4/29/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Nice, but for my palate a notch behind the 2004 Comtes Blanc

4/14/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

the most perfumed of the three. quite similar to good Morgon

4/14/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Not as flabby as most 06s and still showing good freshness, but I found the white chocolate notes the vintage imparts a bit offputting for my palate. A strong effort for the vintage but not worth the $$s for me

4/14/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Ver fresh, still on the young side more my palate. I still think this is the Krug which will be a positive surprise for drinkers in 10-20 years

2/16/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Smoky oak and whole bunch on the nose. The plate shows a click of creamy oak and spicy/pepper notes with a hint of cluster. I always struggle to enjoy Jamet cote-rotie Young, so I’m going to admit I’m bad at seeing Northern Rhone future development and leave this unscored. Great acidity and balance, and the 14.5% abv doesn’t show at all on the palate

2/14/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

I really wanted to enjoy this but I’ve now tried it three different times in both the UK and South Africa with similar notes: Boisenberry and Foynbos on the nose, not showing a lot of cluster influence. On the palate the fruit is ripe and broad but even in a long, cool growing season and only 13.5% ABV, the wine doesn’t have enough acidity to make this refreshing or moreish on the palate. the finish shows raspberry but is quite meaty. Amongst the best South African Syrahs I’d take Lismore Estate Reserve, Sons of Sugarland and Rall’s Ava & Noa single vineyards ahead of this, all at similar or lower pricing.

2/8/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Painfully young still with a huge streak of acidity on the palate. There's plenty of fruit here so I think a few more years in the cellar could make this quite special.

2/8/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Ran a bottle of Mouton '86 pretty close. Needs 60 minutes in a decanter to show it stuff but there's really nice balance, intensity and just enough fruit to match the structure

2/8/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

We left this open for 90 minutes but really we should have decanted, the last glass was the best. With air the wine found extra depth on the palate and complexity. Very good claret

1/24/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Surprisingly big and powerful for a wine from Stella, which is to say still delicate compared to its peers. Reminded me quite a bit of Rayas '09 in its density of powerful spice notes on the palate with a sense of balance, despite showing a fair bit of alcohol.

1/22/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

A wow wine: the hallmark Bereche Grand Cru power but with great delicacy and precision on the palate too

1/18/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Tiny hint of refermentation

1/8/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

SQ First Class: just too boozy. 15.5% ABV. Rich, thick and heavy on the nose: smells like melted road tar, tastes like it too. No sense of lightness of refreshment anywhere here, this is like the worst of the Parker era

1/7/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Another year, another bottle of the current Polish hill release drunk at Nomad sydney showing surprisingly open for the style. I'd argue the '23 is a bit more traditional (ie acidic) than the '22 but these are showing more fruit in their youth than I remember the new releases 5-10 years ago did

1/2/2024 - ubercuvee wrote:

Served in Swiss First Class. Fragrant, clearly showing the low-sulphur elevage. Missing nuance and depth, but the 2020 vintage shines here to provide freshness and balance

12/25/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Too young and I think a notch behind the brilliant 2012 & 2013 in quality. That being said, these recent releases (12/13/14) of Cristal have astonishing purity and I think are pushing the wine in a quality bracket consistently above Dom P/Vintage Krug/Comtes/Grande Dame/Grand Siecle, at least for my palate. Wholesale prices in the UK have fallen 30% from their post-covid bubble peak too...

12/19/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Don't understand the buzz around this. I thought this showed young but without a lot of complexity or interest compared to Taittinger Comtes, let alone Cristal. Yes it's "cheap" for a prestige cuvee magnum, but IMHO you can do better elsewhere for the $$s

12/18/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

A lot of hype around this producer and I wanted to like it, but I found some quite bitter root ginger notes on the palate without as much minerality or fruit depth as I'd have wanted to offset it/balance it out. I much preferred a Laherte Grands Crayeres which I drank earlier in the week, which costs about half of what this does.

12/12/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

I didn't decant this and frankly I should have: the last glass was the best as the acidity mellowed and the smoky, gamey notes on the palate intensified. Very much a midweight LaLa but no less pleasurable

12/10/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Lovely from big format

12/5/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Bright, crisp acidity & very youthful: showing lots of life. Not quite as mesmeric as the very best '08 (Cristal) but not that far behind.

12/2/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Delicious, a really lovely dessert wine with a faint tannic bite

12/2/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Very nice, very sweet perhaps missing balance

11/24/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Magnum 8/500: Surprisingly unmemorable for what's supposed to be a tiny production late-disgorged Grand Cru only cuvee. The wine was still alive, but there was almost no aromatic complexity. We opened mags of 2010 Dom P and 1998+2002 Dom Ruinart the night before, and all of those were comfortably better than this.

11/9/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Very sweet, not as much complexity as I'd hoped for. Drink up

11/9/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Yet another glorious bottle of this, starting to show tertiary aromas on the nose and palate but the vibrancy and intensity of the fruit still drives the wine.

11/9/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Young, tight: nice chalkiness. I preferred this to Comtes 2004 opened a few weeks ago, my dinner partner went the toher way around. Best drinking years still ahead

10/31/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

I thought this was fabulous, and far too young. Will be approachable pretty young, check back in 2027

10/26/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Superb, despite the weak vintage. Really clearly defined chalk, with plenty of primary fruit and balance

10/26/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Absolutely lovely: a fabulous bottle, plenty of freshness despite the warm vintage

10/26/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

This was aittle smudgy/ill defined on the palate. Not sure this was a pristine bottle

10/25/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Very nice, not sure I liked it quite as much as Neal Martin. I found the fruit a bit too confected and ripe to put this in the very top tier of South African Syrahs (IMO: Boshklof/Sons of Sugarland, Lismore Estate, Rall's Ava & Noa).

10/25/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Absolutely lovely right now: still enough fruit to work with robust foods, but with the depth and complexity these take on with 7-10 years in bottle. Glorious

10/24/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

I'd agree with acyso, this has lost some of the purity it showed when young and now comes across as a bit heavy with a slight bitter hint on the finish

10/22/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Hammertime! Really, really good - no signs of oak like earlier Vietti or overextraction like later Vietti. Fabulous.

10/16/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Absolutely spectacular bottle, after maiming myself getting it open. Young, translucent fruit with tremendous balance and minerality on the palate

10/16/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Very nice, I felt this bottle was missing a touch of effervescence. Wasn't quite of the extremely low amounts like Cedric Bouchard but I felt a bit more would have helped.

10/16/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Absolutely awesome. Yes it's not quite as great as Yquem, but it's close and if you like your wines more opulent then this is for you

10/16/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Very nice but not spectacular. I wouldn't be paying the current tariff for these

10/11/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Exquisite. Tropical nose with a dense limey palate. I would drink these now while they have great freshness before the petrol aromas kick in.

9/6/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Served blind alongside Cristal 2008 in 750ml and magnum and the Krug '08 got absolutely destroyed: it showed heavily oaked and lacked both depth and precision of fruit. Embarrassing showing of this wine. I've had a couple of really good bottles of this, but I've had more bottles that were pretty average and not up to vintage Krug's usual standards. An enigma of a wine, but not one I'd buy more of.

9/25/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Held its own next to a 2015 La Tache, which sums up the quality and balance on show here. Perhaps missing the intensity I find in the very best vintages of this wine. A real treat.

9/25/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

We probably didn't give this enough air: the intense quality and impeccable balance was clear to see, but the glorious fragrance on the nose never quite made it fully to palate expression.

A very great wine, but it will give a lot more pleasure in 10 years.

9/19/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Tighter and less generous than the '01 La Turque opened 2 days earlier

9/7/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Cristal Night; 9/6/2023-9/8/2023: Lovely showing: handily the best of the '12/'14/'15 flight. Has the ripeness and fruit of the vintage but isn't as foursquare as some other '12s: the more modern, precise style really showing here. The '13 is probably going to be the better wine in 10 years, but this is certainly very nice indeed and is really pleasurable to drink now.

9/7/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Cristal Night; 9/6/2023-9/8/2023: There's not a lot more to write about this. It's an exceptional champagne, but probably 10+ years away from being at its very best. We opened a bottle and magnum side-by-side, and the qualitative difference between formats was smaller than I expected: the mags were disgorged much later so maybe that extra development is flattering the 750sml. The recent fall in Cristal pricing has made this look pretty attractive again (at least for me). This will certainly be a future legend.

9/7/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Cristal Night; 9/6/2023-9/8/2023: I opened an absolutely glorious magnum of this earlier in the summer, and since then three 750mls have all shown a bit fat and custard creamy. A champagne for sweet pastry lovers! (alas, not me)

9/7/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Cristal Night; 9/6/2023-9/8/2023: Showing quite high acid but without the generosity of fruit you'd hope for to balance it out. Not my thing

9/7/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Cristal Night; 9/6/2023-9/8/2023: Clearly the strongest of a '02/'04/'06 flight: showing better definition and purer fruit than I remember from my last look at this wine. In a good place to drink now, why wait?

9/7/2023 - ubercuvee wrote:

Cristal Night; 9/6/2023-9/8/2023: Glorious: great fruit intensity, sweetness with enough acidity to keep it all in balance.