5/8/2024 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote:

It’s a solid offering for the $140 price tag. It has similar density and length as the regular offerings but maybe just pulled back a little. In a blind line up of all Kinsman Eades Candi doubt I could pick it out.

4/12/2024 - VlgJeff wrote:

Slo-oxed for 10 minutes. A pale medium violet in color. A somewhat "feminine" version of Syrah that has a lighter body but shows dark red fruits, earth and spice on the palate, with balancing acidity. Best to drink up.

5/4/2024 - oldwines Likes this wine:

Double decanted at 3:30pm and tasted from 6-8pm, with some left for tomorrow. Opaque dark garnet color. Distinct Bordeaux funk/brett. Barnyard notes that were quite strong initially but did not fade away completely. Dark black fruit/ berry, but not over-ripe. Very "old-school". Long finish with graphite, earthy notes, blackberry, and cassis. Quite tasty but not better than my last bottle in 2018 and some of the nuances may have been obscured due to the funk. Flawed? ...depends on your preferences but certainly at best on a peak plateau and just beginning to descend on a slow glide path from its peak. Probably still delicious for another 5+ years...

5/7/2024 - Rbhan12 wrote:

Never tried Realm before and was excited to based on the hype. From magnum.

Overall this was a well made and good quality but stylistically this had more oak and ripeness for my preference. Would probably do well with another 10-15 years on its side to come into its own.

5/7/2024 - mazenblue1 wrote:

224 per bottle, purchased Fall/nov 2019

5/3/2024 - chatters wrote:

Coravin fun - Bordeaux (My place, Burwood): From Coravin. Earth, blood, very slight farmyard, brambles, leather, cigar box, cedar, sweet spice, Autumn copse, nice mature nose. On the palate red and black fruits are slightly dried out but still offer some vibrancy. Touch of blood, leathery tannins are chamois soft, simple, long, charming.

5/3/2024 - chatters wrote:

Coravin fun - Bordeaux (My place, Burwood): From Coravin. Earth, brambles, a little blackcurrant compote, fresh herbs, raspberry, cedar, sweet baking spices; nutmeg, cinnamon, with time a red cherry note - Kirsch in fact. Juicy, fleshy but after the other wines in this bracket this is quite anonymous, a little red and black fruit with a savoury note, drying, slightly coarse tannins. Not it's best showing. Meh.

5/5/2024 - Eric Becker Likes this wine:

Lovely! Which was a bit of a surprise as a recent bottle was rather mediocre, not this one. Bottle-variation or simply more time post disgorgement? As both were consumed at restaurants I don't know. This here has a clear pale colour and tiniest bubbles. On the precise nose are sweet lemon confit, flowers and some sweet pastry. In the mouth the wine is perfectly balanced: Medium-bodied, but with a concentrated core of sweet fruit, lively and fresh, but also beautifully textured due to the very fine perlage. In comparison the mediocre bottle before showed both lighter flavours and a harsher mouthfeel. On the finish the sweetness is nicely controlled by quite a lot of chalky freshness. All in all this Ruinart BdB reminds me of a recent Perrier-Jouet BdB, however, everything dialed up a little bit without sacrifycing elegance and freshness. Wow!

5/4/2024 - Bigdong wrote:

Slightly alcoholic

5/5/2024 - ledocq Likes this wine:

Excellent analyses of the flavor profile in both notes below. For myself, I wish I hadn't leaned into the "it's accessible!" thing - I mean, sure, you can drink it. But even after a 3-4 hour decant, it doesn't yet show why we are so insane about these wines. The aroma and taste improved with every moment after 4 hours, so maybe a 6-8 hour decant makes more sense if you're going to pop one. I enjoyed and regretted every sip.

5/6/2024 - Grape_ape Likes this wine:

Meant to hold this bottle longer, but grabbed the wrong vintage by accident. Excellent wine, and as noted with prior bottle, notably better than the 2018 and 2020 vintages. Still quite structured, but very balanced and elegant. Wish it wasn't my last bottle

5/2/2024 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine:

Based on the other review I decided to give this one a try, even though I know these Beta’s are for the long haul. The accessibility of the 2019 vintage showed through with this one and it is excellent now although obviously nowhere near peak. I would still say this is a wine for the long haul. I gave this a 3 hour decant, drank over the next 3 with some left to try in the coming days.
So impressive, the nose is intense and jumps out as soon as you open the bottle. The fascinating thing about this wine is the almost classic Napa nose with almost an old world style Bordeaux palate. Truly the best of both worlds. I say almost classic on the nose because in addition to the ripe Napa fruit there is a floral perfumed note that is unique. On the palate the fruit is more restrained (in a good way) and there are many layers of complexity including various green notes. Not unripe green and not overly pyrazine but some green pepper and also some garrigue.
This note feels a bit rambling but let me just sum it up by saying there is a lot going on here.

5/2/2024 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine:

Tried this at a Bordeaux and pizza event. Didn’t make notes on this one but I enjoyed it and it was consistent with what I expect from this producer. Just really solid, accessible and delicious wines!

3/30/2024 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine:

Loved this but kicking myself for not making any notes. It was excellent and intense and still too young.

4/26/2024 - Decanting Queen wrote:

WS Grand Tour (Walkaround Tasting) (New Orleans): This was drinking like a very average Napa cab. Very disappointed given the price point, producer and vintage. Maybe context (mass wine tasting) or maybe the bottle, but it didn’t do it for me.

4/26/2024 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine:

WS Grand Tour (Walkaround Tasting) (New Orleans): Not a huge Malbec fan normally but this breaks the mold for me. Drinking so nicely right now. Rich mature fruits, chocolate and spices. Descriptors sound almost port-like but the fruit is more restrained than that and it would be a perfect dinner wine.
This is a buy for dinner parties with almost winos.

5/4/2024 - MJP Hou TX Likes this wine:

For my palate I find this wine best after a few days open. Slightly oxidized on day 3 with slow ox in the bottle.

At PNP it's a bit boozy and floral to the point of distraction.

93+

5/5/2024 - TexasBob Does not like this wine:

Glowing cloudy plum red color. Really energetic nose of pomegranate and hints of black earth. Lots of volatile acidity; very light, sour wine, in which you can taste red berries and volcanic mineralogy. Not to my liking.

4/21/2024 - ozziewine Likes this wine:

This is right in line with my Andremily Syrah history (#4/2015-97, #7/2018-95, #8/2019-97 and #9/2020-97).
As usual, best for me on PnP (YMMV). Did not detect as much pepper (I like-a-da-pepper) as in the past vintages, though I suppose time will tell on that point.
As with all Andremily, uber-plush and silky dark fruit.
Antonio Galloni thinks this is one of Andremilys' best. Cannot dispute that, but that's coming from an Adremily fanatic so consider the source. The fans know what to expect and this meets those expectations.

5/3/2024 - tcarter Likes this wine:

Such a baby. If you can drink prior vintages, go for those. This will sing in a few years.

12/3/2023 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine:

Not the greatest SQN experience for me. Ex-Ray’s note below really captures the essence of this for me. Very good but I expect more from these wines. This one could use more time to soften.
Day 1: 6 hour slow ox with one glass poured and left to air. Even the wine in the glass seemed tight and tannic.
Day 2: not much change. Pleasant but one dimensional.
Day 3: I have found that this is where the magic happens for SQN, but it is so hard to have the nerve to decant a bottle for this long. Unfortunately, on this evening I had another event and for medical reasons am (temporarily!!) limited on my drinking. So I could only take a sip and wow. The fruit and the caramel and chocolate had all come out to play. It really was fantastic.
Day 4: I had my fingers crossed but no luck. This was on the other side of the curve, fruit a bit stale and lost the complexity.

5/2/2024 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine:

This was a pleasant surprise. Tasted at a Bordeaux and pizza event and maybe my favorite of the older wines. Very mature classic Bordeaux nose, darker fruit and interesting complexity on the palate. Tannins mostly dissolved, this is drinking at peak now.

5/4/2024 - AGELVIS Likes this wine:

Two hour decant. Very deep dark intense ruby magenta color. Stewed plum, blackberry, Oreo cookie, tobacco, and black pepper. Dry, spicy, full bodied palate, with good acidity. Full, satiny tannins on the longish finish.

This is a fun drinker. Comes across a touch overripe, but otherwise it’s your classic Bevan intense Napa CS.

5/2/2024 - remyworldpeace Likes this wine:

Lovely nose, blackberry, dark cherry along with a fan of tertiary notes; leather, truffle, french oak hint of unsmoked cigar and dried herbs.

Palate opened up beautifully over 90 mins showing a real concentration of dark fruits along with beautiful tertiary notes of forest floor, oak/cedar, some tobacco leaf and leather. Nice long finish showing the different layers.

EDIT: Wow, something happened after 3 hours in the decanter it opened up even further! So much complexity, balance and length. A real depth and concentration to the fruit and tertiary flavours. Very long. Absolutely stunning - gave it an extra point over my original score of 96!

4/22/2024 - thesternowl wrote:

Popped and poured; enjoyed over the course of two days. Consistent throughout. The 2021 “Placida Vineyard” pours a slightly hazy, bright yellow with medium viscosity. On the nose, the wine is youthful with tart lemon, lime, star fruit, and minerals. Definitely some ethyl acetate there too. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium++ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is long, creamy, lightly buttery and lovely minerals. This is quite the departure from the “Chuy Vineyard” which was the previous, one-and-done, Chardonnay from Ketan. This gave me some Chassagne-Montrachet with a really soft hand, vibes. It’s very young. I’ll hold my remaining bottle for several years down the road. Fun now for all its youthful energy but better after 2026 and through 2040. Paired very well with lamb massaman, larb and papaya salad.

5/4/2024 - Marquis du Vin wrote:

This needs time... at the 2nd hour of decant and sadly the end of the glass, things developed rather nicely. The red fruits are there, but a wall of tannins prevails at this stage, maybe the 3rd hour would make things right? I have another and will give it 3 hours next time, but from what I can tell, this is going to be what it is, and I'm not waiting another decade for changes or buying more. That being said, it's an enjoyable wine, a bit dry a bit underdeveloped at this stage, but good nonetheless. It may be caught in a place where the wine needs time, but the sediment may pile up to get you there! 2010 remains one of the best vintages, and when you find those singing now, ohh boy what a song! This is stuck in the middle for now.

5/3/2024 - billyloveswine Likes this wine:

Poured into a decanter and consumed over 2 hours. Pronounced nose of violet, blackcurrant, black plum, and coffee. Strong green bell pepper note in the beginning which was a little off-putting, but it subsided with time. Medium acidity, medium+ fine-grained tannins, and medium+ finish. This probably need a few years or a longer decant to tame the pyrazine and coax more complexity out of it.

5/1/2024 - Mark1npt Likes this wine:

My entry for a white to the event tonight. Better chilled than near room temp. Medium yellow in the glass. Nose primarily of Semillon at the pnp. Somewhat flat at first. Air is its friend. Going back to it a few times, complexity on the nose and palate really picked up. Multi dimensional later on. The Semillon backs way down and the Sauvignon Gris emerges balancing it out. Citrusy lemon, a few green notes later and beeswax. Light on its feet with great acidity and near perfect balance. Last glass after dinner was the best for me. I feel many will not get the most out of this one without giving it enough air to grow! 91-92 early on, 95 by the end. Sitting for 3 hours in the ice bucket with the cork out, served it well....

5/3/2024 - Ravi Deshpande Likes this wine:

This is a rather dry, moderate fruit wine with thick tannins. My sense is that it is past its window or possibly too early. It might develop other more tertiary notes and sweet tannins. I’m getting a little sour cherry and bitterness. Not up to the usual CS.

5/3/2024 - AGELVIS Likes this wine:

Two hour double decant. Slightly hazy straw color. Gardenia, lemon meringue, macadamia, and tapioca. Dry, creamy, almost full bodied palate, with fine, long lingering acidity.

This was my first ‘22 from Aubert and things are looking very good. I rarely give this kind of score to a white wine and this is still improving. I’ll try to wait a year or more for the next bottle.

5/3/2024 - thomasito2001 Likes this wine:

See my previous note, very pleasant and a great wine to drink, but not much evolution since last time and still lacking complexity. A somewhat unidimensional behemoth.

5/3/2024 - Purple Tooth wrote:

As time drips and the wine crawls down the wrong side of my stained glass, I have realized, I am a very demanding creature. Even this beautifully voluptuous wine cant rid me of my lack of the thrill of my past, in my search for big, muscular terroir expressive wines. This is a big wine and has the 4 basic gears to get it from a stand still, to a cruise speed of 75 miles an hour in less than 30 minutes, but I hear the disturbing high rev of the engine at max speed, and I am grinding my own gears, in search of the much needed overdrive. So instead, we downshift into third gear, and enjoy the big sounds of the 10 cylindered engine as the torque grinds against my teeth and the peeling tires leave their dark marks all over my dingy, purple teeth. Yes, if you came looking for girth, depth, and big fruit wrapped in brewing coffee, with an undeniably big and echoing linger, then the 2005 Monbo is your jam...(no pun intended). But I think that I am just into zippy, nimble, supercharged machines that are built for that relentlessly continuous forward pull on a long stretch of windy road. But either way, this is in the drinking zone for all thrill seekers...Drink!

5/1/2024 - OenoEd Likes this wine:

Yes, this needed sn hour in the glass to show its stuff, as do most white bordeaux. Wonderful texture, the richness of semillion, with the grace of Sancerre. Lots of lemongrass, lemon cream, dried hay, green melon, Needs chunks of barely ripe honeydew wrapped in paper thin speck to really shine. A dry grassy finish, compelling food!

5/3/2024 - Elpaninaro Likes this wine:

rich young purple red color, generous on the nose from the start settling into an elegant beauty after 4 hours in glass, cassis, plum, blackberry, a nice framing of spicy oak, relaxing and familiar, classic, on the palate young but surprisingly generous, primary blackberry and cassis fruit with firm spice notes from the oak, cloves, a bit of cedar, perfectly ripe but still with some classic restraint, abundant velvety tannins, excellent depth and a fine long finish with crushed berries on the tail end, this is somewhat reminiscent of the great 1985 and will hopefully have a similarly long life and generous drinking window.

(****)+, 2029++

4/5/2024 - Hiker4life70 Likes this wine:

I really like this but it has a ton of life left and I will try to keep my paws off my remaining bottles. The initial Brett blew off and left the wine with purple flowers, black fruit, and graphite. Nice acidity and fine tannins and mineral finish. Quite lovely alone and with food

11/19/2023 - Hiker4life70 Likes this wine:

I love this. This might be my new favorite champagne. I am having this with some Gruyère before dinner for my mom’s birthday dinner. Really pretty red apple, floral, and lemon peel on the nose. It has such a lightness/freshness that does not exhaust your palate. Now comes the hard part in keeping my hands off my remaining bottle

5/3/2024 - ftsai71@gmail.com Likes this wine:

This was a nice Rhone style wine (maybe the most Rhone-like of the Turtle Rock wines I've tasted.) It's definitely California and the balance is great, with the nice cherry smoothness I like in Grenache with some structure. I can also taste the Mataro. We had it with some cheese and crackers. I paired great with the cheese. Not the most complex wine but I very nice California Rhone.

4/25/2024 - Juliansi Likes this wine:

When any evening presents a second apertif, and it is a Dom.. its gonna be a good.. good night!

Served unblinded, when this came after the Comtes 2006 which was bloody exceptional, I found the nose of this DP 2008 to be muted. Very muted in fact.

Interestingly this did not translate to the precise and full bodied palate, with developing light brioche notes as well. Even at this very early age, this Dom shows a good length to the finish and well developed M+ acidity.

Blend of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay grape varietals, and whilst still too young, it showcases depth as well as great balance.

This vintage marks the first time the estate has released a wine out of order (the 2009 was released before the 2008). Seems DP loved the wine so much they felt it warranted additional aging.

This is a very iconic cuvee for many reasons, besides its age-worthiness.

It is described as the mark Of a new era...
Richard Geoffrey was behind the creative ambitions of Dom Perignon for over 28 years. He shaped the Dom Perignon project in his style and was the driving force.

Vincent Chaperon worked alongside Geoffrey for 13 years. During this time, he took part in 13 harvests and declared four vintages.

This 2008 Dom Perignon vintage was the best way for Geoffrey to end his career as Chef de Cave, and for Chaperon to start his.

Thanks to bro RN for sharing this at his Bref TTDI get-together as a thanksgiving dinner and celebrating his birthday too.

With this 2008, I have now covered the 2006, 2010 as well as 2012 DP vintages. Somehow the 2006 and 2010, perhaps as they were off-vintages, fared the best for me and were the most open Doms!

Bref, Taman Tun, KL, Malaysia
25th Apr 2024

4/30/2024 - LIE-user Likes this wine:

Amazing „senior“ BDX. Just perfect now and probably for 5 or so more years. No need to hurry, but I don’t think it will get any better.

Nowadays lots of even premium wines are made for young drinking pleasure. But ripened wines like this one show, that you miss most of the fun without that boring and old-fashioned „storaging“.

5/1/2024 - ankitmehra Likes this wine:

Having tried the 1986 vintage of Château Beychevelle this past summer and thinking it was one of the few wines from the vintage in a really good spot, my first reaction to drinking the 1989 vintage was that we caught it right in its prime. This is everything you want in mature Bordeaux (and some!), boasting a nose with quintessential leather and tobacco scents, accompanied by light blackberries and baking spices before being rounded out with a great cocoa note that evolved over the course of the two hours we enjoyed the bottle. The palate itself showed maturity, but still boasted great balance as an upfront of red cherries and blackcurrant led into a mid-palate dominated by tobacco, leather and a lighter cedar note. The finish medlied dark chocolate with pepper, creating excellent balance. Yet another great bottle from Château Beychevelle that pushes the '86 and '82 vintages.

5/1/2024 - KPB Likes this wine:

Really needs a few hours to open up! But ready to drink if you decant two or three hours before serving.

Dark red, with an exuberant nose centered on blackberry and cherry, plum torte, exotic spices, a hint of musk. Flavorful without seeming heavy, limpid, tart, palate-staining, long finish. Rather soft and silky.

Reminds me of the 1986 Pichan Comtesse de Lalande (which was a very good vintage that I owned and cellared).

3/15/2024 - firstgrowth Likes this wine:

Young

4/23/2024 - platpeeps Likes this wine:

Savoury dark berry fruits with a hint of farmyard and infused with spice supported by firm tannins which melted away to reveal balancing ripeness and rich mocha in a lingering finish. Plush, unctuous and profound this revealed different sensations with every successive mouthful. Superlative. CHP 94 pts

4/30/2024 - Mrbuzz Likes this wine:

Wine is drinking SO engaging and effortless right now…its all about creamy grey salt caramel chews…bright lemon squeeze, dried apple rings, red delicious apple skin…the bubbles are still dancing with grace…love the nuanced leesy brioche and crushed limestone chalk…just a wonderful balanced mouthful of goodness…crazy that there is zero dos!

4/30/2024 - rustyRudy Likes this wine:

Much better and less earthy than the previous bottle

4/29/2024 - Tubulus wrote:

Folks who visited seemed to think this was the most wide open of the 2019s, so I figured I'd give it a go. Well, they were correct, and this wine is really lovely and wide open at this juncture. There is a plenty of tannic backbone so I would have no issue aging for 5-10 years, but drinking really nicely now. It has much less green than the last few Betas I've had (admittedly all much older releases...have put most into deep storage), with nice medium weight fruit, good but not overwhelming acidity, no notable alcohol. Really just a delicious wine.

4/26/2024 - ankitmehra Likes this wine:

Really interesting experience opening up the 1989 Château Magdelaine at Farra in New York City on Friday night. Having been wanting to try something from this château - especially from a more prolific period like the 1980s - this bottle was a fun proposition. The nose itself didn't give away a lot as light hints of blackcurrant were overpowered by scents of leather and cigar box. The palate, though, evolved extremely interestingly over the two hours the bottle was open. Not entirely sure if this bottle would need a decant beforehand, we opted to pop and pour the bottle only to find we would need to decant it. After letting it sit over a glass of Bourgogne Blanc, the wine itself was still drinking young once we revisited it. The upfront had a light - but delicate - blackcurrant note, but the mid-palate boasted an extraordinary amount of power through notes of baking spices, pepper and leather. The finish brought in a great dark chocolate note (one we joked almost tasted like 90% dark chocolate!), lingering long with lots of acidity still in play. The wine itself felt clean and if I had tasted it blind, would have probably attributed it to the early 2000s. The delicate nature of the fruit threw me off a bit, but this wine seems to have a lot of life left.

4/29/2024 - WineGuyDelMar Likes this wine:

Decanted 90 minutes. Took to Florida for our trip. Drank alongside an 05 Haut Bailly, 15 Dominio de Aguila Reserva Ribera del Duero and Mayback Cab. Fruit is still too young for my taste but was far overshadowed by the 05 Haut Bailly. For sure Zbirdeaux with typical nose. Modern Bordeaux but all are now it seems. Need to leave remaining bottles for several years. Great QPR though,

4/20/2024 - jkoenen wrote:

A lighter style of Vintage Port.

4/28/2024 - Rbhan12 Likes this wine:

Agree with other notes this is a textbook aged BDX. Never had this chateau but have a general understanding of their style. Decanted off sediment and followed for an evening.

Dusty leather, cedar, dried tobacco on the nose. Still some powerful rounded fruit on the finish that showed equal to dusty earth and clay pot. A good bit of tannins still present, as they faded with time in the decanter the aged notes of this wine became more prominent. Very long finish. Towards the end of the night this was drinking like a proper Claret.

Drinking in a very good spot if you are a Claret fan. Obviously high quality and a very complete, well rounded wine that is worthy of its fame.

Solid 93