1/5/2024 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Beautiful brassy colour and high-toned nose. On the palate, this just keeps growing in the mouth, with laser-like acidity and some breadth - but it remains elegant. The finish goes on and on. Stunning wine.

9/3/2023 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Feels rather leaden at the moment - lots there but needs a couple of years to open up.

7/23/2023 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Holding up very nicely, fairly powerful nose (a whiff of oak?), very elegant on the palate with delicate fruit. Not bursting with personality but a lovely drink - it was perfect with baked salmon.

7/19/2023 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

From Magnum. In a beautiful place now, fresh, balanced, perhaps not the most complex Taillepieds but good persistence and energy.

6/23/2023 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

From magnum. Mature, loose-limbed, gorgeous wine.

6/19/2023 - Captain Haddock wrote:

A curiosity - still going but well past its peak. A nice experience, medium sweetness with a sherry-like zing.

6/18/2023 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Delicious, fruity yet elegant. Fully mature.

3/4/2023 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Vegetal,almost mouldy nose but not to the point of being flawed. Energetic on the palate, much better than the nose, lip-smacking, quite powerful but there is that vegetal undertow. Poor vintage of this wine on this showing.

3/4/2023 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Colour starting to brown but still lively. Fully mature, open nose of pork jus, autumn leaves and old fruit pastilles lost at the bottom of a handbag. Lovely silky texture, good acidity, the fruit is receding but still lovely. A little bite on the finish. On the way down but so enjoyable.

3/4/2023 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Browning colour but the nose is fresh. Lovely fresh acidity and strawberry fruit with a relatively short, brambly finish. Underrated producer. Drink up in the next year or two.

11/15/2022 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

PYCM's range of whites really sings from top to bottom. This had beautiful tension, a nose of white flowers and citrus peel with some reduction, and a lemony palate with just a hint of richness. Finishes bone dry and feels linear and precise.

9/6/2022 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

From bottle, mid-shoulder level, vibrant colour. Not decanted or aerated. Elegance in soft focus, some lovely ethereal fruit that on the nose and palate that faded quite quickly, delicious.

7/31/2022 - Captain Haddock wrote:

A beautiful baby Barolo. Benefits from a few hours of air. Crunchy tannins on opening which mellowed over the next day. Early on, fresh nose and palate of cranberry and pepper. Later a floral element and some leather and tobacco emerged. Excellent length.

7/14/2022 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Corked

5/13/2022 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

100% Malvasia de Sitges, organic. WOW! A layered nose with a slight reductive note and hints of lanolin, rhubarb and custard. Amazing energy on the palate, the sort of explosion you get from top dry riesling, very mineral, a hint of lemon juice, concentrated fruit and a bone dry finish. An amazing bargain.

5/12/2022 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

This is still like a coiled spring - so much energy. Lots of zip but also a lovely texture and an elegant personality. Needs a little air but open for business now and over the next decade.

4/22/2022 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Another corked bottle.

2/20/2022 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Ruby colour; charming nose of fruit pastilles and herbs; high-toned on the palate, with refreshing acidity, though the alcohol peaks out a little too much to my taste. An enjoyable introduction to this excellent producer and region for lovers of elegant grenache.

1/17/2022 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Medium-bodied, very fragrant, juicy fruit, delicious!

1/7/2022 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Fresh, fragrant wine with moderate (stemmy?) complexity and a little raspy tannin on the finish. The fresh (but not excessive) acidity makes it better with food. A lovely weekday quaffer, decent value.

1/4/2022 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Gently spicy and with a whisper of oak, this slips down the throat like velvet and delivers elegant fruit. Very classy bottle.

10/5/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Another delicious bottle, very elegant and clean as a whistle. This should continue to provide pleasure for 5+ years but no need to wait.

10/5/2021 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Once more this was a delicious, generous, slightly rustic wine, generous and long.

10/5/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Served at cellar temperature with a short decant to remove bits of cork. Ruby colour, looking fresh and lively. On the nose there was a little mustiness and the nose was otherwise quite dumb, this improved as the wine warmed in the glass but the mustiness stayed. A pleasant palate, slightly rustic but with some nice tertiary fruit. A nice experience - the mustiness may have been slight cork taint and stopped this being a totally delicious wine, but it was a pleasure to drink nonetheless and lasted long enough for everyone to enjoy it.

7/15/2021 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

A clear ruby colour, this wine leaps out of the glass with glorious scents of warm hay, bramble and dark berries. The palate is not as generous as the nose but there is a lovely bite of acidity and the texture is silky and so elegant. Beautiful now, and promising for the next 5+ years.

7/3/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Fully mature and open, this had an expansive aroma of herbs and red fruit with a silky mouthfeel, good intensity and a touch of heat. Very enjoyable.

6/29/2021 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

No note taken. A stunning pinot noir, at its peak. The nose kept me coming back for more and it had brilliant concentration and elegance. Powerful yet weightless.

6/8/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

A stunning wine, brassy orange colour, dill and passion fruit on the nose, great viscous mouthfeel, tropical fruit on the palate. Finishes dry with a lovely hint of sea breeze.

6/1/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

This wine is one of the few good Mosel Rieslings available at my supermarket and is a reliable Kabinett - on the sweet side of off-dry, packed full of orchard fruit flavours and lip-smacking acidity, and only 9% alcohol. Fun in a bottle!

5/29/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Good colour of nearly-ripe strawberry. Nose of forest floor, mushroom stock, beef stock. Gentle red fruit and herbs on the palate with enough acidity to wrap it all up nicely. Not hugely memorable but a lovely surviver, just what I hoped for when I bought this at auction a few years ago.

5/20/2021 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

A beautiful, off-dry wine with lots of zip - a perfect aperitif or food wine now, and should evolve beautifully. 8% alcohol.

5/19/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

A survivor, this bottle was in very good condition - no traces of oak left and no flab, but the fruit is gently declining. Drink up.

5/19/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Oxidised, like all bottles from this case so far (purchased from Farr Vintners).

5/18/2021 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Decanted for 2 hours. A beautiful wine. Silky texture and relatively light-bodied (for a CNdP) but by no means a lightweight. Stood up well to a peppery tomato-based dish. Lovely now but no rush to drink.

5/13/2021 - Captain Haddock wrote:

This bottle improved and came together over a few days so I will decant my next bottle for at least 2 hours. Luscious, relatively light texture, and kirsch and dried herbs on the nose and palate.

11/19/2020 - Captain Haddock wrote:

This wine is massive in scale yet in balance, if you can live with 15% alc. It's still pretty monolithic, so give it a good decant or wait a few years.

11/19/2020 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Gorgeous, elegant grenache. Enjoyable now but still tightly wound, needs 2-3 years in the cellar to unfurl.

10/3/2020 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Delicious, better and more charachterful than expected for the price.

8/16/2020 - Captain Haddock wrote:

A lighter weight garnacha, which I like, but it does have some spirity alcohol and slightly raspy tannin.

8/9/2020 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Looking for grenaches inspired by Rayas (light colour, pinot-like body and red fruit and herb flavours), I decided to try some wines from the Sierra de Gredos area. Ferran Centelles says on JancisRobinson.com: "Gredos wines taste very burgundian, less extracted, more ethereal and lighter than the majority of Spanish Garnachas. The alcohol perception might be high but the wines manage to retain some lightness, generating a unique and recognisable style."

This one really delivered for its price point. Jewel-like colour, seductive nose of cough drops and garrigue, very smooth body with tannins only perceptible on the finish, plenty of sweet fruit but finishes dry. Delicious!

7/9/2020 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Remarkably youthful, good intensity but quite monolithic and short.

6/11/2020 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

At peak - that trademark focus and balanced acidity, good intensity, citrussy and some orchard fruit notes and a lovely fantail finish. Top notch.

3/31/2020 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Another corked bottle - not much luck with this case.

4/8/2019 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Young, powerful, very fine indeed.

4/8/2019 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Halbtrocken meaning, I think, dryer than a Kabinett and sweeter than a Trocken. This tended more towards the Trocken end and had a lovely salinity as well as citrusy notes. Good value.

4/3/2019 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Drinking beautifully right now and over the next 5+ years.

4/3/2019 - Captain Haddock wrote:

A generous, enjoyable Volnay, not the most delicate but put smiles on faces.

1/12/2019 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

This is well into its drinking window and had plenty to give. Decanted for 2 hours, it held up well in the glass and had a nose of dried herbs and pepper with a lovely hint of brett, and sweet fruit with a tangy, peppery note on the palate, and a hint of tannin on the finish. Not improving but should be enjoyable for a few more years.

12/17/2018 - Captain Haddock wrote:

Gone

11/22/2018 - Captain Haddock Likes this wine:

Best bottle yet - high-toned, furniture polish, exotic fruit and candied citrus fruits. Long and very pleasing.