Arinbraghe
Member #116,100 signed up 3/11/2010
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2004 Kathryn Kennedy Cabernet Sauvignon Small Lot
12/7/2015 - Arinbraghe Likes this wine: 89 Points
Popped and poured at dinner and followed over ~90 minutes. I know the Estate wine is the vin de garde at this address, but if we're applying a Bordeaux model to this producer (which given the house style and pedigree seems apt) then the 'second wine' should be able to go some distance as well. And it does, with some provisos. Actually one major proviso, which is a huge (in context) dollop of coconutty, creamed-dill oak that billows up and squats unceremoniously atop a very savory, soil-driven Cabernet. The underlying fruit profile is svelte and totally evolved, and strongly tokens a Right Bank wine of riper vintage with its somewhat horsey leather and red loam components. But that oak sheen takes forever to quit and while it does integrate in time to pair with the last couple bites of your entree, you feel rather cheated since all the other elements played so nicely together from the get-go. A frustrating wine for the first ~60 minutes, although once the wood finally shuts up it becomes a very pretty one.
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2003 Pio Cesare Barbera d'Alba
12/7/2015 - Arinbraghe wrote: 81 Points
Hugely skeptical of this and opened more out of curiosity than thirst or excitement (also: trying not to deplete a friend's modest under-counter wine fridge of any cherries.) If cherry-avoidance is the goal then this is a 95+ pointer; certainly no one would long miss this out of their cellar. But you'll notice that I haven't indicated any glaring flaw or that we poured it all down the drain. Indeed, the damn thing's drinkable at this stage, if pretty hollowed out and clearly wanting for some acid lift (that vintage signature surely did this wine no favors.) But the fruit's still hanging on and the oak has less of a stranglehold than I would have supposed. Don't get me wrong, it's not good wine; it's just surprisingly inoffensive given the combo of vintage and producer.
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2011 Les Tourelles de Longueville
10/31/2015 - Arinbraghe Likes this wine: 91 Points
Oh, this is good. Immediately on opening the breed of Pichon Baron is evident here, from the grain of the tannins to the woodspice-seasoned latticework of flavors. Where the Paveil de Luze from Margaux that was opened alongside is reminiscent of green tobacco, this is redolent of sweet, seasoned brown tobacco, and the feel in the mouth is just a bit more suave and angular than the Margaux. On Day 2 the tannins are a bit toothier but the cassis-dominated flavor profile is still very poised and utterly classic. This is a wine where the nose and the palate recapitulate each other with great fidelity. It may not end up being terribly long-lived given how open-knight it is right now, but hard to hate on a classically-proportioned Bordeaux that drinks like this at age 4.
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