1/19/2016 - nortonnose wrote:

I forgot I had a few of these tucked away! This 750ml was a friend's bottle, and reminded me how much I have always enjoyed the Hirsch PNs. This is still quite young and a little brooding; very earthy. Nice if unspectacular today - hold.

8/22/2014 - nortonnose wrote:

Similar to my June tasting below

6/20/2014 - nortonnose wrote:

NR this time. 750ml stood for days, purchased at auction. Jury is still out on provenance, as this seemed quite off to me. With that being said, I am a huge fan of CMG and have had great success with a handful of older vintages. 2000 obviously ought to be terrific, if perhaps still quite young. Had this alongside 1999 Pajana, which also seemed off (Pajana much less so). Each was opened 5 hrs in advance, and just rested. Then decanted for an hour and served. Color differential was remarkable: this was incredibly bricked and light in comparison to the much, darker, richer Pajana. Nose was rather lousy, and quite a bit of TCA/funk in the mid-late palate that lingered into the finish. Will try another one soon in trusted company and report back!

3/7/2014 - Paul S wrote:

A "Blended" Birthday Dinner (Garibaldi, Purvis Street, Singapore): Wow. Every now and then I come across a wine that captures my imagination, and the taste of it lingers in the memory for years after. Coming back to another bottle of a wine like that always runs the risk of real disappointment - of bottles not stored as well, with food pairings being not quite right, of taste not quite living up to the memory. With this bottle though, it was as if the cobwebs of prevailing time swept aside and I was brought back almost to the place where I was when I first tasted it. It was perhaps not quite the perfect CdP the last bottle was, but boy this was a gobsmackingly good. Opened a couple of hours before service, it still had lots of Beaucastel funk on the nose when poured, with leather and game meat and hints of barnyard swirling around a beautiful core of dark cherries and berry aromas, and then bits of spice and garrigue and drifts of gun-smoke trailing behind. Quite wonderful stuff. It was on the palate where the wine really hit the ball out of the park though. This was crazy good, with wonderful complexity unfolding across the mouth in layers of earth and spice and meat and dark-fruited plums and blackberries, seasoned of spice and garrigue, menthol and wild flowers - all this couched in fine-boned tannins and laced with a beautifully fresh, lively acidity. Wow. Open, elegant, soaring - this almost had the silken structure of a Burgundy, but wed at the same time to the moreish depth of a great CdP. When paired with a gamey duck ragout, fireworks just went off in the mouth. Great finish too, with funky meat and smoke and a hint of garrigue filling the backpalate with effortless length. Amazing, It may not have been quite as ethereal as the ex-Chateau bottle that the Beaucastel folks brought down to Singapore a couple of years back, but this still ranks amongst the best CdPs I have ever tried. I always hate to vote my own bottle as WOTN, but this bottle really stood out for me amidst some sterling reds on the night. Wow. I have one last bottle of this squirreled away - while this was singing on the night, I would be interested to see where that goes in a couple of years' time.

1/25/2014 - dcwino wrote:

Raspberry, strong strawberry jam, hint of cherry, ripe, a hint of licorice, mineral, rose, earth, caramel and sweet spices. Cool and suave, great tension and precision, strong presence of tannins but absolutely no sense of dryness. With air, a hint of balsamico emerges as well as iron and tar. Excellent concentration, balsamico like sweetness and acidity and tannins that are steely and spicy without every giving any dry/harsh impression. This is developing incredibly. I find the expression identical to Monfortino. It is a unbelievably great wine. I highly highly recommend. One of the greatest deals out there!

7/14/2013 - Tim Heaton wrote:

PnP consumed over 2 nights, with night #2 showing better, but still quite simple and uninteresting.

Wines like this - gagged and bound in oak, with average fruit quality and low acids - are what drove me away from Napa/Cabs. Tack on the totally undeserved price-tag, and the recipe is complete. Tightly wound on night #1, completely unmemorable. Night #2, and the wine still required a good dose of coaxing in the glass before it gave up aromas of iodine, ferrous metal, cassis and blackberry. Full-bodied, and well composed given what little there is to work with here, and built for prime rib more than it's built for a ribeye. Good, but pretends to be very good. Glad I didn't pay for it. 14,5% abv, drink thru 2020, be sure to aerate in decanter.

5/26/2013 - paulst Likes this wine:

Nice texture with deep blackberry and well integrated sweet tannins.

12/3/2012 - pilot360 wrote:

Opened up and was ready to go. Fantastic blueberry, eucalyptus, smoke, little bit of chocolate. If I had another and could wait, I would leta few years pass to soften the tannins just a bit.