5/27/2010 - Chevaliers wrote:

A Serie Rare bottling. Dark with some bricking at the edge. Smooth and rich, deep wine, long taste, lots of fruit, very satisfying. This wine outlasted the outlandish oak that Laurent used in 1996. Ready to drink. Recommended. -JBL

4/18/2010 - Chevaliers Likes this wine:

Bricking at the edge and a crystal orange glow to the entire glass of ruby colored wine. Aromas of cherry licorice, strawberries, leather, and a bit of mushroom and forest floor that blows off with airing. Nice fresh, tart strawberries in the taste, cherry licorice. Fresh and lively with good mid-palate and a long taste. Absolutely smooth. The tannins are completely resolved in this 34 year old marvel. Medium bodied and highly recommended. -JBL

4/5/2010 - Chevaliers wrote:

Slightly brown at the edges. Not much aroma on this wine, and not much going on in the glass. Well made, balanced, predominantly licorice with some dark fruits, cedar, a candy-like sweetness, and unresolved tannins. The tannins say this wine is young, but the brown at the edge say it is mature. Medium bodied. Consumed within an hour of opening. Probably would benefit from decanting. -JBL

4/4/2010 - Chevaliers Likes this wine:

Deep purple. This wine has just started to open up after spending years asleep. Vibrant tastes of candied plums with roses and anise backing it up. Long flavor, smooth tannins, rich and full bodied. Drinking well now and will improve for 10 years or more. Highly recommended -JBL

4/3/2010 - Chevaliers Likes this wine:

Deep, dark plum color to the edge of the glass. No signs of bricking at all. Rich aromas of plum, some cedar, and black cherries. The flavor is dark and long, dark fruits, plums, black licorice, with all tannins warm and resolved. Absolutely lovely and perfectly balanced. Drinking perfectly now, but has plenty of time to develop additional complexities and layers. Drink now or hold five years to 2015. -JBL

3/30/2010 - Chevaliers Likes this wine:

Bricking at the edge, with some orange throughout. Strawberries, black cherries, licorice and cedar in the long flavor. Good mid- and upper palate length. Warm resolved tannins with nice acidity backing it up. A fresh, flavorful Griottes. -JBL

3/30/2010 - Chevaliers Does not like this wine:

Ruby-brick colored throughout. Some strawberry on the nose, subtle. The taste is highly acidic, burning the throat when swallowed. Shallow and thin in taste. Not a very nice wine to drink.

3/29/2010 - Chevaliers Likes this wine:

Brick at the edge, with an orange cast throughout. This wine has mellowed and integrated since the last tasting in 2008, when the acidity was overly prominent. Nice aromas of strawberries, with bright, clear beams of strawberries and cranberries coming through in the taste. The acidity is balanced, making for juicy and mouthwatering berry flavors. An excellent, medium bodied wine.

2/17/2010 - Chevaliers wrote:

Bright and fresh with beams of framboise on the palate. This is delicious, medium bodied, loads of flavor and still young. Good acidity balanced by fruit. Drinking well now, but this will improve with age. Drinking well above its station. Very Chambolle-Musigny. If you have this in your cellar, you did the right thing in 2005. Try again in 2013. Highly recommended. -JBL

12/22/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Aromas of burnt rubber (calling it tar is flattery) and cherries. Dark ruby color to the edge of the glass. Licorice, cherries, and the foul taste of burnt rubber comes through in the mouth. The wine has good acidity and the taste is long, with a nice bitterness (from the burnt rubber?) and mouth fullness. Very smooth with tannins fully resolved. Not as big as a Côte-Rôtie should be and the rubber plays an unattractive note in an otherwise well-drinking wine. A cooked wine from a hot vintage. Drink soon, this does not have the stuffing to last. -JBL

12/9/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Some bricking at the edge, but generally dark ruby and clear. Aromas of licorice and cherries. Taste is tart with bright, clean strawberries predominate. Jammy, long lasting taste. Full bodied. Hot going down the throat with a bit too much acidity. A nice glass even if not balanced. Drink within the next five years. -JBL

12/9/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Volatile acidity, sour, thin, awful. Spat it out. -JBL

12/8/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Aromas of cherries and minerals, the dark ruby wine is showing a hint of lightening at the edge of the glass. The flavor is full bodied, with good grip, cherry cola, plums, spices, and balanced tannins providing good backing. Long flavor, rich, and smooth, a great glass of Burgundy. Highly recommended. Will improve for 3 - 5 years, but there is no reason to wait. -JBL

11/5/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Wow! This is a Grand Cru wine at Grand Cru prices in a Premier Cru bottle. Some slight orange showing at the edge of this dark glass of wine. Soaring aromas of framboise and strawberries. This wine starts out a bit tart, but opens up and mellows and mellows for hours. Wonderful evolution in the glass. The aromas carry through to the taste, with clean, pure strawberries and cassis and red fruits against a mellow, rich background. This wine just goes from strength to strength. Highly recommended. Open a bottle now, but will improve and gain even more depth and complexity over the next 5 - 8 years. -JBL

10/29/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

From a magnum. No signs of bricking. Dark to the edge of the glass. A rich and smooth glass of wine, ready to drink. Full bodied. Showing mocha, chocolate, a hint of cedar, cassis. Wonderful aroma. Very round in flavor with a nice refined warmth from the fully resolved tannins and balanced alcohol. A fine wine that is showing extremely well right now. -JBL

3/25/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Ruby orange in color throughout. Fully mature wine as presented in the aroma of ripe plums and strawberries. Tastes of prunes, smoke, bracing strawberries. Good acidity keeps this wine fresh and alive. Richness from a bit of caramelization. A nice wine! Drink up. -JBL

3/26/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

From a magnum. While B. Morey's Bâtard-Montrachet is a bit too lush and oaked to be a classic, it was outstanding nonetheless. The oak gave it a richness that suppressed the crisp edge that is typical of this vineyard. The wine is smooth, elegant, well defined, clean, complex, and simply delicious if not exactly true to the terroir. Highly recommended and ready to drink right now. -JBL

3/25/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Aroma of dark fruits and cherries, cedar. The wine tasted of licorice, cherry cola, and drank like liquid velvet. The tannins are totally resolved, providing a flowing warmth in this complex, rich, long wine. The lasting flavor in the soft palate is remarkable. The 1989 Ch. Montrose just gets better and better every time I open a bottle. This was by far the best. -JBL

2/12/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

A very big wine, with some surprising vinosity for 13.5% alcohol. But there is plenty of fruit. Right now this is a full bodied, rich mouthful of wine showing berries, and a long, lasting aftertaste. It is still very young, but drinking very well. Secondary flavors will need time to develop. Try again in 2014. -JBL

2/9/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

First day: Rated 88. Light bodied, unbalanced and acidic at first, this gains weight in the glass. With air the wine shows delicious fresh cherry and strawberry flavors with balanced yet noticeable acidity. This Clos de la Roche has a reasonably long taste, dark red-fruit flavor profile, and cleanness within a nice oak framework. A light strawberry-licorice aroma. Drink now.

Tasted the next day: Rated 91. This wine really gained weight and became velvety smooth. The acid diminished leaving a more balanced and rich wine with a velvet finish.

1/27/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Aromas are light and restrained..not much bouquet—hazelnut, faded apple and pear, French oak still evident, hint of minerally/diesel, but in balance. In the mouth the wine is rich with hints of mineral reduction, but again in balance. It’s a very wonderfully complex wine and it shows that Montrachet quality of starting sweet and rich and finishing bone dry with surprising acidity. Great food wine, but will certainly improve over the next 2-5 years. -SP

1/27/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Nose: Bright, rich, mineral, expressive. Mouth is very evolved and in a very nice place. Quite rich and ML+ in the finish. This would be a great ‘standard’ to show for a nice 1er cru Meursault in its drinking window. May have at least 2-4 left in it. -SP

1/27/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Color looks premox. Very sherrified nose, smells nutty and oxidized. Some charm remains in the mouth—a Euro palate wine for sure—freshness is gone and only a hint of verve remains. Complex—may be better with the right dish when cold. -SP

1/21/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Rich and full bodied, framboise, cherries backed by good acidity. A nice glass of wine, but not as good as previous bottles. Time to drink it up. -JBL

1/21/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

A little barnyard aroma, black cherries, uncomplicated and smooth, medium bodied, berries, cassis and good structure.

1/21/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Medium bodied, slight bricking, good acidity, ready to drink, uncomplicated, cherries and chalk, that Beze berry bzzzz. Fresh but astringent and dry at first. Decant 1 hour in advance.

1/21/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Crisp and clean, light bodied at first, citrus, lime, gains body with air. Delicious and recommended with seafood. Allow to breath for 20 - 30 minutes before serving.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink
Nose/mouth: Mercaptan and Brett—charm robbed by the bacterial/feral yeast issues. Not unpleasant in the mouth, but too faded and bretty for bright cheeses. Very dry.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink soon with Brussels sprouts
Nose/Mouth: Can’t get past all the Brett—a reflection of poor cellar practices ruining Grand Cru fruit.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Hold 3-5 years
Nose: Hazelnut, apple, pear. Blockbuster nose. Enticing, fruit, earth, balanced.
Mouth: Very structured and bright from entry to finish. Sturdy fruit and chalky earth, good fruit with some secondary flavors emerging from a pallet of structured fruit and emerging complexity. Too young.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink last year
Nose: beet, brett, must, earth, pickle and aldehyde.
Mouth: Vinegar and pickle, not fresh or lively at all. British palate may appreciate. Over the hill.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink
Nose: Hint of reduction and (??) premox from a hot, hot vintage, earthy, hint of must.
Mouth: Elegant and refined, some liveliness through the middle, but after the midpalate the wine has mellowed beyond its years, flabby and needs acid—ripe but not overblown. Hint sulfur, S02 in the finish.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink 2 yrs ago
Nose: Full blown ML, nutty, secondary bouquet evident, much more mature than the above wines.
Mouth: Bit faded up front, mature, brulee in the mouth, not much freshness or verve here, bit past its prime? Good mineral complexity—excellent for the British palate.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink
Nose: Complex, earthy, dried cherry and herb, underbrush and lots of minerality.
Mouth: Mature, dill notes emerging, some fruit and brightness left, but finishes a bit dried out for the dish—more of a lower PC great Village quality to our palates.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink
Nose: Tart, bright cherry, some secondary bouquet emerging, hint of dill, earth, underbrush/forest floor.
Mouth: Plush entry, elegant and restrained, good mid-palate elegance, speaks of place more than flavor. Bit bretty in finish—robbed of all unfermented sugar. Not enough stuffing for a Grand Cru?

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

hold 4 years
Nose: apple, oak, stone fruit, complex, pure and elegant.
Mouth: Good focus, excellent standard for a young PC White Burg—no hint of premox, very fresh. Great acid and strong minerals in mouth, very pure, very young. We originally thought that this excellent wine was too young to use, but when we tried it with the soup the match was sublime.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Drink or Hold
Nose: Fresh and bright with some baby fat needed for cheeses; cherry, chalk and hints of smoke.
Mouth: Finally some muscle and fat in the entry and midpalate, great richness, clean with balance and terroir stripped of cellar faults. Smoky, clean and minerally.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink or hold
Nose: Bright and clean with hints of oak, spice, rich berry and black cherry, violet and spice.
Mouth: Bright, young, vibrant with a good balance of elegance and stuffing, long minerally and refined.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink or hold.
Nose: Classic, if somewhat restrained aromatics, cherry, earth, cigar box, hint tomato relish, hint of ‘good brett’.
Mouth: Sweet/plush entry needed for the dish, good mid-palate length, smoky and some austerity in the finish—loads of minerals—more Cotes de Beaune in style, reminiscent of a red Montrachet. Has 3-5 years in it, but will match nicely with the dish.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink or hold
Nose: Balanced and bright, hints of dried red fruits, freshness, earth, elegance.
Mouth: Restrained and amazingly balanced, screams food, slight oakiness adds richness.

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink!
Nose: Mature, tomato skin, dry cherry, beet root
Mouth: Tame and dilute up front for PC, up front dried fruit, forest floor, good brett, elegant, restrained, good structure, light, ephemeral

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink or hold
Nose: Gorgeous and complex, bright and enticing.
Mouth: Rich and mouth filling with wonderful structure and a lively finish. Yum!

1/15/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

drink or hold
Nose: Classic, bright, fresh and balanced. Austere and varietally/village spot on.
Mouth: Quite tasty with excellent secondary bottle-aged characteristics emerging in the mouth. Not huge, appropriate stuffing for a PC White Burg. No premature oxidation.

1/5/2009 - Chevaliers wrote:

Full bodied and long on the palate. This is drinking like a fresh wine, but the tannins are very smooth in this rich and balanced wine. The wine exhibits a nice bitterness of black tea with a smaller role played by notes of berries, dark fruits, leather, iodine, and blood. Drink now or hold. -JBL

12/16/2008 - Chevaliers wrote:

Deep and long mid-palate, licorice, plums, leather and meat, smooth, rich, full bodied, multi-dimensional. This is a fine wine with a complex flavor profile. Every bottle in the case leaked. The corks were soaked and rotting. Low shoulder level or lower ullage in every bottle. The case was leaking upon delivery when I purchased this wine on release. It has been drinking well for many years. Ready to drink now. Now showing a hint of bricking at the edge. -JBL

12/16/2008 - Chevaliers wrote:

Very thin yet overly tannic and dry at the same time. Little fruit with a short finish and no mid-palate at all. Vinous, hot, unbalanced and alcoholic, with the double whammy of drying tannins make for an unpleasant, mediocre drink. Highly unrecommended. -JBL

12/8/2008 - Chevaliers wrote:

A complex wine with depth and a long finish. Nice spice, deep red fruit flavors, a lot going on in the glass. -JBL

12/8/2008 - Chevaliers wrote:

Smooth, viscous, with good depth and length, but an uncomplicated Meursault.

12/7/2008 - Chevaliers wrote:

Orange-ruby in color, but showing crystalline clarity. Good amount of sediment in the bottle. The cork was barely holding in the bottle, spinning as the corkscrew was turned in and then pulling out in two pieces. The bottom was soaked and rotten, but there was little ullage in the bottle. It was a very good fill. A heavenly nose of deep, penetrating framboise and roses, lavender and strawberry. Long upper palate taste of red licorice, candied red fruits, crisp and fresh strawberries and great beams of cherries. A taught yet deep, crisp wine with perfectly clean flavors. This is an elegant, refined wine with great depth and length. -JBL

11/12/2008 - Chevaliers wrote:

If you can get past the vinous aspect that dominates this 15.5% fruit bomb then you may enjoy it. Similar in style to an Amarone, this young wine already shows slight bricking at the edge. 2003 was a very hot vintage and it is evident in this overly alcoholic and early maturing Barbara d'Asti. After the initial burn this bloated and oafish wine shows cherries and cola in the very long taste along with a nice touch of anise. A full bodied wine, enjoy it with steak but have someone else drive you home. -JBL