3/19/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

And how good was the 2018 vintage? Prima, sagenhaft. It blows away everything before it, until you get to 2010 (leave 2009 to your pets).

Deep plum colour; wonderfully tighten lifted nose of dark fruit and earth; and what balance in the mouth, and this after only five years. I don't normally drink wine of this quality so young.

But I have no choice: when it is at its best, I won't be. In fact, I suspect, I won't be anywhere at all.

vide.

3/12/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

A complex array of dark fruits, forest must and sweet earth. All held in check by muted tannins that probably need 4-5 more years. Very good mouthfeel and lengthy aftertaste. Probably one of the best Glorias I have drunk.

3/5/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

This wine deserves better than its Wine Searcher rating. Very dark fruit but well held in check with soft tannic structure. Good depth and longueur.

I bought this wine for almost next to nothing, and I suspect that was because it (and other bottles I bought) have a dodgy cork.

I am not phased by dodgy corks.

vide.

3/4/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

Wonderful balance of fruit and acidity, evidence of superb wine-making skills. A clean, taut wine, more Puligny than Chassage in style. Very good.

3/4/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

Great balance of honey and tropical fruit. Typical Suduiraut. It perhaps lacks the definitional qualities of the Barsacs, but it has a warmth of temperament that they lack.

vide.

2/23/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

Yes, a truly wonderful wine, with fullness cut through with artful acidity. It did, however, take three days to get to this integration of parts. Well worth the wait.

2/20/2023 - vide wrote:

No, a boring wine without depth or complexity. The Aussie clean skin at a quarter of this price is better this than.

vide

2/18/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

A very big wine, but with structure and clarity.

2/17/2023 - vide wrote:

A pleasant if uninteresting wine.

vide

2/12/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

The second bottle in two years. What has changed? Not much. The wine still possesses that reassuring integrity, softness and integration of wood, stalk, and dark fruit, but little else is happening. Perhaps that is the style of Langoa Barton.

vide.

2/11/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

For once, my fellow Cellartrackians have let me down. The scores below can't be real. Beautiful cigar box, forest undergrowth with stalky black currant on the nose, and quite aromatic. Great mouth balance of the same. Layers of smokey dry flavours. Very elegant, and complex, but all is integrated. At its best, I would say round about now.

2/9/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

I am drinking the 2013 vintage, big but structured. But who are these people? They make good wine. But I had never heard of them.

It is fascinating world out there. In French wine making.

And actually that goes for Italy and the Germans, who are now producing great red wine.

Why didn't they all do this when I was younger?

I turn 26 tomorrow.

vide.

2/7/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

This wine is worth more than 91 points. It has a depth of character that brings it into the super second club.

The best GL I have ever drunk.

vide

2/5/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

This is very fine wine, but it should be finer. Deep colour in glass; stalky deep nose of dark fruit; palate has good depth of spice and dark fruit, but it does thin out at the back of the palate. Does it need more time? Possibly, but its acidity tells me that this may be as good as it gets.

2/2/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

It's going downhill, but aren't we all? Let us appreciate decadence whilst we can. Nose of soft smoke and dark fruit, and something pleasantly metallic. Soft but generous grip in the mouth, but fading. Nothing wrong with that.

How do you want your wines? Big, bold, brash, young or happily middle-aged. This wine is near to its end, but precisely because of that it has a quality that is unique. I think I have one more bottle left, and after that all is gone.

vide.

2/1/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

Depth and burnt complexity.

vide.

1/29/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

Intriguing nose of mineral and lemon. Great balance in mouth, but quite mature with a touch of farmyard.

1/29/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

The good news. Wonderfully fragrant dark nose of fragrant forest fruit. great depth on the palate and balance in the mouth. A deep intriguing wine.

Bad news? It took three days to get there, and as it sits here before me in the glass the texture is becoming increasingly similar to a good port. The colour is completely opaque. I poured the glass an hour ago and have only been able to handle four sips since then. And let me assure you, I am no slouch when it comes to drinking fine wine.
I have made this point before: wine has a trajectory of development. Particularly good wines taste different after three days than they do after three hours. A decanter helps, but that is not sufficient.

1/14/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

A very mixed reception for this wine (please see below). There is quality in the wine, but not enough to take far beyond the realm of the ordinary. It has a delicacy that other CNPs don't always have, but that does not compensate for its lack of depth. 2013? Probably not a good vintage.

vide.

1/13/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

I originally gave this 93, but marked it down because of thinning in the glass.
2016. Another globally-warmed vintage, with bright forward fruit, some complexity across the palate, but no tannic backbone. Too-easy drinking, I'm afraid.

Back tomorrow with the dregs.

vide.

1/11/2023 - vide Likes this wine:

A great concentration of dark fruit. Soft fullness on the nose, followed by a lingering palate. I think this wine is ready to drink now. The tannins have been absorbed (although nota bene, it does throw a deposit).

A very satisfying wine. I can't remember how much I paid for it.
Does it matter?

12/25/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

I have obviously kept this wine too long in my sub-tropical fridge, for it has lost most of its body (I wish I could lose mine). Nonetheless, a wine of great elegance, with perfect balance of dark fruit, subtle acidity and oak.

12/13/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

This wine needs a second day to show its best, where it develops complexity and depth. There us naught happening on the first day.

12/11/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

This wine is not much for me at the moment. 2016 was an excellent year for left-bank Bordeaux. This wine should reflect that excellence, but it does not. Certainly, very drinkable, with dark berry fruits and soft tannin. Perhaps the latter will open up in time to produce a greater wine.

12/7/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

33 degrees here today in Brisbane, and possibly 37 tomorrow.

I take the wine out of the fridge, What a wonderful fragrant depth: a Batailley that I have never come across before, when all tannins have been absorbed in the fruit.

12/5/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

This wine has attracted some very high scores. But I don't know. It is certainly a very good wine for its price. It has dark chocolate tannin and is quite deep. But (and if you will forgive the paradox) the depth is on the surface. It begins at 94 points but ends at 90-91.

Perhaps it needs more time.

12/3/2022 - vide wrote:

smokey nose, but on the palate lacking depth. A well-made wine, but just a little boring.

11/27/2022 - vide wrote:

Day 2, and it has maderised, somewhat. Yes, a little more complexity. But, I don't know. Something missing here in complexity and secondary notes.

It all depends on what you want from a wine. Perhaps there are no absolutes of judgment.

Only relative absolutes.

vide.

11/26/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

An enormous wine, with dark sweet ink, and typical LP depth.

This is day one with this wine. It needs to gather something in complexity. At the moment, it is a little one-dimensional. So I will come back tomorrow.

Vide.

11/25/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Well, I don't know. An enormous wine with enormous alcohol (16. proof) The latter burns at the throat, and in fact suppresses the secondary qualities that are there, but not really given the chance to emerge.

One more glass of this and I'll be lying with my pug on the back lawn.

Woof woof,

Vide.

11/21/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Yes, an impressive and enjoyable wine, but there is something missing. It has wonderful depth, in a medley of dark fruits, and great integrity in its self-articulation.

But, well, I don't know. It ultimately comes across as somewhat one-dimensional, although that one dimension is good.

Vide

11/18/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Yes, this is quite remarkable wine, with great intensity but clarity across bouquet and palate. A wonderful structure formed from appealing fruit and acidity. This is wine making at its peak.

11/15/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

My notes below, I think, are still valid, but this time round I kept some of the wine for 24 hours, and it transformed it. What was somewhat understated after three hours on day 1 has now become deep and complex after 24 hours.

This is not the first time I have encountered this with reds but even with whites. To put it simply: if you open a bottle and drink it in the same evening, you are missing something. Bad news? Absolutely. But there you are. Truth is not interested in news, bad or good.

11/12/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

A wine of real class, but perhaps lacking in the stature of the same wine from other vintages.

11/10/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Yes, purple tooth is exactly right. This is a fine wine but does not quite live up to its potential. Perhaps we are drinking it too young. But 17 years should be enough. It is a very fine wine, deep and satisfying in its fruit. But it lacks complexity.

11/7/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Once again, a Margaux that is not a Margaux. Giscours is the same. Wonderful nose of subdued burnt sweet fruit (probably in the blackcurrant family). Quite forward on the palate, but perhaps lacking a little in depth. But for 2012, this is great effort,' A wine that is pungent, but gestures to layers of meaning beneath its bright surface.

11/6/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

On day 2: there is touch of maderisation, but the palate has deepened out. What great depth of dark flavour! What vertical integrity! Time to buy more, but perhaps not from this vintage.

11/6/2022 - vide wrote:

It took three days for this wine to lose its fat and permit its structure to emerge. But now it has. What a wonderful balance of sweet-acidic fruit and mineral. And that clarity on the palate that is the hallmark of this great wine producer. 2016 was not a easy year for Chablis, but this wine is stunning.

11/5/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Pavel (see below) has it absolutely right. There is a deep nose of spice and dark fruit on the nose (typically Montrose), but the palate is simply not there. It starts well with a certain depth but ends rather disappointedly with a thinning on the back palate.

This is day 1. I will get back tomorrow, when I often find that these bigger wines perform at their best.

10/31/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

This is still a very fine, but I think that time has started to flatten out some its flavours, and it is losing structure. The bouquet is still impressive, but the mouthfeel is going. In other words, don't hold it for much longer.

10/15/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

On the nose, black cherry, tobacco and superior rubber tire.

Good and lasting structure on the palate, and with longueur.

Not perhaps the most subtle of wines, but nonetheless with an integrity that belongs to Northern Rhone.

10/8/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

What liquid quiditas! What chthonic presence! My wife thinks this wine is over. I may be over, but this wine is not: it is darkly mature, and almost unfathomable in its depth.

With Southern Rhone, I think that it is appropriate to talk about flavours before structure (with Claret, I think it is the other way round). So, sweet smoke on the nose with dark berry. A bouquet that is lifted and yet secure in the glass. Marmite and blackcurrant on the palate.

But everything is ausgeglichen. No sharp corners, only a path that goes on and on.

93 points.

10/1/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

The points assessment depends on when you drink this wine (in micro time): half an hour into the glass? One hour? Perhaps two hours. It has a chameleon character. But what, I hear some ask, is the ontological reading on this wine (where somehow we are beyond time scales)?

Intriguing dark nose of cinnamon and muted pepper. Quite delicate. Good balance in the mouth, where there is some complexity. It is a good wine but probably could do with just a little more weight.

A wine that is endearing but probably not great. 91-92

9/25/2022 - vide wrote:

What balance of parts! What subtle refinement held within a generosity of fruit. This is a wonderful wine, with inflected acidity framing its fruit of paw paw, green banana and lemon. The structure of the wine is impeccable. Exemplary wine making skills here, and it is drinking well at the moment. The experts were right: 2014 is a great year for white Burgundy. It will probably go on for another 12-18 months but then head into farmyard. But it will be a good farmyard.

9/18/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Oh, what depth of purpose. What surety of knowledge. Dark but elegant liftedness on the nose. Palate was somewhat reticent on the first day, but 24 hours later, expressive although interestingly opaque. The wine has become slightly oxidised (because of being kept overnight). So, there is a touch of burnt rubber tire. But if all burnt rubber tire were like this, I might be tempted to drive once again, instead of taking Uber.

9/18/2022 - vide wrote:

Forget the farmyard. Go straight to the forest. There is good news and bad news about this wine. And the good news is the bad news: they are coterminous. It has taken three days for this wine to lose its fat and reveal the structure behind that fat. The flavours are all there: lime, green banana, subdued butterscotch, but it is the structure, the balance between fruit and acidity, that makes this a truly great wine. And Fevre and their team do this time and again. Wonderful.

9/17/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

Wonderful nose of gently burnt honey. Quite elegant in the mouth, and the sweet spice is still there. A restrained but generous wine that possesses its own integrity and depth of style,

9/17/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

An enormous but subtle wine. Great green lift on the nose; palate has depth and some acidity. But at the moment, there is a certain fatness there that detracts from the overall structure of the wine. This is a wine that probably will be best in farmyard (where decadent fatness rules the roost), but it is not there yet. The quality of the wine is indisputable.

9/11/2022 - vide wrote:

A well-built wine, with good fruit and soft tannin. Nothing to get excited about, but none the less very acceptable.

9/10/2022 - vide Likes this wine:

A wonderful elegant wine of dark fruit and supportive oak. And what balance in the mouth! Probably not the longest wine I have had from this vintage, but typical of Giscours and its characteristically Margaux perfumed ethereality.