be picketing the shop on the West Side in cooler days this summer. And suing.
Believe the rumors— in a world of bent wine people who resent their clientele: ACKER HAS TRIED TO DEFRAUD ME DIRECTLY [AT LEAST] THRICE— The “Magnum of 1982 Lafite” with which i was on my way to that SF based authentication lady- (who had more words about this outfit that I actually feel comfortable repeating)- was quickly and quietly bought back a few years ago in a move WHICH I FOOLISHLY MISTOOK FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE, and never mentioned again— a phony!
BEWARE: ACKER MERRAL CONDIT !
BE AWARE: CRACKER BARREL ABSCONDS IT !!
James B Dillard, 2d.
New York City
*Please Disseminate As Widely as Thou Wilt*
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Rosé
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2010 R. López de Heredia Rioja Rosado Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia
Grenache Blend, Grenache more
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Out of Wood
Holograms Intact
Rose Gold
[The truth is that I cannot myself improve on the excellent note by Issac below EXCEPT to mention that the chick I’m with calls the color ROSE GOLD, and on the palate it’s SALTED watermelon rind, dammit.] [Sez Me.]
A very tasty rosé, in any case, and who knew that Rose Gold is indeed copper-colored?
Upside here below 56F.
Hold
94+
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Red
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2007 Harlan Estate
Napa Valley
Red Bordeaux Blend more
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My feeling was this wine needs more cellaring—A little headstrong, not ponderous exactly but maybe brooding in her pile of ripe currants and pencils and duck fat and blackberry-cedar sap...
Kera the front desk night girl disagreed strongly and before I could finish the sentence grabbed the cork out of my hand and took the last glass home.
It WAS better the next day! she cried happily, the day after that, and asked if I had any more. I asked her when she was going home to Florida to lose some LA loneliness.
She’s gone now.
And I DO have some more...
94
Hold
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Red
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2005 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin-Clos de Bèze
Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru
Pinot Noir more
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From Wood.
Huge. Enormous.
Saturated Ruby Purple.
I will withhold formal notation, but testify thusly:
On the second day after sitting overnight (again) at 43F, her persistent KNOCKOUT NOSE of candied lavender, boysenberry (fruit-on-the-bottom), sandalwood, honeysuckle and little purple flowers gave me goosebumps— which return perforce onto my forearms as i tap this little note to you:
FIND THIS WINE. STEAL IF NECESSARY.
My god —I still have a glass.
Suicide prevention is, of course, mothers and cats and music and not wanting to be shot in the face, BUT ALSO: having a case of 2005 Rousseau BÊZE.
Gigantic.
Sell Your Blood.
98+
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Red
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2005 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche
La Tâche Grand Cru
Pinot Noir more
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out of wood
ruby red
splash decant
A reticent nose of red fruits, funk and yellow flowers. a fluid carnival atmosphere, with smoke, steam, and various other attention diversions and impediments to good taste —and tasting well- stole a point maybe, and another rolling party where the best company was french- and at work. (They assured me that the wine was outstanding. wink.)
The waiter mgr wished to add ‘champignons du bois’ to her profile. I agree that the red fruited palate was nice but shy — a little more plummy the next afternoon. Some spice emerging. Rose water. Ennui?
Admittedly, I felt she ~ Tasted Young ~ a ubiquitous term often used to defend the speedy monoliths.
I found myself searching out the word “precise” to describe the subtle palate of this wine— another term sometimes deployed to assuage the creeping realization that a 2016 rhys alpine would have a been a far wiser choice of beverage on Thursday. (But that’s on me, and not the Civil Society of Romanian Counts or anyone else.
HOLD OFF
94-95
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Red
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2016 Gallica Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
more
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good purple
unfined
nice black currant/cassis, fennel/licorice (unresolved)tannin and loam.
notions of blue and blackberry and enough heat to bury these day 1.
some upside— a good choice on the rail with a fatty new york strip.
92+
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Red
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1989 Château Clinet
Pomerol
Red Bordeaux Blend more
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Corked.
“After 15 years there are no great wines, only great bottles.”
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Red
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1997 Joseph Phelps Insignia
Napa Valley
Red Bordeaux Blend more
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*was actually making a mental note of "wet cardboard" before I realized she is CORKED.
hahahahaha-- anyone have any strawberry fanta?
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White - Sweet/Dessert
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2001 Château d'Yquem
Sauternes
Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc Blend more
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from .375
bright gold into deep gold
early nose of botrytis, leaded gasoline and lemon oil
She darkens noticeably with some swirling and the petrol blows off into beeswax, botrytis infused pineapple, apricot jam, honey, yellow rose and marzipan.
Early palate of mulling-spiced cider, grilled pineapple, botrytis, lemon oil, apricot, white pepper and, indeed, both the flavor and heat sensation of jalapeño jelly! Very, very tasty, and longer than either of us have patience to explore..
"Settling into" a nose of grilled pineapple, honey-roasted almonds, marzipan and fresh golden apple.
I think i put my glass down 2 minutes ago, and she isn't finished as a cornucopia (in the main listed above but with other nuts/spices) of fruits including cinnamon, mango ,,, ends in my mouth at 3.5 minutes with the smell of new Pirelli tires crushing wasp-apples...
(end day 1)
..ok, the half sip left in glass (no longer) was a very distinct blend of lemongrass and vanilla bean.
97
June 4, 2020.
Day 2 starts with amber-tinged gold, like mildly occluded yellow diamonds.
Nose of Pledge (lemon oil, verbena, furniture polish, propellant) In Toto, canned peaches, and ... wait for it... BOTRYTIS! Actually this is somewhat unusual in my experience. Someone earlier commented that they sensed "finest botrytis." I am forced to echo.
After a swirl, she's just the peaches (in sweet syrup) and the polish on the nose. Ahhh, polish gives way to pineapple and that apricot tart.
Silky mouthfeel odd in a beverage with the consistency of 5W-30, very nice acidity here--and all honey, peach syrup and noble rot on the tongue. A little weaker, relative to her nose, are her gulp flavors, this evening. More yellow rose and
honeysuckle on the nose with air..
The flavors work up, but a bland note -- like the flavor of the actual rose petal if chewed, seems to "clip" her finish. (clipped at a minute -ish)
My gosh, hard to not swig this down. Her sediment is actually sugar! A little whiff of brine on the palate this sediment. [Indeed it is nearly pure sugar.]
The last smell into the split is very yellow and woodsy, and boasts the most lifted aromas of canned peaches, lemongrass, and ---- vanilla inflected-----* ---BOTRYTIS.***
97
Hold
(got peach crême brulée clearing my glass.)
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White - Sparkling
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1996 Dom Pérignon Champagne Oenothèque
Champagne Blend more
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Another perfect bottle
cellared since release.
chardonnay/straw yellow
10 second mousse (in a white wine glass), and
a very fine, more persistent bead.
The fates put another of these lovelies in my path very quickly, and, indeed, a superior and more giving drink is being roundly enjoyed. And rounder!
Nose of sourdough, flint, steel, and magnolias-- white flowers, anyway, with a whiff of sweetness!
Here on the palate more dough than before, and limestone, but with also increasing white peach pith, and honeysuckle nectar. The steely mineral element however is as persistent as her little bubbles, and the result is an inner mouth tension reminiscent of Krug and Salon from this same vintage.
The nose at 30 minutes is yellow flowered and distinctly honeyed.
Something green in here as well, like unto the skin of a granny smith apple, but with (if at all) the merest suggestion of actual apple. Very tasty and very popular. Just poured a glass rudely full. Fuck it, I'm with the paying percentage.
Mind: I am 24 hours without cash or working card, and in no mood to flatter. at all. Delicious.
95
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Red
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1997 Joseph Phelps Insignia
Napa Valley
Red Bordeaux Blend more
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Purple-Garnet w/
Faint Bricking in a Perfect Bottle
As someone who has had this wine half a dozen times from 2005--2020, and this evening in concert with the 2001, let me assure you that while she will probably taste well right through her twilight into the wet leaves on the dirty ground, the lovely 97I is approaching the end of her high plateau, and tasted best tonight between 30-60 minutes after opening.
[She will begin her descent at 7:45pm on October 5th of this calendar year.] Decant unnecessary.
(Boulevard, for their part, never fumbled my wine again, and book Table #30 is my counsel there.)
Tertiary notes include stewed cherries, fig newtons, a whiff of marzipan and eucalypt.
Drinking alone on the roof in Los Angeles watching The Fall of New Rome. Drink up---and let's all hang BLM banners on our homes to appease the mob!
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White - Sparkling
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1996 Dom Pérignon Champagne Oenothèque
Champagne Blend more
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Pale Straw.
Shy fine bead.
The Moose Bolts like a White Tail.
Sharp nose of Blue Steel, Bee Pollen and Sourdough Biscuits.
Strong but austere and almost completely lacking fruit. But very precise Limestone, Molten Pig Iron and A damp White Labrador Retriever.
Stick with Dom P in 2002 The 05 Rosé and 2008, among stronger Vintages, anyway. Been this way. Still this way.
Eventually got some Yellow Apple Cider, and maybe peach Tea, but witch Hazel cast a THINNER SPELL ON this bad girl imo...
93+
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Rosé - Sparkling
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2002 Dom Pérignon Champagne Rosé Luminous
Champagne Blend more
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Out of wood from a pal from ChampagnE..
[Both of thEm] [Zut! Tous Les Trois! The vine, the buddy and Le Bois!!
Pale pink salmon.
Very fine bead for 95 minutes and a cappuccino mousse for 25 seconds per pour. [Wine is noticeably strengthening in ten martini minutes, THANKS GOD
First out of A Custom Crate gifted me-- and A Very tasty wine. Better than the o2 DP Straight Rosé, (which, rather oddly appeared more Luminous in a Reidel Chard. as I recall...
Strawberry/Rhubarb Shortcake on the nose.
Her Yellow Rose Aromas increase with air and I'm off to see Texas, fake tits and bigger hair...
Red Apples, strawberry yogurt, nectarines and one half baguette with flint and sugar and (the good sort of) attic dust. Roses and Raspberries increasing and the attic dust phases into a more sweet cellar mildew (the kind of which you want more increasing, and the Flintiness is resolving as white pepper and clam boil or wet limestone and
Dom gets the Mousse and the 2002 Vintage as well as Salon, imho. (That is exceeding hi praise Par moi...)
Find under Four Bucks and Be Glad,
Cue the Big Hurt, "And She will Be, Too!" [WINK]
95/96
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Red
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2005 Château Margaux
Red Bordeaux Blend more
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From .750
The first from a new shipment: Delicious. Perfect Bottle.
A Knockout Bdx (à la Rive Gauche) Nose-- Flowers, Sweet Cedar, Strawberry, Cassis, Clay (Red), a bit of vanilla pipe tobacco there --- all lifted and poised. Approachable within 30 minutes, and if anything: her palate SURPASSES her Perfume.
Consistent notes; a SUPERB Margaux; cool spring water is harder to sip.
97-98+
Though this o5 is a Fruitier vint, she's at least as equally tannic as the 2000 Margaux at the same age. Ergo: wants two or three more dark years..
Ergo: 3-4 hours of slow air, or plus 90mins in a decanter.
Then, my friend, this wine will --like a fine Pinot-- improve any/all foods; I know of no food that improves 15-30 year old Chateau M from top vintages. I need to find more of the 2000, as do YOU, is the takeaway here!
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Red
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2008 Ridge Monte Bello
Santa Cruz Mountains
Red Bordeaux Blend more
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Perfect since Release
From The Wine Bank.
Opaque purple, garnet rimmed.
Minimal fine sweet sediment.
Nose of Amarena Cherries, Black Currants, Pine Sap, sage and sweet tea.
Moist Black Loam, Morello Cherry, Raspberry liquor and some cedar on the tongue. Notions of plums and herbs de Provence emerging. A big and deep wine just encountering secondary flavors and aromas. In a very good place. Wants food, but past delicious on its own.
*The service has suffered and the costs have blossomed at the Winery over the last decade. What kind of dump demands a business card to “Prove” industry? Then charges 135 dollars over retail? Then reneges on a tiny tasting b/c we tasted two “good wines?” CHRIST WE BOUGHT THE BEST BOTTLE ON SITE AND TARRIED TWELVE MINUTES. The girl was shocked.
Be advised.
95-96 points
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