4/22/2024 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Oh boy is this good. 12.5 pct alcohol, so bloody elegant and then again so archetypical N Rhone with beef blood, iodine, game notes but zero Brett. If there was a role model for great aged Cote Rotie this would be it. Going strong and improving with time in glass so neither a hurry to drink nor a crime to pull the cork. Beautiful.

1/20/2024 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

First of all a clear warning - most HN 10s are seaping BADLY!!! So here too the whole case has this issue hence I decided to start pulling this cork. A case of 12 CdV 10s were all seaping and I finished them all, wine was always excellent. Here too, thankfully, however slightly advanced which is consistent with the CdVs and logical given some oxidation must be happening. To be clear though this is killer juice today, after the still evident initial reduction blows off (I note comments from people’s experience tasting this wine in its youth that it was markedly reduced which seems to have helped here to not succumb yet to oxidation?h drinking like a great 2002. No drying out or heaviness, it’s just immensely kaleidoscopic top drawer Vosne GC with a head spinning perfume of tea, earth, spice, soy and mineral cut - then a touch of orange rind on the balanced and long palate. It’s addictive stuff and carries its 14pct declared alcohol like it’s 13.5 so no overripeness at all. Such a shame, one wonders what this wine would be capable of in 10-20 years if it had a chance. These bottles don’t as I just can’t see them not oxidising with how clearly all these corks are bleeding. Anyone owning this wine should check the condition and withdraw them with urgency if the same holds as I described!!!

8/28/2016 - William Kelley wrote:

A bouquet of black cherries, roast squab, Vosne-like spice, incipient dark soil tones and a framing of lovely new oak introduces a sappy, intense, concentrated and expansive wine with beautiful balance and structure. Quite how good this was surprised me.

12/6/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

From a very well stored bottle this showed why 82 is one of my favourite P1 Dom to drink now (with 85, 90 and 95). Brought this out late in the evening as finisher after a terrific high end red Burg session. It had this typical Dom richness, still fresh, burnt toffee, salted macadamia. A great champagne and what a way to finish off a wonderful evening.

2/20/2023 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

2826/10606 - initially very ripe and somewhat lacking nuance left it in decanter for two hours and it was a game changer thankfully with plenty of earth, spice, rose pedals and wild flowers, minerality even pencil shavings coming out to play. I think the Petits Monts today is more rewarding today but this GE holds immense promise and might get to a stage where it eclipses the almighty 1999. high alcohol is a concern though for those 2019s so it might all prove a pipe dream…

9/28/2022 - BenBlu wrote:

Again not rated, having kept a bit of last nights bottle people deemed the wine not clean and another was ordered but the result was the same, perfect cork, provenance etc but just not a Pinot at this point I am afraid. Jammy, heavy and heady, painful to drink even… I fear to say it but to me it’s picked too late.

4/24/2016 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Mouton Rothschild Vertical

Matter of Taste Masterclass Verticals of Mouton Rothschild with Philippe Philippe Dallhuin and Neal Martin

Wines tasted 2005-13 from bottle and 2014 & 2015 barrel samples - all wines were decanted for a couple of hours before the tasting and spent considerable time in glass (between 1-3 hours).

2005: Initial impression was this was much more developed then I thought. Compared to other 2005 left banks wines I tried recently (Montrose, Poyferre, Grand Puy Lacoste). Some bricking around the edges (visually certainly the most developed of the whole line-up), displaying great creme de cassis, tobacco leaf and cedar. I could have drank a bottle of this wine now the way it showed without thinking it would be a crime. Certainly it should develop nicely -it’s got this lovely acidity that should ensure this will keep going for decades. Very impressive. 97-99

2006: Tasted after the 05 this came across as fairly closed and had a short finish compared to the previous wine. Visually some bricking around the edges but not as developed looking as 05. I felt it needed a lot of time in bottle and in my book this was nowhere near the 2005 (or some other vintages in this line-up incl 2008 & 2012). Neal Martin liked the graphite and in general RP has in the past rated this wine over the 05. The Group was divided and there was a fair amount of people that had a preference for the 06 vs the 05, some said they found the 06 more approachable. I certainly prefer the Cos d’Estournel 2006 over this which I have had a couple of times. 91-93

2007: One of the disappointing wines of the vertical. It was weird both on the nose and the palate - on the nose I thought I picked up some distracting glue aromas and on the palate nothing really dominated - there was decent acidity but with a lack of fruit to go with it. All the 2007 I had lately were unimpressive. Same here. Avoid. 86-88

2008: One of the positive surprises of the tasting. After the 2006 & 07 like a knight in shining armour to lift the drop in quality from going from 05 to 06 to 07. I found this already really enjoyable now. Beautiful cuban cigar on the nose and a long finish with a beautiful vanilla aftertaste. This is a gentle wine, slightly feminine. Pretty, No doubt 2 step up from the 07. Better then 06! 94-96

2009: Noticeably darker in color then the wine preceding it. Dark crimson / black cherry colour. WOW! This does hit all your taste buds from the first sip. A monument of a wine and you can just say what a privilege to try this (and the 2010). This is destined for perfection. It does make you feel sorry for Philippe and Mouton that Parker rated this 99+ and 99 in his last reviews in 2012 & 2014. I think it would have deserved to be another RP 100er in that vintage. 98-100

2010: After the 2009 came along the 2010. Another WOW! Almost black in colour (yet again darker then the 09). It does humble you to taste these great two vintages together and it dwarfs all (maybe with the slight exception of 05) all the other wines in this beautiful vertical. The 2010 is surely more classic then the 2009. It has more Pauillac typically. Neal Martin preferred the 2010 over the 2009. So long - pinnacle of Pauillac? This or 09. It’s not for me to say. I’d love to get the chance to taste those two side by side again when they are more developed. Philippe made the analogy that 2009 is the Barbie and 2010 is the Ken. The quality of both wines is such that after a very long decant you could actually be enjoying them already. But of course you would deprive yourself of an even more rewarding experience way further down the line. 2x Bravo! Mouton for 09 & 10.

2011: Difficult to be up after the 09 & 10. I needed to go back to the 06 first to “re-calibrate” my taste buds and be in a position to try and fairly assess/score this wine. The 2011 was actually quite good I thought and was in a relatively approachable place. Some lovely acidity - the wine was light on its feet. Got some kirsch, some saddle leather. Could actually drink this now. An early drinker, but a good one. Positively surprised. 92-94

2012: Even better then the 2011. For my money best of the “2nd Tier” (after 05, 09, 10). Just a bit more of everything compared to 2011. Great fruit, forest floor, quite approachable now. Another early but fantastic drinker. Very positively surprised - impressive! 94-96

2013: Ughhh. Harsh - really vegetal. Hard to decide which is the worse vintage - 2007 or 2013. If this is the best of the 1st growth Medoc wines of the vintage as per RP I will try and never have another bottle of this vintage again. First and last. Avoid! 86-88

2014/15 Barrel Samples: No scores as I just don’t have enough opinion to opine. Neal Martin likes the 2014 but he thinks the 2015 will be clearly better still.

Summary: Fantastic event. For my money there is (not surprisingly) one clear top Tier (2009/10 - and then still belonging in Top tier the 2005 with a small distance behind the 2009&10. In terms of today’s drinking it’s the 05, but the 09 & 10 just have SO much potential); followed by Tier II which are vines from lesser vintage which I would consider having again and can recommend (2012, 2008) followed by Tier III which are wines that others will enjoy more then me and which I think are good wines and maybe I just picked them up in a weak spot and maybe am not that qualified to judge at present (2006, 2011) and the Bottom Tier which are wines to absolutely avoid (2007 & 2013) as I would not be happy even paying a fraction of the market price, in fact I just don’t enjoy them at all.

7/15/2022 - LB88 wrote:

Ex domaine bottle from owc, drank next to CLB reignots 02. This started out more oaked but yet there were similarities compared to the CLB starting with a lovely medicinal nose and demonstrating great structure and length. Just preferred the CLB by a hair in the end. But both bottles beautiful and one wonders if the premium for the CLB is worth it.

7/11/2022 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

I don't know what's going with UC but their wines are simply top stuff and also singular and very much characteristic in that one can pick them out blind as happened here where I knew it was UC from just sniffing it. So chalky, mineral, yet open and voluptuous yellow fruits and then it has this insane other dimension as if someone took a kilo of cashew nuts, pressed them at high pressure and added a few drops of liquid with a sprinkle of sea salt. It's just unreal what UC brings in the glass these days and sadly it's getting well discovered alas I am too guilty for discovering it fully too late. This producer is now firmly in the category for me that I feel a detour is deserved if a restaurant lists a bottle at a good price.

10/12/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

PNP served side by side Rousseau Cazetiers 12. The Drouhin got going immediately while the Rosseau needed aeration. Noticably darker in colour than the Gevrey in the next class. An attack of freshly cut flowers, crushed rock, a touch of Assam tea soaring out of the glass. Quite dark fruited with beautiful freshness making - a bit of an iron fist in a velvet glove. Really nice already but surely time will be kind to this.

2/11/2022 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

This came out later in the evening and followed among other bottles of absolutely excellent Raveneau Clos 10 and Bouchard Reignots 02. We splash decanted the wine and followed it over an hour. Very initially there was this 11 harshness in the form of faint green notes and a slight hint of ashtrey. This all blew off though quite quickly. A very fine boned wine was revealed with crystalline purity, very symmetrical and gorgeous mouthfeel. A wine that despite all those qualities did lack the fruit intensity of the other great wines that evening. It's probably a better wine at this point than the Chambertin 11 which to me felt harsher. It's also a wine that needs another 5-10 years and I would be very curious to retaste it and see how it develops.

2/9/2022 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Red Burgundy GC 01 (London): Served blind in a flight of 4 with stiff competition against all Musigny 01s from Mugnier, Vogue and Laurent. It wasn't quite at the level of the two first mentioned Musignys but nevertheless was nipping on the heals at least. In isolation would have been a great wine, and in a Clos Vougeot 01 flight likely top. The MG was pure and long with no hard edges, lovely mid palate concentration. It just lacked that ethereal touch of the top 2 Musignys. Maybe from recent memory Meo CdV 01 is a tough more successful.

12/18/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

A very pure offering for a Bordeaux and coming after some great Burgs it was that wine that would provide seamless toggle between those very different regions. The Margaux was floral, freshly cut flowers, tell tale violets, felt airy and light yet substantial and low alcohol in the mouth and finished with a long peacock tail finish. A very fine wine and better than the 1990 LLC next to it today for its purity.

6/14/2018 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

On the nose very raspberry dominated - lovely fragrant. On the palate it shows much more structured then the nose would have made you guess - surprisingly the Merlot content here above 50% which I would never have guessed, it shows Cab Sauv dominated structure guessed blindly to me. Great second wine that will age effortlessly for a decade plus. Drink now - 2030.

8/27/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Holy smokes - with some air in a big glass a drop dead gorgeous Cheval Blanc Ringer. Very measured. Beautiful.

4/20/2021 - Harley1199 wrote:

Surrounded by models of Victoria’s Secret with my tightly fitted leopard thong on, sunbathing on my 40-meter yacht anchored between Ibiza and Formentera, I told my crew to climb on deck a golden bottle of the Ace of Spades so those paparazzi stationed on nearby boats could get a snapshot of that "tacky bowling alley" facet as I like to be.
Joking no more, in my humble opinion this champagne is one of the world’s largest marketing operations in the wine world. An exorbitant price for what it really is, famous for appearing in the shows of "some sisters operated on buttocks" and with that golden coating, dazzles very simple spirits. No problem.
I will never be a competitor treasuring this kind of bottles. As for the champagne, where they blend shoulders (as Fernando Remírez de Ganuza would say) of unknown lands very north of Reims from wines of three different vintages, on the nose it is quite obvious that weight of the pinot noir with those sweet notes of brioche (surely an excessive dosage), quite peachy too. Also memories of sour raspberries and some citrus. Without much precision neither complexity. On the contrary, direct and obvious. On the palate it has an oily texture, quite heavy, with an adjusted acidity and a fine persistence. Vulgarity formwork dressed in gold and with "L' As de Pique" on. Flamboyance in excelsis. Psychologically this current price will make you think this is better than it really is. I wasn't affected by that because I was invited so ...

Rodeado de modelos de Victoria's Secret y con mi tanga de leopardo bien ajustado, dorándome en mi yate de 40 metros de eslora anclado entre Ibiza y Formentera, he dicho a la tripulación que subirse a cubierta una botella dorada del As de Picas para que los paparazzi apostados en barquitos cercanos puedan obtener unas instantáneas de esa faceta del pedazo de hortera de bolera que me gusta ser.
Fuera de bromas, en mi muy humilde opinión este champán es una de las mayores operaciones mundiales de marketing en el mundo del vino. De un precio exorbitante para lo que realmente es, famoso por aparecer en los shows de "unas hermanas operadas de nalgas" y con ese recubrimiento dorado, deslumbra espíritus muy simples. No hay problema. Nunca voy a ser competencia a la hora de atesorar este tipo de botellas. En cuanto al champán, donde mezclan hombros (cómo diría Fernando Remírez de Ganuza) de terrenos desconocidos muy al norte de Reims de vinos de tres añadas diferentes, en nariz es bastante obvio el peso de la pinot noir con esas notas dulces a brioche (seguramente un dosage excesivo) y a melocotón. También recuerdos a frambuesas ácidas y cítricos. Sin mucha precisión ni complejidad. Más al contrario directo y obvio. Al paladar se presenta con una textura oleaginosa, bastante pesada, de una acidez ajustada y una fina persistencia. Vulgaridad encofrada en dorado y con "L' As de Pique". Psicológicamente el precio te hará pensar que es mejor que lo realmente es. Fui invitado por lo que a mi me resbala ...

4/23/2019 - tinybubbles Likes this wine:

From magnum. Great density. Tension on the finish. Fine, silky and high octave acid. Will be exceptional with time.

7/1/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Cooler on the nose compared to the overripe 05 side by side. Bit of cranberry. On the palate fine texture, a distinct pomegranate note (which later on I picked up again in the terrific Suchots 10), ripe but balanced and long. Best of the 5 Orveaux that evening - just edging the 12. This is terrific now but the best is yet to come. 94++ Confirms again that 2010 is the vintage of recent great vintages for red Burgundy.

7/1/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Beefy nose, bay leave. Savoury palate. Very nice but possibly missing a bit more sparkle one would associate with this bottling. To me that evening not the standout (better vintages from other Cathiard Vosne 1er shown - like Suchots and Orveaux 10 or Reignots 09).

7/1/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

On the nose this beautiful fresh and sweet pomegranate note that the Orveaux 2010 also displayed to some similar extent that night. The palate is pure silk, beautiful measured acidity, just so well judged. Long and deep pinot fruit. For me clearly the WOTN. This should be sensational in 10 years. Again confirming the 2010 is THE vintage for recent great vintages in Burgundy. Seems to just be coming out on top in larger tastings again and again.

6/24/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

A small glass pnp before a dinner non blind I noted: loamy, bay leaf, savoury, beef blood, iron and earth, deep gravely, black fruit with a touch of Earl's gray tea.

Then left the bottle slow-ox for 6 hours and was served blind within 11 other vintages of Rousseau CSJ. Noted then: High acidity, cranberry, some silky vanilla oak kiss, real sap and persistence. Seemed younger with some air interestingly and conclusion was that this will be along ager and belongs among the pantheon of Rousseau CSJ vintages. To me among top 3 of the night just behind the 1990 and 2010, but very close to those. 96+

6/16/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Blind side by side Clos Chateau 07. For the table and for me probably the favourite CLB tasted this evening beating just out the 17 Laviere and Vosne Colombiere. The fact that this / both Nuits showed so well is another testament to the winemaking of Louis-Michel. At this early juncture we concluded winemaking trumps terroir. In 14 he did really well across the board. This wine was showing superb depth of black and red fruits, sexy silky oak, just gliding over the palate. Should develop nicely with more age too. Bravo.

5/6/2017 - emzee.mc wrote:

Bottle 184. This is an interesting bottle given the sharecropping history, as Bouchard once owned the grapes but Comte Liger-Belair made the wine. At 20 years of age, the bottle pours an opaque dark ruby color with medium legs. On the nose, the wine yields a weighty, concentrated bouquet, evidence of prime pedigree in viniculture and remarkable extraction. Primarily tertiary, notes of of dark fruits, cherries, earthy mulch, black tea, tobacco, smoked meats and saddled leather are present. On the palate, the wine glides with incredible finesse and balance. Tannins are well-integrated and the acidity is firmly kept in balance to maintain vivacity. Again, judging from the texture, the balance is on point. Flavors of smoked meats, leather, stewed cherries, kirsch, licorice, preserved plums and tobacco are all in proportionate balance. Finish is smoky and spicy with just the slightest reminder of fruit as the wine exits. This juice is as interesting as it is cerebral. And this is precisely why I love Burgundy so much.

11/2/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Small taste at walkabout tasting. Comes across as very young and a bit sharp today, some chalkiness, but lacking body at present. There might be greater things to come clearly but immediately not glimpsing the magic one would hope for at the price tag so in this category (if I were to open my wallet I would add a few cents per bottle and go for the Cristal Rose 08 which is that magic bottle in my view). I would hold the Rare 08 rose and hope it shows better with age.

1/30/2020 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

2004 champagne horizontal (110 Taillevent London): Buttermilk, saline, moreish. Better than recent disappointments with 1995 and 2002 vintage of this overrated and overpriced cuvee.

3/20/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

A very classy showing yet again on a nice day out on the terrace in London (first this year) over lunch, just in the zone (probably more advanced as cork was soaked and a bit mouldy but elixir intact). So deep, warming, engaging nose it makes you feel like sitting in front of an open fireplace in total comfort. Meaty fully resolved cab franc and Merlot heaven.

2/5/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

From standard bottle from a perfectly stored case. In a nice early maturity stage, quite firm this comes across as a "statemen like" vintage grand marque champagne, developing some mocha notes. Will hold forever if perfectly stored as this cuvee does.

1/16/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

A very lovely creamy Chassagne with white fruit. Opened and decanted for two hours and drank over 2-3 hours then it seemed to be in a nice spot for a young white Burg where alcohol, acidity and fruit were in great harmony. I do like many 17s (white and red) and this was another strong performance for the vintage. The oak here seemed a little more integrated than some other 17s from this producer giving the wine a lovely creamy texture. Superb now and with a great future ahead. 92-93

1/17/2021 - Julian Marshall Likes this wine:

Classic Pauillac aromas of cigar box, graphite and cassis, quite a classical mouthful too, although more blackberry than blackcurrant, with a very enjoyable red berry streak midpalate. Quite rich, but in a restrained way, light to medium bodied, elegant (verging perhaps on thin), but with one major problem - the rugged finish. There's a rather unpleasant astringent side to the finish, leaving a bitter taste, which rather spoils the rest, so for me a very good wine but not a great one.
I opened this wondering whether to buy any more - at the current price here (75/80€), I won't. There are other vintages offering the same pleasure at half the price.
If you have loads of 96 already, no worries - this will keep for many years.

1/3/2021 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

This was a repeat if not even better to the previous bottle from 1-2 years back. Opened and decanted for one hour and the enjoyed over 3 hours. Quite golden colour but no pox here whatsoever (never had Raveneau pox, fingers crossed it stays that way). Such an inviting nose that draws you in, white flowers, white peach, mountain breeze, apricot. Brimming with energy but also very lush and ostentatious and so open. 94-95 points for me here this is simply divine, irresistible. Drinks so well now but it got better with hours of air with the last sip being the best this could be incredible in 5-10 years but one of those I am unsure I can keep my hands off.

7/3/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Berry Brothers 2018 Bordeaux en primeur (plus back vintages) (Lindley Hall, London): I was very curious to taste this given I own a few cases and after the recent jump in score from NM putting it into the top band of the 09s in his 10 year reviews. The wine was noticeably less ripe than other 09 counterparts - which I think is probably a good thing as while initially pleasing the ripe fruit started to bore me / go on my nerves after the tenth sample as it created a too generic experience. Here some more restraint and a classic claret that still boosted great concentration, but with more balance and minerality than others. One to watch and set for long development. To me St Pierre together with Lagrange were the two "value" wines of the 09 vintage - they were one of the most classic wines that also still speak of its origin. Very well done.

11/11/2020 - fcxj wrote:

Swarthy vitamin aromatics that exhibit true typicite. Offers depth and sweetness.

12/9/2020 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Side by side Dauvissat Clos 11 blind - not much of a difference to be honest, the wines showed really quite similar. The Raveneau was probably a bit more giving and generous but both were typical high class Chablis that will benefit from 5 years + in bottle to really show their potential. Felt like we should have decanted longer.

2/21/2016 - BenBlu wrote:

I pulled the cork on a bottle previously accessed via Coravin. Given my last note I thought I was more of an experiment then actual anticipation of much drinking pleasure and I must decant this extremely long. I opened it Friday night and decanted for 12 hours. Then filled it back in bottle and took a sip on Saturday night - it was brutally oaky I found and I almost lost hope that it would be drinkable on Sunday night. I then shared this with a friend on Sunday after leaving it in the glass for another half an hour. Surprisingly/Thankfully the extreme oak had disappeared, which really was my single biggest concern about this wine. It was however, still tight like a nut and extremely primary and not giving that much away. I guess you can eat a Chateaubriand steak fully cooked, but it just is not that enjoyable. With this wine (even more so then for other good Bdx) this holds in the sense that while it is drinkable to really expect to get out of it what you bargained for you MUST leave it alone for 1, ideally 2, decades. Definitely for me the least yielding of all 2009s I have tried to date. Not rated. I have two cases of this and hope the critics called this right.

9/2/2020 - kr522 wrote:

nothing more disappointing than buying a half case of wine and having the first bottle start off like this. High acid grapefruit, with a little bit of mineral development after >1-2 hours aeration. delivering little pleasure, and a bit simplistic at this point. didn't think i'd have to sit on these

10/16/2020 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

A very good wine that came out late at night. Quite smoky, mineral laced, some cherry notes - blind I thought possibly Mugnier Fuees 2013. I got a bit of that cool vintage 2011 with very little green notes but I liked it in that it came across as freshness rather than under ripeness. I continue to like LLM wines when I come across them (often blind) and wonder why I don't own any.

10/14/2020 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

Disgorged November 2013. After a totally mind blowing bottle a few months back I thought to try another one of that case to see if it can repeat the performance. Please see my previous TN but this again was just so spot on. Ultimately as a wine collector those are the bottles that put the biggest smile on your face - some that you bought quite "cheap" (few years back at £50 all in per bottle equivalent by the case in a sale by a wine merchant), a wine that was good a few years ago but not actually spectacular, but that is now at a great plateau. From first sniff a oozes complexity, nuttiness, caramel and shows a wonderful balance of richness and poise with good acidity and precision on the palate. Really terrific and often I find Bollinger over-oaked but when it has been absorbed (like is the case in those bottles) sufficiently it can be wonderful. Pound for pound most likely the best wine I had this year and great to get a consistency from two bottles. So if you have those with this disgorgement date I would urge you to check in!

9/25/2020 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

During an evening of fine Bordeaux wines at Glasshouse in Kew - shame about the appalling sommelier service... so beware entrusting them with any special bottles...

This wine split the table. Some found distracting almond notes and found it possibly not 100% clean. Others (including myself) liked it a lot, there was a superb sweetness in its 20 minute drinking window as it got splash decanted that was beautiful. Then the wine faded away. To me an admirable performance for a 50 year old beauty.

7/18/2020 - Nicephoras wrote:

Double blind. Some reduction on the nose, but what immediately comes through are the tropical flavors - banana, guava, maybe some melon. The palate is ripe, with a decent balance but clear oak with a touch of that same tropicality on the finish. The acidity is relatively low, which made me think 2015. On a night where my calls on the reds was generally off the mark, I at least nailed this by calling it a 15 PYCM Meursault 1er (though Charmes not Perrieres). There is a distinctive style to these wines, though it's just not the one I prefer.

4/10/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

After a Brûlée’s Grivot 2014. Firstly kudos to Rousseau for using a longer cork - frankly Grivots corks are ridiculously short alas half bottle. Same cork maker. Shame on Grivot. Back to the wine: Rousseaus CSJ14 is gorgeous. A sense of place with the most refined Gevrey aromas wafting from the glass indicating a step up over the Grivot in intensity already. Not quite as filigree as the Brûlée’s but infinitely more potent without sacrificing balance and filigranity. The palate reveals a deep core centre of sour cherries, Asian plum, Assam tea, gravel with a kiss of gentle well integrated oak at this point that shall see this mellow and age in style. First rate really and a vindication of a distinctly mediocre non descript Clos Ruchottes 14 I had a year back. I have two bottle of this left and the next will be in ten and the last in twenty years. Could become a truly special wine.

6/28/2016 - Burgundy Al wrote:

Tuesday Cellar Visits in Burgundy - Remoissenet, Bernard Moreau, Pousse d'Or, Comte Liger-Belair (Cote d'Or): Tasted at the domaine. Popped-and-poured, served to us blind. Ripe red fruit throughout that is starting to evolve. Moderate weight and concentration. Sweet, forward and charming now, with good potential as it unfolds over the next decade. I correctly identified the vintage, but thought it from a different Vosne 1er Cru.

8/8/2018 - trucrime wrote:

Petrol and rubber on the nose. Smooth nutmeg elements on the mid palate. Such a classic Montrachet.

1/30/2020 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

2004 champagne horizontal (110 Taillevent London): Respectable performance of this weak cuvee. Quite balanced and diplomatic.

12/25/2019 - BenBlu wrote:

This cuvee continues to plummet in my estimation. Had twice over christmas it simply failed to impress me on all levels. Super generic.

12/5/2019 - joshuanage wrote:

Does anyone know if this is the exact same wine as the Liger-Belair Reignots ?

12/23/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

This was very good but the oak felt a tad out of sync. A St Nikolaus 2016 had next to it smoked it clearly. I think this might come into its own with some more bottle age and is a very good wine. Just not fully sync'd today. 91-92

6/8/2019 - BenBlu Likes this wine:

High fill, perfectly looking bottle, when cutting the capsule a very worryingly mouldy looking cork shows which is highly porous and I just about manage to extract. At first nose very muted coming. Clear bricking speaking of its age visually. Palate also totally closed. My first thought is hmmm not sure I will get much pleasure out of it. However with air it properly comes into its own. After one hour it is in the zone. The nose is mature with firecracker, liquorice and herbs and some Asian medicine, a tad animale at times and could possibly be misten for a Bdx especially as the firecracker disappears a few minutes after a pour in glass. The nose kept changing and each time you pick up different scents. The palate is highly mineral, very intense penetrating but symmetrical wine which always makes you salivate and reach for the next sip and before you know it the bottle is gone. It is not a archetypical fine Burg but rather a hybrid of hypothetical great red Bdx and Burg - maybe that’s why RP scored this as high as he did. Gosh what a contrast to a Roumier Cras 09 drank the previous night. But I am really loving this wine. I can see this divide the audience though. At times it was a low 90a and at times a high 90s wine depending on the sip I took. It kept changing. Definitely not your monochrome bleu from Yves Klein. 93-97. As drinking window goes I think this is a now wine before it looses more fruit. Drink now - 2020. But do give it an hour in the decanter to come into its own get past the mute stage, then the funk and then it shines!

11/11/2016 - JWdeSommelier Likes this wine:

Champagne Bollinger Master Class (Wijnhandel Peeters): 100% Pinot Noir from 3 vineyards Chaudes Terres and Clos St-Jacques in Aÿ and Croix Rouge, Bouzy. 100% Barrel Fermented, 6yrs agings prior to dégorgement. First time that VVF was presented during a public tasting in Holland. Very impressive wine with a magnificent balance between power, minerality and acidity. It just went on and on. Ripe red apple, stonefruit, brioche, truffle, hazelnut, mushroom and a pronounced limestone minerality. A baby but already drinking beautiful! Hopefully I'll ever get a chance to taste this 10-15 yr older.

10/20/2018 - CamWheeler wrote:

SLDS Single Bottle Dinner: Cherry, red currant, smoke, light tar and earthy spices. This has superb balance and composure, showing off delicate fruit and fantastic layers of flavour. Pure, youthful and acid driven. Really delightful, in some ways very un-Bouchard Pinot like in its seamless and confident profile.

3/25/2015 - dcwino wrote:

2002 Champagne and Burgundy dinner with Eric (Chez Billy Sud - Washington DC): Sweet dark fruits, blackberry, blackberry jelly, sap, strong floral note, a hint of vosne spice, tree bark and earth. Excellent concentration, crushed blackberry driven palate impression, good acidity and noticeable tannins. Not quite up to the level of Louis Michel’s but still very good. Still need another ten years of cellaring.