3/2/2024 - Goldstone wrote:

From the wine list at Ami Restaurant in Hong Kong. Underwhelming. Lacked attack. Seemed far sweeter than its 4/gl dosage. Maybe my taste buds have evolved towards zero dosage.

12/31/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Drank at friends as the clock struck Midnight and the 12-minute fireworks display began over Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. Almost identical notes as the bottle we took to share with friends in Seattle over Christmas. Gorgeous mid-range bright jewelled gold colour. Brief mousse followed by persistent streams of micro-bubbles. Nose is still very primary… brioche, lemon skins, crushed limes. Palate is super-fresh, very primary, dilute by any DP standard but still a lovely indulgence. Has a lovely final resonance and reverberance at the back of the head on the finish. Happy New Year!

12/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Gorgeous mid-range bright jewelled gold colour. Brief mousse followed by persistent streams of micro-bubbles. Nose is still very primary… brioche, lemon skins, crushed limes. Palate is super-fresh, very primary, dilute by any DP standard but still lovely over Christmas holiday eggs Benedict late breakfast. Has a lovely back end resonance and reverberance in the back of the head on the long finish. A nice way to say thank you to our friends who hosted us over a chilled Christmas in Seattle along with Angela cooking the Eggs Bebedict for them.

12/25/2023 - Goldstone Does not like this wine:

Christmas Day Family Lunch in Seattle (Friends' House, Redmond, WA): Decanted for 6 hours based on a bottle I test drank a week ago. Deep opaque ruby with a translucent edge. Nose is slightly candied, coffee grounds, boysenberry. Palate is bitter Chinese green melon and mothpuckeringly astringent black Chinese medicine. Brought from Hong Kong at my Seattle friend’s insistence as he hasn’t drank a Chinese red for 15 years and wanted to see if they have improved. He won’t ask me again...ha,ha.

12/25/2023 - Goldstone wrote:

Christmas Day Family Lunch in Seattle (Friends' House, Redmond, WA): Our hosts' bargain from the promotions rack at their local Trader Joe's. Totally transparent. Nose is very light strawberry and coal...which allows you to know it is Barolo, if a bargain basement one. Palate is tart and astringent.Unmemorable and one glass was enough for me.

12/25/2023 - Goldstone Does not like this wine:

Christmas Day Family Lunch in Seattle (Friends' House, Redmond, WA): Quite pronounced silver gold. Nose is elderflower tea. Palate is immediately overpoweringly alcoholic (14.7%) and mainly sour apples and other sour white fruits like peach and pear. Almonds on the back end. Painfully heady and a bit of a hoodlum on the finish..almost sugary. Tried to give it respect as a very locally produced wine for our hosts, but I couldn't finish even the first glass.

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): Drank sippingly over post-lunch cigars. Incredibly brightly jewelled totally transparent perfect ruby gemstone in colour. Nose is quiet because of no pre-decant but whispers of Christmas cake spices and a lovely deep almost but not quite confit red currant fruit. Palate is sharp-cutting fresh and light acidity that segues very quickly into a deep, rich and powerful resonance and reverberance inside the head on the very long finale. The palate sums up that this is still at a very young if harmonious stage of its life. Even better than when we drank it in a similar mode a year ago. Thanks again, Hans!

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): My contribution. Dark, brilliant jewelled semi-transparent ruby. Nose is immediately seductive but in an unexpected alpine cheese first note before some beautifully subtle alpine berries cut in. Wow, this really is unfolding into multiple layers very quickly. It would have been better with a 2-hour decant.. as it proved two hours after pouring...but the sommelier at Michelin*** Otto Y Mezzo overruled me (Lesson = trust your judgement over a sommelier). Palate is lightly jewelled red/black fruit but overbalanced by still too young tannin. Very promising resonance and reverberance on the finish and it improves but not enough to merit opening a bottle for another 5-8 years. 91 but will go to 94-95 at its apogee.

I would love to decant my next bottle for 5-8 hours.

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Almost transparent jewelled ruby gemstone. Nose is seductive but slightly dilute rosewater with a back end of wild strawberry/raspberry seeds. Palate is tart and a bit dilute but possibly from insufficient age. Come back in 3-5 years?

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): Almost transparent jewelled ruby gemstone. Nose is seductive but slightly dilute rosewater with a back end of wild strawberry/raspberry seeds. Palate is tart and a bit dilute but possibly from lack of sufficient age. Come back in 3-5 years?

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): From magnum. Intense, deep purple-red, semi-opaque. Nose is is really powerful blast of boysenberry and confit raspberry with the slight feral scent of a baby wild pig…. older damp wild pig with time in the glass. Palate is tannic on entry but not overly so, just young. Green because of youth, exacerbated in magnum. Nice deep blackcurrant fruit already shows through but tannin is almost overwhelming afterwards. Heady and potentially headachey on the finale at this stage of its youth. 90 with potential for 93-95 in 10 years.

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): Semi- transparent bright ruby stone with a small transparent meniscus. Nose is an immediate WOW! big blast of rich, ripe red fruit with a typical St Estephe smokiness and minerality. Palate is quite green and tannic and let’s down the nose big time. 92 for the nose but 87 or less for the palate. Quite stunted on the length at finale. But that nose....

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): From Magnum. Very light yellow gold colour still quite jewelled. Nose is subtle lemon balm and fresh yellow meadow flowers and white fresh clover. Hint of white marshmallow. Subtle. Palate is very feminine understatement with a ‘greenish-ness’ except in yellow terms. Surprisingly tannic. But very enjoyable. Still surprisingly young and unevolved. Quite resonant . Come back in 5+ years. Thanks, Jeremy! 92+

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): Brief mousse. Very subdued bubbles even with swirling. Light gold colour. Nose is really gorgeous and inviting… immediately very elegant and understated lightly toasted wheat bread, nice salinity, whisps of ozone and oyster shell. Palate has a lovely immediate tension, a lovely single violin string high note, gorgeous chalkiness , dry, very refreshing and more-ish. Excellent tensioned structure. Nice long buzz on the finale and light- toned church bells ring inside the head. Thanks, Olivier! 93+

11/27/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Daniel's White Truffle Birthday Lunch (Otto Y Mezzo, Alexander House, Landmark, Central, Hong Kong): No detailed notes as everyone was thirsty and it disappeared in no time. But this was stunningly good - fresh, lifted nose and a vinious, deeply satisfying palate. Lots of reverberance inside the head on a very long finish. So nice after a disappointingly sub-par bottle two weeks ago. To the extent that I may have over-scored it this occasion relative to the J Schramm that followed it. Thanks, Hans!

11/12/2023 - Goldstone Does not like this wine:

Lunch at Shane & Caroline's (Their Place, Hong Kong): Decanted for 3-4 hours. Deep impenetrable red-purple colour just lightening at the meniscus. Nose is big, welcoming open blast of caramel, dirt, espresso grounds, and blackcurrant/redcurrant jam. Palate has good immediate acidic freshness, but followed by sour red fruit. Surprisingly thin and rather vinegary. Has fallen off a cliff since last drank in 2016, when it was very jammy and rich and needed more cellar time, but obviously not this much.

11/12/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Lunch at Shane & Caroline's (Their Place, Hong Kong): Decanted for a couple of hours then re-bottled to take to lunch. Gorgeous deep garnet colour with a very small transparent meniscus. Nose is… WOW! Absolutely gorgeous warm damp earth, forest floor, cedar shingles, nutmeg, confit blackberry and blackcurrant…. absolutely mesmerising. Palate is an almost seamless segue into a gorgeous softened but still structured tannin frame with lovely fresh and bright acidity. A super combination of deep, rich but mellowed ripe blackcurrant and blackberry with a gorgeous forest floor, etc. tertiary backing band. Great resonance and reverberance inside the head on a very long finish. Man, this is good and has started to repay the patience of buying it en primeur. Lovely. Totally accessible now but no rush to drink.

11/12/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Lunch at Shane & Caroline's (Their Place, Hong Kong): Advanced yellow gold colour. Compared to the colour, the nose is surprisingly bright, fresh and lifted with yellow buttercup and melted unsalted butter, very lifted, bright and sniffable. Palate is fresh acidity but overwhelmed by a pronounced bitter almond mid palate. Drying. Nice resonant finish. Past its prime but still enjoyable.

11/12/2023 - Goldstone wrote:

Lunch at Shane & Caroline's (Their Place, Hong Kong): Medium gold colour. Very muted mousse and bubbles..even with swirling. Nose is inexpressive except for intermittent gusts of sea breeze and saline. Palate of Epsom salts that have been toasted, weirdly, and slightly sour,salty lime. Nice buzz and toastiness inside the head on the finish. Clearly not a representative bottle.

9/29/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Drank as our second red during a lovely extended lunch at the Oseteria del Buoca in Cernobbio, Lake Como. Recommended by the staff. Lighter and more transparent in colour than you'd expect but immediately delivered all the lovely aspects of young but immediately accessible Nebbiolo. Very elegant winemaking on show here at a price - around Euro 33 - much lower than you'd associate with a restaurant in the Como area.

9/29/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Drank at the beautiful but low key Osteria del Buoca in Cernobbio, Lake Como in the run up to a family wedding. Recommended by the staff even though it was one of the cheapest wines on their list at €30. No detailed notes but beautiful with a seasonal 'Rabbit Caccicatori' main course where both wine and dish will live in my memory for a very long time. Powerful at 14.5% but immediately warming and comforting...and moreish. Scored at 90 only because I suspect it is a 'time and place' wine.

7/30/2023 - Goldstone wrote:

Three bottles decanted 2 hours prior to serving over a lunch of baby lamb rack followed by Italian cheeses. The purpose was to bring down my inventory, as this vintage and other recent ones has been a disappointment - to my palate it is very homogenized Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and nothing as interesting as Silver Oak was a couple of decades ago. However, it was a decent crowd pleaser amongst our guests.

7/30/2023 - Goldstone wrote:

Two bottles served from my cellar with an opening dish of Hokkaido Scallops and light Avacodo salad....previous experience has taught me not to serve this without food. Very deep gold colour reflecting its full or over maturity. Nose and palate are of the ripe tropical fruit end of Chardonnay that has made this purchase a disappointment, although not a disaster at US$22 per bottle. The palate had more acidity and verve than when I last drank it in 2021 and scored it at 80pts. I shied away from it but our 8 guests seemed fine with it.

7/30/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Disgorged in 2021. My first four from a case of six to celebrate my wife’s birthday with friends. Served in medium-sized white wine glasses. Medium gold. Fine mousse that very quickly dissipates. Microscopic bubbles. Looks almost like a still wine. Nose is high piano notes of ozone and crushed oyster shells. Palate is immediately super-refreshing blast similar to the nose. Very clean, precisely delineated, Classic Pinot Nor character of crisp red berry fruit....fresh cranberry. This definitely has high cheek bones. Definitely zero dosage but not at all austere….but gets more austere with time in the glass, yet not too much so. Very chiselled in an attractive way. A beautiful low volume 'producteur' champagne (1000 cases) if you like the style. 91+ easy.

7/23/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Totally saturated cork under wax cap but perfectly intact and easily extracted. Totally transparent and almost watery faded damask colour… looks much older than a 1994. Nose is immediately high lifted piano notes of bitter orange marmalade but mellows within 2 hours in the glass into soft, perfumed musk, dried spices and rich dried red plums fruit. Palate is sharp, tart bitter orange marmalade with high acidity and light but very dry tannins but which segue into a cranberry sharpness but with a counterpoint of rounded confit plum and less dry than earlier. Really multi-dimensional and contemplative on the long, resonant finale. Gorgeous. No rush if you have this in your cellar but is fully open for business.93+

7/22/2023 - Goldstone wrote:

Drank contemplatively over several hours at home on a Saturday night. Totally opaque ruby-black colour lightening to transparency on the meniscus. Visually, in the light, it lacks any reflected brightness and presages a dull wine. The nose has an acceptable Napa Cab Blend character with some ground coffee bean elements and ripe belly-filling black-red currant fruit being the main elements on the palate. I used to love Silver Oak a couple of decades ago but they seemed to have homogenised a good and previously characterful wine into something ‘meh’ in its price range. Will be a crowd-pleaser at a good barbecue….which is the perfect time to offload it, I think. 88

7/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Several bottles drank on the terrace of the Castello Di Bellagio near Sattahip, Thailand as the sun went down.

Light jewelled yellow-gold colour. Intriguing nose of pronounced ripe but not sweet cantaloupe melon, rich unsalted butter, fresh-grated nutmeg. Palate is sharp, reductive acidity on the fore with slightly sour mid-palate of grapefruit and Thai apple-pear. Very little apparent oak. Moderate weight and lacking any length but very more-ish in the setting and this is certainly from a well-regarded producer. Probably we were drinking this too young and too cold (the terrace was around 30C air temperature and humid). 88-ish but enjoyed it more than that might suggest.

7/22/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Unscrewed and slowly drank at home contemplatively straight from cellar temperature over several hours. Beautiful transparent but deep ruby gemstone appearance..really bright and alive. Nose is slightly muted whilst at cellar temperature but a distinctive whiff of pomegranate and some slight toffee/caramel in the background, damp woodland earth and some definite cherry fruit in there. Definitely getting Burgundian as it warms up in the glass and the damp earth emerges more. Palate is immediately a lovely balanced tension between sour white cherries and stewed red rhubarb, and sweet ripe wild woodland strawberries. Loads of fresh acidity and with a spine of coffee grounds tannin to counterbalance it. Gorgeous elegant but rich black cherry and earth mouthfeel that shows off the quality of the winemaking, which has a hard to achieve ‘power without weight’ quality. Lingers inside the head on a moderate-length but very elegant finish.

Gosh…this is sensationally good and the best bottle yet of 11 from 2 cases bought from Rudi Bauer at the winery near release in 2005. I think that the cool serving temperature really helped. 93+

7/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Splash decanted then drank to accompany a beautiful USDA Tomahawk as the sun set on the terrace of the Castello Di Bellagio near Sattahip, Thailand. Translucent jewelled ruby colour with a very wide transparent meniscus. Nose is beautiful mid piano scale notes of the purest perfumed rosewater, strawberries from a woodland, then higher piano notes come in. All quite compelling but so different from the equally beguiling Rampolla 1998 we drank beforehand. Palate is immediate fresh acidic but perfectly balanced attack followed by high-toned slightly tart but perfectly poised Japanese strawberries. Gosh, all power without weight….. moderately resonant on the finish but very long and reverberant like a single quiet final piano note left hanging in silence before the audience can react. Is in its very early stage of maturity. Very memorable. 94 easy.

7/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Taken to the Castello Di Bellagio near Sattahip, Thailand and drank on the terrace after a 1-hour decant with Khun Ayi, the owner, as the sun set.

Dense opaque purple red with a miniscule watery meniscus. Nose is immediately "KAPOW!" a la Roy Lichtenstein….totally enveloping multiple layers going through tamarind, fresh liquorice root, air dried ripe blackberries. Has a warmth like sittng beside a log fire in a small farmhouse inTuscany with the smoke slightly seeping into the room. Silence creating in a contemplative way and I totally forgot that I hadn’t yet brought the glass to my lips. Palate is quite resolved and very rounded but with still a lovely acid and tannic frame. Beautifully rounded and luxuriant and perfectly evoking memories past of Tuscan rural hilltop holidays. Really resonant and reverberant on a very long contemplative finish. Fully mature. 94 easy.

7/13/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Decanted for a couple of hours. Deep almost impenetrable cherry red colour lightening to purple at the meniscus. Nose is an OMG blast of damp Piedmont woodland soil where the wild boars have left their traces, quickly followed by a lovely blast of fresh, richly ripe blackberries. Wow, so earthy. Touches of white Dulux emulsion paint. Hints of coffee beans, vanilla pods and sweet ripe flogs. Camphor. Palate is very similar expression of the nose….not overly sophisticated in that it doesn't elevate to a higher dimension, despite the promise of the nose Having said that, it has lovely wild blackberry fruit and forest earth. A touch acidic on the back end, which is the only slightly off note. Big and growly and resonant on the finale. Absolutely gorgeous. But it did fade with extended time in the glass. Cannot see this improving and will drink my two remaining bottlies within a year or so.

7/13/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Light lemon-gold colour. Nose is deep, melted unsalted butter, lightly bruised lemon balm leaves. Lovely lemony and fresh palate with good delination. Very crisply elegant. Nice buzz on the finale. Perhaps drank too cold but we were in Thailand on a beach. Always a perennial favourite but ridiculously expensive anywhere and even more so in Thailand by a factor of three. 90+

7/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Angela's Belated Birthday Lunch (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Decanted for several hours then re-bottled and kept in the fridge overnight for Sunday lunch. Pristine cork barely stained beyond the bottom end. Translucent, slightly rust coloured with a distinct wide watery meniscus. Palate pre-decanting is very tightly coiled, unyieldingly tannnic.. After the overnight double-decant, the rust colour has disappeared to reveal a lovely dark garnet red. Nose is ‘oh wow’ blast of deeply confit cherries and raspberries, espresso coffee, high cocoa chocolate, all very bass piano and guitar notes. Very complex and clean. Palate is is equally ‘wow’…extremely precise and well-delineated winemaking, great slightly bitter black cherry fruit, high acidity. Too young to have unfurled more than halfway so the finale needs another 5+ years to blossom. 92+ for now.

7/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Angela's Belated Birthday Lunch (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Carefully uncorked but not decanted. Very dilute and transparent advanced amber colour. Nose of rose water, anthracite and freshly ground nutmeg. Beguiling. It keeps blossoming and unfolding like a rose in the glass. Palate is light on its toes but immediately billows inside the head mind-expandingly. Dry semi-air dried black and red cherry fruit balanced by still quite sharp tannins. It keeps revealing a different and additional plane, like an abstract modernist painting. It gets very contemplative and near silence-creating with an hour in the glass. Multi-dimensional. A real treat as we were anticipating that it might fade quickly whereas it did the opposite. 93-94

6/24/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Very light lemon colour. Nose of yellow meadow flowers and fresh mown hay. Palate is lightly blowtorched whole lemons and a beautiful minerality. High piano notes but with a double bass thrumming slowly and quietly in the background. Great lemon pith high acidity finish in the mouth with hints of pineapple. Quite precise and resonant. Displays some restraint and elegance. Drank from the wine list over a light lunch with Daniel in the wine cellar at the Hong Kong Country Club. Crazy good value at US$39. A solid 90.

5/14/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Drank over Mothers' Day lunch at Comptoir. First of a case that Herald bought on release. Decanted for 3 hours. Semi transparent garnet. Nose is immediately beautiful plush, velvety warm black cherries…. very rounded. Palate is similar velvety roundness but with a sharper delineating cherry acidity before the velvet floods in again. Very clean and precisely delineated. Good breadth and resonance inside the head on the finish. Gorgeous.

5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): My contribution as I wanted to check its evolution from a case I bought en primeur. Decanted for 2 hours before serving. Totally opaque black/red. Lovely deep growling black and red fruit on the nose. Palate is is immediately tannic attack… should have decanted for longer. But it quickly mellows in the glass and gets very rounded but still with a nice tannic edge. Growing but still coiled resonance on the finale. Needs more years to unfold. 90 for now but could grow to 93 easy in the next 3-5 years, I think. 2001 Bordeaux, is a much overlooked vintage because it lives in the shadow of 2000 except in relative QPR.

5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Gifted by Emanuele. Recent disgorgement. Light hay gold colour. Lively mousse with strong beads of very small bubbles. Fresh nose of mown grass and hay. Palate is very petillante in the mouth with lots of Pinot. Low dosage but not at all austere.....because the 'Nature' on the label refers to biodynamic winemaking not absence of dosage. Elegant and with a lovely freshness. Nicely resonant inside the head. I think I prefer this as an accompanyment to seafood rather than as an aperitif. Very enjoyable and more-ish. 90 easy.

5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Splash decanted. Deep totally opaque red/black colour slightly lightening at the meniscus. Understated but velvety nose of fermented raspberries. Palate is wonderfully velvety, mellow and followed with a super mounting resonance and reverberance. It rose up to a silence-creating element but soured somewhat with extended time in the glass and ended up disappointing. Drank in parallel with the Pontet Canet 2003, which is a league higher.

5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): I bought two cases of this wine en-primeur, which I am one-third of the way through....but this one was brought by Neal. Decanted for 2 hours before serving ( I would recommend a lot longer but circumstances don't always permit).Totally opaque deep red colour. Nose is quite immediately perfumed, loads of cedar and deep almost-pastilled blackberry. Palate is really young, heavily tannic. Gorgeous depth and precision of fruit with a good rounded surround of oak. Massive resonance and reverberance inside the head on the finish. Gosh, what a finish despite a somewhat un-matured middle. I always love this.

5/11/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

'Welcome back Neal' Dinner (Giando, 5 Star Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong): Splash decanted. Beautifully rounded yet still with a good tannic backbone. Great with a pre-dinner cigar. I preferred it quite a lot more when I last drank it 18 years ago, when it had more feral 'wow factor' on the nose, but still very enjoyable. Thanks, Daniel!

5/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Tuesday Dinner at Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong (The Conservatory, Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Splash decanted then drank over beautiful artisanal strong French cheese. Deep purple red semi-opaque colour. Beautiful nose, boysenberry and some oaky spicy classic Clare Valley Shiraz character. Quite rounded and well integrated on the palate. Satisfying, in a way that puts a nice calm smile on your face. This has lots of time on its side but is already ready to go. Bought on release as part of a quest to find 'the next Grange', it is finally entering its early drinking window. However, I would recommend a much longer decant, maybe double-decant overnight. 91 easy.

5/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Tuesday Dinner at Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong (The Conservatory, Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Decanted for 3 hours (I would recommend longer) then drank over the next three. Captivating nose….initial blast…and I mean blast… of cherry liqueur and then it quickly dropped down a couple of piano scales to tamarind, liquorice root, star anise, lots of other eastern spices. Palate similarly was initially quite bitter and alcoholic but soon became beautifully mellow. Deeply fruited in a succulent ‘Napa Cab Sav does Bordeaux’ style. Gorgeous…and still keeps a fresh acidic/tannic structure. Good contemplative length on the finale. A real delight from one of my favourite vintages. My French guest hadn’t experienced Ch Musar before and was blown away. I have scored this a fair bit higher in the past if given an overnight double-decant.

5/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Tuesday Dinner at Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong (The Conservatory, Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Semi canary yellow. Very young and crisp. Finely engineered and very precise. Like a very young Meursalt. Need 2-3 years to round out. Extremely impressive QPR and easily punches in the top decile of its price category. A joy. 91+

4/15/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Drank off the 'Wine of the Month' list at the Hong Kong Country Club over a relaxed lunch on the cafe terrace after a long and hot morning hike. Light lemon gold colour. A lovely deep nose of almond nuts and lemons grilled whole on a barbecue. Palate is almost like a white Amarone, it’s that far off the normal Chardonnay path and hard to put into words. Rich, ripe, almost late harvest but with a very clean and zingy lemony spine in the mid-late palate. Great to re-visit a well-loved wine after nearly 20 years when it was a very regular go-to wine for a group of us. Revisiting my notes from 2004, I think there is some Muscat in the blend, which might explain that 'white Amarone' character. 91+

3/25/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Gifted by the sommelier the Otto Y Mezzo cellar. Darker but still fresh-looking lemony gold. Nose is perfumed lemon verbena and a medium bass note of oak. Palate is beautifully mellow, rounded harmonious lightly blowtorched lemon skin, fresh-peeled hazelnuts and a lovely bass organ note. Pleasing resonance and length. Contemplative and more-ish. I hadn't expected Italian Chardonnay to be so age-worthy until I remembered drinking the 2005 from the same cellar a year ago and where I remarked that it was still very young. This is considerably futher down the maturity path but will hold its charm for several more years. 91+

4/10/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Deep, concentrated opaque black-red colour but with a fresh brightness that suggests a younger vintage. Immediate nose of deep cocoa-rich milk chocolate that almost reminds me of ‘Toblerone’ because there in a nougat nuttiness in there too. Espresso coffee undertones too that add a deeper richness. Lots of deep red concentrated berry fruit in the background that shows the c100- year age of the vines. Palate is immediate deep and surprisingly melodious and harmonious matured red and black plum and berry fruit but with a thick chocately and deep-fruited structure of semi-resolved tannin and still lively acidity as a backbone with strong single- espresso coffee bitterness in a good way that adds to the spine. Bitter black cherry emerges too with an hour or two in the glass,including the stones. This is a big wine that leaves an impressive brooding, rolling thunder resonance on the finish. Not for the faint-hearted but I think this is hitting its stride nicely now and has at leasst 5 years or more to improve as it mellows further. 92-93.

4/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Easter Sunday Long Lunch (Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Opened two hours in advance then decanted for an hour before serving….seemed about right. Beautiful ‘bright’ and jeweled semi -transparent colour. Nose is deep bass piano notes of rich, plump mulberry fruit, sun-warmed cedar shingles....quite perfumed. Deep, rich rounded palate that is like cuddling up on a sofa in front of a log fire. Really nice rolling resonance. A gorgeous St. Julien in its probably optimal drinking window with a few more years not to worry about it. It reminds me of the best of 2nd tier St. Julien’s from 1990 and could reach that level. 9th of a case of 18 bought en primeur and the best bottle so far. Paired perfectly with simple baby French rack of lamb.93 easy

4/9/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Easter Sunday Long Lunch (Crown Wine Cellars, 18 Deep Water Bay Drive, Shouson Hill, Hong Kong): Light hay gold colour. Very fine bead. The nose is insanely good …ozone and toasted ‘Hovis’ brown bread and close to perfect. The palate follows through and takes in to a higher level…pinpoint acidity, very high piano notes, totally refreshing, crushed oyster shell. Long and explosively resonant in the head. Absolutely beautiful between four of us over a long Easter Sunday lunch. Bought on release and a considerable step up from the others I have drank from the case. This is an unusually high score for me. 94+

3/25/2023 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

From 6l. Decanted only 2 hours in advance and then drank compentatively between 6-8 of us over the next 3-4 hours at Otto Y Mezzo in Hong Kong. All my expectations were that this would be infanticide, especially in this format but, boy, was I wrong! WOW..WOW....this was totally beguiling, rounded and captivating from the first whiff of the nose and the first impact on the palate....and then it just grew from there into what were progressively mounting levels of 'reveries' territory. One of the gang is a tier-1 wine trade guy and is normally fairly low key in his scoring, but he thought my 96+ pts should more be knocking on the door of 100. My only defence the sublimity of the 1959 Mouton and Latour I have drank. But I can only go back is to how stupendously beautiful this is and...at any moment...how many angels can dance on your tongue? 96...and beyond!