3/11/2024 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

Classical Rioja with a well-integrated acidity, ruby-red colour (12 years left their mark...), cherry and rusty nails, raw flesh/filet, majoram, a hint of smoke, quite a bit vanilla in the nose..., earth, a bit white pepper and sweet leather, boiled red plum, vanilla again, american oak but typically Rioja!

91++ and at its peak, I'd say.
PS: Crème Brûlée in the finish, lactic somehow but after 1,5h in carafe.

10/31/2023 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

sour in the beginning, raw meat, mouthwatering and alcoholic...
moss-berry, red fruit - leather, anise, graphite, dark chocolate, medium fruit, rust, red wine chocolate cake, tart...tannins become smoother

after 2,5h decanting time it gets very dense, long sweet-tannic aftertaste, still on the cooler way, not too warm, altough fine/ripe and sweet tannins (but dark somehow!)...

drank out of a Riedel Burgundy glass

It really tastes like a barolo in the end, very sweet and dark at once...nice!

12/1/2021 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Plum, rubber, smoke, earth - licorice, cherry marmelade...
Somehow it reminds me of a Bordeaux, quite deep and dark in relation to most other RdDs, still sweet!

12/1/2021 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

very classic, straight and zingy acidity - very succulent, makes you drool!
Leather and a bit tobacco leaf, pepper, cherries and green strawberries and resin in the finish...
good acidity, medium bodied - definitely a food wine (with prosciutto di parma and italian salad)!

rusty nail

7/8/2021 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Alcoholic nose, brownish rims - almost brunellolike, we'll see...we'll see...
cherry nose, raspberry eau de vie, tree resin, mate tee, smoky bitter cherry glaze...
Give it a whirl and a sniffy sniff^^: cherry, amarena, greenish prunes punch, spaghetti herb mix, lavender - silky mouthfeeling but with a thight tannic bite, resin again, liqiritiae radix...dust
I'll let it sit in the decanter for a while...BRB
2h later:
petals, leaves, cherry pit!

a medium wine...

2/6/2021 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

ripe, wow it changed from last time (6 years?)...
sherrylike, it begins to fall apart, not as good as I wished it to be, disappointing...

2/6/2021 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

not sure how old the grapes are....

mediumbodied, good, nothing special, but elegant!
I missed an aftertastem, anyway it drank well.

90-91

12/29/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

nose: ripe plum, plum cake, ripe and intense red fruits, mulberry, cedar wood
oak, sweet kirsch, elegant oak, candy apples, oak, fruit again..
good acidic backbone that will carry this vintage for quite a long time.
great wavy aftertaste where fruit and oak battle and seek for attention, zingy, lively and classy!

92++

12/29/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

edit sorry

12/11/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

rusty nail, raw meat, pencil shavings, minerality...
oaky perfume, vanilla, piment, plum, red berries, barnyard, cigar box...

good aftertaste but lacks body, medium bodied but chewy leather.
I really am a big fan of SM! Shitty year but a good classical St. Estephe witn nice minerality and a raw grace!

12/11/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

...

11/23/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Opens quick.

sharp, peppery and kind of smoky, burgundylike...
barnyard smell, oak, acorns, lavender, thyme, hints of licorice but in a quite bitter/adstringent way, bacon, fine and rather complex, although it may seem a bit calm...still waters run deep, right?!
Let it sit for an hour and some fruit shows up, it comes up with a juicy cherry pit taste but also with a leathery touch in the end.

great wine, take an elegant burgundy glass and enjoy it with some food, cheers!
smoke and wood dominate because it lacks fruit power, anyhow it's good for what it is!

90

7/8/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Decant!
A fleshy, yet still zingy, baseball bat of a wine!
fruit driven, blackish core, herby, cedary, peppery, muscular...funky, yeah - still gotta show something in the "nearby" future.

92-93 (+ - maybe...)

7/8/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Moin,

kam irgendwie besser rum, als der '01er...

good wine!

7/8/2020 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

somehow it feels like coming home again..
We enjoyed it!
cherry explosion, herbs all over, a bit of tobacco, leaves, cedar, lavendar..
love the balance, I am feeling pity for rating it 86 in the past (2013)...
2020 this wine stands on its own, like it!
drink it up!
90-92

7/3/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Third bottle...

You'll have to decant it at least 2h.
Very fresh, leaves, dried fruits, sous bois, mushrooms, nice cherry prune, coffee, ripe berries
becomes sweeter and sweeter: cloves, cinnamon, oak, orange zest, raspberry, licorice, nectar...

92+

7/3/2020 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

last bottle I drank in 2012...

still rocking, great!
Not so powerfull as in 2012, but refined instead.
Love that smoky bacon and that blackness; filling, but in a good way!

7/3/2020 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

needs air!

savoury straightforward cherry, black fruits, freshness, elegant and subtle, still fruity and ripe.
Drink up...

6/19/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

sous-bois, wet leaves, herbs, cedar, raw meat/iron/rusty nail, rose petals, basilico, saddle leather and cherry, dried herbs and red fruits in the finish.
easy drinking, medium-bodied, fresh but not too much acidity. Drink up!
gets better after one and a half hour in the decanter...

89-90+

6/15/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Not what I was hoping for, acidic, iron, meat, tobacco leaves, red berry fruit with smoke...
I couldn't say it's from RdD in a blind tasting...it's polished and zingy.
I miss the power a '06 offers.
Decant it for at least 2 hours; it gets less sour and gains a bit more fruit.
definitely a food wine, you cannot enjoy it on its own, SOUR as hell - even with pork, shit!! (maybe with bacon?? - still got some bottles left)
don't even want to rate it...not amused!

6/10/2020 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

Beheaded a MAGNUM bottle.
Temperature: 14°C

fabulous bottle; well-aged, ripe with sweet tannins, not too warm but very smooth drinking with a creamy texture, simply an enjoyable drinking...very balanced and homogeneous, still fruit driven - not punchy like you'd expect from a reserva though!
cocoa, Kinderschokolade, ripe plum, cedar, all kind of ripe dark berries, plum again, coffee, toffee...plush.
I'm impressed: affordable solid RdD crianza, extremely well-aged from a great vintage and a nice MAGNUM-experience^^...

tannins are rubbed up (I see quite a lifeline ahead, but...), that wine ripens with its tannins not over the marginal acidity...I'd give it some years, but it only will get sweeter and sherrylike.
P.S. Cinnamon and blueberry join the palate after time!

6/7/2020 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

leathery scent, not too fruit driven but warm of course...
licorice, quite a high amount of licorice, black pepper, black cherry and bramble (not fully ripe, not too sweet), graphite/sparks/fire stone (!?), a hint of rosemary, red berries -> a ton of them!
what else? - sweat/animalistic, ripe and dry tannins but not the sweet kind of ripe tannins, if you know what I mean, still savoury, fresh even.
All in all a good one...a bit alcoholic in the nose...

5/28/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

leather, herbs, strawberry…fresh
hint of licorice, Maybe brumbles and black cherry.

5/22/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

rubber, jam, rock candy, panetonne, black cherry, some smoke, licorce, pepper, spice, VANILLA!

Smooth, cloves, round, plush with a hint of anise^^...
fruit driven and modern in style I'd say...

4/2/2020 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Very fruity berry notes, blackish core, plummy...
low- medium acidity, medium bodied.
licorice, balsamico, red cherry, black pepper, black cherry, garrigue.
rum pot towards the finish line.

very grenachy but NOT too spicy as one would expect...
fun fact: 8,99€ in the supermarket which the till girl somehow managed to NOT cash up, I'm sorry! (holding the check...:-))

3/8/2019 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

sour grapes^^
quite blackih core, kirsch, unripe brambles, spices...stone, indeed!
87

8/2/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Red fruit driven: red currant, cherries, red candy, vanilla, oak, smoke, tar...

7/13/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

ripe and full, good qpr

90-92

7/13/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

keep it up, but it already is ok to drink..classic rioja! great qpr

7/13/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

medium body, cloves, white pepper, spicy, smoky...blackish core but lacks complexity.

5/2/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

well-intentioned, but..well, this wine was made for experimental purposes!
tastes like a Pinot!
grassy and bitchy, even silly! (smoked raw meat?)
hopelessly overpriced, but it's a Ziereisen.

nevertheless: http://www.weingut-ziereisen.de/index_e.html

5/2/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

...

5/2/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

leather, cherry, cranberries, plum, tobacco leaves, spice, herbs all over the savoury palate, fine tannins, orange zest, vanilla, funky cloves...

starts to fall apart so drink it up!
love the cigar box...
91(+)
P.S. lavender...well-behaved wine, needs more acidic power to be taken seriously..

4/7/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

10h in a carafe...

Dense, much frutier than last time, middle bodied, muscular, defined, overwhelming savoury and elegance after 10h in a carafə
Very young

4/6/2018 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

drinking over 3 h..

savoury, quite tensed up a bit, pretty young, though!
middlebodied, light cherry on one side and smoke and currant on the other side, unripe blackberry, plum, balsamico and maybe black pepper, black deposit flavour but fresh on the other side.
keep it up

6/28/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Entering drinking window!
Less fruit at the moment, less vanilla (but still oaky) solid, blackish core and less bitterness, gains sweetness.
Not overdriven or too fleshy, good acidity, cured meat, black berry and juniper, pepper - quite elegant though.

5/5/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Powerdecanted first!

Morello cherry, quite juicy and luscious but elegant..oaky, very oaky..
Plum, red berries, mulberries and black berries, too.
Needs air!
(05' vintage was great btw..)

4/14/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Medium bodied, filigree..
Luscious, young, fresh and muscular but not boring!
Plummy and dense, reduced sweet balsamico with beetroot and rhubarb, blackish core, smoke.. - insane minerality, vibrating, lively and fractious..
Dark cherry, too. Not necessarily a foodwine..
If I should pair it..hmm, , maybe with an haute-cuisine beetroot dish! ^^

4/7/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Brambles, dark chocolate, cedar, herbs..

Red fruit follows, red cassis, mulberries
opens up..
Ripe dark cherry in balsamico vinegar comes along, pepper, licorice, cedar and strong vanilla taste.

Vanilla oak disappears after a while and the red cherry characteristics seem to conquer the palate, the wine shows its minerality and finesse.. ( 2h past, not decanted!)

5 months in oak; 70% french and 30% american oak as far as I know...
Edit: 2013 vintage seems to have 50%/50%..anyhow!
90-91+

3/14/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

I poured one glass and let the rest sit for at least 4 hours and it really became much rounder and more balanced..more lactic than '10 vintage and lacking '10 dark fruit. (I should have decanted and drank them both at the same time so that I could really compare the 2 vintages)

3/13/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

dark fruit, dark chocolate, very balsamic, lots of herbs coming into my mind, cedar, black vanilla flavour, oak...less fruit than some 1-2 years ago.
I recommend to keep it for quite a while before opening. It will get sweeter and nicer all over..
blackish and light-medium bodied!
later: mushrooms, earth and tar come through.
91 at that point.

2/28/2017 - Monsieur le Comte Does not like this wine:

gold? - lächerlich!
bei mundus vini ham se echt tief ins glaserl geschaut...

1/18/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Quite ok

1/18/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Blueberries, red pepper, forest berries, earth, spiced coffee..

1/18/2017 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Red fruits and berries, licorice and herbs, sweetish and smooth..

12/29/2016 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

Great value, qpr!
Needs air..
Plummy with bramble jam and currant, black hearted, leather and earth, black fruit and spicy pepper, minerals
Very bordeaux, surprisingly good to drink..
90-92

12/19/2016 - Monsieur le Comte Likes this wine:

great wine, very well balanced, rounder than 1 year ago...

12/19/2016 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

magnum bottle

quite mature, tertiary aroma, pepper, balsamico, red fruit, very acidic

12/19/2016 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

young, harsh, green
earth, coffee, leather, chocolate, acidic

11/10/2016 - Monsieur le Comte wrote:

licorice, dark fruit, black berries, syrup, orange peel, cinnamon