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Comments on my notes

(32 comments on 27 notes)

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Red
2016 Ram's Gate Pinot Noir El Diablo Vineyard Russian River Valley
Beautiful color. Nose seems off. Not corked but as if dust was in the glass. It’s the finish that is horrendous and extremely green and tannic. Tasted two different bottles with identical profiles. Unfortunate and not up to par with some of the Chardonnays I’ve had from this producer.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    9/10/22, 6:04 AM - No, it’s for the Pinot. I just referenced how I preferred this producer’s Chardonnay over the Pinot which I found to be awful and ended up returning the bottles.

Red
2014 Jean Edwards Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Yates Family Vineyard Mt. Veeder
1/17/2022 - flyinburrito wrote:
Cloying
  • flyinburrito commented:

    1/18/22, 5:04 AM - Appreciate the note. I haven’t posted one on a cab in a long time but cloying was the word that immediately came to mind and did so on another occasion with this wine. I thought the fruit was restrained but the sweet oak on the nose and finish to be strong and off putting. I have two more bottles of the Yates and more than half a case of the stagecoach from the same vintage. I plan on leaving these alone for a few more years with the hope that the oak flavors integrate better. I very much enjoy Napa cabs and Bordeaux. I usually like a bit more age on them and prefer them a bit old school. The mondavi reserves from the 80’s and early 90’s were some of my favorite wines ever.

  • flyinburrito commented:

    1/18/22, 6:16 AM - Many of those wines are still drinking beautifully. There’s a gem of a restaurant in my little rural town that has an amazing cellar of old Napa cab and Bordeaux. Had the 85 mondavi reserve recently that was just wonderful.

  • flyinburrito commented:

    1/19/22, 5:50 AM - A little town called Warwick about an hour or so outside of NYC.

Red
2014 Ramey Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
11/27/2021 - allenn1999 wrote:
flawed
Another flawed bottle. 3/4 bottles from my 2014 vintage were flawed. Very sad.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    1/1/22, 5:32 PM - Corked? Years ago I emailed Ramey complaining that out of a case purchase of his RRV Chardonnay at least four bottles were corked and that he should look into it. I suggested using DIAM corks like William fevre. He responded with a rather snarky email and said he knew what the competition across the pond was doing and that he’d remove me from their email list.

White
2016 Ram's Gate Chardonnay El Diablo Vineyard Russian River Valley
10/23/2020 - wiscgrad wrote:
94 points
Unbelievable deal from Wtso
  • flyinburrito commented:

    3/25/21, 3:35 PM - I second that. Truly Burgundian style and singing!

Red
2016 Domaine Heresztyn/Heresztyn-Mazzini Chambolle-Musigny Pinot Noir
12/15/2020 - Keith Levenberg wrote:
89 points
Shapeshifter of a wine. Liked it best on opening, when it was a bright rosy red and so perfumed it was like inhaling a dozen roses. Then it turned more solid, slightly bitter-edged, and maroon-toned in the fashion of many 2016s. And then it lightened up again and the fruit turned into a bushel of red apples.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    1/17/21, 4:23 PM - Will take years

Red
2014 Claypool Cellars Pinot Noir Pachyderm Sonoma Coast
6/16/2019 - willie_p74 Likes this wine:
96 points
Lately when I open a Sonoma Pinot, I expect it to be very in-your-face but this isn’t that at all, Very smooth and balanced. Great looking with maroon hues all around, notes of spice and a light plum thing going on. This is just right paired w some lamb on the grill and wow, I’m impressed. Already thinking about how I’m gonna get more.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    1/15/21, 7:26 PM - Cobb is the winemaker that’s why

Red
2013 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve To-Kalon Vineyard Oakville
4/2/2019 - richshoes Likes this wine:
93 points
Super exquisite in terms of its refined structure...lot of dark fruit and squid ink...but I still miss these Mondavis from the 90s that were more mossy and had more terroir!
  • flyinburrito commented:

    5/22/20, 6:22 AM - Agreed! Love the mondavi reserves from the 90’s. Many of them still drinking wonderfully. We did a vertical last fall, 1990-99 and all were still exceptional. The 90, 95, and 97 were the standouts for me.

Red
2012 Topel Cabernet Sauvignon Battuello Vineyard St. Helena
Definitely on the lighter end of modern napa cabs, good fruit, minimal oak and alcohol. Seemed better on day 2 with a bit more development. Still not overly complex though. I'm not sure what retail was on this. The $15 at GO I found it for was a nice find.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    12/3/19, 4:16 PM - Which retailer is GO? Online?

White
2014 Patz & Hall Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Carneros
10/1/2016 - srose254 wrote:
93 points
Pop, pour and ran through the Vinturi...delish. Nose of rose petals and barnyard-harmony in contrast. Packs a punch on the sip wild berries, dash of plum and minerals. Lush and wet. Finishes with dried cherry, iron and the return of the roses petals. Well balanced tannins and acidity the complement the presentation.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    2/22/19, 1:39 PM - Sounds like this might be for their pinot, not the chard.

White
2014 Patz & Hall Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Carneros
1/4/2019 - L Wine Views wrote:
90 points
This wine needs decanting it smelled like humid clothes. I made the mistake and didn’t decant it, I tasted the citrus and caramel but didn’t enjoy it.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    2/22/19, 1:37 PM - Sounds like maybe it was an off bottle, perhaps slightly ox'd?

White
2010 Maison L'Oree Meursault 1er Cru Les Genevrières Chardonnay
Blowsy, fat and tropical. Heading to oxidation? Poor excuse for a top flight Meursault.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    9/22/18, 7:08 AM - Do you recall where you purchased the wine?

  • flyinburrito commented:

    9/22/18, 1:00 PM - I know. Very tasty initially upon release but I can’t tell you how many premox’d bottles I’ve had from 2010. Had a case of Louis latour 1er puligny sous les puits and a case of Philip Colin chassagne 1er chaumees and out of each case at least 8 (per case) were incredibly advanced and/or totally ox’d. Totally unacceptable. Although I prefer stylistically WB to Chardonnay made just about anywhere else in the world, the batting average is terrible! They have to figure this out. The wines, as you know, are not cheap!

Red
2010 Prelude A Grand-Puy Ducasse Pauillac Red Bordeaux Blend
4/29/2016 - jeffreylubowski Likes this wine:
89 points
Very similar to a year ago. Menthol and forest floor. Minerals. This seemed a bit more red berried. Still some tannins. 2010 won't relax. Good for 25 bucks. You certainly won't find a Napa cab of this quality at this price.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    7/17/18, 9:23 AM - would you mind sharing with me where you purchased this for $25? Thanks!

Red
2004 Tenuta Fanti Brunello di Montalcino Sangiovese
4/22/2018 - up4wine wrote:
96 points
This is close, if not, the best Brunello I have had. Although 'tis true that I have not always pursued the most expensive and commercially cherished wineries, I still conclude this one is very near the top of the heap. Wonderfully transient nose and palate that wafted between cherries, anise, bright fruit, earth and leather. The finish was tremendously long with every sip. We actually thought the wine had peaked after about 90 minutes and was on a downward trajectory. However, 15 minutes later the liveliness and bright fruit was back and went to ever greater height. Just a wonderful wine experience. My current score is significantly higher that from 5 years ago. I am not always so consistent, but seldom does my opinion change this drastically. I have to assume that the 2004 vintage and this wine continue to make great advances in the bottle.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    5/16/18, 7:52 PM - Glad you enjoyed this wine. I would suggest seeking out Il Poggione and Cerbaie Casanuova. If you like this wine those producers will blow your mind and for about the same price.

Red
2014 Merryvale Pinot Noir Carneros
4/6/2018 - ConstanceG Likes this wine:
76 points
Loved it. Easy drinker.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    5/6/18, 5:58 PM - Loved it..then why such a low score?

White
2009 Hudson Vineyards Chardonnay Carneros
Light, pale gold. Nose dominates with scents of expensive, sweet vanilla tinged oak. Along the lines of a Beringer Private Reserve. Some bright citrus lurks in the background. There is certainly high quality fruit here and no doubt a great winemaking team behind this bottling. My own selfish wish; JUST LET THE FRUIT SHINE. After leaving the bottle open for a while, a strong sense of minerality in the fruit appeared. Unfortunately it was tinged with that sweet vanilla oak, albeit not as prominent as on the nose earlier. I would love, absolutely love to see a producer take this fruit and do a Chablis, Louis Michel interpretation as I have no doubt it would be absolutely wonderful!
  • flyinburrito commented:

    4/25/18, 5:27 PM - Appreciate the comment. I have a ton of Chablis. The limestone soils are definitely a trip to see in person. The soils in the Cote de Beaune where Chardonnay also shines are also red, similar to Carneros, particularly on the hill of Corton but those whites rarely show the oak. I enjoy the reductive character of white Burgs but the oak is almost never front and center. All I was trying to get across was that the Hudson vineyard clearly has a streak of minerality that I think would shine through much clearer if the oak was dialed down a bit. I love Chardonnay aged in oak barrels but the best examples don't necessarily flaunt that. I dig BC too. Was in Santa Barbara in November and had a good tasting at Hilliard Bruce where Greg Brewer is making some tasty wines. Even in Chablis, I love both styles; the Louis Michel all stainless and the houses that use oak like William Fevre and Pinson.

Red
2009 Louis Latour Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans Pinot Noir
11/17/2017 - COWineLover wrote:
This is my second bottle of this in a couple of weeks. Both bottles have been 'off' bottles. Tight fisted aromas. On the palate both bottles have had sour cherry notes with little of the polish and silkiness that was present in a bottle consumed three years ago.

I am starting to think this wine is from young vines as the concentration is not there. Perhaps in a dumb phase, but I'm suspicious that is the case. Stored in a temp and humidity controlled environment since release.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    11/21/17, 11:38 AM - I have had terrible experiences with most of my purchases of Louis Latour wines. My sense is they are just too big and quality control is non-existent.
    I reached out to them about this and never received a response. I've decided to simply stay away as there are plenty of other producers not to mention more reputable larger negociants.

Red
2012 Montagna Cabernet Sauvignon Tre Vigneti Napa Valley
8/11/2016 - MAXIMUM SATISFACTION wrote:
93 points
Soft medium plus textured body with soft tannins. Sweet red and purple fruit with spicy tobacco. Acid is pretty high as is the oak treatment but should be great in 1-2 years. Best open an hour or two before drinking. A steal at $29 bucks.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    7/16/17, 1:08 PM - Where were you able to find it at that price?

White
2012 Domaine Matrot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes Chardonnay
2/5/2015 - Lipsman Does not like this wine:
50 points
I called the first bottle flawed, but this bottle is the same: exceedingly premature oxidation, tart yet cloyingly sweet vinegar, absolutely foul, a disgrace labeled 1er Cru!
  • flyinburrito commented:

    6/15/17, 12:10 PM - That sucks! I've read that Matrot is right up there with Jadot as far as being one of the worst offenders when it comes to the amount/percentage of their wines that suffer from pre-mox. Terrible!

Red
2011 Groth Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville
3/18/2017 - Purple Tooth wrote:
Tried this after a bottle of 2000 Bordeaux. This is not a tasting note, but more of a piece of humble advice and a reminder to self. DO NOT MIX WINE GENRES WHEN DRINKING PROMISING WINE. Its a waste of your money and shameful for the wine. I don't care what people say otherwise..I am sold on this fact, after falling victim to this trap over and over and taking innocent wine down with me. If you are going to have a Bordeaux adventure, make it all Bordeaux...a California adventure should be all about California wines, blah, blah, blah...I left the other half of the wine in the bottle on the table and went home. I guess as I am getting older I definitely don't drink wine for the alcohol effect. I must admit that when I got home, I had a scotch! Thanks for reading the rant...
  • flyinburrito commented:

    5/10/17, 5:44 PM - Couldn't agree more. Although I will say I tend to get snarkier towards the CA wines more often than not when I mix the two. That being said...better to let each world alone.

Red
2013 White Rock Vineyards Claret Napa Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
3/18/2017 - mflesh wrote:
This wine is youthful, and dense. Black fruit core. Not really even sure that it is ready to go yet. Quite a bit of toasty oak on the finish. The front is dark black fruit, cassis, black licorice, chocolate and spice cookie. The middle of this wine is thick, dense, concentrated. This wine had a chalky finish, likely because I probably swallowed some splinters from the oak barrel. This wine was super awesome, and probably better with dinner than it is/was alone given the fact that some food really did help to balance the finish, which is a little bit out of whack right now. Giving the other a couple of years!
  • flyinburrito commented:

    4/19/17, 8:09 AM - Hi! I've been drinking White Rock for years. No rush on these wines. They tend to last a very long time. I still have some 05 and 08 Claret that pours an opaque purple color and smells and tastes very youthful. Frankly, those aren't exactly ready yet either. Very tasty though. Just thought I'd share. Cheers!

Red
2010 Bonaccorsi Pinot Noir Sebastiano Sta. Rita Hills
12/30/2015 - sdwineguru wrote:
flawed
Terrible TCA cork taint. Moldy, musty. Sad. Was looking forward to trying this wine, gift from a good friend some two years ago.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    1/11/17, 4:25 PM - If the wine is flawed from cork taint you should mark it as flawed instead of giving a score. Only saying because it's going to skew the CT score average and potentially hurt the reputation of the winemaker by no fault of their own.

Red
2010 Louis Barruol Hermitage La Pierrelle Syrah
As always, the dense- of the set.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    9/15/16, 7:55 PM - Did you find any Brett aromas or flavors in the wine? Just taking a look at RJ's note. Thanks.

Red
2010 Domaine Thomas Morey Beaune 1er Cru Grèves Pinot Noir
6/25/2013 - Keith Levenberg Likes this wine:
94 points
This is one seriously top-notch Beaune, and more impressive than the 2009 version, although both are incredible values (especially at the sale price J.J. Buckley had them for). This needed no time to get in the zone (no CO2 to shake off this year) and just offered an expansive, satiny canvas of pure, voluptuously proportioned red pinot fruit with no hard edges and a polished, shiny veneer. It got grittier and more structured towards the end of the bottle but there was a long window when this was just flawlessly composed.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    6/20/16, 6:51 PM - Do you recall how much JJ was selling this for? Thanks.

  • flyinburrito commented:

    6/20/16, 6:58 PM - Wow, sounds like a steal. They definitely have some great deals from time to time. I picked up some of Christian Moreau's Vaillons 2010 for the same price not too long ago.

Red
2010 Albert Morot Beaune 1er Cru Les Toussaints Pinot Noir
Flawed bottle. Substantial mold through the the cork, bottle lip, and neck. Vinegar personified !
  • flyinburrito commented:

    12/10/15, 9:00 AM - where did you purchase the wine? just curious because i like morot's wines and am considering placing an order for this but wouldn't want to purchase it from the same retailer. thanks.

  • flyinburrito commented:

    12/10/15, 10:56 AM - thanks, appreciate it!

White
2007 Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Perrières Chardonnay
4/6/2015 - Gabbby Likes this wine:
91 points
Opened up nicely, mineral, lemon peel, and fresh citrus nose. Medium body, complex and good length. Beautiful puligny les perrieres.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    8/25/15, 9:25 AM - Hi,

    Just curious, have you had more than one bottle of this 07 Sauzet lately? If so, have you noticed any off/premox bottles? Just curious as to how you think the wine might be ageing...properly hopefully. Thanks!

White
2008 Domaine Vocoret et Fils Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre Chardonnay
6/28/2013 - Waynescoting Likes this wine:
91 points
I'm not 100% sure I've correctly identified this wine because the label, an image of which I'll upload, looks different from one that another reviewer uploaded. Also, I'm an inexperienced taster.

I greatly enjoyed this wine that--based on earlier reviews--I'm drinking late. It was a pale yellow and relatively full-feeling compared to most whites I've had, dry but it didn't seem excessively so, buttery with some earthiness, even a tiny bit of spice perhaps. It's the best white-wine experience I've had in quite some time, and I thought I disliked Chardonnay! Any feedback from other tasters as to why this Chardonnay experience seemed so categorically superior would be appreciated. The answer may be, perhaps, that I've mostly been exposed in the past to American Chardonnays (and probably on the mid-to-low-end of the price scale).
  • flyinburrito commented:

    3/20/15, 6:50 AM - I'm glad you had such a great experience. A lot of folks think it's posh to be an ABC person (anything but chardonnay) but most of them never had white Burgundy. Chablis is chardonnay in it's purest form. The grape can easily be masked which is why many winemakers either take a very hands off approach or, on the complete other end of the spectrum, dress it up as much as possible to appeal to a certain market. I visited Chablis and can tell you that it's all about the soil there; lots of broken up limestone with fossilized marine life deposits...during a tasting at William Fevre, the woman pouring for us showed us a rock that was taken from the vineyards and polished and you can actually see the deposits...makes for a very interesting minerally wine. Now that you've discovered Chablis, which certainly still is the best bargain in Burgundy, make your way further south and try the whites from Beaune, Meursault, Chassagne, and Puligny. There's oak there but it's almost always much more integrated and seamless and the wines are first and foremost about elegance and finesse. Enjoy!

Red
2008 Van Duzer Pinot Noir Westside Blocks Willamette Valley
9/6/2014 - rickspicks wrote:
93 points
This was simply spectacular. Much more mature and evolved than most 2008 Oregon pinots. Drank more like an 8-10 year old pinot - with dried red fruits, dust, leather and earth in a complex, balanced, seamless, silky smooth package. This is how I would want all my wines to mature. Not sure what wine other tasters were drinking, but clearly not the same experience.
  • flyinburrito commented:

    2/23/15, 1:21 PM - Hi Rick,

    Did you purchase this wine directly from the winery or another retailer recently? Just curious because I'm interested in buying it but it's $65 from the winery and significantly cheaper at some of the wine retailers I deal with, around $25 or so. Wondering if it's been slashed in price for a reason...thanks!

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