Great, great bottle of wine; drunk at a dinner with a 2013 Drouhin Chambertin CdB and this was the much better wine; still very youthful and fruity, but with lots of smoky and floral Hermitage goodness; elegant tannin and an integrated kiss of vanilla. I’ve had bottles of Chave that weren’t close to this good.
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Showing very young with forward, rich black fruit that has notions of smoked meat, olives and black pepper. The fruit feels a bit heavy today and like its dampening the secondary nuanced notes. Needs more time.
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Cassoulet at Bill's (Wilmette, IL): This is ultimately going to become an incredible bottle of syrah. But it isn't there yet. This was dark and dense, showing some blood and meat notes in combination with black fruit. The velvety texture amplifies the scale of this wine. There's a lot of stuffing here, but it's mostly all just covered by the tannic structure. Especially coming off the heels of a recently tasted 1998, I'm fairly confident this will follow a similar trajectory: we just need to wait some more.
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Big Meat and Serious Syrah on a gorgeous summer afternoon (Westport, CT): Wow this was one of my favorite wines of the tasting and my first time learning about this producer - so definitely one to keep an eye out for going forward. Dark fruit, bramble, blood earth and "salty tears", almost animalistic and just plain delicious. It is probably still on the young side although highly enjoyable now - I imagine it will be tremendous in 10 plus years.
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Big Meat and Serious Syrah (Westport, CT): A very powerful wine. Maybe the most powerful of the group. Very young. Lots of currant and smoke and maybe some vanilla as well. Very good. For most this was the surprise of the tasting as it was new for many of us.
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Wow, just an amazing wine and probably just coming out of its shell today but still a baby. Dark-elegant fruit with hints of herbs, cooked meat that finishes long with mouth-coated tannins. "Sorrel's Le Gréal is made up of at least ninety percent Le Méal, what remains is sourced from Greffieux. Le Méal is a south-facing, rocky sun trap so it produces wines of muscle and rich fruits. The small amount of Greffieux lends an elegance that tampers the full-throttle intensity of the wine. Sorrel's methods are traditional - stems are normally included, no new oak is used". This is a real beauty in the making.
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What a great Syrah. Nose shows that this is clearly old world with power and elegance. Black fruit, olives and pepper abound. Palate shows its youth with mostly sweeter, young black fruit that is crazy long. Underling meat, herbs, pepper and savory notes peak through as well. Delicious.
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9/14/2022 - Nmilau Likes this wine: 90 Points
Part Napa, part Hermitage. Too boozy and way overextracted. Still tasty but not what you would expect
Currant, chocolate cake with a sugary cherry inside. If that’s what you like and u want to spend $300 on a bottle then this is the wine for you
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10/30/2021 - pren wrote: 87 Points
coravin第一次，不新鲜的老酒气味。两小时后散去，还是没什么气味，口中是个thick, rich, extracted,sweet的酒，类似甜咖啡的味道。没啥品种特征，喝不出是Syrah. 15度，很难相信这个酒没要new oak。
第二次一个礼拜后，吸取前面的教训提前四小时打开，之后试了几次。还是老酒的一般过程，两小时后酱油味儿最浓。四小时后，稳定下来。气味始终寥寥，口中不再那么thick， extracted了。最突出的就是甜。老酒都一点甜，但是这个酒要甜上几倍。厚度还是在的，不涩，还是有隐约的咖啡味道。这个flavor profile，和oaky但一点年头的酒有啥区别呢？哪里有一点像Syrah呢？。
两个月后，剩下的1/3。没啥变化，甜巧克力/咖啡味，没一点品种特征。就是个heavy的酒。
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2/1/2020 - blank blank wrote: 93 Points
Great, great bottle of wine; drunk at a dinner with a 2013 Drouhin Chambertin CdB and this was the much better wine; still very youthful and fruity, but with lots of smoky and floral Hermitage goodness; elegant tannin and an integrated kiss of vanilla. I’ve had bottles of Chave that weren’t close to this good.
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3/25/2018 - Nanda wrote: 92 Points
Showing very young with forward, rich black fruit that has notions of smoked meat, olives and black pepper. The fruit feels a bit heavy today and like its dampening the secondary nuanced notes. Needs more time.
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3/25/2018 - acyso wrote: 90 Points
Cassoulet at Bill's (Wilmette, IL): This is ultimately going to become an incredible bottle of syrah. But it isn't there yet. This was dark and dense, showing some blood and meat notes in combination with black fruit. The velvety texture amplifies the scale of this wine. There's a lot of stuffing here, but it's mostly all just covered by the tannic structure. Especially coming off the heels of a recently tasted 1998, I'm fairly confident this will follow a similar trajectory: we just need to wait some more.
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7/29/2017 - retired_and_roving Likes this wine:
Big Meat and Serious Syrah on a gorgeous summer afternoon (Westport, CT): Wow this was one of my favorite wines of the tasting and my first time learning about this producer - so definitely one to keep an eye out for going forward. Dark fruit, bramble, blood earth and "salty tears", almost animalistic and just plain delicious. It is probably still on the young side although highly enjoyable now - I imagine it will be tremendous in 10 plus years.
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7/29/2017 - MC2 Wines Likes this wine:
Big Meat and Serious Syrah (Westport, CT): A very powerful wine. Maybe the most powerful of the group. Very young. Lots of currant and smoke and maybe some vanilla as well. Very good. For most this was the surprise of the tasting as it was new for many of us.
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7/25/2016 - MarkO'Mahony wrote: flawed
TCA. Very disappointing; you can taste the potential beneath the corked smell and flavours.
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2/6/2016 - Drankard wrote: 96 Points
Wow, just an amazing wine and probably just coming out of its shell today but still a baby. Dark-elegant fruit with hints of herbs, cooked meat that finishes long with mouth-coated tannins. "Sorrel's Le Gréal is made up of at least ninety percent Le Méal, what remains is sourced from Greffieux. Le Méal is a south-facing, rocky sun trap so it produces wines of muscle and rich fruits. The small amount of Greffieux lends an elegance that tampers the full-throttle intensity of the wine. Sorrel's methods are traditional - stems are normally included, no new oak is used". This is a real beauty in the making.
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11/29/2014 - Nanda wrote: 93 Points
What a great Syrah. Nose shows that this is clearly old world with power and elegance. Black fruit, olives and pepper abound. Palate shows its youth with mostly sweeter, young black fruit that is crazy long. Underling meat, herbs, pepper and savory notes peak through as well. Delicious.
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10/2/2014 - salil wrote: flawed
Yet another corked bottle of Sorrel. I like the wines a lot when the bottles are sound, but I've encountered far too many TCA-tainted bottles.
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