1/5/2022 - Decanting fool wrote:

Opened another bottle 3 plus years after my last notes. And it’s still a total wow wine but in a softer space. Immediately inviting soft plush texture, a gravelly core of cherries and blueberries dragged over subterranean smoky leather. Damn! It’s good

8/5/2020 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

I love this wine. It was tight and a bit pruney upon opening but with a few hours it’s blossomed into a bouquet of licorice tar black cherry olive and dark flowers. Elegant with a silky mouthfeel yet retains something grainy and rustic. In the zone but will get even better

8/1/2020 - Decanting fool wrote:

Revisiting this epic wine that I wrote about 6 years ago. It’s sensational. Unfortunately this is the last of it and I would love to visit it with another 7 or 8 years under its belt. It’s still massive. Has the unmistakable mark of s great wine.

4/12/2020 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

I made a note on this wine in 2014 and revisited it tonight.
I love to be able to look at a wine over the course of years.
It's delicious, seamless, well rounded and drinking beautifully. The comments I made 6 years ago hold true.
It's almost creamy, with no edges.

2/15/2020 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

I remarked on this wine 6 years ago -almost to the day- and am revisiting tonight.
It's very good, and very unusual. It reads primarily as a syrah but it's associated with so many flavor tones that it doesn't really taste quite like anything else. Lots of green olives and peppers, inky creosote, blue fruit. It has a raw quality that I find very inviting.
It's still surprisingly primary and ripe after a decade. I would hold a while longer. In a decade I suspect this will be something really special.

2/8/2020 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Delicious. Substantial heady fruit is undercut by the unmistakable gravelly terroir. Very nice at this price point. Enjoyable now, but years ahead of it.

2/4/2020 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Lovely and wonderful lilac perfumed silky licorice elixir. Herbal and peppery, with tight berries and garrigue. Less dense and plush than many of the 2010 CDP's I've tasted recently, but very fine and slightly grainy, with a touch of brett, which I love. Highly recommended.
Additional note on the 2nd night: I've often seen the word 'precise' used to describe wine, and this is that. Very dialed in. Beautiful.

11/29/2019 - Decanting fool wrote:

Although I’m a fan of Charvin this bottling is extremely backward and shut down. There are hints of all the things I want and expect the wine to be but right now there’s not much there there. Hard to predict where it will be a few years down the road but it’s gotta be better than it is right now. It feels and tastes inert.

11/26/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Year in year out I love this wine, and I really love seeing the dramatic variations from vintage to vintage, each one of which seems to emphasize different aspects of this amazing wine.
The 2012 has less heft, body and mouthfeel than some of the more epic versions of this wine (some of which I've written about here,) but it's nonetheless superb, extremely elegant, PERFUMED and heady. It evokes Sen-Sen (in a very enjoyable way,) tight tiny purple berries, smoky orange, and has an elusive but persistent eucalyptus like quality and a lovely long lingering finish.

11/12/2019 - Decanting fool Does not like this wine:

A face punch of unrestrained crass vanilla oak is followed by endless gobs of cloying fruit in this consistently disgusting wine. Lacking any shred of nuance or restraint I find it undrinkable. In fact this is not the first time I’ve had to pour this wine down the drain.

10/6/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

With several years of bottle age this wine has turned into a very fine example of Sonoma Coast pinot. Rich with rose, clove and cinnamon, soft tar and faint creosote. I love it.

6/23/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

After waxing rhapsodic on the 2010 bottling a couple of weeks ago, I decided to rob the cradle and open this one. Mistake! Don't get me wrong- it's wonderful. But robbing the cradle it is.
The overall impression is remarkably congruent with the 2010, and in 5 years it should be drinking with much the same elegance and complexity. This is a tour de force of Grenache, but at this stage the fruit is so concentrated it borders on the explosive. . The perfume is massive, expansive, delightful. The aftertaste is endless. There's a dense green inkiness, lots of olives, super gravelly and ripe.

6/16/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

A flawless and outstanding terrestrial elixir from the very first taste right out of the bottle. Dark berries crushed into stone, smoky and heady, tarry, bottomless. Every sip makes me swoon. Not a trace of oak so the raw earthiness really comes through, but not the least bit over the top. This is a near perfect bottling, vital and alive, with all the components in sublime tension, drinking beautifully but with many years (decades?) ahead of it. Bravo.

5/10/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Lithe and lovely, flavors of soft tart citrus with hints of pineapple. Not as crisp or flinty as some. The overall impression is pillowy.

5/1/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Pure free flowing juice, delicious and immediately accessible if somewhat primary and of limited dimensionality. Although it lacks the complexity of a really fine CdP it is a pleasure to drink and I wouldn't hesitate to buy cases as a very enjoyable weekday wine. And it's got years of improvement ahead of it.

4/28/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

As several others have recently opined, this wine is drinking very well right now. I've had a couple of bottles over the past few years that were not ready but this one is in the zone. It's beautiful, highlighting so much of what there is to love in Sangiovese. There's a volatile petroleum element in the nose that takes a few hours to dissipate, but the mouth is so satisfying and delicious, with distinctive floral, cherried cinnamon and coffee elements. Will continue to get better for a decade.

3/1/2019 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Like a liquefied grenach pudding, plush silk long lingering licorice. Extremely juicy and vital.

1/4/2019 - Decanting fool wrote:

An excessive ripeness approaching a new world fruit bomb makes this a wine that will likely divide tasters. For me, the fat fruit overwhelms everything else.

12/21/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

O yes! this is a beautiful wine in every way. Each sip is like a little trip to Italy. The fruit is laced with iodine, with a strong tea-like quality that lingers for minutes. And if you want to know the definition of grip, you've got to taste this. Very elegant and velvet while leathery and earthy. A really great bottle. Highly recommend. BUT this is not a new world fruit bomb and if that's what brings joy to your palate this may be too tart and tight ... in a word, too "Italian" for your taste. As for me, the seductive come hither quality of this wine is what I crave.

12/18/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

While far from the more weighty and dense Arrowood Reserve cabs of yesteryear made by the brilliant Dick Arrowood, this is a very accessible and enjoyable wine. There's a nice tension with all the elements in check, neither too oaky, fruity nor brash. Very plummy with a marked eucalyptus almost menthol like quality that is quite pleasing. Still young but drinking very well.

12/16/2018 - Decanting fool Does not like this wine:

When it comes to wine at this obvious level of quality I guess beauty is in the mouth of the beholder. There was a time when I was a devotee of Littorai and I don't imagine the wines have changed as much as my palate, but I have not enjoyed the last few bottles I've opened.
The general impression of the 2012 Savoy is very candied falling somewhere between Pez and Robitussin. While not quite as lacquered as some of the other Littorais I've tasted recently, there is still something vaguely evocative of shoe polish. There's scant sense of earth or terroir, and frankly very little of interest or pleasure.

12/12/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

A lovely wine, even as it lacks some density of concentration, it defines the more perfumed aspects of Gigondas. But it definitely has character and nuance- smokey, peppery and brambly, chocolate and berries. Well worth the price, even an excellent case investment for mid week indulgence, if you can find any. The other cuvees from this producer are more distinctive and expansive, but all of his wines are fantastic.

11/2/2018 - Decanting fool Does not like this wine:

Seriously, I've got to give up on paying any attention to the ridiculous point system of the self appointed experts that give wines like this 94 point scores. It's an adequate inexpensive Bistro wine, but not interesting, lacking weight and focus, with a somewhat off putting lacquered oak note and a strange absence of a middle.

10/15/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Chalky and chocolatey, smokey concentrated berries. Delicious medium weight on the palate. Some animal fat. Not quite ready, but close: 2020 and after.

10/3/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Surprisingly plush and rich with honeyed tropical fruits bordering on excess but held in tension by a nice acidity. Very good.

9/18/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Revisiting this wine about 5 years after I last tasted and wrote about it, in reviewing my notes I'm surprised to find I could write an almost identical comment. It's superb. If anything, the minerality is only heightened by virtue of the very slight diminishing of the fruit. Very slight. The wine has hardly moved at all.

9/8/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Tight out of the bottle but a lot of softening over the night. Delicious. A lot of vitality, inky, still somewhat green, a little fatty, mineral rich, darkly floral and concentrated. Hold a few more years.

8/3/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

This wine is lovely, seamless and elegant, and considering the vintage overall is not particularly noteworthy it's drinking beyond expectation. Delicious.

7/23/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

A toned down version of what this wine is capable of in more dramatic vintages, still delicious and true to its pedigree; lots of lavender, olives, green and black pepper, earth and dirty ink. Robust yet soft, with years to go, but very enjoyable right now.

7/20/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

For my money Mt Eden consistently towers above other producers in the Santa Cruz Mts. And while this wine lacks the weight and gravitas of the Estate bottling, I think it's delicious and just beginning to blossom. It was very tight and small on release, but it's undergoing a beautiful opening, as these wine tend to do, always needing time. The only thing holding it back is a bit of a lacquer quality from the oak but I think it will dissipate with more time.

7/6/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Just coming into its own though still kind of primary and a bit hot, but delicious and of obviously fine pedigree, if ludicrously priced. Nose is almost explosive, inky with a green tinge of very refined funk and graphite, flavors are varietally true, with juicy blue and blackberry and a plush mouthfeel. I would sit on it for another few years to allow the exuberance to tone down a bit and let the tertiary characteristics come together.

7/5/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Extremely good, very rich, raisinous, earthy, black tea, dense and opaque, many years ahead of it.

7/2/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

I know McEvoy as the producer of some of California's finest olive oil, so I acquired the wine on a whim. It's very fine, full of character and drinking well beyond expectation. The profile is distinctive, more clarity than Carneros and less fat than Russian River, closer perhaps to Sonoma Coast. I don't know if it's my imagination, but it is very olivey, lithe, rosy and peppery. Long lingering.

6/28/2018 - Decanting fool wrote:

Excessively and surprisingly fruity out of the gate, with time some lavender, pepper and a bit of shroomy funk present themselves. But not enough to make the wine really interesting or particularly enjoyable. There's something fatty and over ripe here that separates it from the earthy charm and magic of a great Gigondas.

6/27/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Tarry but ethereal, tart and concentrated yet lithe. Animal, mineral, tiny tight berries, leathery and something in the vicinity of horse piss, but in a good way. Not even close to being ready, but I really like it.

6/10/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Distinctive smokey graphite and blueberries (Cab Franc) with tart licoriced animal fat, and a real sense of place. You can taste the dirt- in a good way. Showing beautifully. Not a rock star, but superb value.

6/8/2018 - Decanting fool Does not like this wine:

Treated like a Chardonnay -oaky, full malolactic- at the expense of everything I love about Sancerre, this mutant freak of nature is of interest only as a novelty. I'm a huge fan of the Reverdy house style, but this stuff is thick and fatty and cloying, flirting with undrinkability. I've seen it compared to a Burgundy, which may be true in the way the wine is handled, but Sauvignon Blanc does not lend itself to this kind of treatment.

6/5/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Voluptuous, opulent, hedonistic and freakin fabulous, a this-is-what-life-is-all-about kind of wine. Need I say more? Incredible integration since I last tasted it a couple of years ago. I'm not a fruit bomb kind of guy, but this is at that edge- yet the complexity and sophistication make it irresistible. My only regret is that this is the last bottle I've got. I love this producer. The regular Valpolicella bottling is also outstanding.

5/27/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Still coming into its own, -these wines always need t i m e - it's lovely, heady and highly perfumed. The silky mouthfeel, the roses, well rounded fruit without any fatiness... it's still quite lean... it's a beautiful Littorai. The only drawback is the oak is a bit too caramelly on the nose. Hold for a few more years.

5/27/2018 - Decanting fool Does not like this wine:

No. While I like the steely minerality, the overall impression is like mulled cider. I've had a few bottles over the course of the last couple of years and it's gross, bordering on the undrinkable. Just about anything in this price range is better.

5/25/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Punching well above it's weight class and more accessible than I had anticipated; so overall much better than I thought it would be. Although it's a middle weight, it has everything I love in a St-Emilion going for it. Great gravel and fruit, refined tannins, silky almost plush mouthfeel, licorice, hint of funk and long lingering. Great value.

5/18/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

From the instant you put your nose in the glass you know it's wonderful. Rich and funky, darkly rosy and shroomy, with an almost Burgundian cheese like quality that I love. Although delicious it's still closed, which is no surprise- these wines take a while; hold for another few years and you'll be rewarded. The regular Freestone bottling is always more immediately accessible than the vineyard designates. Sorry that Phelps closed their facility in Freestone. It was one of my favorite things to do-- drive out to the coast and hit that sweet tasting room on the way back.

5/15/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Smokey, chocolatey, black cherried, licoricey, well rounded and very satisfying. A little bit of heat. Nice weight and mouthfeel, very vital. Many years ahead of it. Not a blockbuster but surprisingly good.

5/13/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

This crispy mineral driven SB is consistently satisfying year in year out despite some vintage variation in richness. It has a beautiful penetrating steely green quality the cuts through the mix. The fruit is decidedly citrus, and even the florals are flinty. The perfect match for shellfish. Wonderful and delightful.

5/12/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

If I had to describe this wine in one word it would be majestic. Everything about it is powerful yet it maintains an impression of elegance. The nose is explosive and can literally be picked up from across the table and is marked by the whole bouquet of CdP adjectives. The mouthfeel is plush, expansive and lingers endlessly. The overall impression is simultaneously subterranean yet heady and ethereal. A truly penetrating, fantastic bottling, just beginning to come into the window.

5/11/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

OK I'm just gonna say it: sauvignon blanc is the most under appreciated varietal in the world. Grown virtually everywhere, and with great success, it is also one of the greatest values.
The Winkl is massively flavorful and full figured, yet ethereal. Intensely perfumed, herbaceous, floral, fruity, chalky and mineral rich, this bottle had the slightest suggestion of secondary fermentation, which is not my favorite quality, (will need to crack another one to see if it's just bottle variation or if it's a characteristic of the wine.) It has the goods to stand up to very flavorful food, or lovely as a summer afternoon quaff.

5/7/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

This wine has incredible vitality and a uniquely sangiovestic immediacy. There's a beastly top note along with burnt orange peel, raisins smashed with a steam roller and mixed with bitumen, walnutiness and fleshy smoked cherries, cherries cherries. Lovely singing acidity. It's really starting to open up beautifully.

5/4/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

This wine is simply fantastic. While it evokes a summer fruit salad of melon and mixed citrus -blood orange and pink grapefruit- it has the weight and gravitas to stand up to a wide range of flavorful foods. It just sings. The nose has a slightly burnt caramel quality that is seductive, and the mouthfeel is full fleshy and lingering. I love it.

5/3/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Smokey, ashy, lightly tarred gravel berries. Still tight lovely middle weight.

4/26/2018 - Decanting fool Likes this wine:

Seductive purity characterizes this beautiful Sangiovese. The heady nose evokes freshly torched creme brulee, burned licorice and crushed walnuts. Flavors of tart black cherries and stewed prunes sifted through minerals, with a lingering and penetrating iodine. Not a blockbuster, yet it borders on the profound, but in a soft and silky way. It seems ready to go, right out of the bottle.