10/6/2023 - kakpoo Likes this wine:

From a lot made with 20% Chardonnay, 80% Pinot Noir, with 60% of the wine from the 2014 base vintage and 40% reserve wine disgorged 08/2021.

Big bouquet of a sugar doughnut filled with a pineapple, passion fruit custard. With some background aromas of ginger, saffron and light garlic atop an undercurrent of ripe lemon/lime/tangerine. This smells like what one would expect from a younger Champagne from
Ambonnay but with the added complexity of reserve wine/ages aromas. I haven’t had a recent release from Coutier that tasted this good in the past 5 years: totally delicious now but would also improve with time in the cellar or on the shelf.

The 8g dosage helps with the rich feel of this wine, but with plenty of acidity, this Champagne still finishes long…and ultimately dry.

11/9/2021 - melvinyeowq Likes this wine:

Excellent intensity with good ripeness and concentration to the fruit. Pears and melon with some citrus zest towards the end. No greenness at all. I haven't had Cotat but this is cheaper and a great representation of Sancerre as well, love everything I have tried from this producer.

9/3/2022 - DWaterman Likes this wine:

What a beauty this is. Firm and structured full body wine with integrated oak and fine tannins present. Dark red fruits with slight notes of chocolate and minerals. Medium finish.

Day two showed some warmth on the finish a bit more fruit than the previous night.

Overall, this wine was very impressive even more so with the Garagiste special.

8/9/2017 - sooper65 wrote:

Promised much, but this is all emperors new clothes.
Sweaty and Bretty, acetic, and tasting like it is 50 years old.
Crap wine-making I reckon

11/12/2020 - GArpaia Likes this wine:

Pale garnet. Intense violet, crushed cherries, sweet spices and touch of wilderness (tar, leather). Vibrant and very drinkable with balsamic profile and delicate drying woody tannins.

Ageing: 24 months in 20 and 40 hectolitres barrels
Principiano uses wild yeast fermentation and organic methods, as well as minimising the sulphur used.

6/19/2019 - jimineff Does not like this wine:

Well past it's prime - only notes of acidic tomato juice. No fruit or tannins left.

5/31/2018 - kakpoo Likes this wine:

This '95 Krug is open and more intense than the 2002 vintage that I drank last fall. There is some oxidation and many elements of freshness (butterscotch, brioche, nuttiness combined with tart to ripe apples and citrus.) The acidity is prominent but not sharp or overwhelming. At this time, the 95 Krug excels at balance, and still feels more youthful than I would expect for its age. This bottle was shared among 5 other people, so it only lasted about 1hr before the bottle was emptied. Its possible that additional time in the glass would have brought out more developed and complex notes. Although the Krug '95 is very enjoyable at this time, it doesn't seem exceptional. I would only open another bottle now if I was going to consume it by myself and retaste the wine over 2 days. Based on the freshness and acidity present in this bottle, I won't open my next bottle until about 2023-2025.

9/6/2015 - bevetroppo Likes this wine:

$39.99. That was the advertised pre-arrival price from Premier Cru in an email offering in early 2012. While it had all the appearance of a Jack spitting cider in my ear, I plunged on a case. Thus began a 2 1/2 year odyssey in which I became convinced that Premier Cru is a criminal organization, or at best, a purveyor of black market wines they don't actually own.

This is probably a completely false assessment because in the end, it seems like more a case of abject incompetence and customer service so bad it would make Tony Hsieh go into immediate cardiac arrest.

Whatever. Eventually after many imprecations, emails threatening suit, contact with the California authorities etc, I got my wine, and I finally opened a bottle tonight.

I'd like to say it was worth the wait, but if this wine was hand delivered to my doorstep by the Chevillon family, I can't say that it was. Nonetheless, tonight's bottle is a beauty. Dark red color, nose a perfumed exhalation of deep ripe cherries, bright cassis, and spice box, perhaps if I can be so bold tending towards sandalwood. Underlying subtext of bosky forest, suggesting in this young wine exciting development over time. Beautifully balanced, even elegant, everything falling into place. Approachable young, and with luck it won't shut down like the Premier Cru employee at the other end of the line.

3/29/2016 - kakpoo Likes this wine:

Originally tasted a sale's rep's sample bottle that was delicious then bought and popped a full bottle of my own with mixed results-see the notes below:
On pop n' pour and for the first 2 days: Inky, purple berry fruit on the nose, beginnings of a rich fruit feel on the palate that is interrupted by an alcohol layer. Finish seems totally devoid of structure even after heavy swishing/swirling in the mouth. It almost reminds me of a cheap spanish wine like Tres Picos at this stage, but with even less apparent structure than that wine.

on the 5th night open, this wine begins to evolve. Now peppery basil notes are prominent on the nose with some ripe purple berries and tobacco in the background. The palate has a peppery, fruit sweetness that gives way to fine/silty tannins.

My guess is that the sale's rep's bottle that I originally tasted had probably been open for several days. My bottle became much more like that bottle the longer it sat open. In my opinion, all this points toward a wine that needs to be held for a sufficient time in the cellar. Early consumption won't be very rewarding unless you plan to decant for days ahead of drinking. I'll reserve a score until I taste this further down the road.

10/24/2013 - indiscriminate palate wrote:

The fact that 3/4 of a bottle is left over after a mixed crowd of wine geeks and real people is telling, especially when some real plonk was emptied. At one point, I remember thinking, "Hmmm... this is interesting in a strange way. I could almost drink this." Then I realized, I'm drunk.

11/8/2012 - kakpoo wrote:

I get burned so often when taking a chance on a domestic wine that I don't know why I still bother. Between the 4 tasting notes here and the few reviews I found, everyone failed to mention the OAK on the nose and palate of this wine. If Kentucky bourbon is your beverage of choice, then you might be immune enough to heavy oak to be able to pick up on the fruit and minerailty in this wine...my old world palate was too overloaded by oak to detect anything other than a faint hint of "earthy funk" that some of the reviews mentioned. Maybe the bottle I tried is corked and thus the fruit isn't coming through otherwise this is just another new world oak bomb that I wouldn't even purchase and drink for $1. I'm saving 1/2 the bottle and will leave another comment if anything changes tomorrow.

Day 2: didn't drink any more but kept the bottle corked, and in the refrigerator.

Day 3: The oak is still prominent on the nose but it has competition on day two in the form of spices, possibly plums and some green vegetables and/or maple syrup. Definitely much more interesting today, so I would hold this wine a bit or allow a at least a couple of hours of decant prior to consumption. I feel as though the same flavors competing on the nose are also competing on the palate. Nice acidity and minerality on the finish today. For my old world palate, this wine still isn't worth $30+ compared to some of the Italian wines I could get in that range, but its showing far better today than yesterday. As far as US wines go, its not a bad value for a contemplative, unique syrah. If I was limited to just U.S. wines or if I could find this for under $25, I would definitely consider purchasing this again....still too muck oak though.

Day 5: Surprising still enjoyable. I've was planning on drinking the rest last night so I took it out of the fridge to let it warm up. Then I forgot about it and went to bed. I put it back in the fridge this morning and decided to taste it before dumping the last glass. It still tastes about as good as on day 3. The fact that this domestic wine survived for so many days impressed me so I thought I should let you all know.