12/20/2022 - Hazeo wrote:

Absolutely beautiful. Lucious and elegant, dark plum, cassis, very fine tannins. Spent more time enjoying the wine than jotting down notes!

3/15/2018 - Hazeo Likes this wine:

Compared with the Jean Gautreau bottling of the same vintage, the regular Sociando-Mallet had a similar Medoc flavour profile but a lot less intense and thinner. Definitely a step down and given the relatively small price difference I'd spring for the former.

8/6/2018 - Hazeo wrote:

This bottle was stored in a fridge that failed during the heatwave, and the basement subsequently rose to 70+F for a couple of weeks.

Pop and poured then drank over next 4 hours. No sharp tones, sourness or stewed notes. Elegant and smooth dark fruit, earthy and silky, with noticeable but silky tannins. However the nose was almost non existent and the fruit is not particularly vibrant and tasted like an excellent classically styled Medoc but not something exceptional. No floral tones nor complexity.

89-90 as tasted, but suspect the heat affected it noticeably rather than an off bottle or dumb phrase.

9/12/2017 - Hazeo wrote:

Such an amazing wine for the price. Rich dark cherries, black tea, hint of tobacco, dusty red fruit, minerally, silky and elegant. Better than the 01 and 04 in my opinion.

12/15/2017 - Hazeo wrote:

Great potential here, but very young still. Rating this as highly as the Palmer 2004 last night based on potential, but in many ways enjoyable already. Dense black fruit, cassis, earth, and a sweet but tannic finish.

3/26/2017 - Hazeo wrote:

Surprisingly this was young but quite ready to drink. Do Riojas also have a early drinking window and then shut down like Bordeauxs?

9/23/2016 - Hazeo wrote:

Very little was consumed the first night, but recalled it being slightly tart. Slightly better on second day. Dark plum fruit, good sweetness, gentle tannins, but a little lacking in complexity and structure and tasted slightly hot on the finish.

2/6/2015 - Hazeo wrote:

Very young, extracted and new-world in profile. With time it may develop complexity but right now the fruitiness dominates making it an unremarkable wine.

12/4/2013 - Harley1199 Likes this wine:

Vega Sicilia Wines by Xavier Ausas (Enoteca Barolo - Madrid): A baby. It isn't just a baroque nose...
Liked very much, elegant and aristocratic.
Really unique
Palate is richer than ever, as it has to be.
Wanna an entire case!

Una niña.no es sólo por esa nariz barroca...
Me gustó mucho, elegante y aristocrática.
Realmente única.
La boca es más que nunca, como tiene que ser.
¡Quiero una caja entera!

4/27/2014 - Hazeo wrote:

Excellent classic rioja, notes of black tea, hint of tobacco, dusty red fruit, minerally, silky and elegant. At this point though I'm not sure its that much better than the 01 Viña Ardanza, but worth keeping a few bottles for a decade and see.

8/15/2013 - Hazeo wrote:

Classic Rioja with some years ahead of it, a little bricking and some secondary flavours already. Not a blockbuster but a lovely wine made in an authentic style, with tobacco, red fruit, earth. It may be slightly rough around the edges but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

5/1/2013 - Hazeo wrote:

A Gran Reserva worthy of its name, and I prefer this to the Torre Muga. Concentrated red fruit, spice, some evidence of oak treatment, and more modern than say LdH or Ygay, but a lovely balance. Tannins are strong but did not distract from the long lush finish.

3/29/2013 - ledocq Likes this wine:

You know that episode of Archer where he gets his own spycar for his birthday and it has machine guns, anti-personnel spikes and its own wet bar? And how he can't stop saying how awesome it is? That's what this wine is like. Plus: I drank this on my birthday, so it is like my own spycar and it's awesome.