2/14/2024 - Kork-Dork Likes this wine:

Rosé champagne is the obvious choice on Valentine’s Day!

👃Ripe wild strawberries, nougat, white flowers, orange, rose petals and minerals

👅 Medium- to full-bodied (ABV 12.5%), lively acidity (m), wild strawberries & minerals (the electric kind) on the palate and on the pretty long finish

📝 On first pour, nougat is the main impression, but after a while wild strawberries come to the fore. I really like how this champagne sports aromas other than just brioche autolysis notes

45% Chardonnay, 40% Meunier, 15% PN

9/26/2023 - KVM wrote:

Screwcap. Smells of pear and spice. Spices but perhaps a little oxidized....leave the rest for tomorrow.
No oxidation today! Oak is prominent but that's what comes with opening such a young bottle. The Acid will allow this to age a few more years.

5/19/2023 - Wine Canuck wrote:

This pours medium to light purple in the glass. The nose is of dark cherry, blueberry, sassafras, tree bark, cinnamon, a whiff of grapefruit peel, alpine forest, violets, and dry dusty soil. The palate enters on the deep rich fruit via dark cherry and blueberry turning to medium plus tannin and medium plus acid. There is a pleasant twang of grapefruit zest on the finish, but unfortunately a little of the alcohol pokes through too and just a touch of prune as well. All in all I found this to be an enjoyable experience but not quite at the level of my favorite bottles from the producer. The fruit is deeper pitched than I'd prefer. More Alpine than Family Farm in nature in that way but even more so than Alpine can be. I also found it interesting that our local liquor monopoly lab tested this at 14.6% alcohol, despite the actual original label indicating 13.2%.

4/29/2023 - Mdb1982 Likes this wine:

What a great wine. Decanted for 2 hours prior to drinking. I think this is the last vintage of this wine before they jack the price up. Get some before it is gone.

3/15/2023 - GuanYu wrote:

Red cherry, raspberry, vanilla, cedar and spices. Rich and thick on the palate. Label stated 13.6% alcohol, but I think it tasted above 14%. This Foxtrot is a different style from the previous generation. This one tasted more New World, and the previous generation more Burgundian. Too early to tell if it would command finesse in the years to come.

11/16/2022 - Doubleten Likes this wine:

Poured a couple glasses, and decanted the rest of the bottle. Dark red/purplish in color, the wine seems voluminous, dense and glossy as it swirls in the glass. Nose of dark cherries, plums, chocolate and flowers. In the palate, the wine is full bodied, rich and luscious, with a silky quality to it. Fruit forward in a good way, with well judged acidity and oak treatment. The rich, ripe merlot is instantly dominant as it hits the palate with intense, expansive, dark red fruit flavors and a hint of minerality. This wine is a crowd pleaser and the best value for quality I have encountered in my 35 years in this hobby. You would have to spend 2-3x to find a wine that will equal or surpass it. Although it provided immediate great drinking pleasure, the wine improved through the night. It will age and increase in complexity for 10-15 yrs with ease. I have purchased 6 cases thus far and will probably buy more. Chateau Laroque has officially become our house wine!

11/26/2021 - yipen Likes this wine:

Still quite young, very light colored, with lots of sediment. took a while of open up. quite elegant for a non vineyard barbaresco

11/9/2021 - ben7210 wrote:

Deep purple, impenetrable, almost black. Matches on the nose--black cherries and tobacco--and palate. Full bodied, high tannin, high alcohol overpowers everything else. Might benefit from time but even on day two was difficult to get much past the alcohol.

8/14/2021 - scorbett Likes this wine:

I mean this in a very good way:

The candied strawberry / cola qualities of a great Cali pinot. With a touch of stank.

3/6/2021 - AlanM68 Likes this wine:

Good to go right now. It’s taken a few years to get here - trying it 3-5 years ago I would have thought it might not arrive. But definitely has, and definitely now.

12/13/2020 - Alykhan V Likes this wine:

This is very young. If you are consuming it now, please decant for *at least* two hours otherwise don’t open it.
Upon opening there was a flash of black cherry syrup on the nose, before it closed up.
Decanted
3 hours later:
Aromas of reductive funk, blood, iron, and some black cherry
The palate is lovely. A beautiful and silky texture.
Excellent length.
I think this wine has great potential to evolve over the years. Better to not drink it now, but if you must, decant decant decant.
Potential for 92 if the fruits can emerge/re-emerge

11/13/2020 - theboot Likes this wine:

Sancerre isn’t typically a “wow” wine for me but this is an exception. Crazy concentration of citrus, almond, and underripe peach both nose and palate. Acid where it should be, alcohol in check and finish long long long. I’d serve this to anyone wondering what Sancerre is capable of delivering.

10/25/2020 - KJD45$ Likes this wine:

Very pale gold hue....legs take their time to form...
Really great mouthfeel that borders on thick for a white,,
Grassy herbal with an incredible red grapefruit finish that just gets lifted beautifully by the acidity.....well balanced... not a huge fan of Sauvignon blanc but this is really great..some peach notes sneak in as well....
My score is relative to other sancerre’s I have tried...

5/3/2020 - theboot Likes this wine:

The entry level Côte Rôtie from Guigal. Decanted for 2.5 hours and it needed it. Got more savoury as time went on with a decently perfumed nose of olives, tomato, some red berries, black pepper. Tannins were quite soft and acid Med +. Not the complexity or layers I was hoping for, but the finish was surprisingly long and mellow. Elegant and refined? Sure. But I can find Crozes-Hermitage or St. Joseph at half the price that would outperform this.

5/2/2020 - drwine2001 wrote:

Light ruby. More green than fruit at first, but then black cherry and some smokiness come through. Medium body, excellent acidity, calm progression of the palate without any particular fireworks. Last time 3 years ago I thought it was boring, today balanced but still somewhat bland. I don't think I would have identified it as Syrah had I tasted it blind. Curiously mediocre wine.

8/9/2019 - Brent25 wrote:

Clear medium ruby; clean medium nose of farmyard, red cherries, toast, strawberries and garrigue; dry; medium plus acidity; medium tannins; medium alcohol; medium body; medium flavour intensity; pfn with addition of sour cherries; medium finish; good quality; this is bottle 2 of 4 and just as disappointing as bottle 1; it came across as thin and watered down - not what we were expecting; drink now - time isn’t helping; hope we have a badly stored batch and others are enjoying this wine more than us

10/15/2017 - westopherguy wrote:

Maybe I don't understand the "rules" of wine labeling, but I'm not sure how a bottle labeled as a varietal can actually be a blend under the label, but that's what we have here in any case.

I received this bottle as a gift, and finally opened it today. The nose is quite nice; fruity and earthy elements, nicely combined. The palate's not bad either, but this wine doesn't excite me as much as it seems it does others here. The first hit is quite sweet; that mellows very rapidly to dried fruit notes, then finishes with an overly strong set of barrel notes and flavors that throw-off the balance and give it a bitter quality. While it's not quite like chewing on oak sawdust, it's not that far from it either.

Others here have described this as "old world" — I disagree. In my view, this wine is very much typical of California / American style wine. Granted, it's one of the better examples of the style I've had, while at the same time, it reminds me why I don't hold that style in very high esteem.

2/25/2016 - fitchbuck Does not like this wine:

This bottle was wimpy, felt watered-down, nearly undrinkable on night 1. Several nights later it mellowed slightly, but still not enjoyable.
One can find far better at an equal or lesser price point; the Columbia Crest Grand Estates of the world blow this away.