4/7/24, 6:31 PM - Definitely a good party wine - your guests should think you spent more than you did.
3/21/24, 7:47 AM - Excellent tasting note - and I think this is what Napa cabs should try to be but can't and, yet, it's an extremely favorable QPR in comparison. Just as a suggestion - if you are exploring Washington cabs of some distinction, take a look at Adams Bench. Roughly the same price range, trending more toward a combination of Quilceda and Andrew Will. Their winemaking is informed by both.
2/24/24, 4:33 PM - Fun! A fill-in-the-blank tasting note!!
2/14/24, 2:49 PM - What is this note intended to convey?
2/12/24, 6:01 AM - And the wine??
1/31/24, 3:49 AM - I’m pretty much with you. I originally bought some to mark years of trips to the Piemonte and that the Marcarini winery was near where we stayed outside LaMorra. I regarded them as Tuesday night Barolo. Now what I know is I’m better off buying Barbaresco. So I’ll spend a few Tuesday nights with these and they’ll be gone. I’m also starting to buy some wines from further north.
1/30/24, 3:56 AM - The note leaves me wondering about the wine, since it’s not mentioned. The “private consumption note” section is the perfect place to capture information you want to remember but is not a tasting note. Not trying to be the tasting note police, but some people have not noticed that section. Sounds like a lovely night - my 2015 is resting so am curious as to what people are saying about it at this point in its evolution.
1/24/24, 2:39 PM - Is this a lighter, medium weight or heavy Barolo? Or something in between? I’m looking for a more medium/heavy extracted Barolo. Thanks.I'll do my best to answer this. You probably know this but the Mosconi site is near Monforte d'Alba and the soils are very much clay soils. The power in the wine comes not from the texture but from the flavors and depth. In terms of its weight, that's hard to categorize. Compared to a Napa cab, this would be called a lighter wine. Compared to other Baroli, and particularly to the more feminine styles on the LaMorra side, it's what I would call medium-plus. I have a hard time categorizing the extraction level. But if we understand extraction the same way, I would regard this one as medium or medium plus. As you can tell from my note, I think this wine is wonderful. Typically in the E. Pira offerings, I prefer the Cannubi because I like that feminine style, but this wine really was impressive. Good luck.
1/19/24, 5:29 AM - Can’t do it in Montana either. That’s why God invented water bottles.
1/14/24, 7:37 PM - OK - so you won’t drink a second label but you’ll drink Caymus? Respectfully, that makes little sense. But, it’s a solid choice to drink the QC second and I commend to you both 20 and 21. And I agree with you - can you find a California cab in the $50 range that touches dozens of Washington cabs? I think not. California is absurd and I’ve just plain stopped buying there. Other than two or three favorites and a couple at the high end of my personal buying curve.
1/16/24, 6:41 AM - I need to apologize for my comment. I must have been drunk. I hope so - otherwise I don’t have an excuse. Sorry.
1/14/24, 7:33 PM - This is a great note - so spot on from what I tasted almost 2 years later.
1/14/24, 5:04 AM - Good note, though the “impressive” legs puzzles me. The only thing legs have ever told me about a wine is the alcohol content - certainly not quality of the wine or length of an anticipated finish. I may well be missing something - can you explain?
1/14/24, 5:47 AM - Thanks for the note. Understood. I occasionally look at a note of mine and think “who wrote that?”
12/26/23, 1:06 PM - Not snobbish. Practical. And I'd bet 85% of the CT users do the same thing when the situation calls for it! Cheers!
12/21/23, 6:57 PM - Are you trying to post a note about the wine rather than where you were when you drank it? I’m not the tasting note police, but there is a specific section called “Private Consumption Note” to post a private “where I was or who I was with” note.
12/20/23, 10:53 AM - Thanks, Tim - I've been wondering about you as I haven't seen blog updates. As to this wine, it's special. Opened on a Tuesday night with leftover as it had just been that kind of a day. It's a wonderful wine - I probably bought it originally because you called it highly recommended!
12/2/23, 8:51 PM - Not being the tasting note police but there is a section to put information like “Caribbean cruise” - private consumption note. Then you have a record but it’s not out as a tasting note.
11/26/23, 6:11 PM - I’ll write a TN but commenting on the decanting. I drank it on open and decided it should be decanted. Tried it at an hour and again at 3 which is when I put it back in the bottle and we drank it in hour 4. It kept improving. Quite primary, so decanting is valuable.
11/20/23, 8:17 PM - This seems like the right kind of comment to put in the Private Consumption Note section as it keeps track of something that matters to the author but says nothing about the wine of any value to a person looking to learn something about said wine. Not trying to be the tasting note police here, but I think you just put this in the wrong place.
11/13/23, 12:49 PM - I think the prior commenter was pointing out that, for some reason, the review states - at the top - "TEDCHOLL does not like this wine." It's that comment that does not square with the review or the point score.
11/10/23, 9:15 AM - Not sure about storage - I got my bottles direct from Ramey and I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the wine in terms of flaws or spoilage but it’s just a lousy wine. Yours could have been both lousy and flawed!
10/30/23, 5:17 AM - It’s a hard habit to break but with 1700 bottles in the cellar, and probably 600 of them “special” bottles, my new mantra is becoming “drink the good stuff now.” My heirs are already going to be happy.
10/30/23, 5:16 AM - I have tasted the 17, 18 and 19 and neither has any green character. When I next taste one of these, I’ll be attentive and then write to you. I have some ‘20 coming soon but will let those settle down from travel. I really loved the 17 and 18 and was lukewarm about the 19. Maybe just bad luck or not giving it air or something, but it wasn’t really there.
10/25/23, 5:51 AM - My view of QC is that they are best at around 5 - 8 years and then they become alcoholic and even port-like. It's way too common - and I'll say lately I've been drinking some old (15 - 20 years) Andrew Will wines and they are just superb - they age like Bordeaux. As does Adams Bench (though I haven't had any older than 12 from that producer).
10/15/23, 5:59 AM - Meaning?
10/6/23, 2:18 PM - I have not but I will not buy more. My Washington cab money is better spent on Andrew Will and Adam’s Bench.
9/13/23, 1:18 PM - I wonder what it's like to leave wine in a glass for 30 minutes.... I don't think that can happen to me!
9/12/23, 1:02 PM - I see all of your notes say "relocate" or some variation. Those kind of individual notes fit well in the "private consumption note" section - it's where I put individual information like who I was with, what the occasion was, notes regarding specific details not worth sharing in a tasting note which is, of course, where people go to read about the characteristics of the wine. I'm trying not to be presumptuous, but I didn't know that for quite a while when I started keeping track of things in CellarTracker.
7/5/23, 5:17 AM - Appreciate the notes. I have a substantial amount of experience with Produttori and it is one of my most beloved estates in Piemonte, along with Ca del Baio. I do not think it is in a dumb phase - it’s just maturing. Maybe it’s in the baseball-cap-backwards phase. Note that I still scored it pretty high, but I miss the vivid acidity it had early. Seems to me that the wine is aging like it’s a Barolo. I’ll take that. If I had six and hadn’t tried it yet, I would not hesitate to do so just to take its measure. One of the great pleasures is following a wine over time, taking notes each time without looking at past notes. Also, I’ve updated my note by adding impressions from the wine at 16 hours open.
8/27/23, 5:27 AM - Good series of questions. I think so-called slo-ox is a waste of time. You are giving your wine a dime sized patch of air. Makes no sense to me. If the wine needs decanting, and most do, just decant it. After a wine has had enough air (tricky business I concede), pour back into the bottle and put the cork in. As to raising from cellar temp to drinking, I assume from your comments you like red wine in the low 60s. A guide I use is wine changes temp in room temperature environment one degree every ten minutes or so in a bottle. Thus, if you want to bring from 52 to 62 just do the math. A good tip is to buy an infrared thermometer and do your own testing to come up with how to change temperatures. As to keeping a wine at a serving temp, I don’t pay too much attention to that as wine has a tendency to not stay long on my table. I would probably just use a marble chiller to hold it if I felt I needed to. Seems a little fussy.
8/25/23, 4:48 AM - I just opened it, splash decanted and poured it back in the bottle and we drank it over the next hour. Showed better each time (other wine was Tignanello so went back and forth) so I believe that a lengthy decant of maybe four to six hours would be beneficial. Or aggressive aeration. Yummy wine.
8/1/23, 6:14 AM - Your description reads more like a wine that has been overheated and suffered as a consequence. Maybe not, but my experience with the wine suggests something other than what you have described. I would be interested in your views of the wine if you tasted it from another source.
7/27/23, 4:38 AM - If the wine has gone around the bend, as it appears this has, it’s not really fair to score it.
7/15/23, 8:32 AM - and the wine??
7/6/23, 5:55 AM - And yet, a 92?
7/3/23, 10:35 AM - to be determined and.... what? Cryptic.
7/3/23, 5:23 PM - And now it all makes sense. Or at least a little of it does. But it prompted me to open a bottle of it tonight. It’s a pretty wine and after some air it became more interesting - at first it seemed pretty flat and uncertain. Three hours later it, finally, is showing some verve. Still, hard to disagree with your 87. For a beaujolais it shows very little fruit - minerality, acid, tannin. Weird. I’ll taste it in the morning and see if the fruit has made an appearance.
6/27/23, 10:27 AM - As to aeration - I opened and drank about half the bottle immediately. It was good but my thought was 91 or so. A couple hours later I tasted some more with a plan to drink the rest of the bottle with my son and saved enough to have a reasonable amount to evaluate second day. The reason I did that is the wine felt like it was going to calm, deepen and open up. It did. Next time with this one will be an 8 a.m. decant for that evening’s dinner.
6/23/23, 12:10 PM - Had there been any wine remaining in the bottle (not entirely, though mostly, my actions) I would have been able to provide a day two update tonight. I do think it would age quite well. But I think I can find good white burgs and Oregon chardonnay just as good if not better at $20 or so the less.
6/18/23, 1:07 PM - My experience has been that it needs a decant of around 4 - 6 hours to wake up and show itself. Otherwise, it can feel shut down.
6/7/23, 6:24 AM - There were two problems with the presentation - one was no air time at all, just open and pour. The second was the wine was about five degrees too warm, which brought out alcohol. The alcohol receded into background after a half hour or so. It's still very primary but a wonderful wine. Next time - four hours in the decanter and served at 62 degrees. The problems in presentation were overcome by the views from the deck of Many Glacier Lake. https://www.glaciernationalparklodges.com/photo
6/7/23, 6:30 AM - It's kind of crazy - I live less than 3 hours from Glacier and I only go there every three or four years. I need to make a point of going every September - that's when it's magical and most of the people are gone.
6/7/23, 6:45 AM - Too easy to take what we have for granted. I try not to do that with the wines in my cellar - and every once in a while I drink one that simply commands attention, perhaps by its power, or its elegance, or its depth, or that it's unique. In the unique category is reflected in a tasting note I just wrote a few days ago. The wine is another cheapie - a 2021 Garofoli Rosso Piceno Farnio, a blend of mostly Montepulciano (d'Abruzzo, not vino nobile) and sangiovese. By the way, I always enjoy your notes.
6/7/23, 9:22 AM - Is there a way to communicate directly with another on the CT platform? I see that you favor California cabernet (a bit of an assumption) and while it's not my favorite, I do enjoy the cabs from Togni and Spottswoode and Randy Dunn (if they have enough age on them.) I've also enjoyed Insignia and Dominus and while I can afford wines in that range, I have a hard time justifying it on an enjoyment scale. But I'm interested in your thoughts and would like to explore. Do you know a way?
5/23/23, 6:45 PM - The note is just too harsh, and the criticism of the critic just seems arrogant. Without justification or experience to back it up. Sure, it’s fine to say “Geez, what was Walter Speller thinking….” No problem. Your palate may not align with theirs. But they taste thousands of wines and you tasted this and decided their ID card should be suspended. Why? Based on your analysis? You can be secure in your own scoring and thoughts on a wine without denigrating the critic. That said, your tasting note is solid though I like the wine more than you do. So who’s right? The answer? We both are.
5/24/23, 4:11 AM - I would like to add to my comment - and I apologize for being judgmental or, heaven forbid, harsh while commenting on a harsh comment. If I could edit what I wrote I would, so I apologize. But what is said does make for interesting fodder for discussion because it is sometimes puzzling to taste a wine and not understand how it was scored very high. Usually, I put that down to my own lack of experience. But for novices, the critics can be very misleading, especially if that novice believes she is supposed to like what the critics like. It takes a great deal of experience and confidence to trust your own palate and calibrate your own tastes to what critics say. And it takes time to understand who you trust and whose scores are nothing more than a curiosity. And, finally, the best step of all is to choose wines based on your own knowledge and experience and not read scores at all.
5/13/23, 2:37 PM - I'm sorry. That is serious alcohol abuse times 2. The hangover cause and then wasting the 09 Pontet. Ouch.
5/7/23, 7:02 PM - How nice of you to pick this up and comment on it. I pay so much attention to your notes and comments so, thank you.
5/1/23, 1:52 PM - There is a chance this was an off bottle but there is little chance the wine is past its peak. Describing it as "drab" or "lacking structure" argues in favor of the off-bottle theory. Such a young Tignanello with the vivid, snappy acidity I have tasted twice in this 2013 really could not be mistaken as drab. Tignanello may be a little light on the QPR scale, but I've yet to experience it as "drab."
4/29/23, 6:13 AM - No wonder they didn’t show well - they were discouraged months ago!Sorry - could not pass that one up. I bought a case of these in 375 and have been enjoying them but sometimes they show beautifully, all crisp and juicy with solid underpinnings and sometimes, well, just a little discouraged.
5/1/23, 5:36 AM - Well played!
4/8/23, 5:08 AM - Does your score take into account price? If not, it’s hard to square an 89 for this wine with your comment that it’s “great wine.” Perhaps you score a “great” wine as an 89, which makes me wonder what adjectives are used to describe a wine you might score 96.
3/11/23, 7:15 AM - I agree re double decanting. In fact, if what one is trying to do is to get air to the wine, the double decant is useful but, then, to put it back in a bottle where it the exposure is roughly the size of a quarter is pointless. Leave it in the decanter and taste every hour or so and if it seems like it's at its best, THEN put it back in the bottle and put the cork back in. That's my view - could be just as wrong as anyone else's. I only double decant if I'm in a hurry shortly before consumption and then I do it by running it through the Vinturi both directions. That truly maximizes exposure in a short time frame. Also, what's your view on shaking in a quarter jar? That one gives me the willies but it seems to work.
3/2/23, 7:27 PM - You have probably been asked this before - why do you start your reviews w/ you user name? It’s not like we don’t know who’s writing the notes. I do think you have a knack for notes.
2/26/23, 3:17 PM - There are a few of us here. I appreciate the comment - I am in Missoula but often in Bozeman since my company is based there. Would be interested in hearing of your wine sources in Montana - most of mine aren’t in Montana, but shipping is a bother.
2/23/23, 4:34 AM - Seven notes on the same wine. Impressive.
2/23/23, 3:52 AM - I do not wish to be presumptuous nor am I the CellarTracker police, but most of your notes, indicating where or with whom you drank a particular wine, are more conveniently kept in the Private Consumption Notes section whereas the tasting notes are just that - your views on the wine, its quality, flavor profile, etc. I used to do the same thing before I found private consumption notes to be a better place to keep track of significant personal information - social gatherings, birthday dinners, etc. Cheers! And, I would be interested in your views on the ‘16 Pora - I have a small number of the Riservas from various of PdB vineyards I have yet to open. I have had the ‘16 normale several times and it’s quite exceptional.
2/18/23, 3:04 PM - I don’t have enough information to choose a decant time. My only clue is the development of the bottle I had over two hours - it wasn’t decanted and it deepened and calmed a fair bit. I would be inclined to try 3 hours and then pay attention to the wine over the next hour or two in order to see if 4 or 5 hours is more like it. Thanks for the comments on the note. I enjoy reading yours.
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