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

2007 Oberon Cabernet Sauvignon

 Napa Valley more
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8/23/2010 - richardhod Does not like this wine: 80 points

It's drinkable, but it has no distinguishing qualities at all. It's just some flat dark indistinguishable cassis-like fruit, with no noticeable acidity. A flabby, one-dimensional fruit-squib. Drink water by preference.
The points it scores are for being the right colour, vaguely CS-like, and not noticeably gone off. Yawn.
Aerating didn't help make the wine any more interesting.

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White

2008 Conundrum Wines White Table Wine

 California White Blend more
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8/23/2010 - richardhod wrote: 83 points

not overly impressed, but it's not a bad wine. Too sweet without enough balancing acidity or other fresh qualities. However, this may have been a badly-stored bottle, and drunk too warm. Will taste again in better conditions, and cold enough, but as it stands, it's too sweet without the poise to pull it off. Heaps of interesting sand unusual flavours, whcih is amazing, but it doesn't hang together as a coherent drink.
Your aunt may love it.

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White

2008 Woot Cellars Triacipedis

 California White Blend more
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8/23/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 87 points

Yummy, and more balanced than the Albino Rhino, even a year on from its release! Good lively palate, fresh citrus, good strong but not biting acid, floral notes and a very complex white for the price! Great value and I wish I'd been around when it was released.

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Red

2004 Bella Vista Zinfandel

 Temecula Valley more
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8/23/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 92 points

This is a very very good Zinfandel indeed. It would be rated even higher, but for the idiosyncratic winemakers not releasing their wines until they are at peak, meaning you can't keep them for long after they release them! this Zin is very tasty, but you can tell it's going to start going downhill soon.. and this is the newest Zin they have released! Lunacy... I like my wines mature, but I like the choice to try them younger too, as wine has many peaks.

So, to the wine: A tiny hint of age (acetic) at the front of the palate, but behind this is a very fine Zinfandel. but a rich, fruity flavour on the palate, with deep dark boysenberry, strawberry and other such fruits in the body, balanced by very good acid! This keeps the palate tingling while you continue to taste the layers of fruits from the red raspberry down to the bramble notes. Full-bodied and a filling, but not cloying mouthfeel. Good finish, no thinness apparent despite its age, and leaves a satisfying moreish mineral at the end.
It's approaching the Peter Wellington Zinfandel in quality, and that's saying something.

Buy now, and buy several bottles. And drink them this year. Best wine for immediate drinking! They've cellared it for you...

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White

2007 Handley Riesling

 Mendocino County more
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8/23/2010 - richardhod wrote: 89 points

Very subtle, and good dry Riesling. Not sweet, or watery like a lot of California Riesling, but dry, fresh, with good acid, good structure, with a hint of petrol. Alcohol is not too high, which definitely helps. Florals on the nose and citrus with peach ont he palate. Zippy, zingy and still drinking well. Got as a bin-end lot, and well-worth it indeed! Would happily buy again.

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Red

2008 Kent Rasmussen Pinot Noir Esoterica

 Carneros more
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8/23/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 90 points

KR is a real oenophile and Esoterica is where he sells his best experiments, and his high-quality smaller-scale varietals. PN however is his main thing, so this has to be a special, different experiment. Nose: DUSTY! some red fruit, mmm soft red cherry, but mainly earth, dirt!
Palate: Good acid up front, but not sharp. Tingles the front of the palate as a good PN does, but not amazingly hugely as you would get with his Estate Pinot. This is a softer, more round fruity wine, but with plenty going on.

Fresh acid, zingy round the mouth, on to pof strawberries. It's kind of like Champagne and Strawberries in a glass! Fruit, not as red and fresh as an estate, more like strawberries and sweeter deep red fruits, but not a sweet wine! Full full body, much more than usual with say a good Carneros pinot. Very intense red fruits, with less zinginess on the palate than a usual KR or good CA pinot, but much liveliness in it. More rounded, deeper fruits, all red. good acid, sharpness to counter the round strawberry and intense red cherry. Intense intense mineral! mmmmmmm

Quite a long palate, very satisfying without the thinness you sometimes get. I'd say it's a rounder, more strawberry style than other classic, open CA Pinots like his own Estate, or Roessler or Saintsbury.
Later on some dusty dry but yummy tannins kick into the mouth. These become a little sublty sweet-woody in flavour

Indeed the finish is slightly sweet, mouth-watering, maybe mineral!After-cherry taste of the best medium-sweet kind, after the tart-sweet body.

A day later it's lost some intensity, but still lovely with good acid, cherry strawberry cherry palate, with these nice strong soft tannins, and a medium finish, giving a nice mineral palate-watering end. Tannins dry and long. Cedar?

It's a very tasty and accessible wine, especially for $16. Probably more crowd-pleasing than his famed flagship Estate PN, but not quite as complex. Some sweetness on the middle to end, it seems, but that might just be my mouth watering at the nice round tannins, but it's a dry wine at the front!

I wonder if it's only say 75% Carneros Pinot, and maybe he grew some PN on Rutherford territory, or added something else maybe grown in Rutherford for that dusty nose! We reckoned it could easily have a another varietal in it for his experimental Esoterica.. but what, we can't tell. (EDIT: Kent says it is all PN, and since he's a purist, we should have guessed) It's yummy, intense, accessible and complex but still can't work out what he did!

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Red

2005 Buena Vista Pinot Noir Carneros

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8/13/2010 - richardhod wrote: 85 points

Sorry, what I posted originally was a review of the Buena vista 05 Ramal PN, so I moved it there. This was decent enough, with good acidity and simple medium-dark red fruit. Definitely Pinot-likem but won't blow your socks off.

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Red

2008 One Thousand One (Kent Rasmussen) Pinot Noir North Coast

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5/20/2010 - richardhod wrote: 88 points

Much better than the previous bottle. Lively, acid sharp fresh initial hit, light but effervescent on the mouth (no, not fizzy, but lively). Taste fowd the nose: an open, red cherry and slight boysenberry fruit, with darker cherry hints coming through afterwards with tannins. More cherry. And some cherry too. Dryish, playful flavour.

Improved after half an hour out of the bottle too, opening up the fruits some more, softening the start, rounding out the flavours mid palate, though it's not terribly long.

Maybe the other bottle had got cooked, but it was from the same batch. Might be an inconsistent wine.

Not the deepest ever, but pleasant to drink, with hints that it'll add ot its depth with a little time.

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Red

1999 Turley Petite Syrah Rattlesnake Acres

 Napa Valley Petite Sirah more
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5/11/2010 - richardhod wrote: 93 points

Nose, beautiful sweet cassis and myrtilles. Very open, accessible aroma. Palate more restrained fruit, but well-bodied and round flavours, full mouthfeel, fruits in layered presence, balanced with good acid. A superlative demonstration of how to make PS. Tannins show their presence, keeping this a deeply structured wine, but softened by the years, to perfect balance.
Finish not long, but dry, mineral and pleasant, almost Rhonelike (the Syrah heritage coming through from the PS perhaps)

This was tasted from the rest of a bottle given to me at a Los Angeles restaurant by a regular who brings his own bottles. I could not be more grateful for the experience.

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Red

2008 One Thousand One (Kent Rasmussen) Pinot Noir North Coast

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5/5/2010 - richardhod wrote: 80 points

Not hugely overwhelmed. Better after overnight in bottle with one small glass poured. Has that thin sour Pinot empty cherry taste from cheap pinots I like to avoid. Fruits are there but hiding. short, light-bpdied, but it does have some centre. I"m just not convinced it's a decent-tasting centre.

OR maybe I just don't like Pinot. but I like burgundies better than this style. even if they're not my favourites. Or this was exracted more than I like. I'm not sure yet.

It's still young it may improve and open up to show better fruit. I hear the 07 is better. Whether from the age, lack of ash, or better growing year/vineyard blend, I'm not sure.
not much tannin.

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White - Sweet/Dessert

2006 Bergkelder Riesling Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest

 Stellenbosch more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 96 points

Truly outstanding Botrytis dessert wine. think of a Kabinett Riesling, but with more RS.

Good floral and citrus bouquet, and honeyed but not cloying palate, deepening with stone fruits, apricots, peaches in the light clover-honey, while a good acid content keeps the wine from ever cloying. The finish is outstanding, and lasts for minutes. Minutes. It has the metallic soft acid ending of the highest-quality German wines, and it offsets the soft honey body perfectly. It's even a sharp finish, not gentle at all in its length. Truly truly remarkablly outstanding.

It's a fresh drink and because the acid keeps it balanced and sharp, always refreshing and never cloys as do many sweet wines. I'd even call this a medium wine were it not for the beautiful honey flavours in the body.

I prefer to drink this on its own rather than spoil its balance with sweet dessert food, as it's not sweet like a Sauternes or even like a Muscat de Rivesaltes. It's more like a sweeter version of a very high quality Kabinett German Riesling (I've never had an Auslese or Beerenlese, but it might be like these). It has the fine and loooong lengthy metallic finish of the finest of these.

A real hidden and underrated gem. Later vintages (now wiith a semillon blend) have started to win several years' conesecutive prizes, and not before time.

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Red

2006 Havens Wine Cellars Syrah Hudson Vineyard

 Carneros more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 87 points

Decent, smooth syrah with good purply fruits, quite Rhone-like, but with some blueberry and boysenberry. A little thin for my liking, but perfectly good.

do not buy th 05 as it's just not drinking well at all. This 06 is decent enough, especially at the knockdown selloff price. Many Rhones would like to taste like this!

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Red - Fortified

1977 Graham Porto Vintage

 Port Blend more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 96 points

Hugh Johnson thinks it's a little straight and not lasting as long as it should for what was meant to be a 1945-quality port year. I'm not sure, and still enjoying these with little sign of tiredness. My bottles are ageing well, and even those I think I didn't store well last year remained amazingly complex and deep. This remains a classy classy vintage, though I did love 67 and 70 heaps.

One bottle which must have aerated a little before opening was, when opened, bringing out the walnut and cedar and other ground fruits of the wine. Still an amazing drink, and when compared to a well-cellared bottle with its heavy deep dark alcoholic gravitas, stood up well as just a lighter-balanced but deeply complex port.

So, depending on taste, (especially if you think Grahams is too "hot' and alcoholic, pah!) you could decant this for a few days, and enjoy the depth and variety of the favours it throws out. Certainly 24 hours plus is recommended whatever you do.

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Red

2006 Scott Harvey Zinfandel Mountain Selection

 Amador County more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 88 points

Agreed with some of the others here. Short finish, but zippy up front and once decanted and opened up (30 mins?) is a great light to medium Zin. I could do with a little more oomph and mouth, but it is a reasonably priced Zin!

It has none of the thinner shortcomings of many cheaper Zins and remains tasty if light. I could do with a little more fruit, or a little more depth, but it's a fine drink.

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Red

2006 Scott Harvey Barbera Mountain Selection

 Amador County more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 91 points

A forward red, fruitily effervescent on the front end, with round body, balanced between the fruit of raspberries, sweet red cherries, strawberries and cranberries and some useful tannins. Good mouthfeel, with strength and roundness in the body while remaining open throughout, and full of these effervescent flavours.

For a medium-bodied wine it's nicely structured and stands up well in complexity over anything else of such effervescence and red-fruitiness. Balance! Both a crowd-pleaser and a structured wine which will stand up to drinking in much more expensive company. Not dark at all, but open and complex round red fruits. Has a good loong zippy red finish too.

Rewards drinking on its own, or if with food, as with any Barbera it loves Pasta and other Italian dishes. Or try it with nice light tapas. will probablly go with that too.

Buy a case. I found it in Eagle Rock for $15.

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White - Sweet/Dessert

2006 Kent Rasmussen Viognier Esoterica - Late Harvest

 North Coast more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 90 points

Unique. Don't treat it ike it's a sauternes, or Riesling late harvest. It is sui generis. I've never had anything like it, but it did great with our Christmas pudding. I bet we were the first family in Europe to drink it too.

Very sweet (I personally could only manage a small glass, though y family had two glasses), and a little syrupy. Yet though it's a bit much , I savoured it and loved the plummy, raisiny, muscovado darkness. It also has a touch of lightness from the Botrytis, so has a bit of an edge too, though it doesn't cut through the heavy sweetness.

Even if you don't like sweet wines, try it, as nobody's ever made anything like this before. Kent Rasmussen is an innovator, and this one is so well made it may well keep longer than you or your children!

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Red

2005 Salvestrin Cabernet Sauvignon Salvestrin Estate Vineyard

 St. Helena more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 91 points

Tannins are huge! not ready ebough to drink, still a little tannic and hot, and sadly I only had two. Saving the other for five years at least. Great complex dark fruit stuff. Deeep Purple. Blackcurrants and berries, boysenberries, earth, forest bark, deep grass, you name it. Has the structure and quality to last a long time and will mellow into something fine. At the moment i can't tell how fine, so only 91.

Edit: I didn't decant this properly, as I was an idiot that day, so you might be able to drink it now with good aerating, but it really wil improve mightily with age.

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Red

2006 Reininger Helix Pomatia

 Columbia Valley Red Blend more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 87 points

Wait a few minutes, or decant / Vinturi it before trying, and it goes from closed and nothingness to zippy fruity excellence within ten or fifteen minutes. Keep aerating it in your glass if can't decant, as I did taking this to a restaurant with no licence. Amazing affter 30-60 minutes. Dark fruits, blackberries, blueberries, loganberries, but still lively and zippy as if it's a Zin. GGreat balance and melee of flavours there, and all my neighbours (even the non-wine connoisseurs) wanted more of mine compared to what they had. single Pinots were very drab and flat compared with this.

No great individual character in the fruit taste, morre an explosion, due to the equal blending, but that is the point of this wine.

So great life on the palate upfront, good body, (nicely purple, with legs), and a medium decent finish, with unexpected fruit changes.

Buy this both for fun and for eating with medium to heavy meals as it'll kick into touch most of anything else at $15-20 in your local store.

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White

2006 Firestone Vineyard Chardonnay Rancho Santa Rosa

 Sta. Rita Hills more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod Does not like this wine: 79 points

Pretty tasteless malolactic crap. Any taste it might have is overwhelme by the HUUUUUUUGE OAK. Like eating a whole bloody tree in one mouthful. Doesn't taste too bad, just doesn't do much but iff you can taste it it's just bit taste-free-butter-chard covered with the national timber product of Canada. Why would you bother?

It's open enough and not horrible, but no worthwhile flavours to make you care. Can't even taste the butter. and this is from trying more than one bottle.

Take it to a frat party.

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White

2006 C&T Cellars Chardonnay Backyard

 Russian River Valley more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod wrote: 84 points

Decent enough summer fun wine for chicken or spicy sausage Barbecues and the like. Fresh, well-made, and balanced; not very oaky if at all. Open flavours, not intensely fruity, rather just, well decent, if slightly empty in the middle. Hasn't been butteryoak malolacticed to death like many Cali Cabs.
Can't go wrong with it!

The wine looks Straw colored.
The legs are Fast..
It tastes like Honeydew.
The body is Light/Medium.
The wine is textured Smooth.
The wine finishes Short.

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White

2008 Jana Winery Riesling Old Vine Lazy K & E Ranch

 Napa Valley more
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5/4/2010 - richardhod wrote: 90 points

Very good indeed, but lighter and less mineral than the outstanding Jana Winery Riesling Michigan Riesling (see review).
floral notes on the nose, Crisp, light, refreshing to drink with some mineral acid length on the finish.

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White

2007 Jana Winery Riesling Black & Red Vineyard

 Leelanau Peninsula more
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5/3/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 95 points

Fresh, good florals on nose and early on. Light, crisp with peach, apricot apples and the like, but more than this: warmer complex tastes in the middle. Off-dry, but high acid balances it perfectly. Slight spritz. Slight sweetness in middle, but only a hint, and ends with strong, loooong metallic acid. Wonderful! Like an open, summery top-end Kabinett. Maker learned in Germany and it shows. Possibly no better USA Riesling.

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White

2007 Jana Winery Riesling Black & Red Vineyard

 Leelanau Peninsula more
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5/3/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 94 points

this should be under the Jana Riesling, whch is made by Scott Harvey, so this is a miscategorisationof name. Fresh, good florals, light but full of complex tastes in the middle. Slight spritz. Ends with strong, metallic acid. Wonderful! Like an open, summery top-end Kabinett. Maker learned in Germany and it shows. Possibly no better USA Riesling.

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Red

2006 Scott Harvey Barbera J&S Reserve

 Amador County more
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5/3/2010 - richardhod Likes this wine: 91 points

Keep for a couple of more years, it will definitely improve. Looking as if it'll be very good but I can't tell yet. Drink the Mountain Reserve Barbera 06 instead for now, and keep this beast!. Needs good decantig to open and soften up. The Mountain (Red label) 's not as intense as this one but it's amazingly red fruitily effervescent, with round body and good mouthfeel.

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  • Tasting notes: 449 notes on 307 wines

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