this cork was saturated and broke upon extraction. The wine didn't seem any the worse for it. Fairly accessible with a typical franc flavor profile, maybe a bit less green than most. Tannins a bit drying on the finish. After about 4 hours open, it was more friendly and in better balance.
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A reasonably good performance, good color still has a young nose, no complexity, has good balance between acidity and fruits. Has a classic Loire Cab Franc nose, body and structure. Will last 10 more years minimum. A good value for the price than quite a few California Cab Francs.
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On this bottle, the cork was only saturated 2/3 the way up...drinking fine, fairly friendly for a loire cab franc with balanced structure, fruit and no green flavors
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Very Good. The first of six bottles purchased three years ago. Though very good and a solid, honest wine for the table, the was quite hard on PnP and did not unwind much over an hour and a half. A decant may be recommended at this stage. There is a riper than usual fruit, but it is mostly caged in by a stony wall. Still, a classic bistro wine with rustic class.
While I want to age some bottles for a decade+, I'm concerned about seepage. Seepage on this cork ranged from between 50% - 100% up the side. I scrolled others' TNs and find many mentions of this. So these may need to be consumed prematurely.
13.5% abv
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A 91 but in the absolutely best way possible. This wine is not meant to be the finest wine ever made, and that’s by design. It is musky and mid heavy bodied on the opening with a dry plum essence that leaves behind a mid length finish with a bit of an alcohol burn. Dry with a down to the dirt expression of terroire. It has a French character to it that is unmistakable. Not elegant by class but elegant by character. A farmer’s talent fully realized.
Again, a fully saturated cork and some leakage to the capsule. All six of my bottles had compromised closures but that's okay because the wine has been absolutely terrific.
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I've decided to drink these now and with a very long aerate since the corks are seeping through. This is bottle 5 of 6 and I probably spent the most time with it since I opened it 3 days ago. I still found it best at the end, where most of the fruit finally came out to keep up with the chewy tannins and rustic nature of this. This did well with my mushroom ravioli and arrabbiatta sauce. 4+12+17+8= 91
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Seepage all the way up to the top, a little mold that may have transferred over to the nose, seems closed right now upon first open.
Generated by the tasting note assistant: "The wine looks ruby colored. The legs are medium. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like blackberry, stoniness, cedar and bell pepper. It tastes like tea, stoniness, stems and red currant. The body is medium. The wine has juicy texture. The wine finishes medium. The wine has high acidity."
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Bottle 1208g. :) Moderately intense aromas of red fruit, dark fruit, smoke, bell pepper, plastic. Dry, with elevated acidity, moderate drying tannins, medium bodied, 13.5°. Smoked meat joins the red fruit on the palate. Moderate length. I'm cooking andouille, as it happens. ...Reading others' notes, I returned to mention that my cork was saturated half way as well.
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Again, a fully saturated cork. Profound and glorious nose of red berry and spice, along with some poopy VA or SO2 at the pop that dies down after a few minutes open. Tiny bit of greenness, but nothing approaching bell pepper status. After 3 or 4 hours of freedom from the bottle, this really wakes up to show more depth of flavor and persistence on the finish. It certainly has the fruit stuffing to age long term, but with these closures being compromised I get the sense that these will need to be consumed before the wine really wants to be. Of course, that's assuming that the wine has a conscience and possesses such desire ;)
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Day one and two are both coming along nicely. Still on the early side but it is starting to loosen up and stretch its legs- showing more open fruit playing against, herbs, violets and black pepper.
It is just now starting to demonstrate why it is a good wine and a reliable purchase year in and out. Drink over the next 10-15 years depending on your preferred stage of development.
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On this bottle, the cork was saturated to the top with some mold around its perimeter. Decanted and poured, showing some sediment. On the palate, this was surprisingly full for a Loire cab franc with none of the expected green/bell pepper flavors. I don't have enough experience with the vintner to know if that is a function of the vintage or house style.
This cork was about half saturated. I suspect this is an issue of overfill in this vintage. The wine was entirely sound but these can be long aging wines, in fact I much prefer them at 15 years, and the cork condition isn't entirely assuring for that purpose.
As for the wine itself, it's clearly a riper vintage wine, but in no way OTT. It has that classic cool, somehow mineral nose that Guion always seems to have. In this vintage it has a bit more generous fruit. While these typically need time for the fruit to soften a bit, this wine is more accessible early. Very good and great value as always.
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Cork fully saturated and capsule was stained, but the wine seemed basically ok if a bit vinegary. Didn't make much of an impression during a busy meal.
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Cool-toned nose with blueberries, cocoa, and Washington cherries. Young for sure, and the fruit is rich. That delicious Cab Franc smoky green pepper note comes out on the finish. To be honest I'd probably guess Washington Cab Franc if I had this blind. Good juice.
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As others have remarked, cork was nearly saturated. Despite this, nose was ok, a bit muted, not showing much cf character
Intense purple/loganberry colour
High acidity, tight tannins, good midweek wine. Needs a lot of air, but I am suspicious of how long before the cork seepage will have an adverse effect
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After the amazing bottle of 2018 Cuvée Domaine, I think I bought more of the 2018 Prestige than any wine in my life. Is it worth it? Well... perhaps it's too early to tell. The 2018 Cuvée Domaine drinks better today. The Prestige is most certainly much more structured and robust. It has now been in the glass for an hour or so. The wine requires attention to not miss the elegance that lies beneath the structure. On attention, the aromas offer lithe berries, intense chalk dust, and pretty cutting graphite. It's interesting how intense and strong those aromas become after multiple large huffs. It still feels compact on the nose, but elegance does shine through. Palate entry starts with tight, integrated blueberries, but that quickly transitions to the massive, intense structure that surrounds this wine. Impressive tannins, acidity, and minerals are all present in earnest. Keeping this in the mouth for any length of time only intensifies the structural elements and perhaps covers some of the flavor components. Acidity is actually the dominant structural element on the finish, but of course this is coupled with intense, fine grained tannins, and its presence is felt up to a minute later. There is no doubt this is an impressively built wine. Again, totally nuts that something like this can be had for under $14. My score is for enjoyment today, but I am very happy with this offering... it's just too early to fully enjoy this wine and I expect many points higher of enjoyment in due time. This is a bottle that should age gracefully for 3+ decades. Glad I have one for every year of that time... perhaps that's what I'll do with them, so by the time I'm 80 I can finally figure out how exactly a Bourgueil ages.
Fully saturated cork. I’ve seen a few other reviews that said this - I wonder what that is about. Wine is not flawed. Opaque, dark ish purple. Deep red fruit, some raspberry on the nose. But not a strong nose. Medium plus tannins. Earthy red fruit on the palate. Slight heat. Enjoyable wine, and will be better with dinner when ready.
This is really good after 4+ hours open and given that this cork (once again) was fully saturated with slight leakage into the capsule, I’m more inclined to open these sooner rather than later. Beautiful wine, once it gets going. 4+12+16+8= 90
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Initially funky earthy nose. Some of the funk mellowed out after an hour. While overly acidic and smuckery on the finish, the fruit, earth and chalk was enjoyable.
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Dark purple color, clear and sound. Cork was ugly and saturated considering how young this bottle is. Medium intensity nose where I get boysenberry, violets, and allspice as the primary elements. Medium-big body and nicely supportive acidity. The balance of firm tannins integrated after a good 6 hours open, so even though this is just an adolescent it was surprisingly harmonious with the aeration. I don’t get a lot of signature Cab Franc traits but the wine is still a lovely little rendition. I feel like it’s the equivalent of a nice little St. Joseph CdR, and that’s all good. 4+11+16+8= 89
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I’ve been wrong about this wine in past vintages, thinking it to be not very good when then later I find that it truly does show best on fruit or flower days on the bio calendar. Maybe I’ll be wrong this time too, but this seems to be a weak vintage for this cuvée. Lots of fruit, not enough acidity to balance, and although quite ripe, somehow also feels thin - in density of flavor and in body, it’s almost dilute at the finish. Not much in terms of terroir expression either. Hopefully when I try it again I’ll have a different experience.
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The color is a radiant dark red with purple flashing, nearly opaque at the center. The nose is seductive, dark mingled berries, red, blue and black, fresh earth, cola, but surprisingly no herbaceousness. Is this some sleight of hand in canopy management, or an effect of 50+ years of organic farming? The effect is a fresh and clean aromatic profile that would have thrown me for a loop blind, like ok, where's the cab franc? With air some stony minerality creeps in, but no Adderly or Alpert to speak of. What obtains?
Fresh, lively and very drinkable. The longer it's open the more the flavors edge inexorably from these delicious dark berries to ferrous minerality to an herbal tinge, like it just can't help being what it is. As I said, at this point I don't know whether the wine is atypical or proto-typical, but it certainly is fun to drink.
"Domaine en culture biologique depuis 1965." That's at the bottom of the back label and maybe I should just have stopped there because, hey, that's typically good enough for me. But here it feels like you can truly taste the intent of an organic regime that not only drinks great but will be good health to me and maybe even filter and fibre my blood.
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4/13/2024 - thalver wrote:
this cork was saturated and broke upon extraction. The wine didn't seem any the worse for it. Fairly accessible with a typical franc flavor profile, maybe a bit less green than most. Tannins a bit drying on the finish. After about 4 hours open, it was more friendly and in better balance.
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3/17/2024 - Bimal Likes this wine: 89 Points
A reasonably good performance, good color still has a young nose, no complexity, has good balance between acidity and fruits. Has a classic Loire Cab Franc nose, body and structure. Will last 10 more years minimum. A good value for the price than quite a few California Cab Francs.
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2/5/2024 - thalver wrote:
On this bottle, the cork was only saturated 2/3 the way up...drinking fine, fairly friendly for a loire cab franc with balanced structure, fruit and no green flavors
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10/23/2023 - QuinnG829 Likes this wine: 89 Points
This needs a lot of air. Was closed off for 2-3 hours and then began to show some of the fruit as well as a bit of oak and maybe a hint of vanilla.
Day 2 this wine completely transformed. Wonderful pepper, tobacco, and leather. Tannins are surprisingly integrated for age.
As others have said, beware of cork seepage. Would love to see this with 8-12 years on it but not sure it will make it.
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5/25/2023 - joraesque wrote: 86 Points
Bottle variation.
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5/1/2023 - joraesque wrote: 88 Points
Good showing this time around.
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4/17/2023 - tward Likes this wine:
Very Good. The first of six bottles purchased three years ago. Though very good and a solid, honest wine for the table, the was quite hard on PnP and did not unwind much over an hour and a half. A decant may be recommended at this stage. There is a riper than usual fruit, but it is mostly caged in by a stony wall. Still, a classic bistro wine with rustic class.
While I want to age some bottles for a decade+, I'm concerned about seepage. Seepage on this cork ranged from between 50% - 100% up the side. I scrolled others' TNs and find many mentions of this. So these may need to be consumed prematurely.
13.5% abv
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4/6/2023 - joraesque wrote: 88 Points
Rustic and in need of more fruit. 13.5% ABV.
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4/5/2023 - SnobNouveau wrote: 91 Points
A 91 but in the absolutely best way possible. This wine is not meant to be the finest wine ever made, and that’s by design. It is musky and mid heavy bodied on the opening with a dry plum essence that leaves behind a mid length finish with a bit of an alcohol burn. Dry with a down to the dirt expression of terroire. It has a French character to it that is unmistakable. Not elegant by class but elegant by character. A farmer’s talent fully realized.
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2/19/2023 - fingers Likes this wine:
Again, a fully saturated cork and some leakage to the capsule. All six of my bottles had compromised closures but that's okay because the wine has been absolutely terrific.
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12/23/2022 - RussK wrote: 91 Points
Russk. Held up being opened for a week. Juicy acidity. Liquid mouth (non-viscous). 91-
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12/14/2022 - fingers Likes this wine: 91 Points
I've decided to drink these now and with a very long aerate since the corks are seeping through. This is bottle 5 of 6 and I probably spent the most time with it since I opened it 3 days ago. I still found it best at the end, where most of the fruit finally came out to keep up with the chewy tannins and rustic nature of this. This did well with my mushroom ravioli and arrabbiatta sauce. 4+12+17+8= 91
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10/24/2022 - aronh Likes this wine: 90 Points
Seepage all the way up to the top, a little mold that may have transferred over to the nose, seems closed right now upon first open.
Generated by the tasting note assistant: "The wine looks ruby colored. The legs are medium. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like blackberry, stoniness, cedar and bell pepper. It tastes like tea, stoniness, stems and red currant. The body is medium. The wine has juicy texture. The wine finishes medium. The wine has high acidity."
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10/12/2022 - ocassiuso wrote:
Bottle 1208g. :) Moderately intense aromas of red fruit, dark fruit, smoke, bell pepper, plastic. Dry, with elevated acidity, moderate drying tannins, medium bodied, 13.5°. Smoked meat joins the red fruit on the palate. Moderate length. I'm cooking andouille, as it happens. ...Reading others' notes, I returned to mention that my cork was saturated half way as well.
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10/5/2022 - fingers Likes this wine:
Again, a fully saturated cork. Profound and glorious nose of red berry and spice, along with some poopy VA or SO2 at the pop that dies down after a few minutes open. Tiny bit of greenness, but nothing approaching bell pepper status. After 3 or 4 hours of freedom from the bottle, this really wakes up to show more depth of flavor and persistence on the finish. It certainly has the fruit stuffing to age long term, but with these closures being compromised I get the sense that these will need to be consumed before the wine really wants to be. Of course, that's assuming that the wine has a conscience and possesses such desire ;)
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9/13/2022 - joraesque wrote:
Needs another year, or more.
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9/11/2022 - PDX-S wrote:
Day one and two are both coming along nicely. Still on the early side but it is starting to loosen up and stretch its legs- showing more open fruit playing against, herbs, violets and black pepper.
It is just now starting to demonstrate why it is a good wine and a reliable purchase year in and out.
Drink over the next 10-15 years depending on your preferred stage of development.
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8/11/2022 - winepog wrote: 88 Points
A little bit unbalanced in the direction of heat and maybe high extraction, but drinkable overall.
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8/6/2022 - thalver wrote:
On this bottle, the cork was saturated to the top with some mold around its perimeter. Decanted and poured, showing some sediment. On the palate, this was surprisingly full for a Loire cab franc with none of the expected green/bell pepper flavors. I don't have enough experience with the vintner to know if that is a function of the vintage or house style.
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6/10/2022 - PDX-S wrote:
Smells glorious - still tight and shut down.
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5/29/2022 - sleepyhaus wrote:
This cork was about half saturated. I suspect this is an issue of overfill in this vintage. The wine was entirely sound but these can be long aging wines, in fact I much prefer them at 15 years, and the cork condition isn't entirely assuring for that purpose.
As for the wine itself, it's clearly a riper vintage wine, but in no way OTT. It has that classic cool, somehow mineral nose that Guion always seems to have. In this vintage it has a bit more generous fruit. While these typically need time for the fruit to soften a bit, this wine is more accessible early. Very good and great value as always.
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5/24/2022 - dlu wrote:
Cork fully saturated and capsule was stained, but the wine seemed basically ok if a bit vinegary. Didn't make much of an impression during a busy meal.
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5/9/2022 - Doc90 wrote: 89 Points
Cool-toned nose with blueberries, cocoa, and Washington cherries. Young for sure, and the fruit is rich. That delicious Cab Franc smoky green pepper note comes out on the finish. To be honest I'd probably guess Washington Cab Franc if I had this blind. Good juice.
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3/7/2022 - winepog wrote: 89 Points
Drinking well. This is a good value. Dark and brooding, and fruit is not big. Probably will be good for a few years.
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12/10/2021 - jmcmchi wrote: 88 Points
As others have remarked, cork was nearly saturated. Despite this, nose was ok, a bit muted, not showing much cf character
Intense purple/loganberry colour
High acidity, tight tannins, good midweek wine. Needs a lot of air, but I am suspicious of how long before the cork seepage will have an adverse effect
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11/30/2021 - pren wrote: 88 Points
正确，但是不喜欢。
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7/13/2021 - cab Likes this wine:
Chalky, minerally, lightly fruity. Good QPR. What I talk about when I talk about Bourgueil.
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6/10/2021 - David Paris (dbp) wrote: 90 Points
After the amazing bottle of 2018 Cuvée Domaine, I think I bought more of the 2018 Prestige than any wine in my life. Is it worth it? Well... perhaps it's too early to tell. The 2018 Cuvée Domaine drinks better today. The Prestige is most certainly much more structured and robust. It has now been in the glass for an hour or so. The wine requires attention to not miss the elegance that lies beneath the structure. On attention, the aromas offer lithe berries, intense chalk dust, and pretty cutting graphite. It's interesting how intense and strong those aromas become after multiple large huffs. It still feels compact on the nose, but elegance does shine through. Palate entry starts with tight, integrated blueberries, but that quickly transitions to the massive, intense structure that surrounds this wine. Impressive tannins, acidity, and minerals are all present in earnest. Keeping this in the mouth for any length of time only intensifies the structural elements and perhaps covers some of the flavor components. Acidity is actually the dominant structural element on the finish, but of course this is coupled with intense, fine grained tannins, and its presence is felt up to a minute later. There is no doubt this is an impressively built wine. Again, totally nuts that something like this can be had for under $14. My score is for enjoyment today, but I am very happy with this offering... it's just too early to fully enjoy this wine and I expect many points higher of enjoyment in due time. This is a bottle that should age gracefully for 3+ decades. Glad I have one for every year of that time... perhaps that's what I'll do with them, so by the time I'm 80 I can finally figure out how exactly a Bourgueil ages.
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4/20/2021 - Gregmonroe Likes this wine:
Fully saturated cork. I’ve seen a few other reviews that said this - I wonder what that is about. Wine is not flawed. Opaque, dark ish purple. Deep red fruit, some raspberry on the nose. But not a strong nose. Medium plus tannins. Earthy red fruit on the palate. Slight heat. Enjoyable wine, and will be better with dinner when ready.
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3/21/2021 - fingers Likes this wine: 90 Points
This is really good after 4+ hours open and given that this cork (once again) was fully saturated with slight leakage into the capsule, I’m more inclined to open these sooner rather than later. Beautiful wine, once it gets going.
4+12+16+8= 90
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2/22/2021 - Jmac56 Likes this wine: 89 Points
Initially funky earthy nose. Some of the funk mellowed out after an hour. While overly acidic and smuckery on the finish, the fruit, earth and chalk was enjoyable.
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2/15/2021 - fingers Likes this wine: 89 Points
Dark purple color, clear and sound. Cork was ugly and saturated considering how young this bottle is.
Medium intensity nose where I get boysenberry, violets, and allspice as the primary elements. Medium-big body and nicely supportive acidity. The balance of firm tannins integrated after a good 6 hours open, so even though this is just an adolescent it was surprisingly harmonious with the aeration. I don’t get a lot of signature Cab Franc traits but the wine is still a lovely little rendition.
I feel like it’s the equivalent of a nice little St. Joseph CdR, and that’s all good.
4+11+16+8= 89
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1/2/2021 - pccasey Likes this wine: 91 Points
Young brite, sour cherry, great color, decent body... could use some age. Delicious easy drinking...
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12/27/2020 - RussK wrote: 90 Points
Russk. Nice nose. Light bodied. Tactile tannin. Medium+ acidity. Like a cru Beaujolais with the nose of Bdx varietals. And some savory raspberry. 90+.
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12/21/2020 - Jmac56 Likes this wine: 89 Points
Earthy nose. A barbell wine with moderate fruit up front and a pleasant but overly acid finish.
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12/13/2020 - brooklynguy wrote:
I’ve been wrong about this wine in past vintages, thinking it to be not very good when then later I find that it truly does show best on fruit or flower days on the bio calendar. Maybe I’ll be wrong this time too, but this seems to be a weak vintage for this cuvée. Lots of fruit, not enough acidity to balance, and although quite ripe, somehow also feels thin - in density of flavor and in body, it’s almost dilute at the finish. Not much in terms of terroir expression either. Hopefully when I try it again I’ll have a different experience.
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12/4/2020 - bevetroppo Likes this wine: 90 Points
The color is a radiant dark red with purple flashing, nearly opaque at the center. The nose is seductive, dark mingled berries, red, blue and black, fresh earth, cola, but surprisingly no herbaceousness. Is this some sleight of hand in canopy management, or an effect of 50+ years of organic farming? The effect is a fresh and clean aromatic profile that would have thrown me for a loop blind, like ok, where's the cab franc? With air some stony minerality creeps in, but no Adderly or Alpert to speak of. What obtains?
Fresh, lively and very drinkable. The longer it's open the more the flavors edge inexorably from these delicious dark berries to ferrous minerality to an herbal tinge, like it just can't help being what it is. As I said, at this point I don't know whether the wine is atypical or proto-typical, but it certainly is fun to drink.
"Domaine en culture biologique depuis 1965." That's at the bottom of the back label and maybe I should just have stopped there because, hey, that's typically good enough for me. But here it feels like you can truly taste the intent of an organic regime that not only drinks great but will be good health to me and maybe even filter and fibre my blood.
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11/24/2020 - Sandrine Cléron Likes this wine: 100 Points
Loved it! Perfect light body wine with fruity flavor. Pairs with any food
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