Nose varied first hour then settles down. Autumnal, leaves, bright ripe cherry, earthy and fungal. This nose is clean, and allows for individual scents to be noted. That bright cherry shines through. Chalky.
Palate is a little flat, slightly sour, touches of tart cranberry, low tannins on side of the mouth. Missing it’s mid palate, does have a savory saline finish that lasts. After a few hours in the decanter, mouth becomes lush, drenched cherry, soil.
Great nose, ok palate. I’ll see if it changed over the next 4 hours. ( in a wide mouth decanter)
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Color: Ruby with light bricking at the rim Smell: Manure, decaying flowers, dehydrated red fruits, and sawdust. This is a nose that reminds me a bit like a NIN video where everything seems to be in decay or smells like something you might find in an old antique store lost to time. Taste: Red fruits & pirazines dominate the palate...this is smooth and ready to go. Tannins are resolved and there's just enough acidity for food. Overall: This is medium body, medium acidity, medium fruit, and the tannins are fully resolved...it's ready to go. If you have have any in the cellar...crack a bottle and start drinking them every 4-6 months until they're gone. Excellent
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Fruit has faded. The nose has green pepper notes that remind me of a younger wine. The tannins are dominating the fruit, but everything is smooth. I doubt this will get better.
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This bottle had a bit of funk in the aroma and initial taste but it dissipated. After that, the wine was very nice. However, on the second day, the remaining half bottle showed negative signs of age. In my opinion the vintage is at the end of its road.
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A former Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel Chateau, this wine is as tannic as those Grand Cru Saint-Estèphe. You can find all those old wine characters in it - smell of dried mushrooms and soil. Surprisingly the wine is beautifully balanced and acidity is adequate, but not significant. It doesn't have sign of fading in more than 2 hours. A very good CB
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PnP: great deep port-like nose but the taste is off -- nice opening and a shrill, vinegar end. So we left a glass out for four hours and then: bang, lovely. I understand why people throw the adjective "rustic" around for this. The taste is just as folks say (leather, tobacco, fading fruit) and the finish is medium with drying tannins. (1995 is a tannic year, no?) The aroma is better than the taste, though -- it stays intriguing and rich all night long. Worth the 37 bucks but it's more of an academic "oh, yeah, now I know what aged St Estephe is like" than abiding love. (Day 2 update: after a night vacuumed and in the regular fridge, it's still good and not that much changed.)
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Opened and drank over from afternoon till dinner. Dark garnet with brick red tinge, showing aromas of earth, cherry, red fruit and tobacco. Palate evolved from tart and lean to reveal sweet tobacco, forest floor and cherry undertones. Light to medium bodied with soft velvety texture, with fresh acidity backbone. Medium finish with soft chewy tannins. This is actually drinking nicely now and can probably hold for few years or more, definitely beat my expectation.
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Of 3 bottles tonight at Lynn's birthday, one was perfect, with plenty of succulent fruit left under lots of complexity, and two were perhaps a tad past it, though still very lovely, classic claret.
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This is drinking very nicely. Perfectly balanced and well rounded, smooth with red currant notes backed by forest floor and oak. Still Fresh and light to medium bodied. Perfect match for grilled lamb chops. This is at or very close to its peak. Wonderful bargain for a semi aged second tier bordeaux. Nice surprise.
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Drank with jack. We both really, really liked this wine.
Red to look at (not too much bricking) with mushrooms, nuts, and "forest floor" on the nose. Extremely smooth, medium to light bodied, and still tasting quite fresh. Despite some of the other tasting notes, we felt this had a longer and lingering finish.
We also felt this had a few years left (Jack felt this was still to hit its peak; about 90% developed) and could possibly get slightly better.
I would be tempted to buy this wine again if you could buy for $40
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Bordeaux Tasting by Le Clos (Mina al Salam, Dubai, U.A.E.): Short Note: mature, at or slightly over its developmental peak. Soft and mellow, acidity, fruit and tannins are fully integrated and merged. Balance is ok, although a bit of a hole in the middle palate. Remarkable nice and fresh finish, for an 18 year old.
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Much better showing than last few bottles; decent wine, short finish, lightweight but enjoyable St Estephe, dark red cherries, cranberries, leather, earth. A wine to pair with food and not to be enjoyed on its own.
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Pop n pour, nose a little restrained with pencil shavings, sour cherry, spice. Opened up after half an hour. Medium body, nicely balanced, cherry, tobacco, cigar, soft tannins. Elegant aged claret.
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This wine appears to be like a "tale of two wines". Many give it low marks and talk of harsh finish. I seem to have had the other wine. This was a very enjoyable wine. There was a huge nose for such an old wine, the palate gave bright fruit with sufficient acid to stand up to a big steak, although we only tasted with manchego and almonds. The tannins were mostly gone and the finish was pleasant, but a little on the short side. Otherwise, I would have rated higher. We decanted and let sit for ~1/2 hour. The color during the pour was nice rich brown appropriate for its age, yet in the glass it produced a deep purple. "the player" and I found the good version of this wine, while "dmitri" and others unfortunately found that other wine.
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I guess giving this wine the highest score amongst my fellow CT drinkers I'm going out on a limb; maybe the bottles I have are more pristine than other users who knows. Nevertheless, this wine is excellent value for money and drinking very well post 30 minutes to an hour of decanting / aeration. Very fragrant nose, starts out with earth, tobacco leaves, cassis and opens up secondary aromas of raspberries, black currant and sweet spicy tobacco. Pretty color, browning on the rim and across body of the wine. Excellent entry, refreshing and with enough acidity to last another 3 - 4 years before going down hill, this wine finishes decently well. Medium bodied this wine is a treat for its current price.
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Non-blind. Served in exceptionally small glasses at Sogo Enoteca (Yokohama). Light red full-bodied color with mature signage. Nose is untypical and small, showing some kind of (20+ years) of previously un-encountered vanilla-less banana-tobacco component. On the palate, it gives a first impression of a hollow, bitter, nothingness. However, small sip-air-sip-sir-air-sip... reveals what will come. This is still a baby, and when mature in some 5-15 year's time (I'm not the guy with the crystal ball) it will show off some yellow-cherry-berriness and not so much more. Will not buy, but this is a decent wine. If it has had good storage, it will show off even better in some years to come. Dmitri may need to know that me and my wife would be most comfortable in accepting to take over his ordeal. We are also curious as to what he is referring to with the: [sic!].
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Very tough drinking experience. After 30 minutes to an hour of decanting the nose was appropriately respectful, and some beautiful brown aging was quite clear around the rim of yet still pretty dark wine. Unfortunately the taste of the wine is flat and unassuming with aftertaste unforgivingly strong and bitter, lingering unpleasantly and utterly undefeated by excellent fillet mignon we had accompanied this wine with (sic!). It is not often in my household (well familiar with expensive and inexpensive ready-to-drink Bordeaux) that the wine is left unfinished. Very much doubt this will turn any good with more decanting but as I am to suffer 3 more bottles will try the road others had travelled and decant this for 2-3 hours.
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Following the good suggestions of other CellarTracker reviewers, I decanted the heck out of this bottle; double decanting about three hours in advance of serving. It was wonderful; a true Bordeaux package with mature deep fruit, mature tannins, and a bit of earth.
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Bottle very similar to the last one. Did not notice funk upon opening (did not bother to check). No need to decant, but we let this one breathe for about 90 minutes. Decent entry level Bdx. Not deep or profound, but smooth. Drink up.
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Perfectly decent entry level Bordeaux. Pretty much at is peak. As noted by some other tasters, upon opening there was some type of weird smell/taste -- almost as if the bottle was bad -- but this disappeared after a while. I let it breathe for about 1/2 hour, opened up nicely.
My suspicion is that this bottle is pretty much at its peak/prime. No reason to wait. I have 2 more, and I am looking forward to drinking them in the near future.
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The bottle was decanted soundly and then immediately served. Again, the French Funk was prevalent with an aroma of Blue Cheese. However, this diminished and the wine had nice tastes of dark fruit, some dried fruit and some earth.
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after being disappointed with the last bottle I wasn't expecting much but tasted with a lamb shank at a cosy dinner with the nearest and dearest and it really was quite splendid - smooth and well balanced .
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Decanted 1/2 an hour. Blackcurrant fruit, stony minerals and hints of spice and tobacco on the nose. Medium bodied on the palate with decent concentration, evident but not intrusive fine-grained tannin, blackcurrant fruit and minerals, then a nice creaminess and some strawberry fruit on a good length, slightly savoury well balanced finish. Actually very enjoyable if not utterly profound, and drinking very well with food. Absolutely no hurry on this showing - to at least 2012ish.
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I did not decant this. When opened it had an offputting aroma; possibly sulpher. Fortunately, this disappeared over a relatively short time. While the wine was in good shape for its age with a lot of dark color left, I thought the wine was a bit rustic. I'll have to try another bottle and properly decant to see if it fares better.
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3/9/2023 - Qpedal Does not like this wine:
Past due
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2/6/2019 - pilot360 wrote: 88 Points
Cool to the nose. Dark ruby, opaque.
Nose varied first hour then settles down. Autumnal, leaves, bright ripe cherry, earthy and fungal. This nose is clean, and allows for individual scents to be noted. That bright cherry shines through. Chalky.
Palate is a little flat, slightly sour, touches of tart cranberry, low tannins on side of the mouth. Missing it’s mid palate, does have a savory saline finish that lasts. After a few hours in the decanter, mouth becomes lush, drenched cherry, soil.
Great nose, ok palate. I’ll see if it changed over the next 4 hours. ( in a wide mouth decanter)
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11/28/2016 - Kirk Grant wrote:
Color: Ruby with light bricking at the rim
Smell: Manure, decaying flowers, dehydrated red fruits, and sawdust. This is a nose that reminds me a bit like a NIN video where everything seems to be in decay or smells like something you might find in an old antique store lost to time.
Taste: Red fruits & pirazines dominate the palate...this is smooth and ready to go. Tannins are resolved and there's just enough acidity for food.
Overall: This is medium body, medium acidity, medium fruit, and the tannins are fully resolved...it's ready to go. If you have have any in the cellar...crack a bottle and start drinking them every 4-6 months until they're gone. Excellent
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3/7/2016 - O'Meara wrote:
Fruit has faded. The nose has green pepper notes that remind me of a younger wine. The tannins are dominating the fruit, but everything is smooth. I doubt this will get better.
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10/1/2015 - Redteeth wrote:
This bottle had a bit of funk in the aroma and initial taste but it dissipated. After that, the wine was very nice. However, on the second day, the remaining half bottle showed negative signs of age. In my opinion the vintage is at the end of its road.
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8/14/2015 - ETT95 wrote: 89 Points
A former Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel Chateau, this wine is as tannic as those Grand Cru Saint-Estèphe. You can find all those old wine characters in it - smell of dried mushrooms and soil. Surprisingly the wine is beautifully balanced and acidity is adequate, but not significant. It doesn't have sign of fading in more than 2 hours. A very good CB
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7/28/2015 - ledocq Likes this wine: 89 Points
PnP: great deep port-like nose but the taste is off -- nice opening and a shrill, vinegar end. So we left a glass out for four hours and then: bang, lovely. I understand why people throw the adjective "rustic" around for this. The taste is just as folks say (leather, tobacco, fading fruit) and the finish is medium with drying tannins. (1995 is a tannic year, no?) The aroma is better than the taste, though -- it stays intriguing and rich all night long. Worth the 37 bucks but it's more of an academic "oh, yeah, now I know what aged St Estephe is like" than abiding love. (Day 2 update: after a night vacuumed and in the regular fridge, it's still good and not that much changed.)
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8/31/2014 - hkm520240 wrote: 89 Points
Opened and drank over from afternoon till dinner.
Dark garnet with brick red tinge, showing aromas of earth, cherry, red fruit and tobacco.
Palate evolved from tart and lean to reveal sweet tobacco, forest floor and cherry undertones. Light to medium bodied with soft velvety texture, with fresh acidity backbone. Medium finish with soft chewy tannins. This is actually drinking nicely now and can probably hold for few years or more, definitely beat my expectation.
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4/30/2014 - wine&roses wrote: 89 Points
Of 3 bottles tonight at Lynn's birthday, one was perfect, with plenty of succulent fruit left under lots of complexity, and two were perhaps a tad past it, though still very lovely, classic claret.
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4/20/2014 - Merengue wrote: 90 Points
This is drinking very nicely. Perfectly balanced and well rounded, smooth with red currant notes backed by forest floor and oak. Still Fresh and light to medium bodied. Perfect match for grilled lamb chops. This is at or very close to its peak. Wonderful bargain for a semi aged second tier bordeaux. Nice surprise.
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2/22/2014 - _water.into.wine_ Likes this wine: 92 Points
Drank with jack. We both really, really liked this wine.
Red to look at (not too much bricking) with mushrooms, nuts, and "forest floor" on the nose. Extremely smooth, medium to light bodied, and still tasting quite fresh. Despite some of the other tasting notes, we felt this had a longer and lingering finish.
We also felt this had a few years left (Jack felt this was still to hit its peak; about 90% developed) and could possibly get slightly better.
I would be tempted to buy this wine again if you could buy for $40
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10/20/2013 - johnh1001 wrote: 88 Points
Dark fruit, leather. A bit chunky. Shorter finish.
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5/23/2013 - Barolo Raymond Likes this wine: 89 Points
Bordeaux Tasting by Le Clos (Mina al Salam, Dubai, U.A.E.): Short Note: mature, at or slightly over its developmental peak. Soft and mellow, acidity, fruit and tannins are fully integrated and merged. Balance is ok, although a bit of a hole in the middle palate. Remarkable nice and fresh finish, for an 18 year old.
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1/6/2013 - the player wrote: 89 Points
Much better showing than last few bottles; decent wine, short finish, lightweight but enjoyable St Estephe, dark red cherries, cranberries, leather, earth. A wine to pair with food and not to be enjoyed on its own.
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9/10/2012 - the player wrote: 89 Points
Short finish, decent drink. See previous notes.
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7/21/2012 - danp wrote: 90 Points
Pop n pour, nose a little restrained with pencil shavings, sour cherry, spice. Opened up after half an hour. Medium body, nicely balanced, cherry, tobacco, cigar, soft tannins. Elegant aged claret.
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6/10/2012 - up4wine wrote: 89 Points
This wine appears to be like a "tale of two wines". Many give it low marks and talk of harsh finish. I seem to have had the other wine. This was a very enjoyable wine. There was a huge nose for such an old wine, the palate gave bright fruit with sufficient acid to stand up to a big steak, although we only tasted with manchego and almonds. The tannins were mostly gone and the finish was pleasant, but a little on the short side. Otherwise, I would have rated higher. We decanted and let sit for ~1/2 hour. The color during the pour was nice rich brown appropriate for its age, yet in the glass it produced a deep purple. "the player" and I found the good version of this wine, while "dmitri" and others unfortunately found that other wine.
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5/27/2012 - the player wrote: 89 Points
Don't know why the last two bottles have not been at par with the previous bottles. Still a very enjoyable St Estephe for the price.
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5/16/2012 - the player wrote: 90 Points
Enjoyable as alwats, nice mature St Estephe, despite the short finish.
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2/19/2012 - the player wrote: 90 Points
I guess giving this wine the highest score amongst my fellow CT drinkers I'm going out on a limb; maybe the bottles I have are more pristine than other users who knows. Nevertheless, this wine is excellent value for money and drinking very well post 30 minutes to an hour of decanting / aeration. Very fragrant nose, starts out with earth, tobacco leaves, cassis and opens up secondary aromas of raspberries, black currant and sweet spicy tobacco. Pretty color, browning on the rim and across body of the wine. Excellent entry, refreshing and with enough acidity to last another 3 - 4 years before going down hill, this wine finishes decently well. Medium bodied this wine is a treat for its current price.
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2/12/2012 - dmitri wrote: 82 Points
Yet again disappointing and consistent with my previous notes. Happy that others had better experience.
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2/11/2012 - StefanAkiko wrote: 87 Points
Non-blind. Served in exceptionally small glasses at Sogo Enoteca (Yokohama).
Light red full-bodied color with mature signage.
Nose is untypical and small, showing some kind of (20+ years) of previously un-encountered vanilla-less banana-tobacco component.
On the palate, it gives a first impression of a hollow, bitter, nothingness. However, small sip-air-sip-sir-air-sip... reveals what will come. This is still a baby, and when mature in some 5-15 year's time (I'm not the guy with the crystal ball) it will show off some yellow-cherry-berriness and not so much more.
Will not buy, but this is a decent wine. If it has had good storage, it will show off even better in some years to come. Dmitri may need to know that me and my wife would be most comfortable in accepting to take over his ordeal. We are also curious as to what he is referring to with the: [sic!].
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1/21/2012 - dmitri wrote: 84 Points
This is the second bottle of this unfortunate wine I had had recently. A little milder experience, but far from satisfying.
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1/9/2012 - dmitri wrote: 82 Points
Very tough drinking experience. After 30 minutes to an hour of decanting the nose was appropriately respectful, and some beautiful brown aging was quite clear around the rim of yet still pretty dark wine. Unfortunately the taste of the wine is flat and unassuming with aftertaste unforgivingly strong and bitter, lingering unpleasantly and utterly undefeated by excellent fillet mignon we had accompanied this wine with (sic!). It is not often in my household (well familiar with expensive and inexpensive ready-to-drink Bordeaux) that the wine is left unfinished. Very much doubt this will turn any good with more decanting but as I am to suffer 3 more bottles will try the road others had travelled and decant this for 2-3 hours.
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2/18/2011 - Redteeth wrote:
Following the good suggestions of other CellarTracker reviewers, I decanted the heck out of this bottle; double decanting about three hours in advance of serving. It was wonderful; a true Bordeaux package with mature deep fruit, mature tannins, and a bit of earth.
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9/14/2010 - logger52 wrote: 86 Points
cola fruit nose intact with some nice tannins still coming through on the finish
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8/18/2010 - John Nezlek wrote: 87 Points
Bottle very similar to the last one. Did not notice funk upon opening (did not bother to check). No need to decant, but we let this one breathe for about 90 minutes. Decent entry level Bdx. Not deep or profound, but smooth. Drink up.
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11/27/2009 - John Nezlek wrote: 88 Points
Perfectly decent entry level Bordeaux. Pretty much at is peak. As noted by some other tasters, upon opening there was some type of weird smell/taste -- almost as if the bottle was bad -- but this disappeared after a while. I let it breathe for about 1/2 hour, opened up nicely.
My suspicion is that this bottle is pretty much at its peak/prime. No reason to wait. I have 2 more, and I am looking forward to drinking them in the near future.
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5/25/2009 - Redteeth wrote:
The bottle was decanted soundly and then immediately served. Again, the French Funk was prevalent with an aroma of Blue Cheese. However, this diminished and the wine had nice tastes of dark fruit, some dried fruit and some earth.
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5/8/2009 - sphBacchus wrote: 89 Points
after being disappointed with the last bottle I wasn't expecting much but tasted with a lamb shank at a cosy dinner with the nearest and dearest and it really was quite splendid - smooth and well balanced .
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2/1/2009 - sphBacchus wrote: 82 Points
nothing special - will open earlier before consumption ( an hour this time)
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6/21/2008 - Redteeth wrote:
Took awhile to open up. It had some French Funk on the nose - almost like a blue cheese. Once it opened up it was enjoyable and in good shape.
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6/2/2008 - ggmama wrote:
Nice. Earthy tones of a Bordeaux.
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1/25/2008 - Paul D wrote: 88 Points
Decanted 1/2 an hour. Blackcurrant fruit, stony minerals and hints of spice and tobacco on the nose. Medium bodied on the palate with decent concentration, evident but not intrusive fine-grained tannin, blackcurrant fruit and minerals, then a nice creaminess and some strawberry fruit on a good length, slightly savoury well balanced finish. Actually very enjoyable if not utterly profound, and drinking very well with food. Absolutely no hurry on this showing - to at least 2012ish.
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10/21/2006 - Redteeth wrote: 85 Points
I did not decant this. When opened it had an offputting aroma; possibly sulpher. Fortunately, this disappeared over a relatively short time. While the wine was in good shape for its age with a lot of dark color left, I thought the wine was a bit rustic. I'll have to try another bottle and properly decant to see if it fares better.
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1/12/2006 - tmay wrote: 86 Points
Cherry cola nose. medium finish.
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12/13/1998 - Zweder wrote: 87 Points
Good sticky tannin. A lot of consistency. Good!!
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