Prior bottle was 13 months ago and this wine continues to show beautifully. Red berries, red cherry, minerals and earth on the nose. Medium bodied with red berries and red cherry upfront, moving to a mix of both black and red cherry through the middle and finishing with tart red cherry, earth, minerals, light spices and fine grained tannins. Seems pretty simple, but the reality is this wine has depth, nuances and came off as both elegant and quite weel balanced. Every sip seemed slightly different as brighter notes mixed with richer notes and added small hints and background qualities. All this was head together in an almost seamless fashion, a real joy to drink. I'm going to be hard pressed to not open another bottle in November 2023, given how well it's currently showing.
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Prior bottle was 17 months ago and this wine continues to show extremely well. Bright red cherry, darker red cherry and black cherry along with mineral and earth notes on the nose. Between medium and full bodied with the same mix of black and red cherry from my prior bottle, but with more complexity than that simple description conveys. It's a combination of brighter notes, deeper/darker notes, and more rounded and expressive notes, all swirling together, combining and recombining. The mid-body remains silky and elegant while the backside shows tart red and black cherry along with fine grained tannins. This wine is simply showing beautifully and I'll either open my next bottle in July 2022 or November 2022.
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Pop and pour. In the glass, medium red/maroon at the rim, shading to medium-dark maroon at the core. On the nose, a mix of cherries and wet stone. On the palate, cherries, nutmeg, and slate, with an almost chalky texture on the mid-palate - it never quite takes over, but there is a lot of minerality in this pinot.
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Garnet color in the glass, clear looking throughout. Nose of Birch, black cherry and black boysenberry. Flavors of black raspberries, black boysenberries and black cherries. Medium acidity, medium tannin, medium to full bodied. Drink over the short to medium term.
Prior bottle was almost three years ago and this has very much lived up to my high expectations. Black cherry, some red cherry, earth and spice notes on the nose. Between medium and full bodied with black cherry upfront, showing a good mix of round open fruit and bright, more tart fruit. There are some background red cherry notes, but the initial notes are mostly black cherry now. Mid-body shows good density and depth with the same satiny elegance I recalled from my prior bottle. Mid-body also brings in plum and raspberry. Tart notes on the backside (lighter strawberry, brighter cherry and more tart cranberry) provide very good contrast with the mid-body fruit and leads to a very clean, integrated finishing transition. Still took about four hours to come together, which bodes well for the future. The biggest changes were in the overall integration and the improved balance between structure and fruit, especially towards the back. What was extremely tight in my prior bottle is now much more expressive. Has the potential for some additional improvement and I'll plan to open my next bottle in June/July 2021.
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Just over a year since my last bottle, this was opened around lunch, left in the bottle, and enjoyed with a smoked turkey.
Medium ruby with an open bouquet, a little more savory than I remember from last year. The concentration hasn’t really changed, but tannins seem to have further softened. Nice weight of fruit on the midpalate, and I do detect some early tertiary development going on in this bottle, very faint, but perhaps a promise of things to come. It definitely has the balance and acidity to age further. Would love to try again in 3-5 years
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Very nice and appealing nose dominated by sweet red cherry. Big round mouth feel.of red fruit dominated by cherry with a touch of red berries. Some moist forest soil and mushrooms toward the middle and end. Still pretty young. Long finish. Very good but somehow it doesn't excite me as much as I expected. Possibly in a bit of a dumb phase. Open next bottle in about 3 years.
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This is an excellent wine. Not your typical light fruit pinot. Some serious depth here that I struggle to pinpoint. If you want an excellent pinot with character and depth, give this a try.
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I am now officially a big Antica Terra fan. I had previously tried the Botanica and loved it, actually it was the only Oregon Pinot Noir that I could get excited about. Many were enjoyable, but not ‘wow.’
The Ceras was even more ‘wow.’ As another reviewer described, it really was complete. Such delicate nuanced fruit, strawberries and cherries. The crushed stone and mineral. The herbal notes. The acidity. I can’t wait to try some of these with a bit of age.
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We drink a lot of Russian River Valley Pinot (our favorite), so it's always fun try something a little different...especially from a quality producer like AT. This is mid-weight with a pale burgundy color, more classic Pinot less RRV. The red fruit is muted, very mellow, maybe a touch of rhubarb. Drinking beautifully today. It can go years but may lose some youthful punch and, really, this wine is as smooth as a wine needs to be.
Day 2: After sitting on nitrogen for a few days I picked up a really savory and wild aroma along with a, seemingly, new addition of smoke on the palate. Absolutely love this.
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Heaps of tea, cedar, tobacco and pine. Red cherry, orange zest and potpourri. Broad, round mouthfeel with soft tannins. Very mild bitterness in the finish, or would have rated higher. Great showing from OR.
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Really exceptional expression of Oregon pinot. Light to medium in body, with balanced supporting acidity but a great concentration of cranberry and red fruit, with great persistence on the palate. I suspect that the alcohol is relatively high for the region, but it is so well integrated to render it unnoticeable. Yes there are minerals and savory things going on as well but the fruit drive (relative to Oregon PN like drouhin and Shea) is what caught my attention. Exceptional bottle and worth a flyer to try. Excellent food wine.
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I very rarely rate a wine so highly. It has hard to find the words for how much I love this wine. It's not massive by West Coast pinot standards, but has a full profile. This best I can do is to say it is complete, everything you would want, fruit, tannin, structure, sense of terroir and amazingly elegant. Unlike some I could mention (ok then, Kistler), this is actually fully worth the $100 price tag.
First time tried her wine, very elegant Oregon Pinot noir. Decanted for an hour before serving, on the nose, red cherries, strawberries, light herbs and crushed little stones type of minerals. On the palate, elegant and silky texture, fruits were generous but not jammy, still a bit too young to consume but it is a beautiful wine.
For my own reference - interview with Maggie Harrison: http://www.the-buyer.net/opinion/maggie-harrison-on-making-wine-at-antica-terra-in-oregons-willamette-valley/
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Decanted from cellar temperature and started to drink after about 30 minutes whilst still a little cool.
The nose is nice pure PN fruit; the palate is very nicely balanced; light-medium bodied; the finish is quite long. There was no great evolution over the two hours it took to finish it.
All in all it's a very nice PN - easy to drink, structured, balanced, nice fruit. But for me, no Wow! factor.
If I were paying the CAV of US$95 I'd be rather disappointed. Fortunately in Hong Kong it's only US$60 at which price it's just about OK QPR.
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More fruit centric and expressive than the 2016. Moderate acid with a very soft palate of earthy red fruits. Seems to be a more restrained amount of whole cluster here versus the 16. Nice wine but just lack the intensity and structure I lean towards.
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Very nice expression of clean PN on the nose. Some oak coming through. Balanced, sappy but I’m missing something to give it personality (?). Give it time to gain complexity seems like a good proposition. Very good but not great. 90-92p.
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One of the best Oregon pinots out there, imho. Burgundian in that this wine balances fruit with a real sense of terroir. Nice complexity, silky structure and a lovely finish. Still young; will improve with another 2-5 years of aging.
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This is an amazing wine. Give the bottle 1.5 hours after opening, this beautiful wine bouquet opens up to reveal forest floor, mushroom, cinnamon and nutmeg spice. On the palate extensive balanced acid and full sweet fruit (ripe plum, Indian spices) wine. Another 2 to 3 years in cellar will do this wine to 97 points. Still a baby now, but excellent.
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Tasted alongside the Botanica, this is clearly a more delicate wine. Silky and tremendously refined. Both were pure and vibrant with the sense of place you only get with great Pinots.
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Charleston Food & Wine Festival; 3/1/2018-3/3/2018 (Charleston, SC (various locations)): Ordered off a restaurant wine list. We'd had this a few months before at the winery and I was looking for something I knew would be good. Reasonable mark-up (by NYC standards so not saying much). This time around I got a bit more of the savory side of the wine. Perhaps because it was on the heels of a chenin and served with a truffle and pork gnocchi dishes. It worked exceptionally well with the truffle. Really brought out the flavor of that and the veal stock. I enjoyed it.
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Red berry along with black cherry, earth and spice notes on the nose. Between medium and full bodied (14.1% ABV) and extremely tight at first; took over five hours open for it to even begin to show, but patience is rewarded. Mix of black and red cherry upfront with round, satiny plum and raspberry hints through the simply beautiful mid-body. Excellent tart notes on the back side (strawberry and cherry); a mix of acidity and tannins for both structure and contrast. Minerals, spices and earth through the finish. Probably opened this two years early, but had the opportunity to try a bottle without cutting into what I'd purchased directly and it was well worth it. In another two years, I expect it will have started to integrate nicely as well as show additional complexity through the middle. This is certainly extremely good now, but it will be so much better in another few years. Next bottle for me will be July 2020.
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Prefer this to the Beaux Freres. More earth, far more complex. Deep fruit that goes on forever. Nose is a little more reticent. Needs air. Tobacco? Mineral streak.
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3/6/2024 - dlalla wrote:
Fruity at the start, blend of spicy herbs at the finish
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1/5/2024 - sjp1323 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Really drinking well. Bright red cherry w/balanced pop of spice. Glad have one more.
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7/19/2023 - RGCM Gananda Likes this wine: 94 Points
Prior bottle was 13 months ago and this wine continues to show beautifully. Red berries, red cherry, minerals and earth on the nose. Medium bodied with red berries and red cherry upfront, moving to a mix of both black and red cherry through the middle and finishing with tart red cherry, earth, minerals, light spices and fine grained tannins. Seems pretty simple, but the reality is this wine has depth, nuances and came off as both elegant and quite weel balanced. Every sip seemed slightly different as brighter notes mixed with richer notes and added small hints and background qualities. All this was head together in an almost seamless fashion, a real joy to drink. I'm going to be hard pressed to not open another bottle in November 2023, given how well it's currently showing.
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7/6/2023 - VoteferPedro wrote:
a lush wine
blueberry and mint and herb but other spices come and go ... coriander seed ... cardamom ...
Then its back to blueberries
intriguing and enjoyable
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1/19/2023 - chialuvwines wrote: 91 Points
Oaky, clearly new world. Very nice fragrant, not the typical pinot nose. Can tell it is an impressive bottle
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9/25/2022 - Beezc Likes this wine: 93 Points
Consistently delicious. The Ceras is always a little more earthy than the Botanica. It’s in a good place now but could go a little longer.
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8/27/2022 - sjp1323 Likes this wine: 92 Points
1 hr decant...delicious
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7/13/2022 - Hanibal Likes this wine: 92 Points
As good as I remember it. Very complexe nose. A slight sweetness. To be had on a cooler night not a summer wine
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6/18/2022 - RGCM Gananda Likes this wine: 94 Points
Prior bottle was 17 months ago and this wine continues to show extremely well. Bright red cherry, darker red cherry and black cherry along with mineral and earth notes on the nose. Between medium and full bodied with the same mix of black and red cherry from my prior bottle, but with more complexity than that simple description conveys. It's a combination of brighter notes, deeper/darker notes, and more rounded and expressive notes, all swirling together, combining and recombining. The mid-body remains silky and elegant while the backside shows tart red and black cherry along with fine grained tannins. This wine is simply showing beautifully and I'll either open my next bottle in July 2022 or November 2022.
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9/9/2021 - jshufelt wrote: 92 Points
Pop and pour. In the glass, medium red/maroon at the rim, shading to medium-dark maroon at the core. On the nose, a mix of cherries and wet stone. On the palate, cherries, nutmeg, and slate, with an almost chalky texture on the mid-palate - it never quite takes over, but there is a lot of minerality in this pinot.
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6/21/2021 - Gruffalius Likes this wine: 92 Points
Very Burgundian. Earthy. Can feel the heat going down early on but eases off with more air. Long finish.
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3/26/2021 - wineismylife wrote: 91 Points
WIML91
Tasted non blind.
Garnet color in the glass, clear looking throughout. Nose of Birch, black cherry and black boysenberry. Flavors of black raspberries, black boysenberries and black cherries. Medium acidity, medium tannin, medium to full bodied. Drink over the short to medium term.
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1/1/2021 - RGCM Gananda Likes this wine: 94 Points
Prior bottle was almost three years ago and this has very much lived up to my high expectations. Black cherry, some red cherry, earth and spice notes on the nose. Between medium and full bodied with black cherry upfront, showing a good mix of round open fruit and bright, more tart fruit. There are some background red cherry notes, but the initial notes are mostly black cherry now. Mid-body shows good density and depth with the same satiny elegance I recalled from my prior bottle. Mid-body also brings in plum and raspberry. Tart notes on the backside (lighter strawberry, brighter cherry and more tart cranberry) provide very good contrast with the mid-body fruit and leads to a very clean, integrated finishing transition. Still took about four hours to come together, which bodes well for the future. The biggest changes were in the overall integration and the improved balance between structure and fruit, especially towards the back. What was extremely tight in my prior bottle is now much more expressive. Has the potential for some additional improvement and I'll plan to open my next bottle in June/July 2021.
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12/24/2020 - jviz wrote: 92 Points
Just over a year since my last bottle, this was opened around lunch, left in the bottle, and enjoyed with a smoked turkey.
Medium ruby with an open bouquet, a little more savory than I remember from last year. The concentration hasn’t really changed, but tannins seem to have further softened. Nice weight of fruit on the midpalate, and I do detect some early tertiary development going on in this bottle, very faint, but perhaps a promise of things to come. It definitely has the balance and acidity to age further. Would love to try again in 3-5 years
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12/23/2020 - Sourdough Likes this wine: 92 Points
Very nice and appealing nose dominated by sweet red cherry. Big round mouth feel.of red fruit dominated by cherry with a touch of red berries. Some moist forest soil and mushrooms toward the middle and end. Still pretty young. Long finish. Very good but somehow it doesn't excite me as much as I expected. Possibly in a bit of a dumb phase. Open next bottle in about 3 years.
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7/22/2020 - adipovino Likes this wine: 93 Points
So much character here. Will only get better. Classy.
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7/13/2020 - KTelaak_Buffalo Likes this wine: 94 Points
This is an excellent wine. Not your typical light fruit pinot. Some serious depth here that I struggle to pinpoint. If you want an excellent pinot with character and depth, give this a try.
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5/16/2020 - Decanting Queen Likes this wine: 95 Points
I am now officially a big Antica Terra fan. I had previously tried the Botanica and loved it, actually it was the only Oregon Pinot Noir that I could get excited about. Many were enjoyable, but not ‘wow.’
The Ceras was even more ‘wow.’ As another reviewer described, it really was complete. Such delicate nuanced fruit, strawberries and cherries. The crushed stone and mineral. The herbal notes. The acidity. I can’t wait to try some of these with a bit of age.
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5/4/2020 - ozziewine Likes this wine: 94 Points
We drink a lot of Russian River Valley Pinot (our favorite), so it's always fun try something a little different...especially from a quality producer like AT. This is mid-weight with a pale burgundy color, more classic Pinot less RRV. The red fruit is muted, very mellow, maybe a touch of rhubarb. Drinking beautifully today. It can go years but may lose some youthful punch and, really, this wine is as smooth as a wine needs to be.
Day 2: After sitting on nitrogen for a few days I picked up a really savory and wild aroma along with a, seemingly, new addition of smoke on the palate. Absolutely love this.
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4/19/2020 - DangerMouse81 wrote: 94 Points
Heaps of tea, cedar, tobacco and pine. Red cherry, orange zest and potpourri. Broad, round mouthfeel with soft tannins. Very mild bitterness in the finish, or would have rated higher. Great showing from OR.
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11/25/2019 - jviz Likes this wine: 94 Points
Really exceptional expression of Oregon pinot. Light to medium in body, with balanced supporting acidity but a great concentration of cranberry and red fruit, with great persistence on the palate. I suspect that the alcohol is relatively high for the region, but it is so well integrated to render it unnoticeable. Yes there are minerals and savory things going on as well but the fruit drive (relative to Oregon PN like drouhin and Shea) is what caught my attention. Exceptional bottle and worth a flyer to try. Excellent food wine.
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6/30/2019 - jrt Likes this wine: 96 Points
I very rarely rate a wine so highly. It has hard to find the words for how much I love this wine. It's not massive by West Coast pinot standards, but has a full profile. This best I can do is to say it is complete, everything you would want, fruit, tannin, structure, sense of terroir and amazingly elegant. Unlike some I could mention (ok then, Kistler), this is actually fully worth the $100 price tag.
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5/2/2019 - Ms. Bubblehead Likes this wine:
First time tried her wine, very elegant Oregon Pinot noir. Decanted for an hour before serving, on the nose, red cherries, strawberries, light herbs and crushed little stones type of minerals. On the palate, elegant and silky texture, fruits were generous but not jammy, still a bit too young to consume but it is a beautiful wine.
For my own reference - interview with Maggie Harrison:
http://www.the-buyer.net/opinion/maggie-harrison-on-making-wine-at-antica-terra-in-oregons-willamette-valley/
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3/22/2019 - Paul852 Likes this wine: 91 Points
Decanted from cellar temperature and started to drink after about 30 minutes whilst still a little cool.
The nose is nice pure PN fruit; the palate is very nicely balanced; light-medium bodied; the finish is quite long. There was no great evolution over the two hours it took to finish it.
All in all it's a very nice PN - easy to drink, structured, balanced, nice fruit. But for me, no Wow! factor.
If I were paying the CAV of US$95 I'd be rather disappointed. Fortunately in Hong Kong it's only US$60 at which price it's just about OK QPR.
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12/7/2018 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote: 93 Points
More fruit centric and expressive than the 2016. Moderate acid with a very soft palate of earthy red fruits. Seems to be a more restrained amount of whole cluster here versus the 16. Nice wine but just lack the intensity and structure I lean towards.
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10/26/2018 - Mascarello59 Likes this wine: 91 Points
Very nice expression of clean PN on the nose. Some oak coming through. Balanced, sappy but I’m missing something to give it personality (?). Give it time to gain complexity seems like a good proposition. Very good but not great. 90-92p.
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6/9/2018 - J. Vino Likes this wine: 94 Points
One of the best Oregon pinots out there, imho. Burgundian in that this wine balances fruit with a real sense of terroir. Nice complexity, silky structure and a lovely finish. Still young; will improve with another 2-5 years of aging.
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5/27/2018 - Burgundy Al wrote: 91 Points
Willamette Valley Weekend Visit; 5/26/2018-5/27/2018: Tasting at the winery. All red fruit start-to-finish with some earth and very good textures. Still wound slightly tight, better 2020-.
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5/13/2018 - Scottlmatthews Likes this wine: 95 Points
This is an amazing wine. Give the bottle 1.5 hours after opening, this beautiful wine bouquet opens up to reveal forest floor, mushroom, cinnamon and nutmeg spice. On the palate extensive balanced acid and full sweet fruit (ripe plum, Indian spices) wine. Another 2 to 3 years in cellar will do this wine to 97 points. Still a baby now, but excellent.
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5/11/2018 - Hamersly wrote: 95 Points
Tasted alongside the Botanica, this is clearly a more delicate wine. Silky and tremendously refined. Both were pure and vibrant with the sense of place you only get with great Pinots.
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3/3/2018 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Charleston Food & Wine Festival; 3/1/2018-3/3/2018 (Charleston, SC (various locations)): Ordered off a restaurant wine list. We'd had this a few months before at the winery and I was looking for something I knew would be good. Reasonable mark-up (by NYC standards so not saying much). This time around I got a bit more of the savory side of the wine. Perhaps because it was on the heels of a chenin and served with a truffle and pork gnocchi dishes. It worked exceptionally well with the truffle. Really brought out the flavor of that and the veal stock. I enjoyed it.
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2/17/2018 - RGCM Gananda Likes this wine: 94 Points
Red berry along with black cherry, earth and spice notes on the nose. Between medium and full bodied (14.1% ABV) and extremely tight at first; took over five hours open for it to even begin to show, but patience is rewarded. Mix of black and red cherry upfront with round, satiny plum and raspberry hints through the simply beautiful mid-body. Excellent tart notes on the back side (strawberry and cherry); a mix of acidity and tannins for both structure and contrast. Minerals, spices and earth through the finish. Probably opened this two years early, but had the opportunity to try a bottle without cutting into what I'd purchased directly and it was well worth it. In another two years, I expect it will have started to integrate nicely as well as show additional complexity through the middle. This is certainly extremely good now, but it will be so much better in another few years. Next bottle for me will be July 2020.
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2/2/2018 - rustyRudy Likes this wine: 94 Points
Tasting pour. Modest nose. Deeper layers of cherries, strawberry and red raspberry. Nice complexity, tart enough, long finish.
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2/2/2018 - andrewdodd86 Likes this wine: 96 Points
Prefer this to the Beaux Freres. More earth, far more complex. Deep fruit that goes on forever. Nose is a little more reticent. Needs air. Tobacco? Mineral streak.
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1/14/2018 - Winedog1 Likes this wine: 95 Points
More balanced. Feminine. Minerals. Earth. Burgundy. Special wine.
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1/7/2018 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Winorama: A winter in Wineland II; 1/6/2018-1/14/2018 (Portland, Eureka, Napa): Really liked this wine. One of my favorites of the tasting. It's very feminine and elegant and subtle in approach. Lots of red fruit and minerals. Very nice.
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