2/7/2017 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Clearly better in the bottle, than when last tasted in barrel, the wine has gained complexity, depth and softness. Full bodied, fleshy and concentrated, with loads of juicy, sweet, ripe, fresh, dark fruits, smoke, licorice and oak, 4-6 years of bottle age will add a lot to this already tasty wine.

3/9/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote:

This is a thrill-a-sip wine! Every sniff, swirl and taste is an adventure. This is Incredibly concentrated, with layers of elegant, regal, perfectly ripe, deep, dark, sweet, fresh fruits. The wine fills and coats your palate. Olives, pepper, smoke, underbrush, flint and dark red fruits are perfectly blended. The seamless finish, with its surreal, velvet texture, sticks with you for at least 60 seconds! Bought on release, it is impossible to find a bottle today. But if this sounds like your thing... The 2015 wines from Stephane Ogier were released this week and as hard as it is to believe, they are even better than the 1999's! If you like Ogier Cote Rotie, run, do not walk and buy these limited gems, before they are gone from the market, living in private cellars.

5/12/2018 - Jeff Leve wrote:

This just keeps getting better and better. Intensity, power, concentration, lush, soft, polished tannins and a finish that sticks with your for about 50 seconds, letting you delve into its dark, ripe, smoky fruits, licorice, earth, espresso nose and cashmere tannins. Is this the best vintage of Smith Haut Lafitte? Maybe. Regardless, it is going to give the 2009 and 2010 a run for the money.

4/29/2017 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Astounding color, it's impossible to see though the wine in the glass. Rich, concentrated, multi-layered and multi-faceted, this is a powerful attention grabber. But it's also a wine of finesse, freshness and purity. There is a force of flavor and meticulousness that has not been produced in previous vintages. This is one of those wines that coats your palate with precision, fruit and flavor. The tannins are there but they are so ripe and there is such a wealth of fruit, you just do not notice it. The finish, with opulently textured boysenberry, tobacco, dark chocolate, cigar and plum, lasts for a full minute or more! Blended from 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot, this wine reached 13.3% alcohol with a pH of 3.8. The Grand Vin represents only 45% of the harvest, which took place between October 3 and October 18.

4/13/2015 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Intense in color with a showy nose and the already present tones of tobacco leaves, anise, earth and vine-ripened berries, this wine is luxurious on the palate, plump and concentrated with roasted espresso bean, cocoa, warm berries, spice and freshness to the ripe fruits in the finish. Produced from a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc, the wine reached 14.2% alcohol with a pH of 3.77. The wine is aging in 80% new, French oak barrels. After a rocky start with the difficult 2013 vintage, Aymeric de Gironde has clearly stepped up his game! 95-96 Pts