6/22/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Impossible to find, and equally impossible not to be thrilled with this stellar wine. Incredibly concentrated, intense, full-bodied, firm, regal, and explosive, the wine is packed with layers of crushed rocks, peppery red fruits, iron, smoke, leafy herbs, and dried flowers. The palate-staining layers of perfectly ripe, fruits hit every nook and cranny of your taste receptors. Decanted 90 minutes, this is still remarkably young and vibrant. The finish sticks with you for 60 seconds, or longer.

2/18/2020 - Goldstone wrote:

'No Masks' Hong Kong Dinner (Table, 8th Floor, The Pemberton, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong): Decanted for 3 hours before serving than drank slowly over the next 2+ hours. Black-purple totally opaque. Nose is perfect graphite purity. Black fruit taken to a modern art painting level...impossible to put into words. Palate is oh wow.... purity and linear attack of ‘black slab’ fruit and stern but somehow tactile tannin. The resonance and reverberance is a deep, low toned hum that is almost ‘ohm’. Wow, this is so young but so beautiful. The purity of the fruit and its slightly confit aspect is stunning. Silence creating....which is my greatest compliment of a wine. Can only improve with age. My first of a case and I think I have timed this right. Almost everyone's WOTN against some similar drop-dead competition that I scored almost as highly. 96+

4/20/2020 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Opulent, rich, full-bodied, showy and intense, this feels just great as layers of perfectly ripe, sensuous black and red fruits glide over your palate. There is no heat, jamminess or overripe characteristics. What you do experience with all its lush, velvety, showy fruit is layer after layer of intensity, richness and pleasure. Decanted about 90 minutes, this rock star hits all the right notes.

4/14/2019 - acyso wrote:

(Wilson Daniels bottling.) Frankly, the emperor has no clothes (but we've known this for years and years now, and I don't know why I still bother barking up that same old tree). This is a great bottle at best. Now, setting aside expectations, this is definitely a good bottle of Hermitage and shows true to type. The nose lacks elegance, but does have plenty of meat, smoke, and blood. A mild green/olive aroma comes out with a bit of air. It's a wine of a very dark complexion; the fruit on the black side of the spectrum. The palate is dense and somewhat foursquare. There is a significant ripeness here, but the fruit is somewhat nondescript and poorly delineated. This feels heavy-handed, blocky, and chunky on the palate, and there is far more tannin here than needs to be. If this were the pinnacle of the Northern Rhone, this would be a pretty shitty region indeed; and given this is considered one of the best La Chapelles out there, it really reaffirms my belief that this bottling does not belong on my Northern Rhone worth a damn (TM) list.

8/31/2016 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Really great expression of Napa in an elegant style. The fruit is perfectly ripe, generous, fresh and shows good purity. The tannins are round, soft and polished. The finish displays fleshy, ripe, juicy, sweet blackberry, boysenberry, dark chocolate and earthy notes. Everything is working here. This is drinking quite well today.

4/22/2018 - aquacongas Likes this wine:

From double Magnum
I expected a Little bit more, maybe served too cold either. Maybe in a closed stage, the fruit notes are in the Background and the Tannins feel a touch too harsh but after one hour developing in the right direction

4/9/2017 - oldwines Likes this wine:

Decanted at 4:30 pm and also run through a venturi once before pouring back into the bottle and tasted from about 5pm through 10 pm. The last pours were the best ones. Medium garnet color with little if any bricking. Extremely elegant. Nose of leather, earth, anise, eucalyptus and red and black fruit. Very soft mouth feel. On the palate the leather cedar and earth are balanced with cassis, blackberry and black cherry in deep layers of flavor. Finish is long, 45+ seconds. So elegant and classic. Please let this breathe in a decanter for several hours at least, it makes a world of difference! This is feminine in style and old world/classic Cali but needs the air to bring out its full potential.

1/6/2017 - Christoffer78 Likes this wine:

A totally wonderful and absolutely perfect effort, the 2004 St. Eden reveals massive, powerful and at the same time super elegant and velvety fruit. As with all "Grand Vins" a few minutes in the glass does the trick and a secondary layer of complexity emerges with classical led pencil, rich cacao, wet saddle leather, black ground pepper, deep violets and a whiff of spice. This is a nose to die for, so powerful - yet so very elegant. The palate adds to the overall experience with a silky and balance and integration. Hidden behind a thick elegant veil of elegance is plenty ot texture and structure, despite the age of this effort. All components are here and in perfect shape and place. Acidity, tannins and beautiful luxurious oak speak up with one harmonious voice. of course there is a "never ending length on the finish" that pushes this effort from one clarity to another. I cannot help being star struck here. There is so much elegance, so much power, yet no hard edges and nothing more to wish for. Totally without the slightest flaw. A stunner.

When ending on a perfect score I do that from the view that I cannot find a flaw in the wine. In my world, perfection is reachable and I never hesitate to say a wine is flawless if I find it to be.

8/4/2016 - justburg wrote:

Rhone night at Nicolas. This was a clear step up from any of the wines on show in terms of complexity and intensity. Deep red, no bricking. This took some time to open up, but I felt it did well at different stages throughout the evening. Olives, white pepper, wood, charred meat, tar and vanilla with blackberries, blueberries and smoke. Very satin like tannins, lots of pepper and roasted meat on the palate, black and blue fruit with smoke, cigar box and new leather. Good wine, but certainly not a 100 pointer.

10/22/2015 - Jeff Leve wrote:

A beautiful expression of La Turque, with its smoky, licorice, cherry, earth and flowery nose. Full bodied, vibrant, energetic and fresh, the wine is concentrated, deep, polished, long and complex. This is great now and it's going to be even better in a decade.

7/28/2015 - jaxpaj wrote:

Waited too long to pop this cork!! The wine seems to be on the downslide. The richness of the wine has faded and has been replaced with notes of mineral, worn leather and a touch of prune. This is the best '07 I have tasted in the last year but still just a shadow of its past. I think '07s were wonderful young wines that aged poorly.

8/23/2014 - ChicagoScot Likes this wine:

Killer juice that has a bold Bordeaux style with an elegant finish -- one of my favorite wineries in Napa.

10/31/2014 - Jeff Leve wrote:

It's always a crap shoot with this wine. There are bottles with such overwhelming notes of horse and barnyard, they are not fun to drink. And then, there are the clean bottles that let you know you are in Bordeaux at the top level. This bottle was clean. The intensity of the aromatics, the incredible weight, density and concentration, coupled with ripe, regal, soft tannins and a seamless finish are well worth the price of admission. Still young, but showing its stuff, this is a thrill to taste today and if well stored, your grand children can probably enjoy a bottle in 2090!

2/6/2015 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Stunning in every sense of the word! This is pure, liquid velvet that coats your mouth with layers of sweet, juicy, ripe, plush, fresh, vibrant fruit. The wine is rich, deep, concentrated and powerful, yet perfectly balanced, leaving you with a finish that lingers.

5/17/2015 - t-slow Likes this wine:

Dark crimson red. Fresh on the nose with lovely aromatics. Sweet asian spices, tinge of licorice, more red fruits and black. Fresh on the palate nice balance of fruits and acids. Very good length.

1/2/2015 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Tasting surprisingly young, blind I would have been shocked to find this was 16 years of age. Splash decanting brought its floral, earthy, espresso, blackberry, dark cherry, stone and barbecue notes. On the palate, the wine is powerful, concentrated and in balance. The fruit is fresh, crisp and sweet, and oh so young, leaving with a a long expression of minerality and purity in the mouth. This requires at least 3-5 more years before maturity settles in. As a point of comparison, it was less developed than the 1999 Guigal La Landonne it was paired against!

11/1/2014 - tp096255 Likes this wine:

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COLOR: Deep purple garnet with some translucence, esp near rim.
NOTE: This smells almost identical to the 2008 Bevan Danger D. Lovely berry liqueur notes, mixed with minerals and leather, hints of Mexican sage. You could smell this all day. Glad I used the Coravin on it so I can have this experience over and over in the months to come.
Mouth is rich and velvety, but not heavy, and the black berry fruits burst forth, followed by some tar and leather, fine black pepper. It gets a little more peppery in the finish, but the black fruits still shine through. It's a very satisfying wine, but there just isn't much glycerin from the mouth to finish. It's definitely more austere than the plump 2008 Bevan Danger D. Well-balanced and ready to enjoy at pop-n-pour now or with several hour decant. Lots of stuffing here folks. Surprised that this didn't outdo the 2008 Bevan Danger D.

CORAVIN NOTE: I now understand why you're instructed to use small bursts with the Coravin. I was doing full "drags" on this magnum, meaning I hit the Coravin lever until no more gas would come out, then I did it again, then I did it a third time. By the third hit the bottle became so pressurized that the wine started to seep out around the cork because it couldn't get through the needle fast enough. I've now compromised the cork. Fortunately I plan to drink this bottle in its entirety over the next few weeks. Lesson learned. Small burst, wait until it slows to a dribble, repeat... I think I need to make a video about how to use the Coravin on upright bottles versus sideways bottles.

CRITIC REVIEW: I found it funny that one of the premier critical reviews was actually blasted on its own website by a forum of peers and this wine was downgraded to a 91 as a result. It wasn't a blind tasting, but neither are most of my tastings. 91 is way too harsh for this wine, so the group obviously had a different collective palate that day, but it sure is interesting to see this kind of result showing up on a professional's website without editing. Kudos to Mr.....Anonymous....

DECANT: 3 hours
GLASS USED: Bordeaux
TASTE: 9.6-
COST: 385
VALUE: 6.0
TRY AGAIN: now-2018
CORAVIN'D: Yes
PRE-POUR LEVEL: 100
PAIRING: n/a
Inquiries can be addressed to troypeterson@usa.net
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10/31/2014 - Jeff Leve wrote:

California Cabernet Sauvignon at its best. That sums this bottle up. If you're seeking perfectly ripe fruit with so much intensity of flavor you can eat it, silky, velvety textures and a finish that lingers long after the wine has been finished, this is for you.

11/16/2004 - Joe Belmaati wrote:

1998 Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Road Shiraz, Barossa, Australia
This cuvée was magic in the hands of Chris Ringland. With Ringland no longer the wine maker, this wine has lost some of it's magic - at least judging by tonight's showing from the 1998. This wine is simply too much. There is simply too much of everything here, except style and grace, and most importantly - drinking pleasure. I jokingly exclaimed that this was like being knock-outed by Mike Tyson and others around the table agreed. No one seemed to enjoy it that much.

10/4/2013 - Old Vino Likes this wine:

Pulled 6 oz (Coravin) from a magnum. I see why so many others flunked blind tastings guessing old world. Incredible wine perhaps a tad behind the 1991 Dominus. Nose and palate of a 25 year old Pauillac. Depth, complexity, and enjoyment in a glass!

1/25/2013 - Coupe 60 Likes this wine:

PnP at Pairings restaurant with a braised Short rib dinner. Wow...there must be some bottle variation with this. Almost an order of magnitude better than the last bottle I had over a year ago. Still on the softer side, but way more expressive,dark red fruit is pure, prominent, and nothing short of delicious. Well integrated and finely balanced, no matter how hard you try you cannot drink this wine slowly. The wine just disappears from the glass. Relatively low acidity, Finish is long with soft tannins.

Mrs. Coupe said it might have been the best wine she ever drank. It was definitely up there for me. Too bad it was my last bottle