June 28, 2023 - aging incredibly well...rich and textured. no rush but in a great spot now.
June 10, 2021 - This bottle was amazing. So fresh tasting had to double check that it wasn't 2018. Very complex palate, honeycomb, wax and white peaches packed into a medium + bodied frame. Can easier age for 10 more years.
September 29, 2019 - Fun and funky. Lots of ripe oaky notes. Drank a lot like a Chardonnay. Still had nice acid and only light honeyed notes.
August 21, 2019 - From magnum. The wine is still young and fresh at 11 years old. Plenty of vibrant acidity with a lot of stone fruits and minerals. Served with a lobster salad that paired perfectly with the wine. Easily another decade left on this wine.
September 24, 2016 - Golden colored, full bodied and so dense (it so densely coats the glass) with a nose full of yellow fruit and a slight toasty finish, which lingers for a long time very nicely. The cork exploded on me but nothing that The Durand can't fix.
June 19, 2014 - Drank blind alongside several Northern Rhone whites, including Chave. This wine clearly held its own.
Full bodied, highly concentrated, full throttle wine. Needed some time to open up, but when it did, it outshined its Northern Rhone counterparts. An excellent example of a Northern Rhone varietal that can be achieved at a quality vineyard in Bien Nacido. This wine has a long life ahead of it.
Highly recommended!
March 10, 2014 - muted violets, oranges and tea
May 27, 2013 - A Holiday Weekend BBQ (or "How I milked my birthday an extra few days") (Rancho de Los Olivos): Even better than my first bottle from a 4-pack. Perfectly in balance. Beautiful aromatics, ever evolving, with an enticing mouthful of honeysuckle and ambergris, plenty of acidity and a satisfying medium finish.
May 23, 2013 - Color: light straw yellow. Bouquet of lemon, grapefruit, oak. Palate was tight, tart and angular on PnP but became more generous over time. Pink grapefruit and a slatey minerality were nice. This definitely has the acid and the fruit I think to carry it for awhile. Good Roussanne in a lighter, more feminine style than I'm used to drinking from Cali.
January 27, 2013 - Big, oaky nose. Vanilla pod, stone fruit. Weighty palate but excellent finesse, subtle vanilla oak coming through. Plenty of fruit to back it up, nicely balanced and very long. Superb but lots of time left in it