3/5/2024 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Strong white pepper note, combined with cherries, bitter chocolate, leaf mould, tobacco and old oak. On the palate fantastic tension between the raspberry, cherry, blackberry fruit notes and the more serious underlying tannins and acidity. In other words, classic Barolo at its peak. It took an age to come around, but now spot on. Love it.

3/3/2024 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Stone fruit, mirabel plums, waxy lemon peel, touch of papaya on the nose. Superb creamy, tropical and ripe green fruit on the palate. Finishing rich, long and layered. Ripeness pushed, but not overdone, cut with pin point acidity. A somewhat odd, but delicious marvel. At drinking peak.

3/2/2024 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

This has taken a while to come round. Now in perfect drinking peak. Rich, kirsch, black raspberry, chocolate nose (really black forest gateau!). Palate is rounded, medium-bodied, with great finesse and lacy tannins. Spherical with a slightly short finish. Like a cross between burgundy and very fine southern Rhone. Intriguing!

3/1/2024 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

This is still holding up extremely well for the vintage. Although there has been some bottle variation in the case. Rich, smooth, super-well integrated. Tertiary cab notes on the nose. Japanese plum, damson, earthy truffle and cream on the palate. Long with a little drying tannin on the palate. Drink up, but still brilliant. Au revoir my friend over several years. This is the last bottle.

2/29/2024 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Light, toasty oak on the nose, greengage, gooseberry, green melon. Superb balance & concentration - stony, mineral and spherical. Already delicious, but closed. Will be stunning (my guess 94+) in four to five years. Has it all.

2/28/2024 - Oddbod wrote:

Wow - this is on fire now. Rich, moreish, beguiling, sappy and with tantalising balance. Really what burgundy does better than anyone else - but is yet so elusive. Shame only got one bottle left in the case.

2/9/2024 - Oddbod wrote:

Winey. Saddle sweat. Pheromones. Manure. Little fruit - all tertiary on the nose. Tightly knit, tannic structure still there, beautiful fruit, tannic, acid balance, so complete and perfect. An understated, classic wow. Love it.

11/18/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

OMG. This so delicious. Pure blackcurrant, blue plum, coffee grinds, truffle, mushroom on the nose. On the palate, so delicious now, really come around after many years so closed. Red fruits, smoke, fantastic acid fruit balance. Absolutely at its peak. I’m scoring high based on pleasure, rather than intricate complexity.

5/26/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Mid green-gold in colour. Showing little sign of age. A touch of TCA on the nose? Otherwise, baked apples, creamy oak and a hints of ripe melon. Palate is super-compacted, not really opened out at this age, long and linear, with a Riesling-like, key-lime pie freshness. Not what I was expecting. Is the fruit suppressed by TCA?

5/19/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Coffee latte, pimiento del padrón, vanilla, blackcurrant jelly, cinnamon, Japanese mushroom,
On the palate medium-bodied, still with tannic grip, but starting to soften, good structure. Will either soften and become magnificent, or dry out before the tannins come around. If it’s the former will move up to 95.

4/14/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

Back on song after a maderised bottle. Honey, Acacia, peony tea, peach stone, flint, wet wool. Mid weight, rich, but with brilliant, balancing acidity. A reminder what fully mature white burgundy is like at its very best. Life-affirming, joyful wine. A delight to drink at a fair price.

4/11/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

This is a great second wine. Clear Pichon Baron character and to some degree structure. Definitely a mini me. Classic nose - blackcurrant, cedar, with warm notes of red brick and school pencil, softened with creamy summer pudding. Just the right amount of ripeness and freshness, leading to a good finish. Maybe just a little hollow in the mid palate. Great VFM.

4/5/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

That’s the problem with natural wines. First bottle tasted like all the sugars had carried on fermenting in bottle, leaving it bone dry and cardboard-like. However, bottle two is a delight. Bright cherry soda nose, undertows of damson, plum stone, sarsaparilla and cola cubes. Beautiful, silky mid-weight fruit, superb balance and poise. You can see why cru Beaujolais is the new burgundy.

4/4/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

Out of a six bottle case. The first one was singing. Still remarkably fresh, with delicious mature white burgundy character. Probably a 93. This bottle is definitely more oxidised, dark in colour, maderised nose. However, the freshness saves it. Curd, quince jelly, almond, lemon meringue, struck flint and baked apple. On the palate, mid weight, fresh, long and structured. Still great, just getting a bit tired.

3/31/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

The Myth
I bought this en primeur in the post 2010 gold rush. Needless-to-say it’s not appreciated in value and I have paid a decade of storage on it. At the time Parker gave it a very high rating, 91 I think. Whilst it’s not been on the radar much as a chateau, it’s always as a solid cru, just not anything spectacular. It’s also northern Medoc in a cool year….. so not expected a lot.
The Reality
Still vibrant on the nose, with a cedar, secondary fruit character. Surprisingly ripe, still with some tannic grip, acidity quite high, but not overly so. Dry and quite long. Overall a bit workman-like, but really quite delicious in a straight up and down way. I like it.

3/17/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

This is surprisingly good. No signs of tiredness, vibrant blackcurrant, cigar, truffle and cigar notes. Rich, rounded palate, very well structured and controlled, everything in place. Great winemaking, just lacks a little soul?

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

Ironically, William Kelly had this as his wine of the tasting, beating the 2009 first growth reds! It is spectacular; stunning richness, but such great freshness, making it taste much less sweet than expected. Little secondary character at this stage, but will be a wine for the ages. Brilliant and oh-so-drinkable now.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

A joy to drink: I never thought I’d say that about Lafite. Amazing aromatics, expansive, mouth-filling palate, superb balance and control. It ran with the year, pushed everything to the max, but held back enough with razor-sharp precision to make this one of the greats. Brilliant wine-making and unlike many others in this tasting not showing those over-ripe, banana peel aromatics and slightly blowsy fruit and lack of drive, vibrancy and freshness. A master-class and a master piece. More forward than the Latour, but on a par as the two left bank titans of the vintage, Mouton and Montrose running them both close. I suspect will get to 99 or 100 in time.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Mouton loves 2009. Glossy, polished, glitzy and sexy, but still holding everything back in a studied show of control and restrained ebullience. Delicious to drink, life-affirming pleasure. Just a little too over-the-top for me in this warm year. Should it be more detailed and complex? Is it all rather too good to be true? We shall see.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

The stand out wine from the Farr’s 2009 Bordeaux dinner. Not immediately obvious, but the wine I kept going back to time and time again over the course of the evening. Classic nose, with a lovely touch of charred oak. Everything in balance and proportion, but an underlying power and energy signalling brilliance to come. Seemingly impervious to the vintage conditions, this is Latour above everything else. A classic. Almost perfect, but needs at least another 10 to get there.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

Well constructed, plush and ripe. Open and drinking now. My only complaint is that it seems a little ‘pushed’ and over-ripe in this vintage, losing some of that lovely Margaux refinement and ethereal quality, which normally makes it a standout - giving power and delicacy in the same package.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Extremely well constructed wine. Everything in place for a long life, but this stage still a bit dumb and closed. Can’t wait to try in 5 to 10 years, when secondary aromatics start to come through and it starts to blossom.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

The stand out super second in this 2009 tasting. First growth quality, restrained winemaking and Northern Medoc relative coolness resulting in a beautifully structured, surprisingly elegant wine. Classic warm red brick nose. A long life ahead. William Kelly also loved.
Post script. I can’t get the profile of this wine out of my head. Like an ear worm song, this wine stays with me weeks after I tasted it. The more I reflected on it, the more I became convinced Montrose is the equal of the first growths. I am now head over heels in love with the new Montrose, having only tasted the older style vintages before.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

For many, one of the stars of the super seconds on this 2009 horizontal. Ticked all the boxes. Pauillac nose, beautiful weight, balance and structure. Most surprising of all, considerable freshness, hinting at a long life. Great winemaking and a relative bargain. A joy amongst many over-worked and frankly, in some cases, over-ripe wines.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

First bottle was noticeably Pichon Baron character on the nose, but lacked spark, life and drive on the palate. Smelt lightly oxidised to me. Second bottle, much better and wowed some guests, especially Thomas Parker MW, but mid rank for me. Mixed opinions on this one.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

Held back, restrained wine-making in this warm year. Still a bit dumb on the nose, but ripeness tempered with lovely structure and tannins on the palate. Everything in place to blossom into a great wine, just a bit ‘hidden’ at the moment.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod wrote:

Glossy, blowsy and flamboyant on the nose. Enjoyable, but somewhat over-ripe and ‘mid Atlantic’ in style.

3/2/2023 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Open, rich, toasty. Lovely freshness. Lacks a little depth and complexity at this stage, but drinking beautifully. A great glass of champagne.

9/19/2022 - Oddbod wrote:

You have to really start with the palate and extraordinary colour. Transparent and light, like old Burgundy, yet despite the light colour tremendously powerful and full. Tinned strawberries, liquorice, truffles, wood smoke, all wrapped in a knife-edge, razor-sharp balance of moreish acidity. It literally explodes out of the glass. On the nose, saddle leather, red fruits, smoke, white pepper and brick dust. It’s a never-ending kaleidoscope. Finally, I understand why people compare the very best Grenache to top burgundy. Wonderful!
Drink on HRH Elizabeth II’s funeral day, in tribute to her grace.

9/19/2022 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Golden-green in colour. New oak well-integrated, greengages, buttered crumpets, apple pie, vanilla, very fine, although quite primary. On the palate, less fat than I remember from previous vintages. Oak beautifully interwoven with richness and a brilliant acidity that ties it all together. Length, subtlety and elegance. Easily rivals more famous names. In its youth, but will merit an even higher score as it matures. A good decade in front of it. A classic.
Drunk in honour of The Queen on the day of her funeral.

5/20/2022 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Dark brick red. Little fade.
Nose of mushrooms, truffle, soy, bottled cherries, tomato, charred oak. Palate is open, soft, sweet, good balancing acidity and structured finish, with some tannin still showing. Overall, lacks some density in the mid palate and a wow factor. Would put down as a $30 bottle, not the $100 it cost. I can’t believe it’s really indicative of the first wine (at least I hope not as I have quite a lot of it, as yet untasted).

3/2/2022 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Very dark, no sign of ageing. Opulent, rich and intense on the nose. Blackcurrant, coffee, smoke, cedar wood. Stone and incense. Rich, full-bodied on the palate with excellent hedonistic ripe fruit cut with balancing acidity, structure and considerable length. Tannins still evident, but softening. Excellent stuff, pleasurable and rich, but still with considerable refinement and grace.

2/19/2022 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Dark Cherry red. Nose slightly dumb at this stage, but some dark chocolate covered cherries, plum stones and incense coming through. Palate is still compact with tannins prevalent and fruit somewhat closed. However, smoky, dark, intense forest fruits in evidence and superb acid/fruit tension and balance. It’s all there, but needs a good few years yet to blossom. Looking forward to revisiting and seeing how it will develop. Note, the alcohol is coming through a bit at the moment with a slight cough drop, medicinal note.

10/26/2021 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Massive nose straight after decanting. Tinned black olives, tapenade, TCP, rose, black raspberries, stone, manure, Seville orange. Soft, slightly over-cooked dark fruit, rum, molasses, Agen prunes, burnt sugar on the palate. Certainly bursting with huge character and concentration, but all a little over-extracted and lacking finesse and subtlety for me. One for RP?

7/2/2021 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Really deep, blue-black colour. Fabulous nose, pure, fresh morello cherry, touch of smoke, but so rich, pure and fresh on the palate. Okay, the fruit is very primary, but the tannins are starting to embed. This wine lives in three dimensions, both vertical and horizontally expansive. It will be utterly fabulous in 3 years or so, but you can see the brilliance now.

6/11/2021 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Damson, smoke, old leather, creme de cassis on the nose. On the palate, medium weight, little bit stretched and hot, but nice developed flavours. All round solid Pomerol, especially for the price - £60 in a pub!

5/7/2021 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

This took a while to come round. Unfortunately when I have just two bottles left from the original case. The first bottles were quite tight and linear and I wondered if it was the leanness of the vintage. In the last two months it’s completely blossomed. The nose is pure reductive struck match, with notes of lime confit and lemon meringue pie. Underneath is peach melba and double cream. I could keep going.....it’s layered! On the palate is it rich, reductive and high-toned, almost slipping into oxidative, but holding back, like all great burgundy, to keep a cantaloupe melon sweetness cut with lime curd and a long, structured finish with the oak just coming through. I’m really left wondering why anyone pays top whack for the big names when this is so obviously the wine of a genius. Note to self..don’t drink these wines so young again, what a waste of the 2014 Guffens Pouilly Fuisse I have already snaffled. But you live and learn.....

6/14/2020 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Hazelnut, Choux pastry with vanilla cream, smoky, woody, rich, knife-edge balance between richness and acidity. Beautifully made, stunning mix of maturity and freshness.

6/14/2020 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Rich, subtle, smoky, medicinal, old leather, redcurrant, fruitcake, oregano, autumn leaves, pink peppercorns. Great structure, length, balance of freshness and maturity. Genius wine.

6/12/2020 - Oddbod wrote:

Soft, rich and frankly delicious. Reminds me of Pomerol with its black currants and cream palate. Lots going on on the nose; blackcurrant stalks, freshly tanned leather, stones and gravel, baked strawberries. Lacks a little density in the mid palate, but otherwise good weight, structure and length and above all oh-so-drinkable, a claret you don’t have to decode, just enjoy. Pure pleasure.

4/6/2020 - Oddbod wrote:

Leather, smoke, logon berry, farmyard on the nose. Pure, transparent and beautifully balanced on the palate. Finishing long, with distinctive (but not over-powering) smoky oak character. Classic, balanced and lovely. Secondary character coming through - everything in place.

2/22/2020 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Big and rich on the nose, with highly distinctive (Radoix?) smoky barrique notes, but also plenty of prune, truffle and earth notes underneath. Rich, round, smoky and earthy on the palate. Delicious to drink now, but will evolve with age, if you can stop drinking it now and wait that long! Highly recommended VFM.

2/22/2020 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Raspberry, horse sweat, coffee, touch of vanilla spice. Good balance, with moreish acidity and a burgundy perfume that’s just starting to blossom, even if it’s still a little rustic and a touch tannic. Interesting to see where it will go. Will it continue to soften and add subtlety or will the acidity take over? Worth trying again in a couple of years.

2/15/2020 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Leather, tar, lapsang Souchang, prune, smoky black currant and walnut on the nose. Really beautifully balanced on the palate; elegant, streamlined, no sense of heat or over-ripeness; with a touch of tannin and lovely balancing acidity. Surprisingly sophisticated and no sense of old style St. Estephe rusticity. A delight and great value for the price. At least another 10, maybe even 20 years ahead of it; where I’m sure it will develop even more secondary characteristics.

12/8/2019 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Spicy, medicinal, red fruit classic pinot. Just bursting with fruit and pleasure, leaping out of the glass. You can’t help being seduced, but is it all just a little too much? But what the hell, it’s utterly delicious and beguiling.

12/8/2019 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

This is really rather gorgeous. Just opened, decanted and poured. Initially a little closed, with still a surprising amount of tannic grip underneath a wealth of ripe berry fruit and a slightly New World cab nose. Then quickly it started to blossom, with more classic Bordeaux secondary notes emerging on the nose and the palate showing a delicious fruit/acid tension that made it deliciously seductive and moreish. Overall, it was pure pleasure, not at all austere or over-hot, rather it was surprisingly refined and elegant and was one of those wines that restores your faith in Bordeaux as one of the greatest regions.

9/17/2019 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Beautiful new oak nose, touch of oxidization. Double cream and greengage/mirabel plum. Rich, creamy and slightly smoky on the nose. Finishing clean, mineral and long. Text book.

8/22/2019 - Oddbod Likes this wine:

Intense bilberry, black currant and raspberry on the nose. Classic Rioja Alta flavour profile on the palate, but younger, more vibrant and energetic. Lovely, Pinot Noir-like elegance and perfume with a delectable smoky hint. Ultimately I prefer the more traditional GRs from Rioja Alta, but a very interesting foray into a tighter, brighter more contemporary style.

7/29/2019 - Oddbod wrote:

Delicate nose, coffee grinds, blackberry, cedar. Soft, sexy and sensual, but starting to lose some grip, needs drinking up, but still delicious.

7/29/2019 - Oddbod wrote:

Extraordinary nose. No trace of VA or oxidisation. Pure, piercing black currant nose. Earth, truffle, mushroom, tapanade, forest floor, loam, mature Havana cigar. Rich, soft, still with excellent acidity and pinpoint balance. Really just perfect bottle of mature top notch Bordeaux. What it’s all about!