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Comments on my notes

(8 comments on 6 notes)

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Red
2019 Corison Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena
4/18/2023 - wino_tim wrote:
95 points
Deep ruby with reflections of purple. This wine is always pretty and poised, but this vintage seems downright statuesque. Airy on the nose with aromas of just ripe blackcurrants, black cherries, a little crème de mûre, violets, fresh mint, toast, graphite, and spice. Medium to full bodied with medium+ acidity that cuts a swath across the palate. The tannins are fine and tight, the fruit ripe but nicely balanced with savory earth flavors, and the finish is so crisp and clean you'd think you were drinking Nahe Riesling. This is refreshing Cabernet on a level one doesn't find in Napa anymore.
  • wino_tim commented:

    4/19/23, 7:08 AM - That's a complicated question. Will it lose fruit and pick up additional savory flavors as any wine does with age? Sure. Is that a good thing for this particular wine? I guess it could be if you like your wines to have that element of maturity. But does it need age due to skull crunching tannins, non-integrated acidity or undeveloped flavors? I don't think so. If anything, it seems like the perfect Cabernet Sauvignon to drink this summer. But your preferences for old or young wine should guide your decision, of course.

  • wino_tim commented:

    4/25/23, 7:42 PM - Right. And to be clear, I wasn't - and would never - suggest that this wine won't age. It is not going to fall apart tomorrow or anytime in the next ten years. I would just ask what someone is looking for this wine to do with age that it isn't doing now. But that is a different question, I suppose.

Red
2019 Cullen Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Wilyabrup Margaret River Red Bordeaux Blend
Gorgeous wine!
I would never have chosen this wine except that today, when I was in K&L RWC with my daughter, I asked her to pick her top 5 wine labels and explain why they deserved her pick.
She pulled this one.
I don't normally go with Aussie wines, though they are fantastic, but this one sported what I eschew: Cabernet Sauvignon.

I bought it for $40, as my daughter chose its label.

Wow, what an excellent wine.
Come to find out that it's the ONLY biodynamic wine in the Wilyabrup area.

Nose: Flowers, black fruit, with a quality of density that astonished.
Palate: Lush black fruit, flowers, levity of natural acid, tasted like a white and red wine blend, length, soft, luxurious, couldn't put it down, kept wanting to taste and drink.

Excellent wine.

"In 1998 the change to total organic viticulture was made. Diana and Vanya went intuitively towards healing the soil by putting back what had been taken out. Organics is about soil health – drains were put in, cover crops, and composting resulted in A Grade Organic Certification in 2003 being gained by the Biological Farmers Association (BFA) of Australia."
https://www.cullenwines.com.au/philosophy/

Biodynamic wine making, natural wine is the future.
In my opinion, the future is genetically unique plants. No more clones off rootstock, but natural, from seed plants. That, in my opinion is the ultimate terroir of wine, as the seed will connect to the soil, to the electromagnetics of the local earth to become, literally, the plant of the root connected to place and time.
  • wino_tim commented:

    9/24/22, 8:37 PM - Outside of Randall Grahm, what biodynamic wine producers are growing vines from seed?

  • wino_tim commented:

    9/26/22, 3:06 PM - I am not a winemaker so your desire that I repent is misplaced. Still, I have spent a lifetime in wine and have never seen ANYONE - even Gallo - spray as much as biodynamic vineyard managers during rainy months, watching them in Volnay and Sonoma just covering vines in obscene amounts of copper sulfate are memories I will not soon forget. Haha

    That said, despite being more scientifically oriented than spiritual and despite being DEEPLY skeptical of anything that sprung from the mind of Steiner, I happily enjoy many biodynamic wines like this one.

    Take care and be well.

White
2017 François Raveneau Petit Chablis Chardonnay
12/16/2021 - wino_tim wrote:
90 points
From magnum. Pale straw with hints of yellow. A very open and pretty nose offers super classic aromas of fresh green apple, chopped Anjou pear, Parmesan rind, dried white flowers and tons of crushed rock minerality. Medium bodied on the palate with medium+ acidity, this is very fine and lithe with tons of chalk-like grip coming from dry extract. An impressive Petit, but is it worth the money?
  • wino_tim commented:

    1/8/22, 3:19 PM - William Kelley, my current line of work prohibits me from saying anything negative about Raveneau's US importer, lest they reduce my allocation. haha. But your point is well made. Congratulations on your new position. If ever need someone to write reviews I promise I can use more articulate terms than "super classic."

Rosé - Sparkling
N.V. Patrick Bottex Vin du Bugey-Cerdon "La Cueille" Methode Ancestrale Gamay
Fun wine. Leave it to Kermit Lynch to find a fun, tasty, inexpensive, red Bugey (Savoie) sparkler!
  • wino_tim commented:

    11/7/18, 3:04 PM - I don't mean to split hairs, but Bugey is at least a five hour drive from Tours.

Red
2013 Forman Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
9/26/2017 - wino_tim wrote:
96 points
Deep ruby. A complex yet beguiling nose suggests just ripe blackcurrant, black cherry, fresh tobacco, toast and graphite. Full bodied and rich; the nose could perhaps, in a distant world, be Bordeaux, but the palate, though balanced, with plump tannins and medium+ acidity, is round in a classically Californian way. This is convincing and strikingly good right now, but certainly has potential to get better.
  • wino_tim commented:

    9/27/17, 9:56 PM - @walkerjfw: The 2013s with really brutal tannins are coming from mountain sites, at least in my experience. The reason to hold the 2013 Forman would be to allow for the development of tertiary flavors, not to dodge tannins.

Red
2005 Château Haut-Segottes St. Émilion Grand Cru Red Bordeaux Blend
1/15/2013 - lbatina Likes this wine:
91 points
The wine looks Crimson colored. The legs are Medium. It smells like Stoniness, Earth, Medium Toast, Blueberry, Dust, and Vanilla. The body is Medium. Unfiltered and unfined resulting in sediment in the bottle. The wine has Smooth texture. The wine finishes Medium. From Wine Express in 2009. Good mid-tier value. 14%

This wine comes from a negociant: Rosenthal Wine Merchant. They only select wines in limited quantity made by a dedicated artisan. www.madrose.com
  • wino_tim commented:

    11/9/14, 8:47 AM - Rosenthal is an importer. Not a negoc.

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