| Wine Type | Vintage Name Variety Locale | Date Posted Score Helpful Comments More... |
|---|---|---|
| White - Off-dry |
2001 Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling SpätleseMosel Saar Ruwer more |
4/15/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRExcitement grows as an 01 Prum is pulled from the cellar and placed in the fridge to chill. It does not disappoint, so full of energy and joy as it is, it’s like a honey drizzled bowl of limes with ginger zest and petrol highlights. Still shows youthful, stacked with body and brightness to balance the fruit and sweetness. Only its seamlessness reveals its 20+ years of maturation. Hard to find any fault here, true to the vintage but truer to the house style. Terrific. |
| Red |
1998 Château Grand MayneSt. Émilion Grand Cru Red Bordeaux Blend more |
4/13/2024 - blanquito wrote: 92 pointsIt’s been a while since my last bottle and this has matured and mellowed a lot in the ensuing years. Quite mature with a beautifully resolved and silky palate, medium bodied but integrated and long. It probably qualifies a mid-modern stylistically, as it has some notes of dark chocolate that declare this a merlot, but these more exotic notes are balanced by a real freshness and structure. Hard to resist. Ready to drink, but no hurry, it will probably hold like this for a decade or more. |
| White |
2011 Gérard Boulay Sancerre Monts DamnésSauvignon Blanc more |
4/9/2024 - blanquito wrote: 94 pointsStunning Sancerre here, at its zenith, fill with all the intensities and brightness one could want from this domaine, but with a sousant of richness (despite the vintage) that really took this to another level. Gooseberries, lime, wet stones, very long. Everyone loved it. |
| Red |
2000 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La CrauRed Rhone Blend more |
4/9/2024 - blanquito wrote: 93 pointsEnjoyed double blind... This was evident to the table as a great grenache-dominated wine with some darker tones and with plenty of maturity (FWIW, I initially guessed the 2001 Pegau, but this wasn't funky enough to try check that box). Beautifully textured and layered, a CdP in a style I (still) love. Certainly at its apogee, but showing now signs of fading. |
| Red |
1995 Château FigeacSt. Émilion Grand Cru Red Bordeaux Blend more |
3/28/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRTakes some time in the decanter to get going, but once it does it thoroughly beguiles with a fresh, minty, herbal intensity. Crisp, sappy, classy, lifted and intense on the palate with hints of lavender and eucalyptus. Lithe in structure but filled with an herbal-infused savoriness that gives it a real presence. Very long. This fills up the sense while sustaining an admirable weightlessness. 93-94 pts. |
| Red |
1970 Château La LaguneHaut-Médoc Red Bordeaux Blend more |
3/21/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRFrom a good looking bottle, with a base neck fill. This was good and highly drinkable, but it lacked complexity and an extra gear. There is some nice fruit still and some silkiness from all the years. Simple, pleasant, ready. 89-90 pts. |
| White |
2014 Gérard Boulay Sancerre Clos de BeaujeuSauvignon Blanc more |
3/17/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRNice, but quiet, steely nose with lemon, some raw ginger, and wet rocks. Great palate impact, uber dry but layered and dense with mineral and lemon intensities, and if anything, the bright intensity goes higher on the finish. Austere and lacking much nuance, but thrilling for all its rocky, dry, citric energy. Holding well, but ready. |
| White |
2014 Enfield Wine Co. Chardonnay Heron Lake VineyardWild Horse Valley more |
3/15/2024 - blanquito wrote: 90 pointsPure, crystalline, simple, racy. Smells like a fresh bowl of ripe yellow grapes. Terrific with food. |
| Rosé - Sparkling |
NV Gosset Champagne Grand Rosé BrutChampagne Blend more |
3/15/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRThis is terrific. Light copper color which highlights of pink salmon. Fresh, airy nose. The action is in the palate, which is on the bright, citric end of things, all blood orange and pink grapefruit, but plenty of body and richness to avoid being tart or shrill. Ginger and lemon zest on the finish, with an ever so slight hint of sourness. I’m a big fan. |
| White |
2010 Mount Eden Vineyards Chardonnay Reserve Santa Cruz Mountainsmore |
3/9/2024 - blanquito wrote: NREnjoying a terrific bottle of the 2010 Mount Eden Estate Chardonnay tonight. For my money, this is a great chard and right up there at the very top of the New World white pantheon. It may have shed some richness over the years, but this is still fresh as a daisy and filled with lemony energy. A touch of pear on the nose is the only overt ripeness here but this still has a layered depth of lemon oil and body that gives it heft. Terrific and probably at point. |
| Red |
2001 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva Il PoggioChianti Classico DOCG Sangiovese Blend, Sangiovese more |
3/7/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRGood showing, quite spicy and even a bit brawny next to some older IGT Tuscans. This really needed some air to come out to play, it reminded me of the flashy, rustic style that Vino Nobile di Montepulciano often has, sacrificing some elegance for pizzaz. Based on this showing, no hurry at all to drink these and maybe they even gain a little svelteness with more time in the cellar. Very good. 90-91 pts. |
| Red |
1988 San Giusto a Rentennano Percarlo Toscana IGTSangiovese more |
3/7/2024 - blanquito wrote: 91 pointsLovely, complex, highly mature bouquet, showing its earthy side. The palate is fine, but a touch hard and dry to really elevate. Still, very tasty and we happily finished the bottle. Really only disappointing in comparison to how sensational Percarlo can be, especially the 85 and 89. |
| Red |
1989 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valleymore |
3/7/2024 - blanquito wrote: 91 pointsVery good, a classic from the old school Cali cab playbook. Shows overly dry on the midpalate at first before food, but smells terrific and could fool you into thinking it is a Bordeaux bouquet. The palate is linear and very minty with cassis and plum, its tannins are in a good place. It has some of that overt roundness that old New World cabs can get which leaves them a little limp, but the Dunn acids and structure are sufficient here to eschew the worst of those sins. Very good, does yeoman work with a ribeye. |
| Red |
1985 Château BeychevelleSt. Julien Red Bordeaux Blend more |
3/7/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRA longtime favorite, a wine for cab franc lovers, redolent with the best kinds of pyrazines… smoked poblano, green peppercorns, even some braised collard greens overlaid over soil and old wood notes on the nose. The effusive, rustic bouquet belies the charms awaiting you on the palate, where it is pure silk with candied red and black cherries and a weightlessness they don’t do anymore. Perfectly mature and utterly resolved, it now charms with its nuance and gentle seductiveness. So good. |
| Red |
1995 Lisini Brunello di Montalcino UgolaiaSangiovese more |
3/4/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRA strong showing, with excellent vigor despite is almost 30 years of age. Spicy, attractive bouquet with some earthy notes, showing more like an IGT with is purer expression of Sangiovese. It’s not a Pinot-like expression, it’s too dark and filled with tar for that, but it retains enough purity and elegance to highlight some of the more lithe aspects of the varietal. Holding well but in a great place, and all it seems to lack is the wild complexity I recall from former bottles. 92+ pts. |
| Red |
2019 Halcon Vineyards Syrah AlturasYorkville Highlands more |
3/2/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRPrimary but showing its wares. Terrific nose of fresh cracked black pepper, black cherries and a soupçon of garrigue, a bouquet that harkens to both the earthiness of the Old World and the richness of the New. The palate is less ready, showing a little spritz on the pop and pour, but it pulls together quickly with some air. Aside from some tongue tightening tannin and grip, this is drinking well, with layers of sappy lavender, iodine, cloves and some heady fruit. Flashy yet balanced, rich enough to enjoy on its own but I bet this pairs well with fowl or stew. Drink now if you’ve got a stash or hold one for another 5 years to try when it’s relaxed a little. Excellent and a great QPR at release pricing. 2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (2) |
| Red |
2006 Montepeloso Eneo Toscana IGTSangiovese Blend, Sangiovese more |
2/25/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRMuch better than I expected. Dark, brooding color, some modern touches on the attack but all that Sangiovese rides in to hold it all together with brightness and savory grip. Very easy to drink, even excellent in its way, but somehow forgettable in the final analysis. |
| Red |
2005 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche / La PérolineSyrah more |
2/25/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRThis is starting to sing. Terrific core of substance, with Levet you can’t really call it fruit. Terrific texture, with all that feral, gamey, dry minerality you expect from this address. Maybe missing an extra gear or complexity to really go to the highest level, but still so good. |
| Red |
2012 Pierre Bourée Fils Charmes-ChambertinCharmes-Chambertin Grand Cru Pinot Noir more |
2/21/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRAn enchanting, complex, beguiling bouquet of Christmas spices, wild strawberries, piney-earthy notes, zesty pomegranate, faintly smoky-meaty whiffs, rhubarb and fresh fennel, some stemmy and green peppercorns nuances, and lifted scents like wintergreen and cloves. The nose morphs and shape-shifts with each sniff, whispering its allures sotto voce. The palate is driven by its brightness, which has an almost apple cider flavor with unsweetened cranberries mixed in, but for all its citric tartness, it’s not shrill at all. Somehow, this is regal and seamless, with sneaky layering and length like black tea. Grows and deepens with air. For me, this is ineffably a quintessence of Burgundy, mysterious, subtle, challenging, mesmerizing, elusive, oxymoronic in its shrinking intensities, a will-o-the-wisp of a wine. Wonderful and impossible to reduce to a ‘score’. |
| Red |
1988 Domaine de Terrebrune BandolMourvèdre Blend, Mourvèdre more |
2/18/2024 - blanquito wrote: 93 pointsThis was a mystery going in, but it acquitted itself admirably. It took some time to unfurl, but once open it was filled with leather and ferric character, with some funky-horsey notes that were a compliment. Excellent energy, just enough fruit, red zinger, delicious. It went toe to toe with an excellent bottle of the 70 Conseillante it was paired with, and only suffered from a relative lack of nuance. |
| White |
2008 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric EmileAlsace more |
2/18/2024 - blanquito wrote: 92 pointsVery good, very ready. Much better on the dry bouquet -- with classic notes of wet rock, lime, maybe some incipient petrol -- while the palate is much softer and round, while staying dry. Still very good, but lacks the electric energy and intensity of the 99-01 vintages I drank a bunch of. |
| Rosé - Sparkling |
2009 Alexandre Le Brun Champagne Dilection RoséChampagne Blend more |
2/17/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRCrisp, cranberries, apple, excellent mousse. |
| White - Off-dry |
2002 Weingut Josef Leitz Rüdesheimer Klosterlay Riesling SpätleseRheingau more |
2/16/2024 - blanquito wrote: 94 pointsWow, this is good. Electric bouquet that reminds me of an 01 with all its intensity and minerality. This is just packed and stacked with fresh ginger, lemon zest, waves of citric brightness, and a mouthfeel that bristles with tongue-tingling energy. The sweetness and layered unctuousness this displays barely register behind all the brightness and dry extract. The finish is wonderful, lingering on and on like a ginger and honey tonic. |
| Red |
2012 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco AsiliNebbiolo more |
2/14/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRThis was splendid. Left in an open decanter for an hour and then enjoyed over dinner for several hours. I found this surprisingly approachable as we sniffed the fruit on the primary, but pretty nose. As it unfurled, a classic Nebbiolo profile emerged, with a lifted bouquet of tar, florals, big mint, and spicy cinnamon. The palate gained depth, intensity and texture with air, really improving as the evening progressed, but the tannins also firrmed up as well. It had that mentholated intensity on the attack and finish, giving it terrific impact despite its inherent lightness. I was most impressed by the wine’s nigh effortless equilibrium. Friendly enough to enjoy on its own, but it really shined best when paired with the beef Bourgogne. Early days here with plenty of upside, but compelling already. 94+. |
| Red |
2010 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Barolo VilleroNebbiolo more |
2/8/2024 - blanquito wrote: NRThis was terrific and easily my favorite in a large group of 2010 Barolo. Very approachable right now with an effusive, gorgeous bouquet of rose and florals, lifted and expressive. Light colored and bodied, but super intense and long, mentholated with hints of cocoa, some flashiness, quite delicious. Strikes an impressive balance between traditional and modern, with great class and equilibrium. 93-94 pts. |
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- Tasting notes: 1,562 notes on 1,151 wines
