9/5/2015 - RajivAyyangar wrote:

95 Musar at Tim's Birthday (The Palace Steakhouse, SF): (one of the Maine bottles).

I have a deep affection for Musar in all forms - whether the bold-styled '99, '02, or the more elegant '98 and '01. Stylistically I'd place the '95 in the "centered" category, along with '91, '94, and '96.

In the context of Musar, the '95 is still young at 20 years old. Serge's wines have a rare ability to endure and transform through time. I'll always remember how fantastic this wine is now. At the same time I'm excited to see it transform over the next few decades.

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Full notes:

When I Coravined the bottle in the morning, it tasted limp, thin, overtaken with acetaldehyde and brettanomyces. Collective wisdom and past experience suggested it needed time to breathe. I popped the cork and let it “Audouze" for around 8 hours.

In the glass, it transformed constantly. One minute the fruit flickered towards blackberry jam. At the next sniff I found tart dried cranberries poked out over the iridescent sea of tamari, black raspberry, soy-sauce, cedar. The next minute the oak shone through - briefly, just a wisp of sweet caramelized apple, judicious vanillin. 10 minutes later it smelled of dried roses and dried orange peels with mulling spices. And the following minute, as if in answer to the grand Bordeaux it was paired with (’00 Sociando-Mallet) the Musar dilated into an expansive re-imagining of fruit - what fruit could be, with wisdom. Some wines with age develop the ghost of fruit (Bordeaux, for example - I’m thinking of the ‘1975 Leoville-Barton). This wine seemed to conjure up the canonical form of fruit.

And then on the palate it was a wild ride. Smelling it brought on a kaleidoscope of aromas, some identifiable - brett, acetaldehyde, well-integrated french oak, cassis, liquorice - and some indescribable. I remembered the dinner in Orono where we had the '95 and '96 (and I think the Grand Cru Gewurz, Clos st. Immer, and a Bartlett Pear Reserve). I remembered my ex-girlfriend's graduation dinner, the feeling of celebration with family.

The '95 built in intensity and complexity as the night went on. The conversation was lively, but when people smelled the Musar, they would inevitably pause in thought. It was startling, arresting - it reached out, grabbed you by the shoulders, stared deeply into your eyes and said something true about the future. I would not change anything about this wine.

Score: A perfect 10.

3/25/2022 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

Friday feeling! After a hard day at work I had no energy to cook and definitely needed wine. Luckily sandwiches and champagne goes together like peas and carrots. First time around with young grower Tom Gauditiabois.

Exploration E|02 by Tom Gauditiabois is made from 50% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 25% Meunier grapes from vines over 60 years old grown on shallow limestone soil around the village of Chézy-sur-Marne. Harvest base 2017 with very ripe grapes, one month of alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts in 400L oak barrels followed by malolactic fermentation completed slowly during the spring. 1275 bottles made.

Deep golden colour. On the nose lots of dough, grilled lime, winter apples, a touch of vanilla och heather in bloom. Light and fine mousse. Very vinous with deep, ripe fruit - apples, peaches and currants. Also something a bit like pineapple. Hard to pin down. Perfumed with deep, flowery notes. A salty minerality intermingles at all times with the sweetish fruit, providing freshness to this generous, intense experience. Very, very long with lingering lime, salt and peaches. Gorgeous wine!

4/9/2022 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

WOTN in a serious lineup goes to the 2011 Schäfer-Fröhlich Felseneck GG. Not considered the best vintage for german riesling this wine proves over and over again that vintage is less important than producer. One of the best rieslings I’ve had, perhaps the very best. Consistently great! See previous notes.

5/21/2022 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

Quite late after many other wines so no detailed notes but this was impressive, showing very well directly after opening. Toast, yellow fruit, seashore minerality. Maybe a bit aggressive mousse. Still fairly young. Can take a lot more time in the cellar of you like your champagne properly mature.

5/30/2022 - StefanAkiko Likes this wine:

Köpte två lådor ep då det begav sig. Sen kom hårda tider och jag sålde dem. Är inte bitter, inte min sort. Är mest bara glad åt att henningen som köpte dem gjorde en bra affär och har att njuta av. Zattingens vilken underbar dekokt detta är. En flaska auktionsfynd tack vare felstavning.
Skriker Pauillac med cederträ, svarta vinbär, rikedom, vackra fat, snygg combo av olivspad och brett… I munnen kör detta på från start till en lååång finish som ett monster.

Fabulöst entry!
Frukt, babyfett galore, örter, cederträ och svarta vinbär. Skolboken personifierad! Briljanta syror!

Mid palate!
Allt bara sköljer på. Rikt, vackert, raffinerat, tanninerna börjar strama till ekipaget. Syrorna skriker PAAAARTY! Babyfettet hänger kvar.

Aftermath!
Lång, fin, raffinerad avslutning som är galet ung. Skäms över ploppet, men inser vitsen av att leta fram fler av detta. Slår sönder de allra föesta Mouton, Lafite och Latour jag förtärt genom åren. Detta klår förmodligen över 90% av Latour's årgångar.

If you see it, buy it!!!

5/26/2022 - Puteljen! wrote:

This was really a dissapointment. Not a bad wine per se but should deliver so much better. Thin and watery, lacking substance and definition. Light cherries, lingonberries and just a touch of herbs. Almost devoid of tannins. The best I can say about it is that it is nicely balanced but it drinks like a $20 summer quencher. Maybe a bad bottle or tunneling badly but I wouldn’t count on any positive development from here out. Drank over several hours with and without food.

8/14/2019 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

This bottle has the ”Silver Jubilee” label but as far as I know the wine is the same as in bottles with the regular label. And what a wine! This is simply amazing! Almost translucent ruby with just a hint of orange at the rim. Intense and detailed nose with ripe berries, light tobacco, liquorice, sweet sandalwood and hint of mint. I could go on... On the palate still fresh and very silky. Beautifully combines intensity and elegance. The old ”iron fist in a velvet glove” comes to mind. Perfect balace between acids, fruit, alcohol and sweetness. Very good lenght with more mint and spice, mingling with strawberries and currants. A perfectly mature bottle and my best port so far. Utterly delicious!

10/3/2021 - Harley1199 Likes this wine:

By the glass. Balanced and classic, blending 80% pinot noir and complemented with some elegant chardonnay grapes. No malolactic. Refreshing notes of red berries mixed with other pastry. Pure elegance. On the palate there are notes of Danish biscuits with a good acidity and a rich texture. Dosage of 9 gr. Totally recommended. Honestly, I should start by filling my cellar with low-range bottles like this and letting them age the prescriptive five years.

Por copas. Equilibrado y clásico, mezclando un 80% de pinot noir y complementado con uva elegante chardonnay. Sin maloláctica. Refrescantes notas de bayas rojas se entremezclan con otras de pastelería. Pura elegancia. Al paladar se presentan notas de galletas danesas con una buena acidez y una textura abundante. Dosage de 9 gr. Totalmente recomendada. Sinceramente, yo mismo debería empezar por llenar mi bogega con botellas de gama baja como esta y dejarlas envejecer los preceptivos cinco años.

2/26/2021 - jmoon Likes this wine:

Absolutely bazonkas from first pour. Everyone sat up In their seat like they were watching an election result. Thrilling fireworks, insane mouthwatering acidity. Grapefruit, lime, limestone, loved it. Perfect sorbet substitute. Probably too intense for dinner.

12/31/2020 - Puteljen! wrote:

Tight and closed. With rising temp we get toast, grass, cream, lemon and yellow fruit. Some minerals but would have liked more. Piercing acidity, very good lenght. Needs time. Probably good upside.

12/7/2020 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Magnums Dinner (Friend's Place, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong): Impeccable boxed magnum from the winery. Perfect cork but interestingly it had been inserted upside down!

Initial notes on opening: Fully transparent cherry red colour on opening. Initial nose of new wellington boots and high- toned kirsch. Initial palate is tart and tannic red cherries and fresh cranberries. Quite a volatile eau de vie immediate resonance and reverberance inside the head in the mouth and on the swallow... very long indeed.

Decanted for 7 hours and then served blind but knowing it was my wine. Almost transparent except for the core. Has retained its cherry red colour. Nose is very well behaved and clean and reticent, almost disappointingly so...loganberry in the background. Palate has really benefited from the long decant - it is a BAM! of classic Musar Eastern spice market, black tapenade, deep red spiced Turkish delight, good medium acidic freshness. Then it suddenly grabs you by the back of the skull on the back palate and takes you down Alice's rabbit hole. Intellectual but also hedonistic. The power is phenomenal and very long indeed. Close to silence creating but too reticent on the nose to score accordingly higher. This is my favourite vintage of younger Ch. Musar and the first time I have opened a magnum. In most people's top two wines tonight. 93-94.

9/26/2020 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

Wow! This is wide open with baked pear, pie crust, light smoke, nuts, marzipan, white chocolate, orange peel and a certain slightly medicinal character. On the palate also intense and rich in the same style as on the nose but not lackning in energy or elegance. It has that impossible balance that so many of the very best wines display, showing both incredible intensity and superior elegance. Fine mousse, ultra dry finish that comes almost as a surprise after the initial fireworks.

Very complex, well on its way to maturity. One of the more evolved 2002's I've had, but all the more delicious because of it. Great, great wine!

9/19/2020 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

Lovely soft and silky berries. Some slight hints of forest floor and wet wood. Lots of minerals underneath it all. Good lenght. Such a nice wine.

9/11/2020 - Rieslingfan wrote:

Fabulous showing for this wine. Precise, mineral, rich in flavor but not at all oversweet. This was quite Kabinett, in the modern mold. It seemed like it could cruise along in its current state of young adulthood for 15 or 20 more years before starting a slow ride into full maturity. Potential full lifespan greatly exceeds mine. It has better balance than I do.

9/20/2019 - bboard Likes this wine:

Tasted along other value 2009 bordeaux. Favourite of the night for all. While wine taste fine after in decanter for an hour, wine tasted best in hour 3-4. I would imagine another 5-7 years life easily

6/4/2020 - RightBankKane Likes this wine:

This is drinking very well. The bouquet evokes roasted chestnuts. The palate is dark and penetrating with just appropriate supporting tannins now. Pliant mouthfeel. Easy finish, no heat. This wine, which was atypically light and tight on release for the vintage, is very enjoyable now.

12/20/2017 - Motz wrote:

Tasted over two days, alongside the same vintage La Dame de Montrose, a 2014 GPL, and a 2014 Chateau Montrose. The wine showed as I remembered it from November 2015, just slightly better integrated. All Pauillac, all the way. Along with tobacco, saddle leather, and funk, this vintage features a tarry smokiness that seems partially terroir imparted and partially the result of barrel char. This element put my mind to the funky, old railroad tie element in d'Armailhac terroir, and it will be interesting to see how it develops.

Impressive weight and expansiveness, with the power of the vintage on prominent display, along with that house style, healthy (a nice word for excessive) smattering of oak. Head-to-head with the same vintage La Dame de Montrose, both wines featured a creamy texture, which with this wine was strongly oak influenced, whereas with the fresher LDM was mostly fruit and terroir imparted.

This may ruffle traditionalist feathers but I am going to write it anyway. I have known since first tasting the 2010 La Dame de Montrose that it represented spectacular QPR, perhaps the highest I have encountered with any Bordeaux. That wine ran neck and neck with this GPL over two nights, and though different (fresher, more lifted, and drop-dead sexy), and my preference, they are of the same quality. Wow!

Also, it was fascinating to experience the same terroir and style alongside the 2014 GPL. That vintage will probably always be oakier than this one, but lumber can only partially mask any high quality Pauillac wine.

The wine was in slumber upon opening, but the open-knit house style woke it fairly early and it began showing spectacularly after just a few hours of air. This dense, strapping powerhouse should evolve for another fifteen to twenty years and last through 2045+. A tremendous tribute to the vintage, appellation, and chateau. 95-96.

5/14/2020 - Motz wrote:

Produttori del Barbaresco vintage tasting, alongside the 2011 Rio Sordo, and the 2012 D.O.C., over three days.

The tightest of the three upon opening, and it remained so on the first day. Recorked and waited for what experience has taught me would be a treat.

Once again, the wine did not disappoint. If anything, it exceeded my expectations with its high tension finesse and precision. Noteworthy for complex raspberry elements (fresh, tea, hard candy, and liqueur) rhubarb, orange marmalade essence, wintergreen, and wafting hints of petrol.

The longer it breathed the better it showed, reaching its apogee on day three. For the most part, it ran neck and neck with the other two wines, although it earned a marginal edge on this day. A wine of sublime, yet focused power, structure, and balance!

So much life to this. Do not short change yourself by tasting it over the next few years and not decanting for several (5 to 10) hours. My challenge lies in holding onto my last few bottles for as long as possible.

5/9/2020 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

Another lovely bottle.

9/24/2014 - Jeff Leve wrote:

This is super. It has everything needed to compete with the big boys, except the price. With layer after layer of ripe, sweet, fresh, pure fruits, great textures, refined tannins and a long finish, when this hits maturity, this is going to be a rockstar. If you're looking for a high quality, Classified Growth from the very expensive 2010 vintage, and you want the best wine for the money, this is the wine to buy.

11/25/2019 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

This is still all it used to be. Delicious mashed berry juice with a hint of nailpolish and clay. See previous notes.

11/3/2018 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

This bottle drinks amazingly young. Really fresh! Nice red fruit, good structure with prominent minerality and quite long, fresh, cool finish.

2/16/2018 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

The 2008 Gaston Chiquet Special Club is flat out delicious. Beautiful, ripe fruit, both yellow and green, cream, marzipan and some toast. Some chalk and smoky flintstone. Very well balanced. Third time I have this and it’s only getting better.

1/28/2018 - Lilja wrote:

Always fun to taste and try mature champagne. Baking syruo, honey, wax, raisins, canned mushrooms and corn as well as a quite oxidized sherry-like note. Lacks intensity in the mouth and feels at times a bit watery. This is past it. More fun than good.

1/24/2018 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

Riesling with friends (Näset, Göteborg): Decanted about 30 min. Initially closed with just sky high acidity and some mineral but most of the fruit and details in hiding. With time (and rising temperature) we get unripe peaches and lemon. Some minerals, but very little smoke or petrol. Very clean. Very, very long. Great stuff but needs more time in the cellar. Potential for at least 2 more points. Next bottle in 2020.

8/25/2017 - Wine Ratings Likes this wine:

Wine from the ‘spice garden’ for $30? I’ll take that all day long. The famed Ürziger Würzgarten (Spice Garden of Ürzig, in translation) is known for producing Rieslings with notable….well, spiciness (as one might expect), as well as earthy characteristics. This Kabinett showed hints of both qualities, though left much to be discovered in the future (hopefully!). More than anything, sharp acidity set the tone – not unpleasant, mind you, but certainly eye opening. With that acidity came typical citrus (lime, grapefruit, tangerine) and spice (white pepper, citrus rind) notes, while stony minerality braced both the nose and palate. The wine showed an interesting (and at first a touch off-putting, admittedly) cocoa note; some of that earthiness, perhaps, or simply an odd flavour in the particular bottle? With a day under its belt, things settled well and further notes of pineapple, green melon, and honey showed through. Solid quality; drinkable now, and structure for aging. It certainly seems to have the potential for a good future (though I’ve heard rumblings of plenty of bottle variation), so I’ve tucked a couple away to see what may come. If you’re a Riesling fan, for $30 I’d suggest you do the same!

7/25/2017 - Puteljen! wrote:

Consistently great. Hard to stay away from these bottles. Glad to have a good stockpile. See previous notes.

6/14/2017 - dkstar1 Likes this wine:

This is just starting to show very well - still super fresh. Served blind (vintage only, bottle shape was a giveaway), some thought it was '04 or '05. I have two left and will probably wait at least five years until trying the next one.

3/28/2017 - SteveG wrote:

From memory. Pale 10k gold. Lively spring rain nose of sweet apple and peach. Similar palate along with white grape deliciousness. Long sweetart finish.

9/29/2016 - Puteljen! Likes this wine:

Nose of pear, apricot and honeysuckle. On the palate rich and generous with wave upon wave of youthfull fruit. The acidity is quite high but partly masked by the fruit. Almost lightly sparkling in its sappiness this comes across as near off-dry. Minerals and lemon dominates towards the end, lingering for quite a while. Best von der fels I've seen yet!

12/25/2014 - Scubableu Likes this wine:

An Affair to Remember ..Beautiful comes to mind. Hint of white pepper, hint of flower, strange disappearing act on the palate but stays on the lips. Just great rose, goes wonderfully with the presentation of diamonds to a beautiful woman.