Wines of Good Hope: Summer 2017
River's Inlet, British Columbia
Tasted Saturday, July 29, 2017 - Thursday, September 14, 2017 by The Vines That Bind with 515 views
River's Inlet, British Columbia
Tasted Saturday, July 29, 2017 - Thursday, September 14, 2017 by The Vines That Bind with 515 views
2005 Bollinger Champagne La Grande Année 92 Points
France, Champagne
(8/3/2017)
Ripe yellow and red apple and good brioche on the nose. Very ripe apple fruit palate with some nice reduction and a lot of yeast. More developed than expected. Pleasant.
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1998 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie 93 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
(8/4/2017)
This wine has a massive bouquet right off the pop with classic Northern Rhone smoked meats, dried flower petals, olives, and scorched earth. The palate is young and firm up front that strikes with blackberry and cassis but opens into a sweeter mid palate. Acrylics I often associate with Jamet. Awesome. Good drinking now but can probably hold off on the rest of these for a while.
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1996 Bollinger Champagne La Grande Année 92 Points
France, Champagne
(8/10/2017)
[Magnum] Nose is striking lemon pith and chalk right off the pour, but the aromatics are slightly more developed although still primarily citrus driven once the big moose settles down. Palate is rich and very chalky. Energetic and young.
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2002 Domaine Jean Grivot Clos Vougeot 90 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru
(8/12/2017)
Surprised by how dark and closed this was. Consumed over two+ hours in a decanter and it was only softening up slightly towards the end. Tight nose of dark cherry cola and spice. Oak seems to dominate both nose and palate. Palate is still green with concentrated black cherry and dark chocolate. Drinking like 89-90 right now but probably a 91-92 in time. Recently came into a few of these and wanted to try one out and will definitely be forgetting about he rest for a while.
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1993 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain
USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain
(9/7/2017)
[5-Litre] Red cedar and damp cigar tobacco. Ferns and forest floor. Cool and dry red and blue berry fruit. Soily and textured palate. Dusty in a distinctly old school Californian way. Can't imagine this developing or improving any further, especially given the large format, but certainly enjoyable and nuanced drinking right now.
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2006 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet 91 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru
(8/25/2017)
Beautiful fresh nose with honeysuckle amidst the classic Leflaive struck match and sulphur reduction. Caramel green Apple. Cinnamon. Rich Chardonnay mouthful. Ripe. Very Batard. First bottle was totally oxidized, this second one was good.
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1997 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 90 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage
(8/24/2017)
Nose has florals and cured meats. Bright cranberry fruit. Seems to be missing the signature Chave scorched earth terroir on the nose. Iron / blood. Cinnamon and pepper. Palate is striking up front but is tart and seems to be fading. Tingling but short finish. Not quite up to expectations. Fairly high brett too. Improved considerably after 90+ minutes of air, opened into a great wine.
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2004 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grands-Echezeaux
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru
(9/3/2017)
Green. Stalky. Weedy. Coffee. Oak. Some cola spice. Served blind to an NYC sommelier who said '04 DRC based on the nose, probably Echezeaux... This wine has the very distinctive DRC whole cluster and oak signature. This was powerful and robust, but also intriguing and complex. Two hour decant before starting and it only improved from there. Kapon has described Grands Echezeaux as pound-for-pound the best wine in the DRC portfolio, and this young off-vintage bottle was a great example of that.
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1999 Domaine Prieuré Roch Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Le Clos des Corvées 91 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru
(8/28/2017)
Sauvage, leathery cranberry, stems. Soily and earth driven but has a lot of spicy berry fruit. Floral and stalky. Cloudy and earthy. Very interesting and nuanced.
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1982 Château Cheval Blanc 94 Points
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
(8/29/2017)
Tobacco, mint, menthol. Herbal, but still has quiet drying red and blue berry fruit. Palate is textured and complex with soil and minerals under leathery fruit. Cranberry. Quiet, but layered and textured and very intricate. This isn't your monstrous Left Bank '82 like Latour or even as perfumed as Margaux, but far more subtle and refined. A beautiful piece of work.
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1994 Dominus Estate Napanook Vineyard 91 Points
USA, California, Napa Valley
(8/18/2017)
A very good 750 of this. Comparable to the 1991 but with more juice. Whereas the '91 can really trick experienced claret drinkers as to Bordeaux or old school California, this '94 has distinctly ripe, round, and opulent red and blue berry fruit that says Napa. Albeit earth-influenced and balanced.
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1990 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 94 Points
France, Champagne
(8/26/2017)
Sweet caramel and trace smoke. Honey and orange citrus. Developed brioche and dough but still very lovely and fresh. Opulent. Toasted vanilla bean. Consistently love this.
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1991 Dominus Estate Napanook Vineyard
USA, California, Napa Valley
(8/22/2017)
Terrific bottle. Tobacco, red cedar, rustic but with vibrant black and blue berry juice still. Creme de cassis. Nuanced. Hard to categorize as old school California or '90s Left Bank. Palate is definitely juicer and weighs in favour of Napa Cabernet, but does reinforce the tobacco note. Good bottles of this are always pleasurable and intriguing.
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1982 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut
France, Champagne
(8/30/2017)
Orange zest, dried fig, somewhat oxidative but still lively, fresh, and deep aromas and flavours. Savoury palate with caramel and trace smoke. Salinity, like salted caramel. Great acidity too. Consistent with the last bottle. Decidedly more developed than the '90 alongside which is always terrific.
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1983 Joseph Drouhin Corton-Charlemagne 92 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru
(8/29/2017)
Smoky and savoury nose with a lot of struck match. Saffron and a bit of botrytis. Honeysuckle and white florals. Palate is overripe tropical fruit. A very fun bottle in excellent shape, purchased from the leftovers of the Wolfgang Grunewald sale, and accordingly proper.
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1996 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune 92 Points
France, Alsace
(8/20/2017)
Ripe yellow apple and apricot on the nose predominate the classic Riesling petrol and rubber. Some nice white florals. Pineapple palate with big acid still. Very round and the finish is long and piercing. Paired this with Dungeness crab fried rice caught and prepared this afternoon.
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1998 Domaine Jamet Côte-Rôtie 92 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
(9/5/2017)
Complicated and intense bouquet. Blackberry and acrylics, ceramics. This particular bottle is more brooding and youthful than the one last month which was showing better development and smoke character. More black fruit juice here.
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1995 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 92 Points
France, Champagne
(8/23/2017)
Peaches dominate nose and palate. Good smoke here too. Chalky palate but there seems to be something metallic hanging around as well. Developing nicely and still has youthful effervescence.
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2000 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut 91 Points
France, Champagne
(8/19/2017)
Consistent with past notes. Similar to the '95 alongside but brighter and more energetic. Chalky. '00 seems particularly oxidative, stylistically.
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2002 Domaine de L'Arlot Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Suchots 92 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
(8/24/2017)
Highly floral and elegant nose that contains bright red and blue berry fruit, vosne spice, and subtle soily influence. Smells stemless. Palate is youthful up front but yields to a nicely developed and terroir driven mid-palate with fall leaves in the long finish. Really pretty wine. Reminiscent of their '02 RSV last summer but not as striking. Good value here too.
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2004 Domaine Ramonet Bâtard-Montrachet 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru
(8/27/2017)
Absolutely superb. Clean and pure, but with a hint of matchstick reduction not detected in the past. Both weighty in the way Batard should be and also supremely elegant in the way one expects from Ramonet. Paired toe-to-toe against an '06 Leflaive Batard and this just steamrolled it in all dimensions. Enjoyed these two bottles while coho fishing. Hard to rattle off decent notes while putting ten chromers in the box.
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2002 Domaine Perrot-Minot Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d'Orveau Vieilles Vignes 91 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru
(8/17/2017)
[Mag] Nose is expressive and nicely combines berry perfume and rustic earth. Little wood influence remaining, just fruit and terroir. Don't know much about these wines but this was really pretty on the nose as well as flavourful and pleasurable on the palate.
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2006 Louis Roederer Champagne Cristal Brut 90 Points
France, Champagne
(8/12/2017)
[Mag] Young and a little screechy. More chalk than cream at this point. Definitely prefer the '06 DP stylistically.
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1996 Dom Pérignon Champagne Oenothèque 94 Points
France, Champagne
(8/12/2017)
Another excellent bottle of this, consistent with past notes and particularly youthful with wicked effervescence still. That dommy brioche every time...
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1966 Château Mouton Rothschild 95 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
(8/14/2017)
[Mag]: Spectacular bouquet of all things Mouton: forest floor, lead pencil, red cedar, tobacco leaf, etc., Beautiful colour, deep garnet without much bricking. Palate has sweet blackberry with creme de cassis. Tannins have mostly melted away and this was just a real pleasure to drink. Surprisingly youthful and in a great place right now. The fill wasn't great and the cork completely disintegrated on the open, but this magnum was still excellent. Would buy again.
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2002 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St. Jacques 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
(8/11/2017)
Bouquet took some time to open up and eventually gave off a pure but brooding black cherry. Wood was bigger than recalled. Palate was young and a little tight. Opened two and the bottle with five hours of air time was definitely more approachable. Dense and very flavorful mouthful. A very well built wine that is still very youthful.
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2002 Domaine Jean Grivot Echezeaux 91 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru
(8/16/2017)
Vastly superior to the '02 Grivot Clos Vougeot from last week, but same deal here: have to forget about this for a little while as the fruit is still cold and dark and the wood and tannins are still quite pronounced. Was going to get to the Richebourg next but after seeing the state of development here decided to hold off.
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1995 Bollinger Champagne R.D. Extra Brut 93 Points
France, Champagne
(8/20/2017)
[Jero] Intense energy and effervescence. More oxidative and less chalky than the '96 with pleasant yellow apple fruit. Good brioche too. Thought about sabering it but ultimately didn't have the grapes...
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2004 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Le Montrachet 93 Points
France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Montrachet Grand Cru
(8/9/2017)
Unfamiliar with this producer, and eventually got to this Le Montrachet after a few Chevaliers. This was certainly a Montrachet with unmistakable concentration. Almost an oily viscosity on this bottle. Rich Chardonnay fruit with a squeeze of lemon citrus. Textural mineral palate. Very interesting to try and very good.
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