A magical bottle. Perfect harmony between beautiful fruit, savory soil notes and bottle bouquet. Perfumed and soulful. Structure is mostly resolved and tertiary notes are developing nicely. Truly lovely wine at this point.
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Pale to medium garnet. Rich enigmatic aromas of roses, candied red currants, a hint of fresh espresso. Nice weight of salty dark berry fruit on the palate, welded onto a friendly acid layer, light tannins on the margins, lovely long aromatic finish. Lovely with salmon cakes.
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Black cherries, cranberry and oak spice. Healthy acidity and nicely balanced. Surprisingly, this seemed the most alive of the three bottles that I purchased. Should be good for another 5 years, but no need to wait.
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Visually showing some signs of age with flecks of rust in the glass. Ripe red berries, black cherries, cranberries and a good dose of oak spice. Plenty of good acidity. In a nice spot now, should drink well for another half decade.
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Clear and bright, light cherry red with a brick red rim. Light fresh cherry and strawberry with nice complexity - some mushroom, dried herbs. Light bodied on the palate, a little sour with red currant acidity to go with the cherry fruit, but tasty and a nice match with a chicken in wine stew (coq au vin lite). Tasty long finish with nice complexity - earth, herbs, undergrowth. Not as good as the 2008 Les Cras, but close.
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Very very nice. Great concentration with lots of fruit and balanced acidity. Bit of mushroom/barnyard notes, but in a good way. Great wine and an incredible value for the $27 I paid to Garagiste.
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PNP. cork perfect. color ruby w clear edges. nose shows some reductive cherry that i think is from toasty oak. swishing shows both acid and tannin structure that are fairly intense. there is significant fruit density uncovered by sipping that surprised me for the vintage. i think that more time will be kind to this. will wait 3-5 yrs minimum to try again but good tonight with some red meat.
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Effortlessly beautiful and graceful. Light-bodied but densely flavored. Pinot and sous bois on the expressive nose. Big and ripe-red-cherry-touched-by-oak flavors on the palate. Subtle power without weight.
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A bit more bottle time since my last bottle has certainly paid off. Ripe but not sweet cherry and earth. Oak flavors integrated and complementary. Rich body with nothing overdone. Beautiful (even in Seki's for sht glasses).
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Next day note: a surprising crowd favorite at the pinot tasting, considering this was the only old-world offering and definitely the funkiest, with barnyard and leather aromas circling around deep bass notes of ripe dark fruit. I loved it, too: truly soulful, even if the earthy qualities (including some early acetone) sometimes seemed to dominate. This was a Garagiste $199 Mystery case entry, and for the $16 or so that I paid for this, it's remarkable.
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Garnet with hint of brown. Cherry and barnyard nose. Nice complexity in the mid-palate; earth, cherry, oak. Strong acidity but balanced with nice fruit. Drinking very well.Excellent value.
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This is starting to come into its' own-very soft and integrated with elegant nose and a palate of mushroom earth, delicate plum skin, and long lovely finish
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Elegant and ripe fruit tonight. Still an oak signature on the palate but one that jumps to the foreground and then shrinks back letting the fruit shine through. Really nice and looking forward to a bit more bottle time for the next one.
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Soft berries and peppery spice on the nose, with emerging notes of mushroom, firm clear fruit on the palate with a bracing and lively acid frame and welded tannins rising into a strong finish. Gentle, serious and penetrating. [Second day: lovely gardenia notes on the nose.]
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At $27, a fantastic deal for a 1er cru. Lots of acidity, pretty good dark red fruit, a bit of a dusty feel, decent spice and earthiness. Evolved quite nicely over 3 nights.
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A little bretty on the nose, but not overwhelming. Red fruit and fairly zippy acidity, but also some nice minerality on the back end. Definitely a bit oaky too. Can see the potential here. Hopefully the next bottle will come without the barnyard funk, and with time will achieve greater integration. Right now this is all over the place.
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A wonderful QPR. First off a clean wine which is always nice when buying Burgundy. Nose shows great sweet red fruits and a bit of fresh wet wood. Nice palate and balance. Great value.
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Dusty on the nose. Red raspberry and strawberry notes on the palate. Slightly spicy with mouth-watering acidity. Probably a bit too young but what the hell. Very lively right now. Very enjoyable burgundy.
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Drank with David Chang's bo ssam. Held up with the spice of the kimchi and the sweetness of the glaze with good fruit. Did not seem as oaky as the last bottle but likely due to the accompanying food which highlighted the wine's fruit.
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Trying this one after drinking the '08 Les Cras last night. The nose here is open from the pour, a relatively weighty combination of dark fruit and oak. The attack is less sweet than the Les Cras, and darker. On the mid-palate the oak shows itself more strongly than its sibling, and there's enough of it to keep this bottle from being a "pure and elegant expression" of Burgundian pinot. The finish is long and gravelly. Pretty good now, and I'd expect improvement in the future.
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A lot of wood here, both on the nose and palate. There's a lot of dense, complex fruit and minerality buried and woven into this mix, but this is such a confused infant that's built for the long haul. No doubt this will come together with an appropriate slumber -- I'd wait minimum another 5 years before I'd pop one of these, maybe better to wait even longer. Just needs an integration vacation.
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Very enjoyable. Wonderful bouquet and taste of bright fruit cloaked in a light layer of Burdundian dust. Quite a pleasant surprise. The community seems to think I should wait to drink this wine until 2016. If it improves, that will be a bonus.
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Way too young. Give this beauty 5-10 more years to show itself. Wonderful perfume nose with bright acid of strawberry, plum skin, and tight leather palate. There is over 30 discriptors here-all integrated in perfect balance playing harmonously saying one important thing: give me time!
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Not only does the Les Vignes Franches have the revered pedigree, attention to detail and ageing curve of the top examples from the Cote de Beaune, but it is also among the most expensive. Now, several years on from the preview tastings, the 2008 reminds me a great deal of the 2001 and that vintage has really taken shape of late. Without belaboring the point, once you taste it, I believe the 2008 will more than speak for itself... ...for the price of a high-end Bourgogne or village wine.
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2/19/2024 - diggydan wrote: 95 Points
Beatiful fruit and softly matured.
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12/3/2023 - diggydan wrote: 95 Points
Beautiful and mature. The maturation flavors played lovely with soy sauce at Seki's.
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10/16/2023 - Easter Everywhere Likes this wine:
Superb
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8/31/2023 - JohnMcIlwain Likes this wine:
A magical bottle. Perfect harmony between beautiful fruit, savory soil notes and bottle bouquet. Perfumed and soulful. Structure is mostly resolved and tertiary notes are developing nicely. Truly lovely wine at this point.
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9/14/2022 - diggydan wrote: 93 Points
Very nice secondary notes. The oak is taking on a dark flavor and the cherries tasted black, too.
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12/11/2021 - wgmccallum Likes this wine: 94 Points
Pale to medium garnet. Rich enigmatic aromas of roses, candied red currants, a hint of fresh espresso. Nice weight of salty dark berry fruit on the palate, welded onto a friendly acid layer, light tannins on the margins, lovely long aromatic finish. Lovely with salmon cakes.
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2/6/2021 - diggydan wrote: 94 Points
Back strong after the recent last muted showing. Great red cherry and the strongest secondary notes I've yet noticed.
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1/26/2021 - diggydan wrote: 91 Points
Good but the fruit is a little muted tonight relative to earlier outstanding bottles.
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9/6/2020 - diggydan wrote: 94 Points
8th bottle since 2013. Has matured nicely into a beautiful wine, seemingly on a plateau.
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5/15/2020 - RunDMC wrote: 93 Points
Cherry cola, light oak, drinking very well now. Case almost gone 😢
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2/23/2020 - CMN wrote: 91 Points
Black cherries, cranberry and oak spice. Healthy acidity and nicely balanced. Surprisingly, this seemed the most alive of the three bottles that I purchased. Should be good for another 5 years, but no need to wait.
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2/2/2020 - CMN wrote: 89 Points
Visually showing some signs of age with flecks of rust in the glass. Ripe red berries, black cherries, cranberries and a good dose of oak spice. Plenty of good acidity. In a nice spot now, should drink well for another half decade.
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8/24/2019 - ravbik wrote: 91 Points
Better bottle than before. Candied cherries, vanilla, mild cola, light oak and well balanced acid
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8/18/2019 - ravbik wrote: 88 Points
Starting to decline
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8/10/2019 - diggydan wrote: 94 Points
Maturing beautifully. Well integrated, but prominent, oak and plenty of black cherry and secondary flavors.
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8/2/2019 - CMN wrote: flawed
Ripe red fruits with some spice on the palate. There's good concentration and acidity. The frut seemed a bit roasted/overripe. Possibly flawed.
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6/16/2019 - chrisanderika Likes this wine: 90 Points
Still vibrant and well balanced
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2/20/2019 - thebonnydooner wrote: 90 Points
Clear and bright, light cherry red with a brick red rim. Light fresh cherry and strawberry with nice complexity - some mushroom, dried herbs. Light bodied on the palate, a little sour with red currant acidity to go with the cherry fruit, but tasty and a nice match with a chicken in wine stew (coq au vin lite). Tasty long finish with nice complexity - earth, herbs, undergrowth. Not as good as the 2008 Les Cras, but close.
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11/20/2018 - bspahn wrote: 91 Points
Very very nice. Great concentration with lots of fruit and balanced acidity. Bit of mushroom/barnyard notes, but in a good way. Great wine and an incredible value for the $27 I paid to Garagiste.
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10/11/2018 - chcook Likes this wine:
PNP. cork perfect. color ruby w clear edges. nose shows some reductive cherry that i think is from toasty oak. swishing shows both acid and tannin structure that are fairly intense. there is significant fruit density uncovered by sipping that surprised me for the vintage. i think that more time will be kind to this. will wait 3-5 yrs minimum to try again but good tonight with some red meat.
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9/16/2018 - diggydan wrote:
Furniture drinking tonight, unfortunately.
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3/30/2018 - MWes Likes this wine: 90 Points
Really nice with a long, elegant finish. Plenty of life left. Will drink my next bottle in 5 years or so.
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2/17/2018 - diggydan wrote: 95 Points
Effortlessly beautiful and graceful. Light-bodied but densely flavored. Pinot and sous bois on the expressive nose. Big and ripe-red-cherry-touched-by-oak flavors on the palate. Subtle power without weight.
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4/4/2017 - cse Likes this wine: 94 Points
stunning. perfect balance of fruit and grip, kaleidoscopic secondary character.
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2/7/2017 - Francophile Likes this wine: 90 Points
I thought this was a more roundedBurgundy than the Ninot from a couple of days ago. It also had more body and depth.
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1/1/2017 - diggydan wrote: 94 Points
A bit more bottle time since my last bottle has certainly paid off. Ripe but not sweet cherry and earth. Oak flavors integrated and complementary. Rich body with nothing overdone. Beautiful (even in Seki's for sht glasses).
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12/4/2016 - MBusk Likes this wine: 91 Points
Next day note: a surprising crowd favorite at the pinot tasting, considering this was the only old-world offering and definitely the funkiest, with barnyard and leather aromas circling around deep bass notes of ripe dark fruit. I loved it, too: truly soulful, even if the earthy qualities (including some early acetone) sometimes seemed to dominate. This was a Garagiste $199 Mystery case entry, and for the $16 or so that I paid for this, it's remarkable.
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10/17/2016 - Francophile wrote: 89 Points
A nicely balanced wine
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7/27/2016 - rpk99 Likes this wine: 91 Points
Very nicely integrated at this point, sad this is my last one.
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4/21/2016 - Francophile Likes this wine: 90 Points
A smooth Burgundy. Happy 90th birthday Madam.
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11/22/2015 - Atwellian wrote: 91 Points
Garnet with hint of brown. Cherry and barnyard nose. Nice complexity in the mid-palate; earth, cherry, oak. Strong acidity but balanced with nice fruit. Drinking very well.Excellent value.
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11/15/2015 - Scottlmatthews Likes this wine: 92 Points
Thinking of you Paris-in this horrible time in your history. Cheers to you on holding strong.
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8/11/2015 - tastark Likes this wine:
This has a few more years, but is drinking beautifully.
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8/6/2015 - Scottlmatthews Likes this wine: 92 Points
This is starting to come into its' own-very soft and integrated with elegant nose and a palate of mushroom earth, delicate plum skin, and long lovely finish
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11/6/2014 - gt1485a Likes this wine: 90 Points
Pure clean pinot, transparent fruit. Very nice.
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7/13/2014 - diggydan wrote: 91 Points
Elegant and ripe fruit tonight. Still an oak signature on the palate but one that jumps to the foreground and then shrinks back letting the fruit shine through. Really nice and looking forward to a bit more bottle time for the next one.
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6/8/2014 - skifree wrote: 88 Points
I couldn't get very excited about this. Red fruit, spice, reasonable backbone.
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5/31/2014 - wgmccallum Likes this wine: 93 Points
Soft berries and peppery spice on the nose, with emerging notes of mushroom, firm clear fruit on the palate with a bracing and lively acid frame and welded tannins rising into a strong finish. Gentle, serious and penetrating. [Second day: lovely gardenia notes on the nose.]
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2/10/2014 - cadamson Likes this wine: 90 Points
At $27, a fantastic deal for a 1er cru. Lots of acidity, pretty good dark red fruit, a bit of a dusty feel, decent spice and earthiness. Evolved quite nicely over 3 nights.
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1/17/2014 - BBencz Likes this wine: 86 Points
A little bretty on the nose, but not overwhelming. Red fruit and fairly zippy acidity, but also some nice minerality on the back end. Definitely a bit oaky too. Can see the potential here. Hopefully the next bottle will come without the barnyard funk, and with time will achieve greater integration. Right now this is all over the place.
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12/23/2013 - fdub Likes this wine: 90 Points
A wonderful QPR. First off a clean wine which is always nice when buying Burgundy. Nose shows great sweet red fruits and a bit of fresh wet wood. Nice palate and balance. Great value.
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12/19/2013 - sdhaliwal wrote: 94 Points
Wow!
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5/4/2013 - Night Thief wrote: 90 Points
Dusty on the nose. Red raspberry and strawberry notes on the palate. Slightly spicy with mouth-watering acidity. Probably a bit too young but what the hell. Very lively right now. Very enjoyable burgundy.
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4/20/2013 - diggydan wrote: 90 Points
Drank with David Chang's bo ssam. Held up with the spice of the kimchi and the sweetness of the glaze with good fruit. Did not seem as oaky as the last bottle but likely due to the accompanying food which highlighted the wine's fruit.
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4/8/2013 - diggydan wrote: 90 Points
Trying this one after drinking the '08 Les Cras last night. The nose here is open from the pour, a relatively weighty combination of dark fruit and oak. The attack is less sweet than the Les Cras, and darker. On the mid-palate the oak shows itself more strongly than its sibling, and there's enough of it to keep this bottle from being a "pure and elegant expression" of Burgundian pinot. The finish is long and gravelly. Pretty good now, and I'd expect improvement in the future.
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2/23/2013 - BurgAndy wrote:
A lot of wood here, both on the nose and palate. There's a lot of dense, complex fruit and minerality buried and woven into this mix, but this is such a confused infant that's built for the long haul. No doubt this will come together with an appropriate slumber -- I'd wait minimum another 5 years before I'd pop one of these, maybe better to wait even longer. Just needs an integration vacation.
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12/16/2012 - le fouloir Likes this wine: 91 Points
Very enjoyable. Wonderful bouquet and taste of bright fruit cloaked in a light layer of Burdundian dust. Quite a pleasant surprise. The community seems to think I should wait to drink this wine until 2016. If it improves, that will be a bonus.
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11/3/2012 - Scottlmatthews wrote: 90 Points
Way too young. Give this beauty 5-10 more years to show itself. Wonderful perfume nose with bright acid of strawberry, plum skin, and tight leather palate. There is over 30 discriptors here-all integrated in perfect balance playing harmonously saying one important thing: give me time!
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8/27/2012 - shormi wrote:
Not only does the Les Vignes Franches have the revered pedigree, attention to detail and
ageing curve of the top examples from the Cote de Beaune, but it is also among the most
expensive. Now, several years on from the preview tastings, the 2008 reminds me a great
deal of the 2001 and that vintage has really taken shape of late. Without belaboring the
point, once you taste it, I believe the 2008 will more than speak for itself...
...for the price of a high-end Bourgogne or village wine.
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