11/24/2020 - Ortiz Brown Likes this wine:

This Chianti is magenta in the glass with a bit of clarity. On the nose we find blueberry, blackberry, earth, mushroom, and wood.

On the palate there’s earth and mushroom on entry followed by muted notes of blackberry. The wine is light on the palate with a predominant rustic character all around. Mild tannins and medium finish.

4/18/2021 - Ortiz Brown Likes this wine:

Very, very pale straw in the glass with a reticent nose of green apple. On the palate the wine features flavors of pear, citrus, honey. There’s a hint of oak, probably from used barrels, though Goodfellow’s web site doesn’t provide any details for this particular bottling. There's a streak of minerality supported with mild acidity to a long finish. Really like this!

1/31/2021 - Ortiz Brown Likes this wine:

Our tasting notes were consistent with others' here. The wine really opens on the mid-palate and offers a near-hedonistic Napa cabernet experience without going over the top. Purchased for $80 but drinks higher than that. Will buy more!

9/24/2020 - Ortiz Brown Likes this wine:

Bright garnet in the glass with some clarity. The nose is a bit restrained but shows notes of the cranberry to come. On the palate the initial experience is of fresh and tart cranberry, that continues through the entire tasting experience, along with cherry cola; underlying that fruit are pleasant mushroom and forest floor notes. The mild acidity and tannins are perfectly balanced, and there’s a medium finish. Our first Anthill but we’ll seek out more.

Funny story, BTW. My boss gave me this bottle just prior to the Covid shutdown, and I’d left it in a black, insulated wine bag in the office…right next to a window with a southern exposure. I’d forgotten it was there until I returned to the office earlier this week and discovered it there. (I’d forgotten all about it.) I was apprehensive about opening it after all that time in the heat, but lo! It was perfect! So the lesson is, don’t be too concerned if a bottle or two endures some inappropriately warm temperatures. It might just be drinkable after all.

4/28/2020 - Shay.Aldriedge Likes this wine:

I probably sound like a broken record, but here’s another 2011 that shows beautifully. I’ve had quite a few different vintages of this wine and they certainly fall in to the rich, opulent, almost hedonistic type style. While this wine isn’t fully there (which isn’t a bad thing), I also don’t pick up much green/vegetal character to it that some 2011 wines possess. There is a ripeness that cascades all over this wine but it pulls back before going too far. Aromatically, it smells like a baked mixed berry pie, lots of baking spices like nutmeg, licorice, toasted rhubarb fig, tar and sweet pipe tobacco. Nicely integrated on the palate, though the ABV pokes out just a small amount. Waves of flavor on the palate showing red, blue and black fruits alongside graphite, charcoal, dark cocoa and espresso nicely wrapped in a silky and slightly dusty profile. This is likely at peak and will hang here for 2-3yrs before starting its decline. Very nice effort for the vintage.

12/25/2019 - Mark Brandon wrote:

Surprisingly good for vintage. Probably not improving much. Fruit forward but maybe limited structure compared to other vintages. Still in the usual profile - dark, layered, and yummy.

7/9/2019 - Ortiz Brown Likes this wine:

Consistent with prior notes.

1/19/2019 - Ortiz Brown Does not like this wine:

Peach and caramel on the nose with some oak. On the palate there’s a slight creaminess with peach, pineapple, tropical fruit notes, and some oak. Minerality on the finish. What most disappointed us about the wine was the near absence of any acidity, resulting in a wine that was flat and lifeless. That's surprising in light of others' notes. Did we get a bad bottle?

12/25/2018 - Ortiz Brown Likes this wine:

Dark purple in the glass with nose of blueberry, cassis, oak, and brown sugar.

On the palate the wine is lush and round with stewed strawberry and oak. The tannins are similarly plush with acidity on the finish with also has an herbal note. Medium complexity but delicious and easy drinking.

2/13/2019 - Ortiz Brown Likes this wine:

Thursday, January 31, 2019 - Pale gold in the glass with a shy nose. On the palate the wine offers a much bigger, juicier experience with big flavors of passion fruit and lime with an herbal note. There’s an extremely mild acidity up front that quickly fades. There’s minerality on the short finish. Delicious wine but not terribly complex. Awesome QPR at $12.

2/3/2019 - 87tellub Likes this wine:

PnP notes before a decant: Nice sweet cedar and tobacco, dark ripe blackberry, even a little floral. Texture is very plush and silky. Medium to full in body. Finishes with a spicy kick.

After a ~3 hour decant the nose actually seemed to close down a bit, but a big swirl brought it back out again.

I think the component that stood out most to me about this bottle was the texture.

1/23/2019 - cadamson wrote:

An enigma. I am going to reserve judgment on this one. I big fan and buyer of Rhys, and usually like Bearwallow as a great entry into Rhys Pinot's. This one, over two days, was completely dormant (or suffering some other affliction). Could get nothing, and I mean nothing out of it. Nary an aroma nor something on the palate. These drink well young, so cannot really have been sleeping, so let me rack this up as I must have been going insane or completely losing my sense of smell and taste for a couple days. Anyway, will pop another one in a couple months, I am sure that will be more representative.

5/17/2018 - jfutey Likes this wine:

So I says to my wine monger, bruh, grilling some ribeyes, need vino stat! He says, I got you fam, and produces this bottle. I says, homey you mad, I ain't even trying to drink no murrlow. Homeboy says, spring Mountain, beyotch! This shit got mad structure. I'm like, whatever guy, we'll see about this. Damn, that crazy old coot ain't lying, this wine is lit and my dindin got turnt! Dark candied fruits, Cassis, vanilla and dusty tannins got me like 😻💃.

4/29/2018 - Frank Murray III wrote:

Funny, as I gifted this bottle and the owner ended up sharing it back with me so it made a full circle. Have had several of these now during 2018 and I have a pretty strong sense of the wine, for sure. Aromatics of what I oddly called brown spices, something I would usually scrawl down for the oak imprint on Pinot Noir so I guess think of it as oak here. Pineapple and some vanilla, so some of that seductiveness again similar to recent bottles, yet the lemon underneath it that is what I believe will carry the wine and later when the oak sheds off result in a cool bottle of Chard. Drink now if you want that flash or let it age to perhaps allow the wine to get where I think it will head.

4/12/2018 - Wine G Likes this wine:

Excellent wine, robust, opulent, Rich, once opened up on the nose I got strong cassis, cigar box , menthol , even got cologne in a good way.

In my opinion most Hall wines that I enjoy - the 1873, Coeur, and this , and Ellie’s are to me all ver similar, if not the same. Just slap a different label and I’m not sure I could tell the difference. Very consistent extracted and big style, but balanced or at least not cloying.

9/26/2017 - csimm wrote:

Similar to my previous note. Somewhat overbearing and at the same time a bit lackluster. An ok Pinot, but a little heavy-handed on the attack but yet thinning out on the back end. Not much complexity. 90-91 points. My last bottle. On to something different.

6/20/2017 - Badmonkey wrote:

A neighbor brought this over - he thought it was a good value. Dark red fruit with a touch of black - dark cherry, currants, and a little blackberry. Smooth mid-palate with decent depth for the price point. Nice flavors of dark berries and a little spice. Solid finish but not overly long nor deep. However, drank next to a 2014 Quivet napa cab and I thought the Quivet was quite a bit better - fuller flavors, deeper fruit, longer/deeper finish, etc.. Nonetheless, an enjoyable cab for the money - a little better than Parker's 89 rating in my opinion.