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Wine Type Vintage Name Variety Locale Date Posted Score Helpful Comments Comment Date Community Score More...
Red

2014 Les Tourelles de Longueville

 Pauillac Red Bordeaux Blend more
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6/5/2022 - dssmith wrote: 90 points

My wife and I love this wine. This was the last of my 2014s - fortunately I just bought a case of the 2016. This is mostly a Merlot blend grown on a plot within the Baron Pichon estate. It is very nicely integrated between fruit and oak. It is much softer than the typical Cab predominate Pauillac blend. I wish it were easier to find. In my opinion it does not need to be decanted and it can be drunk fairly young.

  • Comment posted by AAF2012:

    12/2/2022 9:16:00 PM - I put my comment up before reading yours. Totally agree, does not need decant. We left ours in 4 hours and it was definitely more pleasurable at beginning than end.
Red

2004 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande

 Pauillac Red Bordeaux Blend more
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6/23/2021 - AAF2012 Does not like this wine: 85 points

Decided on 4 hour decant after reading notes here. Cassis and extreme tannins upon opening; totally unbalanced, I figure great glad I read the reviews, let’s do the decant and it will round out. Wrong. Drinking ~4.5 hours later with ox burgers I got some dull and unexciting stewed fruits I associate with the not-pleasant ageing process of expensive American merlots meant to drink young, hints of black currant / cassis on lucky swirls, only occasional flashes of pauillac dirt and pencil shavings. Not unpleasant but unbecoming for this wine. I’d have a bad/boring sip, then a decent sip with hints of regality, and back to a bad one like it pulsed.

Weird showing. I think it’s possible I decanted too long, and/or this wine is just a little finicky. Probably doesn’t help I drank a 1989 Pichon Baron a week earlier with ox burgers than was singing and a perfect pairing, might’ve been mentally building this dinner up too much.

  • Comment posted by AAF2012:

    6/24/2021 4:34:00 PM - yea it was a weird bottle, and I do think it's possible I decanted too long. But I would think a bottle like this should be able to hold up that long in the decanter. It was overpowering and tannins everywhere when I opened it, but not overly complex.

  • Comment posted by AAF2012:

    11/2/2022 1:43:00 AM - thanks for coming back and posting yours....sounds like i indeed decanted too long.
White - Sparkling

2002 Dom Pérignon Champagne

 Champagne Blend more
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6/20/2021 - coremill wrote: 94 points

A spectacular bottle. Full of ripe, powerful yellow fruit with some tropical hints, and notes of white chocolate, and some underlying chalky notes. Dense and concentrated but not heavy, the balanced intensity is wonderful. Wide open, whatever early reduction there was has faded, but not mature.

  • Comment posted by AAF2012:

    7/5/2021 5:45:00 PM - "Balanced intensity", bang on. Just read your note after drinking this wine twice in a few weeks (magnum first, then 750ml second). Your term is a perfect description. Stunning wine.
Red

1996 Château Montrose

 St. Estèphe Red Bordeaux Blend more
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4/16/2021 - AAF2012 Likes this wine: 98 points

Wow. Just wow. First bottle from new case, perfect cork condition, stunning, drinking perfectly right now (see note at bottom). Perfectly balanced. 90 min decant seemed low but was perfect. Elegant, with +power and +complexity. "Abundance" of everything came to mind without being overbearing. Black fruit (black currant and blackberry), tobacco and leather plus hint of menthol on nose. Extremely full, totally fills palate. It's all there - fruit abundant without overwhelming, acidity crisp, tannins nicely resolved, very long finish; a top 5 wine I've drank in the last year out of hundreds. Great food wine due to strength and balance. Reminded me of Lafite 1996 I drank last year.

Note: this is 3rd 1996 Montrose popped in last 12 months. 1st two bottles were from different case, were fine but considerably less "wow" and more in-line with the reviews I'm seeing below. Would've given them low 90s ratings. I don't know if the variation is due to provenance of the different cases or I just got a lucky bottle here. 90 min decant seemed low for this magic bottle, the other 96 Montroses last year I did for 2+ hours each with considerably worse results. Not sure what's going on here.

  • Comment posted by AAF2012:

    4/21/2021 5:58:00 AM - thanks mate. if i hadn't drank the other bottles of 96 Montrose so recently I wouldn't have caveated it. not sure what's going on here but it was a true "wow" moment that doesn't come along too often.

  • Comment posted by AAF2012:

    5/6/2021 8:30:00 PM - A little tricky (...but not a lot). If you got a bottle like the one I went crazy for here, then beef comes to mind. I had a 1996 Lafite with yakiniku last year, and it was stunning. That 96 Lafite was the closest thing I've had to this amazing 1996 Montrose. The abundance of everything I wrote about made it stand up to the yakiniku, including the smoky bbq essence and a few courses where the beef was marinated in sauce.

    BUT, I think my yakiniku would've been too much for Montrose 1996 otherwise. I've had other bottles of it recently, and all of them with this one exception were a lot more classic Bordeaux (in the best possible way). A lot more "subdued", to use Sfilene's word a few reviews below. I don't think you can go wrong with a roast red meat particularly beef or lamb, or perhaps a roast chicken or quail for the more "normal" expression of 96 Montrose. But for the thing I wrote about here, huge flavors can stand up to it because just everything was in abundance and completely full, especially fruit and acid. hope that helps.

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