4/20/2024 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Going against the grain here. My bottle was absolutely delightful with patience. On opening and refrigerator temp, it was very thin and bitter (89 pts). Over the course of the evening, it began to open up tremendously as it got air and warmed up. Tremendous citrus sprang forth. Lots of lime, lime leaf, kafir lime, Meyer lemon creme brulee. Definitely some blossoms came through as well. The cork was perfect, and it was a full shoulder. Very subtle ox. Thoroughly enjoyed.

2/26/2024 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Drinking well right now, but as other people have noted it will start to decline soon.

11/24/2023 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Plush texture with baking spices and cranberry. Ginger notes. So smooth. Drinking lovely now. It did not evolve much over the 2-3 hours of drinking.

11/24/2023 - DJPremierCru wrote:

Oxidized. Promising nose of bruleed pineapple and citrus. On palate a pungent bitterness to was too much to overcome.

11/11/2023 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Exactly as YATCHISIN describes.

5/8/2023 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Nice tropical and floral notes. Nice, fuller body as it warmed.

Still drinking well, but drink soon!. Vacuum sealed, but slightly flabby the next day.

Tasty

4/9/2023 - DJPremierCru wrote:

Easter dinner. Mozza pasta recipe. Delicious. Surprisingly light textured. Full of spice and fruit. Very fine tannins tell me there is more life to these bottles. Lovely.

8/6/2022 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Great creamy tropical fruit. Creamy mango, brûléed pineapple. Nice finish. In a good spot right now.

7/19/2022 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Amazing texture. Soft, velvety with some great lift. Blueberries, blackberries and fresh and stewed strawberries; some underbrush and herbs. Points deducted bc alcohol is out of balance. It is hot. It says 14.2% but i'd say 15.5+.

7/2/2022 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Time has been kind to this wine. it has put on some weight, but retains its fruit. Fresh strawberries and strawberry compote, some cherries come through as well. Really a nice well-balanced wine.

4/24/2022 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Echo TTRichey! (Including I wish this wasn’t my last bottle.)

3/23/2022 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

The wine looks deep yellow gold colored. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like lime, keffir lime, lemon, apricot, lychee and pineapple. It tastes like lime, apple, apricot, mango, pineapple and creme brûlée.
Beutifully balanced. i would not describe it as unctuous, but still a wonderful texture. Opened up considerably upon warming up. Long delicate finish.
Drinking beautifully.

1/19/2022 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Rating higher than fellow tasters. I find the mouthful of blueberries, wet stone, and floral (violets/roses). Luscious mouthfeel. Smooth, with no alcohol burn. Delicious.

5/23/2021 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Delicious! Kefir lime leaf, candied lime, croissant, vanilla undertones, joy. Brûlée’d pineapple, Guananana. Unlike any Chardonnay i have ever had. Tropical, citrus’y, but there is something savory about it that i cannot place. Hitting all notes. Long finish.

3/8/2021 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

90-92 rating. Out of the gate it had a very European nose-reticent with a wet cork, wet wood. Throughout the evening, it transformed several time, including blowing off the musty smell. Balance was always in check. Great mid-palate weight. Medium+ finish.

2/25/2021 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Very pleasant easy drinking. Beautiful ruby, not opaque. Great nose of red fruits with light herbs (i caught some thyme, bay). Per earlier reviewer, not candied. Just really delightful.

2/11/2021 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

I love this wine! It may be my favorite Zin ever and I’ve been drinking Zin since ‘86.

It is so fresh and full of fruit without being jammy. The nose alone is worth the price of admission. The nose is decidedly old school Napa. The palate is happily living btwn old and new.

2/9/2021 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Great bottle of Turley. Very fresh fruit on the nose. Nice vanilla background. No harsh edges; super silky tannins. Super easy to enjoy!

Great drinking now.

1/22/2021 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Not too familiar with this producer, but what a fun wine. Loads of cherries, some root beer, sweet herbs on nose. Palate is dark cherries and light cherries with some savory herbs. Great QPR. I will buy some more and try other offerings from Left Coast. Drinking very well now.

1/5/2021 - DJPremierCru wrote:

Drinking these bottle over the past couple of years has been a chore. This bottle was no different.
Night one - Brett (of the band-aid variety) was omnipresent, even after 3 hour decant, sipping along the way. I tried several diffenrt glasses to eek out some fruit. Occasionally, I would get some nice flowers, maybe dark fruit, but Brett was the uninvited guest.
Day 2 - the bandaid was gone, but the wine wa much thinner. Some nice fruit flavor, but very simplistic. 3 down, 1 to go.

11/27/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

I am not sure if I like the Turnbull house style or if it is my glass, but I consistently rate the Turnbull wines higher than everyone else. I had demoted this wine from Special Occasion to weeknight drinker based on the poor CT reviews.

The nose on this wine is spectacular! Lightly herbaceous (thyme?), partly floral pastise, old-style cherry candy, fresh blueberry and blueberry coulis.raspberry compote, Oregon strawberries.
Had I given up on it immediately after pouring, I would have rated 80 pts. The nose was delightful, but as soon as it was in my mouth it went absolutely nowhere, It fell off like a rollercoaster. Nothing but tannin. The finish was maybe, on the long side, 1 second.

Luckily, I wasn't in hurray. After 1 hour, it became much rounder with firm tannins. Firm, but not deadly, Like an old school Italian wine, or even Napa for that matter. Polite company describes it as a "food wine".

2 hours later, the tannins are still grippy, but much more gentle. The fruit, much more forward.

Hour 3 - Now, it is singing! The tannins are very soft, but still there. I wish I new what they would be like in hour 4, but the bottle will be gone. The body is a beautiful Med+. The acid is beautiful balanced with the tannin. Fruit is now very forward, This wine is not jammy at all. It is a beautiful mix of Old School and New World. Nice fruit, but nicely balanced.

I would have proudly served it at a family and friends dinner. It is so much more giving than billed. If you have some, i'd say you have 5 more years to hold it, if you would like, Otherwise, decant it for 3-4 hours and enjoy. It is best served with food, but that is totally not necessary. I have my bottle after dinner. I do wish I had more.

Edit - the flavors are best described as clean. It is really beautiful. If the tannins resolve, it could score much hire.

11/2/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

PnP on Monday night with pasta. Blue(berry) fruit on on nose and palate, with fresh and jam. Some herbal characteristic and nots of violets and violet pastilles. Smooth tannins. Very easy to drink, but points taken off for being fairly simple.

10/5/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

The wine looks purple colored. It smells like blackberry, cranberry, raspberry, cinnamon, nutmeg and lots of cherry and cherry skins. It tastes like blueberry, cherry and clove. The body is medium/full. The wine has silky texture. The wine finishes long. The wine has medium acidity. The wine is balance and the high alcohol is not present.

As another taster noted, this is restoring my faith in Turley. I haven't gone back to see the pattern of the ones I do not like, but many from 2014 and before seem to be drinking great now.

7/3/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Very good, but not mind blowing like some other CA wines that i have been drinking lately. QPR is not quite there compared to some otters makers. I will definitely wait 5 years for the next bottle to hopefully flesh out a bit.

6/23/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Another Covid wine that I didn't intend to drink so young, but WOW, I am glad that i did. Decanted for 1 hour. Drank with non-white drinkers that absolutely adored this wine. The interesting blend of grapes worked perfectly. The nose was a smorgasbord of ripe but fresh fruit. The texture was velvet. This was my first SQN white, and boy, did it deliver.. Drink now or hold.

6/23/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

The wine looks deep yellow gold colored. There is no sediment in the bottle. It smells like lime, lychee, guava, mango and stoniness. The body is medium/full. The wine has an unctuous silky texture. The wine finishes long. The wine has medium acidity. It was absolutely delicious. The only flaw was that the tail end took a bit of a dive before the very long finish grabbed it back. I wish I had bought more, but i got the 3rd to last bottle at the time, direct from winery. I wish they made a gain.

5/2/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Dark Ruby,very deep. Nose of Molasses, pomegranate molasses, earth, herbs 9eucalyptus?), anise, tarragon, stewed winter fruits. Olives and herbed olives.

Beautifully balanced acids and velvety tannins. Freshly opened bag of prunes, very savory. Finishes med+.

Edit - hour 4 loads of cherries and some violet pastilles are coming through on the pallate.

4/12/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Aromas - Creme brûlée, lemon custard, vanilla custard, lime, lime leaves, tarragon. Med+ body. Great balance. Some heat on for tongue, lime eating a lemon/lime rind. Looooong finish. Graham cracker enters somewhere eon the finish. The rind reference very evident on finish. Going 95, but not I don't know a lot a of people other than me that eat the lemon rind after the Iced Tea is done.

4/12/2020 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

We had 2 bottles over a couple of days. The wine was well made, but it left me wanting more. Not enough dimension.

4/12/2020 - DJPremierCru Does not like this wine:

If I were grading by Aroma only, the score would be much better. ZNice tropical, pineapple, mango, etc. notes. There is some alcohol heat. Per earlier reviewer, my wife said "it tastes like a beer that i do not like". Also, where is the acid. Disappointing.

9/22/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Still drinking well. Color still red, Not showing brown or orange at the room. At first stewed cinnamon cherries on the nose with other baked fruit with eucalyptus and sage. After a double decant and an hour, the fruits were fresher, mostly cherry and currants.

On the palate, more red fruit. Very soft tannins provided structure.

Very old school bottle. Probably an aged version of its younger self; not better, not worse, just difffernt.

8/29/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Leaner and tarter than last tasting.

7/20/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

We drink a LOT of SB. This one was very delightful. Per previous review, it is very closed when too cold. When it warms up it is much more expressive and the wonderful waxy texture comes alive. It has wonderful grapefuit nose, with slight tropical tones. It was only slightly tarts which mingled nicely with the oily texture. Overall, very nice.

7/20/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Drinking beautifully right now. Wonderfully ripe, yet light. Real crowd pleaser. For once everyone was in a agreement on a wine. Great fruit. Age showing very nicely. Tannins beautifully integrated. Med texture. Very nice wine.

6/6/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Great Oregon chard. Great fruit on the nose.

On the palate there are tropical fruit, flint and lots of limes. Fresh, but gaining weight and complexity. Quite enjoyable.

5/21/2019 - DJPremierCru wrote:

Disappointing bottle. I thought the previous rating of 75 points was harsh until I tasted it. If it weren’t for day 2, I might give the same score. Day 1 was uninspiring grocery store bottle with an unexpected and unwanted effervescent quality. I don’t mind a slightly effervescent wine, this was just unexpected and didn’t work.
Day 2 (the saving grace) - The effervescence mostly faded to a very gentle and pleasant level. The nose became more complex with nice SB notes. On the palate there was a pleasant lightly smoky characteristic which I wonder if it was from the fires. Regardless, the smoke/flinty notes were actually very nice, regardless of its origin.

5/11/2019 - DJPremierCru wrote:

One of my favorite Winderlea bottles of recent. For some reason, many other bottles from several vintages have been closed down or too simple. Not this one. Big, round, lush; it felt like velvet in my mouth.

Great spice including a wonderful note of cinnamon. Definitely a warmer vintage, but Robert Brittain (winemaker) and Bill and Donna have created a wonderful wine with this bottling. Drinking beautifully now.

4/14/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

A super interesting bottle. Enjoyed over 4 hours. It had a interesting nose for quite some time reminded me of a green banana peel, jus the peel. There was a manure note as well, with fresh cracked people and red and black berry fruit.
On the palate it was just as interesting, but very, very good. I know some noted that it is one note, but i found multiple layers that changed as time went buy. It never tasted highly extracted, until perhaps the last 15 minute. There was some heat, but that went down after 2 hours.
What an interesting road trip for what i thought would be a simple Uber ride.

Started 88 points, ended overall 92.

4/9/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Quite nice. Tastes of an aged white much with many more years than actual. Tropical notes with a creamer brûlée characteristic. Med-light body with the slightest hint of fading heat. Wish I had more.

4/8/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Fairly simple wine. I thought it was Ok for what i thought was $18.99. Now I see with CT, I paid $35. Far too simple for this kind of money.

Day 2 (vacupumped) - some the fruit bomb characteristics have dissipated, but it is even simpler today.

I hope bottle 2 will be better in 3-5 years.

2/18/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Easy to drink, fairly simple wine.

1/1/2019 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Decanted 6 hours. Very balanced wine. Nose was fresh and showed beautiful fruit (mostly red fruit, with some dark fruit to support). I t was seamless in the mouth; definitely not a fruit bomb. It hit all the right notes. Tannins were beautifully soft, but with enough support to create luxury. Will save next bottle for 10 years to check development. Very nice bottle.

12/9/2018 - DJPremierCru wrote:

Not sure what I expected, but it did not meet my expectation. While there is a lot there in terms of flavor, it comes off as one note. Nice body and nose. Tastes like it was fermented in stainless with very light/if any oak. Not sure if i should continue my Flaneur exploration.

12/1/2018 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Going to be the odd man out. Loved this wine. One of my favorite Ports/Sherries ever.

Pulled cork with ahso without issue. Poured much lighter than I remember. First 15 minutes there was a green vegetable/raw nut smell, but it blew off quickly. wonderful aromas of roasted walnut, toffee, christmas pudding. Unctuous texture with balance though sweetness, tannin. Finish for days. Such a clean wine. I'll misss my one and only bottle. In perfect form now. It will probably will hang-on longer.

11/22/2018 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Color had the darkish hue of an aged Chard. Nose was somewhat reticent until it came to room temperature. Tangerines, jasmine, marcona almonds on the nose with honey and a tiny bit on lime and tropical. The body is the ace the hole. It was so luxurious in the mouth. Cashmere comes to mind with weight of your favorite comforter on a cold night. I tiny bit more acid may have added a point or too, but I am not complaining. Interestingly, it became somewhat bitter after 3+ hours. Overall, a stellar wine. I can't imagine what the '15 The Judge tastes like.

11/18/2018 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Cork was disintegrated. I did not decant for fear that it was too fragile, which was incorrect. Poured in 3 different style glasses (Riedel Cab, Burgundy, and NW Pinot) using an aerator. Traditional burgundy glass won. Barnyard funk blew off after 2 hours. Dark fruits, plum, dark cherry, little cranberry. Eucalyptus leaves, garragique... beautiful tannins. Med plus to full body. No orange on the rim. Clear, but dark. Drank well after 2 hour mark. Probably has a few years left, but I would probably drink soon if I had any more bottles. No crystal or sediment.

9/16/2018 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Double decanted and strained. Initially, very brett. After an hour, brett blew off and notes of tobacco leaf, garragique, cigar box, leather, spices, wet earth, forest floor or leafy aromas. Some cherry and italic plum. Not much fruit. Good, not great. Drink soon with allowing time for nose to blow off.

9/16/2018 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Completely agree with Brougi1's notes below with a slightly higher score.

Delicious but fairly simple.

9/2/2018 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Slightly brett on nose. Bordeaux varietal with Syrah was interesting, but more of an intellectual curiosity than a new desire. I liked it a lot, not LOVE, which is a different conversation.

8/11/2018 - DJPremierCru Likes this wine:

Drinking quite well right now. No hard edges with Pinot Brett on the nose. Very fruit driven. Very big. Not a light food wine, but quite good on its own or with a sturdy meal.