9/28/2023 - Montana Likes this wine:

Lacked depth of fruit but had a nice finish. Hard to believe this has been sitting too long. Has been stored exceptionally well.

11/15/2023 - ledocq Likes this wine:

I feel I'm not quite the target audience. A tn below mentioned it as the hypothetical burgundy/rhone hybrid and that's kind of right, but it just didn't excite me. Had a pretty acidic finish that I didn't dig. Went with eggplant parmesan just fine.

10/22/2023 - prof b wrote:

This drank amazingly right from open and remained interesting for hours. A good balance of fruit and structure at this stage.

10/2/2023 - well-balanced-mousse1 wrote:

It’s clean and I enjoyed it, but the style is too fruity for me

9/8/2023 - sharonandroland wrote:

28 years old and such a fresh and seductive nose. Delucate, floral, gorgeous. With an great lughtness and smoothness on the pallate. Jus impressive

8/18/2023 - Sbuchholz Likes this wine:

A lighter burgandy that is fully transparent in the glass. Red berries and earth on the nose - quite a pleasant aroma. Upon taste I instantly noted black pepper that quickly was replaced by raspberries followed by currants and a minerality. Finish is medium to long.
A very easy and delicate sipping wine. Drinking very well now and I doubt it would drink much better in 3-5 years.

7/30/2023 - rocknroller wrote:

IPNC Weekend 2023; 7/26/2023-7/31/2023: Light gold color. Drank 2 glasses over an hour plus. Brought this to the Bistro in Cannon Beach. Wow, this was a head turner tonight. Beautufully toasted with a dulce de leche, creme brulee nose complimented by such pretty ocean air and wet stones, mixed with pear pastries. The palate is equally divine displaying the depth and intensity of a hallmark Champagne. I was amazed at how this just went on and on. Every bit as good as the best bottles of '04 and '06 we had over the years. Glad to have a stash. 96pts or better.

7/3/2023 - ekorn wrote:

After a quick decant, this was pretty unfriendly - tart and closed.

3+ hours later and, while enjoyable, this still drank like it was opening up. Fairly muted nose of raspberry and smoke. Good structure on the palate (and more structure than fruit). No Brett or other issues with this bottle. This needs time.

4/7/2023 - chuckfr wrote:

I had high expectations and was disappointed. 2 hr decant. There was no energy in the bottle. It was stored in my temp controled cellar since release. I didn't detect a flaw. It simply wasn't that good. I have 2 more. I really hope the wine is in a dumb phase and will get much better with time.

12/26/2022 - Kirk Grant wrote:

This might be one of the most complete, balanced, and breath-taking Chavaroche that I've had, going back to the 2005 vintage. Rich, intense, and brooding as you might expect, but also giving, open, and highly enjoyable. Extraordinary!

12/22/2022 - Barolo Freak wrote:

I purchased a magnum of this wine from Zachy's some years ago, and I decided to drink it for my nephew's birthday. I decanted it two hours before dinner and served it with a Mediterranean seafood stew. The was no sediment in the bottle and the cork was in good shape. The wine itself was not as good a I remembered it to be. The color was pale and the nose was weak. The wine exhibited little interest to anyone at our dinner table.

11/18/2022 - Mr. Montrachet wrote:

Goose bumps! The best white wine of my life. So far ;-). Strong & mighty and otherworldly ethereal at the same time. No fruits, just floral and mineral, white blossoms and almond paste. And the wonderful tender spiciness at the end. Heavenly. Can I please bathe in this? Bliss.

9/14/2022 - dglebo Likes this wine:

A wine I’ve had the pleasure of drinking through the years. 2017 is young but rich. Characteristic honey lemon color, and nose! Balanced for such a young wine. Soft full mouth, the wine lingers. It needs more time to let the acids melt a bit more, but wonderful to drink now.

4/17/2022 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

Ch. Musar 1995 vs. Ch. Musar 1993 (Our House, Hong Kong): Drank over a long Easter Sunday afternoon alongside the 1993. both of which I have had in my cellar since release. Near-perfect old cork (alors!...when did that last happen). Bright, light and totally transparent lands’ blood colour. Nose is ethereal light spirited incense that immediately feeds through to your central cortex with a BLAM!… rather like the effect of menthol. It is very light and chiffonesquue but very ‘chase the dragon’. Very ‘clean’…no classic Musar funk whatsoever, which is a bit of a pity in some ways but really marks it out for its feminine elegance. Palate shows immediate sweetness of incense, black liquorice root, very light mouthfeel at first but then a liqueur dry sweetness emerges, lots of high piano notes and with an almost drug-inducing intoxicating mounting resonance and reverberance inside the head on a ridiculously long, ethereal finish. There is a Burgundian ‘power without weight’ thing going on here. WOW! 96+

4/14/2022 - JimHow wrote:

This wine is stunning. A complete effort. Light on its feet, will drink well now and for thirty years.

1/23/2022 - Kirk Grant wrote:

This is fu@king amazing right now. Dammit, I'll probably drink every bottle I have in the next year if they're all as complex, layered, and haunting as this bottle. Scents of forrest floor, autumnal leaves, spice, seasoned birch fire-wood, & clove are just the start of the whirlpool of shifting notes. The palate is lean with a flash of lushness that's hard to put to words. It's like there's a shift in the mid-palate from light to full bodied...but only for a second. Dammit these wines are brilliant...just brilliant. The most enjoyable young Pinot Noir I've had from Oregon.

3/28/2022 - BrunelloBob wrote:

PnP. Back to the typical PdS profile after a disappointing 2015. Elegant red fruit with an herbal twist

3/18/2022 - Kirk Grant wrote:

PnP in a Grassl Liberte. Cork is sound & in good condition. This is the same vineyard that Keller's Abtserd is made from. Keller's vision of this vineyard is clear & crystalline while this is deeper & more brooding. To offer some context for White Burgundy lovers, Keller is like a Chevalier Montrachet & Wittmann is akin to Batard Montrachet. The color is a deep golden yellow, with scents of lime, white floral notes, chalk, slate...the nose is just spinning out with a wild array of scents. The palate is taught & coiled tightly as others have suggested...but I do not regret having opened my first of four bottles. Outstanding now...with a very high likelihood that this will one day be something extraordinary in another 10-25+ years.

11/5/2021 - 5laton wrote:

This was fabulous, the finest young Barolo I've had in years. It had intoxicatingly spicy aromatics, and a lovely texture that took a few hours to unroll. Toward the end of the night the wine developed a broader texture and wonderful sous-bois notes, not sure if I've ever experienced that in such a young nebbiolo. This is really a special wine.
In the last few years I'd written off tannic younger Barolo wines as incompatible with my pescetarian diet; this wine made evident the foolishness of generalizations.

3/13/2022 - ThomasV Likes this wine:

Tasting @Cru Vin Odense, Denmark.
Simple but intense and razor sharp. Incredibly stony, almost granite like more so than kimmeridgian. Still has the textbook Raveneau wax & soap, but obviously not as complex or deep as higher levels. Clearly promising and way too young though. Tasted from magnum, I believe this is also the only bottle size available. Was told by the host that he had tried keeping one open for 3 weeks to see when things started getting really interesting. Apparently 13 days is the answer.

3/10/2022 - hprphf wrote:

Tight, spinning acidity, some tannin. Not particularly expressive right now. Quite profound and packed. 92-93

1/29/2022 - Dale M wrote:

Decanted 3hrs. I cannot ever recall the anticipation of drinking a specific Bojo as this here 19 GdM. The main driving force behind this started with my reaction to the 17 version, the first Gamay that blew my mind, got me hot and bothered, you get the picture. And yes, my anticipation was well founded, this 19 is simply a great wine. End stop.

As I was texting a buddy last night who asked how it was drinking, I came up with a good gauge, the Charm / Structure ratio. I had the C/S as 50/50 on the 17, but the 19 was more like 25/75 as wonderful as it was to drink last night, it was plainly evident there was so much more to come, coiled up tight, but will release in due course. And yet so much to love in the present. for example, it has this consistent floral top note that just screamed Fleurie, textbook really. As much as this nods to its Northern Cousins, it still carries that little bit of playful and spicy Gamay spark, a touch of herbs, ever so slight but its there. Things really took off on the final and 3rd glass about 2 hrs in. The fruit morphed to a drop dead gorgeous black currants (more reddish early on) and the earthy notes turned gravelly, it just wouldn’t quit evolving and changing. Wow.

1/27/2022 - DC202 wrote:

Opened a '15 tonight. Corked looked fucked
and sure enough the wine was too. Had almost
a fortified quality to it with its sweetness. So to
do some QC I opened another '15. Cork wasn't
as bad but met with the same issue. I've been
buying since 2009 and have had few issues,
but my '15's are sadly damaged.

3/22/2021 - Kirk Grant wrote:

THIS HAS BEEN OPEN FOR SEVEN DAYS: The wine has barely changed at all since my last tasting note. I'd say that the acidity is still there & present, but more subdued and the fruit on the palate seems a little more blended together than before. It's worth buying as many of these as you can afford on release...they're just such epic wines.

10/28/2015 - Kirk Grant wrote:

I decided to check in on one in its youth. It immediately reminded me of the 2001 I had over Thanksgiving back in 2005. There is plenty of structure here, ripe fruit, good acidity, and nice length. I think this could be one to cellar or enjoy now. I'm going to have a hard time not drinking the rest of them.

6/5/2021 - skurtz Likes this wine:

This was a brutish beast after opening, like licking an ashtray, but over 3-4h in a decanter, this smoothed out and blossomed beautifully (thank God! given the price point). Very savory, dark fruit, spices, black pepper, mineral, and eucalyptus. Personally, I don't like evergreen/eucalyptus, but there is nice acidity in the finish, making this a good food wine. An excellent pairing for herb encrusted rack of lamb. Clearly too young for prime time, and not my favorite flavor profile at the moment, but it has been in my cellar for over 3 years, and I was just too curious. This needs like five more years to mellow out, hopefully the eucaluptus evolves into something tastier, and I'm hoping it benefits from more patient waiting for this to develop. 91/92

3/31/2021 - sburtt wrote:

very disappointing... I hope it was an issue with the cork, the nose what flat and the palate extremely astringent, drys your throat up and gives no please

3/17/2021 - bill00 wrote:

Unattractive warm roasted dark cherry. Noticeable alcohol heat. Drying tannins. Unpleasant and pretty close to undrinkable. Third bottle I've tried of this wine with consistent poor results.

2/4/2021 - rieslinghoarder Likes this wine:

Wild yeasts, lemon peel, nectarine, papaya, white flowers, lilac, crushed chalk, and wet rocks on the nose. Wonderful depth and precision on the palate, offering a cornucopia of citrus fruits intertwined with wet stone minerality and zesty acidity, lingering on a long finish. I may be partial to the 2018 in its youth, which I thought had a little more clarity and purity, but this is excellent.

2/1/2021 - Kirk Grant wrote:

Tasting note DAY TWO: The wine is smooth, easy to drink, and about as complex as your average $30 Super Tuscan. In many ways it reminds me of my early experiences with the 2004 Tig. Patience is required with this for the "wow" factor.

1/31/2021 - Kirk Grant wrote:

Based on all the positive reviews I found myself tempted to open a bottle of this. This needs more time. Check back in again in another 5+ years.

1/27/2021 - Kirk Grant wrote:

This is nice, a wine of class & distinction that offers both grace, & power at a price that everyone can reach. NOTE TO SELF: buy a case in 2019. There is a delicacy and framework for this wine that invites food, contemplation, and memories that call for a gathering and time with this you love. Buy with confidence.

7/28/2019 - Kirk Grant wrote:

This is in a more robust & Forward style of Champagne. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn this blend was Pinot Blanc dominant. Excellent...but for the $ there are better Champagnes out there.

12/31/2020 - djhammond Likes this wine:

I am conflicted over this wine; I think it is potentially exceptional wine, but it doesn't really deliver. The nose is deep and aromatic and there is great balance and depth on the palate with a finish that exceeds 60 seconds. However, there is a rigid tannic wall and an absence of fruit that allows no nuance to flourish, and it is particularly distracting on the finish. This was decanted for 6 hours and repeatedly artificially aerated in the glass for a couple of minutes without result. Re longevity and improvement I really don't know: it shows no sign of over aging, but a few yesrs ago it was exceptional. To be very honest a real disappointment on New Year's eve.

12/30/2020 - jeffmudd wrote:

It simply needs some time, 2-3 years at least. I love a good Barola, just hate the wait - lol.

12/23/2020 - Rich S Likes this wine:

Pale salmon/copper color. Very aromatic on the nose with bright red fruit and citrus notes along with some floral aromas and a bit strawberry candy. Similar flavors on the palate with fresh strawberry and citrus peel and a bit of saline minerality. Good acidity. This was all about purity and fruit and hardly any toast, yeast or autolytic notes. Some may want more of that in a champagne but I really enjoyed this and would definitely rebuy.

12/20/2020 - Kirk Grant wrote:

Oh, this is what all the fuss is about! I don't think I can recall another Pinot Noir this light & the scents rolling out of the glass are almost ethereal. Scents of rose petal & earth are awash in high-toned red fruits. The palate is light bodied, yet explodes with notes of wild strawberry, red currant, and then closes out with a tart red raspberry & cranberry finish that stretches out along a long, mouth-watering finish. Outstanding!!!!

12/12/2020 - Kirk Grant wrote:

This is a really consistent bottle of bubbles. Salmon & copper at the core leading to a fading peach. Scents of dried orange peel, floral notes, with lingering note of hot-buttered biscuits. On the palate flavors of melon, strawberry, & and clementine. Bravo! An easy wine to buy year-in-year out as long as it's under $60

11/3/2020 - Kirk Grant wrote:

This is a lovely wine that's in a horrifically obnoxious package. The wine is a vivid ruby at the core, with scents of autumnal forest floor, orange rind, old wood, with red currants & plum lingering in the background. Flavors of tart cherry, pomegranate, and seasoned oak linger nicely and pulls everything back together for the finish.

10/17/2020 - Jason T Likes this wine:

Cork blew up on me and I had to decant. Explosive on the nose right out of the gate, and really stayed that way for a good 6-8 hours.

Medium red with a bit of bricking around the edges. No funk at all, just beautiful cherry smell and what I struggle to describe as anything other than 'tar'. Really reminds me of late 90's Vieux Telegraphe.

Tannins were quite restrained on day 1, and had softened by day 2. Nose started to fade then as well. Overall so much more expressive than the 2003 I had a while back. A really fun wine in a really great place right now.

9/10/2020 - blisscompound Likes this wine:

Core is so strong that anything can hold on in this spinning galaxy. Testament. Magnums invincible?

12/31/2019 - Kirk Grant wrote:

Mother of God...this may be one of the most singular wines I’ve had in 2019. A pale yellow in the glass. This leads with rich & layered scents of dehydrated pineapple, candied ginger, lemon curd, with lifted and intense floral notes that seem to weave in & out between rich fruit scents. The palate is light-medium bodied, with rich notes of tropical fruits that are layered and famed by a lovely acidity w/ a long finish. This epic wine has redefined my understanding of Bordeaux Blanc and is a wine I can see myself seeing to buy more each year. Near perfect...

5/15/2020 - Vinewanderers Likes this wine:

Surprised my other half tonight to celebrate his college graduation in quarantine. We scored this 2012 Sine Qua Non “Touché” a few years ago at auction, and it was one of the most anticipated wines in our collection.
This was our first Sine Qua Non (other than a Mr. K) and was not the over-the-top cataclysm we were expecting. It was decanted and enjoyed slowly over 7 hours, which probably was not long enough. The aroma could not be fully appreciated until decanted for 5 hours. Once we realized this, we cracked open a half bottle of 2005 Cos d’Estournel while we waited.
This Touché is gentle and ethereal on the nose – quite relaxing, in fact. Red fruits dominate, like raspberry – even white raspberry – and ripe cherry. There is then a cornucopia of fleeting notes of orange creamsicle, camphor, green olive, lilac, and definitely something vaguely tropical – starfruit, maybe? In any case, this has notes that I have never before picked up on in any Syrah. Is there any varietal this versatile?
The palate was simply delicious, with arresting purity and grace. It envelops the palate with expanding tart cherry, Coca-Cola, and vanilla. Also commendable is that there is almost no trace of heat anywhere to be found. This is clearly an example of some stellar winemaking and craftsmanship.
All in all, a privilege and real treat to celebrate with this – but not easy to justify the price.

Original Score: 95
Grade: A (Top 1%)

4/1/2020 - ricardito Does not like this wine:

Two pinot noir bottles pulled out of our blinded pinot cases and decanted . One wine very dark ruby in colour - nose big dark raspberries but somewhat reduced with stemmy pepper palate that finished short - the green pepper frankly overwhelmed the tasting experience. Second wine light rouge colour with sweet cranberry nose and bright wild strawberries on the palate - morphing into a long bing cherry with a whiff of vanilla finish. The green pepper wine was the 2008 PGC Etzel and the red berry elixir was the 2011 Foxtrot Henricsson Reserve - the Henricsson was gone before 1/4 of the PGC was consumed.....

2/28/2020 - ShangGuy Likes this wine:

Good, but a bit disappointing for a 2010. Soft aroma, dark purple hue. Rich, sweet, fruit first taste. A bit too sweet of a finish, but a nice long linger.

12/29/2019 - Kirk Grant wrote:

Reading my note on the 2017 prompted me to want to compare the 2016 while the 2017 was still fresh in my mind. I don't know if there was a stylistic shift, but for me the 2013 - 2017 are quite different compared to the 2010, 2011, and even the 2012's from this producer. These later vintages seem to be deeper in color, and with that (for me) there's a perceived loss of elegance) that I really loved in the earlier vintages. Please don't think this is my taking away from the complexity of these lovely wines...it's just different. I'd be curious to hear what others that have been drinking the wines longer than I have think about this or if they too think there's been a stylistic shift since the 2014 vintage. Outstanding!!

2/15/2020 - Cincinnatus Likes this wine:

We had this bottle at a dinner a couple months back and it was big, tannic and closed. Very good but I had the feeling that it is much more than we were able to experience that evening. So, we poured this into a very wide bottom decanter tonight, our granddaughter swirled it a dozen or more times in the decanter, and we let it breathe for an hour or so while we waited for dinner to grill. Purple in color, nice, long legs. Medium to full bodied. I detect black fruit and cedar, and a hint of cherries at times. Gale commented immediately that this is a big wine. A bit of wood comes through as well. Certainly very good but it is not showing a lot of complexity right now. We both agree that we are going to let this breathe for another hour or two and see what emerges. ... We are now 4 hours into this wine. I want to say it has opened and become fantastic. But, it hasn't. It has smoothed out a bit, and that cherry taste we both detected, ... it is still there, but now with a bit of a sharp edge ... slight, but still there. Perhaps it will pull together more in the bottle but right now, it seems a bit disjointed when I compare it to other left bank wines from this vintage. Still good, and I would choose this over most California Cabs in the same price range. As for Gale, she is not excited about this wine. She finds nothing about the wine that is particularly bad, but also nothing that really grabs her attention or is exciting. Perhaps our expectations were inflated by some of the glowing early reviews of this wine. We have several more bottles and will be sampling this again.

2/9/2020 - rmalloy wrote:

Although this wine is tasty and elegant, I felt it lacks depth and profundity. I discerned notes of chocolate (cocoa), graham cracker, orange zest, and grapefruit. I think this wine would benefit from extended aging to develop more complexity.

I do not have a well-developed palate for champagne, so I give limited weight to my own assessment. If I had to give a rating, I would rate it 91.

1/11/2020 - Mimesis wrote:

Chateau Musar 1999-2004 vertical blind tasting: The big disappointment of the night. I got to sample the 1999 eight years ago, and then it was a robust red, even if it wasn’t my favorite. Now it’s noticeably over the hill, even if it’s not dead yet. The color is a little lighter and more orange than the others, but still quite dark, and not transparent at the rim. Meanwhile, the nose is more mineral, with wet stone and cassis. Brett is dominant at first, but eventually yields to fading, faintly overripe fruit. Was this bottle flawed? It’s hard to tell. The cork was fine. One taster still rated the 1999 first among the six vintages, while another gave it second place, but most (like me) gave it 5th place. Drink up.

9/8/2019 - Kirk Grant wrote:

From a MAGNUM: This note is close to two weeks after actually opening the wine on 9/8 but I thought that it would be worth it to leave a thought here for myself and others. This was decanted and poured into two decanters and enjoyed throughout the evening at our wedding. I've long loved these wines and the 2010 holds a special place in my heart as this is the first vintage I fell in love with the wines. We served a pretty decent selection of wines at our wedding, this magnum & a magnum of '99 Musar along with Poggio di Sotto, SQN, and a Tuscan Merlot. While there was little of this left at the end of the evening it was still just a baby from Magnum. What a joy to get to share such a special wine with our friends & loved ones. Outstanding!!!