3/30/2024 - HandmadeHomemade Likes this wine:

Decanted for 2hrs, low/no sediment as others have stated. Pours a medium ruby in the glass. Med +, developing aromas of tobacco, soy, dried herbs (sage, lavendar), dried & fresh brambles, red raspberry, pomegranate, dried cranberry, prune & plum, dry earth, cedar, leather, rose, dried orange peel, smoke- complex and classic Rioja. In the mouth, the wine is med/+ bodied, high acid, medium + tannin, med alcohol, med + palate intensity, long finish. Drink now, or hold- for me in a perfect middle age spot, beginning of the long plateau into maturity. Overall, outstanding.

11/26/2023 - wtianseter wrote:

The bottle did not seem flawed, just bad. No one thought it was a good wine. Poor flavors that are not true to a Sonoma Zin.

9/11/2023 - grafstrb wrote:

-- popped and poured --
-- tasted non-blind over 1 – 1.5 hrs. --

NOSE: strawberry water; slightly savory; medium-light to medium expressiveness.

BODY: coppery salmon color; medium-light body.

TASTE: lightly red-fruited; a touch leafy, and a bit powdery; medium-low acidity; alc. not noticeable (13.5%). Overall, disappointing for this bottling, but there’s always the possibility it simply needed more air, or perhaps just more cellar time.

1/18/2024 - vinus_operandi Does not like this wine:

white flower and citrus on the nose. lemon/lime and some green apple combine with good acidity and a slightly bitter almond finish. sort of one dimensional for me. gave it plenty of air so that's not the problem. just not very interesting.

11/6/2022 - Rote Kappelle wrote:

The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the Disunited States of America (unlike the Brits, at least they have one) bears a tragic typo or two. What they meant to write was "A well regulated cellar, being necessary to the happiness of the noble drinker, the right to stock only good vintages shall be absolutely free."

Sadly, Big Jim Maddison, being a miserable sod from Virginia (name any really decent founding father who didn't come from good wine growing country), really buggered this up, doubtless under the influence of sour mash, that being closest in vein to his miserable soul. Or was he impacted by another smoking weed, not the sot weed for which his family were well known?

Jefferson, who knew a bit about good wine, was too 'tired and emotional' after a long lunch to notice the fiendish Madison's evil work. The only people worse than Catholics, are Anglicans influenced by miserable Presbyterians.

Sadly, my originalist approach to the 2nd Amendment somehow went askew. I try to keep a well regulated cellar, complete with a ledger showing what I have, when I bought it etc. Despite my best efforts, occasionally, like Jefferson after his long lunch, I lapse and my inner Madison sneaks in a wreaks a little un-noticed havoc. Thus, not only did I buy not one, but two bottles of Rostaing 2012 Cote Blonde at auction (no recollection of when, less of why), but I also didn't note it in my book; perhaps a sense of shame?

And there it festered like Madison's heart condition, doubtless getting worse as it aged.

On the weekend I ventured into the wine jungle and found several nuggets that I had not expected (various Barolo and Barbaresco, a case of Rosty from 2015, a mixed case of Penfolds' Grunge Hermitage - it's nirvana, I tell you) but then it came at me, snapping and foul, like the Jabberwock, Rosty's mean, malevolent 2012 Cote Blonde.

There I was, in the primordial dark, confronted by the beast. This is where you discover what you are made of. For me that would generally be pure, untreated sewer s#^t, but on this day, at that time, it was different.

As mean Rosty came whiffling towards me, refulgent in its malice, I grasped my mighty vorpal corkscrew. 'One two, and through and through! The vorpal corkscrew went snicker snack. I left it dead and took its head and went galumphing back.'

You see, when confronted by a bad wine decision the only thing to do is to take it on and fight it.

This wine is truly, magnificently f*^%#d. They must have chased almost every grape out of the vineyard to make this, instead pressing capsicum, beans, celery and wet hay. Then they lobbed in a few handfuls of pepper, some barnyard filth and a single, gloriously ripe Syrah grape. That one was just to mess with your head, because that is the type of utter bast#^d they are at Rosty.

Oddly, I quite enjoyed this with lamb roasted with pepper and juniper, but this is truly a wine that should not have been made, or if made should not have been released. It might have been used in the Ampodium. I say this because I love Rosty and I also love elegant expressions of Syrah; I am ok with a bit of greenery to add complexity.

However, wine is made from fruit and it needs some balance - too much fruit and you have alcoholic jam (not necessarily a bad thing, I suppose - anything to keep the children laughing), too much oak and you have splinters in your tongue, too much silage and leaf and vegetable and you may as well just drink a vegetable shake.

The good thing is that this wine is now in the past, the second bottle was less vile than the first and now I can focus on getting the true version of the 2nd Amendment recognised instead of the really weird version that is currently doing the rounds. Who cares about bear arms anyway? They have legs not arms, they are very furry and so the whole thing just seems ridiculous.

11/19/2023 - DiversofNKC Likes this wine:

Don't let the name put you off. It's really good dry Riesling.
The wine looks light gold colored. The legs are fast. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like fig and honeysuckle. It tastes like melon. The body is light. The wine has silky texture. The wine finishes medium. The wine has low acidity.

3/20/2023 - Robwild wrote:

Lots of tannin, not particularly balanced even after an hour. Dark fruits, plums and cherries. There are much better cabs at this price point

10/22/2023 - ehaav wrote:

Madeirized, if you see it on sale, it's bacuse it's gone past it's peak.

9/29/2019 - YackAttack213 wrote:

4*

11/3/2021 - SuperSomm wrote:

Medium garnet colour. Pronounced and developed nose with fig, prune, vanilla, toast, leather and forest floor. Medium (+) taste of fig, prune, vanilla, toast, leather and forest floor. Long and dry finish. High acidity. Medium (+) tannins. Full body. A very good Rioja Gran Reserva. Part of my WSET3 exam prep. Drink now or over the next five years. Goes well with beef or lamb.

8/30/2023 - Mrbuzz Likes this wine:

New Years resolution (in aug)...buy more GOODFELLOW Chards! This is only my third bottle of their chards, and it already has an indelible impression on me...PURE fruit, impeccable balance, weightlessness yet LOADED with flavor and feel! There is a softness and lacy feel to these 12% abv beauties...yet still CUT with energized lemon/lime squeeze citrus and chalky crushed minerality....nuanced with wonderful flint strike reduction that integrates nicely...creamy pears and tart green apple...florals galor of lemon verbena, white flower blossom, candied quince....fascinating dry extract and citrus sour finish! All so caressingly balanced and tasty as all get out! Would love to try some with age, but it is going to be extremely hard to keep your hands off them young...I've already blew through all of mine! Gunna need a bigger boat!

7/29/2023 - HandmadeHomemade wrote:

Lemon, apple, honey-like sweetness, with a sharp, mineral acidity on the finish. The wine feels simple, but is simply delicious. Fun stuff to relax with under the stars. Great value at the $55 mark, I paid $75- so I feel a little let down for the price.

1/2/2023 - VoVo Likes this wine:

Absolutely gorgeous. We are sorry they will no longer be making wine, but we will cherish the wines we have left.

8/3/2023 - HandmadeHomemade Likes this wine:

Pure precision and raw energy, I'd love to see these in a few (5-10) years to see how time tempers that acid. For me, much too young, but the wine shows great promise. Helluva wine, and I wish more produces would see the promise of Oregon chardonnay.

6/11/2023 - Dulcie and Aylwin wrote:

I will maintain until my dying day - which may not be too far off at this rate - that COR is one of the more overlooked wineries along the Columbia or further afield for that matter. The name Old Highway perhaps conjures up a simple inexpensive wine (the name derives from the road that runs by the winery adjacent to State Road 14 that follows the Columbia), but the wine is neither simple nor inexpensive. It is an earthy, robust combination of malbec and merlot, and is replete with lots of dark, spicy berry fruits.

5/24/2023 - Dulcie and Aylwin wrote:

I don't normally drink bottles right after delivery but I wanted to reduce the overall size of the collection over the next several months. Was this a mistake? Frankly, and I don't intend to demean White Rose (as over 150 previous notes should attest to), this wine was shockingly and unfamiliarly bad, and it pains me to write that. Where are the voluptuous aromas? Where is the rich and fulsome cherry fruit? This wine had a slightly mean nose that somewhat reminded me of a young Beaujolais - a discouraging start. On the palate the experience was no better: tart and mean with very little fruit evident. I find it hard to believe that this will improve with age. Bear in mind that the full price on this is $75.

4/23/2023 - chatters wrote:

En Primeur campaign for the 2022 vintage Day Two (Bordeaux): tartly citric and frankly unpleasant. A touch of battery acid…

4/28/2023 - HandmadeHomemade Likes this wine:

Seems to want a bit more time in the bottle as the wine is rough even after a few hrs of decanting, missing some of those pretty floral notes. Still, great to have with some steak frites after the decant. Black and red fruited, peppers, earth, some green pyrazine notes. I'd love to see this in 5+ years.

1/30/2023 - grafstrb wrote:

-- popped and poured --
-- tasted non-blind over a couple days --

NOSE: very light; not much going on.

BODY: moderately hazy orange-pale yellow color; light bodied.

TASTE: lightly-flavored; a touch tart; tastes like a low-alc. fruity/slightly tart wild ale, but no mouse, brett, or funk. 11% alc. is hidden. No meaningful movement since my previous bottle in 2019. I continue to be baffled by this wine, which smells and tastes of very little.

5/16/2022 - originalverkorkt Likes this wine:

The Les Quarts vineyard is undoubtedly one of the best terroirs in the Pouilly-Vinzelles appellation. The fantastically situated vineyard faces south-east and has 48 to 80-year-old Chardonnay vines on siliceous and above all ferruginous clay and limestone soil from the Bajocium (Jura). The wines produced there are long-lived, well-balanced. Hand-harvested from 24 to 25 August 2020, whole bunch pressing and spontaneous fermentation, then ageing for 17 months, first in pièces for eleven months and then in barrels with 100% malolactic fermentation. The added sulphur is 40 mg/l.

light golden yellow

Les Quarts is a southern Burgundy, but impressively bright and crisp in 2020. Its aromas are reminiscent of white flowers, pencil shavings with graphite and wood, some oregano and verbena, blanched almonds and yellow as well as green citrus fruits. This comes across as lively, fresh, clear as well as precise and, after two somewhat fuller but likewise always well-balanced vintages, follows on from 2017 in particular.

On the palate, the wine is typically powerful and firm with a light tannin and a particularly punchy intense acidity this year that provides tension. It is amazing that the wine has undergone 100% malolactic fermentation. The Bret brothers harvest to the point, so that the citrusy, tartness and silkiness of the yeast ageing, the tannin and a certain meatiness combine to form a very well-made whole.

10/12/2022 - HandmadeHomemade wrote:

Surprising wine for me. Kinda on the fence too- aromas of strawberry-raspberry jelly, mineral, salt spray, and lemon oil. Intense on the nose, almost sweet smelling. In the mouth, the wine carries that strawberry-raspberry flavor, it is big and fruity, almost too much for me. Palate is vinous, deep, there is a pleasant acidity and almost green finish, fine pearlage. The wine seems almost too young to judge, the acidity and the seriously fruity nature of the body seem to be fighting each other. That being said, I paid $209 and I feel like I paid too much, I much prefer their NV Rose to this, and I could have bought a magnum of that for still less than this. Maybe time's the answer?

12/4/2022 - nsellen wrote:

From half. This one seemed too young and not Musar enough. It’s never linear, is it?

11/6/2022 - acyso wrote:

Vinetasters: Howell Mountain (Park Ridge, IL): Served double blind. A charmless, heavy-handed wine. A bit of smoke and a bit of that TCA/Cordier aroma. Clearly evocative of a big vintage of Gruaud Larose, this lacks any fruit and just tries to overwhelm you with its structure. Unpleasantly heavy, dull, and lacking fruit, this is not an interesting wine to drink at all. My 11th, group's 8th.

10/6/2022 - CleverCorkage Likes this wine:

WOW! This is great. Crazy flavor intensity of citrus and stone fruit with juicy refreshing acidity. The concentration of fruit is remarkable for a rose. Drinking very well and would love to taste this bottle with a few years of bottle age. It has the fruit concentration and acid structure to age. Yes it is a bit pricey $<$50 but definitely a bottle you must try.

9/28/2022 - Yack Man wrote:

This is a pretty average Napa Cabernet that's not very special and nothing much to offer that's worth expanding on. I've had better wines at half the price. 88-90 Points. Meh!

9/11/2022 - MAC49 wrote:

This wine is in a very good place now. Decanted for an hour. Rich and seductive nose. Delicious taste of rich blueberry, leather and very well balanced. Saved some for next day but it had faded.

8/10/2022 - libero wrote:

This 10 years old bottle has already passed its time. Brownish color and a little vinegar at taste.Changing rate after three associates recommendations, that “it may be just this bottle” and still have many years to go.

7/17/2022 - theharve wrote:

no fruit. wassup? hope it's bottle variation.

7/3/2022 - WoodieBayArea wrote:

after three hours of decanting this was beautiful, elegant with red 'old lady' fruit, hints of spice and almost like an old Domaine de Montille Volnay Taillepieds from a light / bright vintage... awesome and great QPR... immediately bought a case more

6/21/2022 - BadOyster wrote:

Just when you *think* you’re going to get some fresher red fruits or watermelon, it flips into a bizarre tropical guava profile that is mellow and lacking the usual acidity, salty, minerally profile I expect from Bandol. It is my first Tempier, so maybe this is house style, but overall I’m unimpressed by this $45 rose. Stick with the Du Bagnol from Cassis - that one is killer.

6/4/2022 - stet wrote:

This shows prominent smoke taint.

And yet, in a crazy way, this could be had as an aperitivo chilled. Think of Laphroaig and Drambuie.

Not a wine for dinner, that much is certain.

6/3/2022 - mattym19 Likes this wine:

Great rose; easy to see why this can command $50 a bottle. Nose is savory, dusty herbs, smells like strawberry and crushed cherry. Very serious but still fun and relaxed. Palate is medium bodied, great acidity, warm desert spices, watermelon rind, long savory finish. Beautiful.

5/24/2022 - Sheliab2019 wrote:

$110

1/22/2022 - Oddbjørn Likes this wine:

Dark berries, leather, oak. Not as pure in taste as 2016, but still a good wine.

5/6/2022 - Joel Suskin Likes this wine:

Drank at St Andrews with winwaed. very full. loved it

3/28/2021 - Jemby Likes this wine:

A gorgeously rich and sumptuous wine which is very young, so needs time to really show its assets. It has all the anticipated smells and tastes of the bakery and the orchard, plus a lovely smack of new oak. The only feature which might prevent this wine from achieving 98 points in 2-4 years time is that they decided to give it a partial malolactic fermentation (essential for reds but unusual for whites). This might possibly deprive it of the acidity it would need for the long haul. But, since the people at Freemark are no amateurs, I think it would be relatively safe for you to put down at least one case.

2/19/2022 - Dave Mac Likes this wine:

Rivulets of yummy jammy mini-tornadoes with licorice dancers just at the tip of your tongue, she came out of the bottle ready to party like it was 1999, even though it was bottled much later. Enjoy this sassy girl with some sharp cheddar Cheezits.

3/22/2022 - GuWin wrote:

Deep red with brownish hue. Extremely funky flavours (brett?), softens down a bit but is still present after an hour in decanter. Underneath there are flavours of dark berries, cedar tree, forest floor. The taste is full flavoured with black currants and blackberries and a hint of menthol. However there are funky notes are present also on the palate and are a bit disturbing. No doubt that there is a good fruit quality here, but with the funky flavours this is hard to rate.

3/12/2022 - sboyle wrote:

Medium garnet color. Tart cherry, herbal aroma and diacetyl on the aroma. Flavor notes of tart cherry, cedar box, vanilla and diacetyl. Medium acidity with medium-high tannins. Medium high body. This wine is ready to drink now. I would not wait too much longer to drink it if you have it in your cellar. I do not see it getting better.

2/15/2022 - HandmadeHomemade wrote:

Man shouting at sky time...

I hate Burgundy. This is supposed to be a good year, top producer, from a great site, with a bit of age on it. This wine did not show, not on day one, nor on day two, nor on day four. Nothing. It is completely closed down, uninteresting. What a waste... Why Burgundy?? Why do you do this to me!? I could have bought several bottles of Oregonian pinot and much happier, shit- A&P Côte Chalonnaise La Fortune at $40/bottle drinks better than this. When people ask why I don't collect more Cote d'Or- I am going to use this as the prime example.

I wouldn't think of popping another (which I don't have anyway) for another 5-10 years.

2/5/2022 - btwine Likes this wine:

Decanted 2 hours to start. Cork had dried out so delicate surgery required to open the bottle. Rusty color out of the bottle. Not a fruit first set of flavors - beef stock, mushroom, anise up front. I’m also tasting a touch of the salinity others have commented on. With more time in the glass, red fruit emerged.
Nicely balanced. Plenty of tannins left, and this likely has 5-10 years remaining.
Not as complex or rewarding as other Dunn Howel Mtns I have had, which isn’t many. Seems Dunn HMs need more decades at rest than what I possess affords me to taste for now.
I was hoping for more “wow” after I acquired these in a Zachy’s auction, even with the understanding that 98 was a tough year.

10/10/2021 - PMJak11 wrote:

1hr+ decant. Medium red color. Wine is a mix between Mexican food and cigarettes, which I know is strange. Subtle green elements and minimal fruit. Tough vintage.

12/24/2021 - Jeppy Does not like this wine:

A Christmas gift from a consultant Set this aside to have with Christmas Eve dinner and it’s not great For a nearly $100 bottle of wine I had so much more expected

12/22/2021 - Dough Boy Likes this wine:

I’ve had better Willamette, but very powerful juice. JS exaggerates, though. Good potential. Will go back to it in a few years - maybe it will improve.

11/15/2021 - HandmadeHomemade Likes this wine:

Nascent. This is beyond infanticide (abortion?). The wine is so energetic, aggressive and bombastic- it's really lost on itself, but it's great. After a day of being open do I get pithy lemon, mineral, kefir lime leaves, some almond paste, with some atomic warhead candy acidity. This doesn't need "a bit of time" this needs years (more so than I've seen in the past 5-6 vintages of Cameron). So intense, vibrant, and young.

I love it.

10/20/2021 - HandmadeHomemade Does not like this wine:

Picked up in a wine store club shipment. Not suiting to my taste at all. The 15% alc/vol was quite perceptible- full body, just short of Port; and it feels like the winemaking team at Nicora was striving for just that- big, bold, lush wine. In both the mouth and nose: huge, full bodied, high glycol-late pick fruit- not getting any burnt fruit, raisin notes, which is a relief. The booziness overrides everything, really- it's really quite distracting. New oak/vanillin, black fruit compote topped with dark berry liqueur and syrupy in the mouth and nose, some gritty fresh asphalt earthiness on the finish, very dense and chewy- loads of texture here. Maybe a day or two of air will let this beast shed some of that booziness and allow the wine to shine through- still this is a monster of a wine. If not, into the port glasses it goes as an after dinner sipper.

For now, and the $55 I paid- I am disappointed. However, that $55 is invested fully into a style that I do not appreciate. I am just not a fan of these super hedonistic wines that I believe push the boundary too far. I do not believe this wine represents a sense of place- rather, it is manufactured into existence by design. It's a party wine, and this party is not for me.

Edited note as the review prior was just a mean, shitty thing to say.

10/6/2021 - Purple Tooth wrote:

This is my second unpleasant meeting with this wine in a year or so....I cant recall this wine ever feeling so tired. I wonder if this is an issue from a particular case, or the evolution of the wine itself. Tonight, it's a far cry from Pauillac and more along the lines of a St. Emilion from a modestly rated year. This is troublesome....Hmmm....

6/19/2021 - Grinner wrote:

PHMG WAG: Two Shots and a Vertical Tasting (Lyon Quarantine Site): For some, this was WOTN and certainly it was the QPR/OTN. The nose is so refreshing it just pulls you in; ever been stuck in a wine glass?

Steve Martin: "then the drugs wore off..."

Lemon curd, quince, peach, honeysuckle / florals, and nice minerality Just Dance! Sugar / acid balance is right on. Less of a liquid Sweetart than a Quarts de Chaume and overall amazing. Now - grandchildren.

9/26/2021 - Hanibal Does not like this wine:

No fruit, acidity is way too high, so much reduction did not go even after 2 days in the fridge...

8/28/2021 - Not647f wrote:

With a 5Marys porterhouse, potatoes, and a big Caesar salad. So classic steakhouse, except I did it on the grill in the yard. This is a really great Cal version of a Bordeaux, although I don't know which Left Bank wine I'd compare to. Very polished, still a bit of tannin to cut the richness of the steak, velvety texture, nose of violets, baking spices. Not going back to the wine club at SMV--it's a bit on the pricey side for me, but you do get something for your money.