12/21/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Bacon, blood and very dry crushed stones. Classic old school, real Cornas. This is how they should go.
Loved this and felt healthful.

At first the barnyard made me cheer.
It's dark purple showed very little signs of age.
Steely, granite, blood and bacon.
Just yummy juice.

12/21/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Now this is my kind of wine!
Real and authentic.
Tastes of natural production where they let the grapes speak without that manipulation.
Could drink this every night.

I'll add more in-depth notes with my next bottle.

12/21/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Oh jeez, such an excellent wine.
Dense, concentrated with yummy black fruit of mulberry and blackberry.
There's earth and plenty of clout for aging.

Balthazar is quality at any level.
Loved this and will continue to buy more.

12/21/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Probably decanted a touch early, as there was very fine sediment that I could see tumbling out with the clear juice.

The smell was incredible. It was like smelling pulverized granite. Absolutely dry. No fruit on the nose. Barn, straw, rotting straw, wet barn with decaying organic matter, smoke, wood fire, coal fire, hearth, green of pea husks, lilacs.
It was sweet on the palate and just as complex with steely and baking spices, smoke, tobacco, sweet tobacco with drying aftertaste.

Really enjoyed this.

Most would be turned off, I'm sure, but for me this was excellent.

It kept evolving for hours. I'll have to leave a bottle to slow ox a full day to see what happens.

12/3/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Purchased at winery on an historic visit in 2018 where we were blessed by a gorgeous view of floating puff clouds and rainbows over the Dry Creek hills.

I pulled this out 4 months ago and had sitting upright ready for last night's wine party. This was one of the stars. Biodynamic wines from California are a rarity! This is worthy of the dollars. Visit this winery as they are purist in how the wine is made. It's the old-world wine making in the new world. They are bucking the manipulation junk that's ubiquitous to USA.

Upon initial decant it held juicy tart berry aromas. It was very purple and balanced. Juicy fruit with dense tart bringing my palate to a glorious knowing of the Durif.

12/3/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Excellent wine, but for the current price, there are many more bottles that, for me, are more enjoyable.
I opened this 2018 on the heels of the 2016 and actually the later far exceeded the former in taste. I would buy the 2016 again but not this 2018.

I double decanted yesterday and brought to a party where the guests said the same thing. For this wine to still be in the bottle today speaks for its likability of my wine lover's guests.

Tonight, I'm enjoying the party's leftovers, and this is paring well with lamb, yet does not fulfill its price-to-taste-enjoyment.

There's stones, dry flowery fruit, stem tannins, short finish with some oils that build. It's quality, but skip this year for the $60 price tag.

12/3/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Bought a few bottles of this directly from Bradley on release. I’m really a Syrah nut, but I was convinced to go for this and cellar. If you remember, 2013 was one of those drought years, but the diurnal effects of the Santa Cruz Mountains during the veraison months creates excellent phenolics in grapes that love cooler climates. Bradley knows this well. Galloni speaks of this AVA as one of the best in California for a reason: “"There is no doubt in my mind the Santa Cruz Mountains is the greatest and most overlooked terroir in the United States. Period.” - Antonio Galloni.

This is outstanding Pinot Noir.
This is better than most of what I've tasted from Premier Cru Burgundy, and it’s from my own back yard.

At 170 cases, this might very well be the last bottle in existence. Ever since Bradley's collection burned down the older stuff has been rarer indeed.

Hibiscus and black tea, with essences of fine cakes and peony. It was elegant and held most interesting flavors and spices in a delicate array of mouth pleasure.

This bottle I pulled out of the cellar over the summer and let stand for 4 months. All the fine sediment had cleared, yet when I decanted, that sediment smoke crept up fast to where only half the bottle could be decanted cleanly. I let the rest sit in the bottle overnight and today, it was a touch cloudy, but still excellent. Even the dregs were a joy to drink.

This wine smacked of a natural wine. It had that excellent natural taste that I get from the cooler climates of Piemonte. No doubt that this could cellar for a few more years as the natural acid was perfectly balanced.
Simply a fantastic expression of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

12/2/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Holy dense and inky black juice. Right after the bottle's decanting small interesting bubbles showed up. Their color was deep purple and blue black.
My 2nd bottle opened, and I loved this cuvee.
This was a huge wine. Took about 2 hours to start to soften, but this guy needed more time. Don't let the Sans Soufre fool you into thinking this won't last, but this was so good that I'm not sure if I will wait to open the other bottles. Can't wait to see how this mixes with acrylic. So far, I've painted 3 masterpieces with Balthazar's wines.

The tannins were soft and thick. It felt like it was really healthful for me. There was beaucoup de earthen dense fruit that felt minerally sticky in my mouth. There were herbs and licorice concentrations.
The words that came to mind were herb infused black sauce.

11/23/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

I let this bottle rest upright for about 2 months.
Still could only decant half the bottle before the sediment smoke started to show.
This guy filled the room with the aromas of crushed granite, yeast, sharp dust of tartly ground up stones. Was an amazing thing to experience just sitting there at my computer with the room filled with this gorgeous Northern Rhone aroma.

Love this wine!

Can't believe there are still 2 bottles left at Wine.com. I'll have to buy those too. Under $20?

It's drinking perfectly now, but will assuredly age another 5.

11/2/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

There needs to be an "I LOVE it!" choice here, as this certainly fits.
The aromas of this are so intensely lovely, perfectly floral that remind me of my grandmother in Long Beach CA being in her room with her decorative flowers and all of her perfumes that held those scents of manufactured aromatics.
There's licorice, cola, caramel, brown sugar, pachouli on the nose.
The palate is crazy dense and like imbibing liquid flower shop. Just delish.
There's Christmas scents, and it literally tastes like Christmas with all that candle scents, aromas of candle shop, yummy sweet cola, there's bitters and concentrations of soaps, candles and flowery concentrates: Wow delish.

10/31/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Bone dry, excellent wine.
Love the bubbles, love the earth, and its dryness was very deliciously endearing.

10/31/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

This wine was so outstanding that I'm tempted to put a 99 point score, as it was just perfect all around.
This magnum was liquid tobacco and cassis. God good!

My friend and partner refuses most wines from me, but she tried this and kept asking for more.

Fantastic wine.
My last bottle.
This magnum had copious amounts of fine sediment. Initially could only decant 2/3 of the bottle before the smoke started to show.
2 days later from bottle, it cleared somewhat, but still needed 5 hours to open.

Excellent wine.

10/31/2022 - Fractalage wrote:

Way overpriced for what it is.

Raspberries and spices.
Decanted 6 hours before attempted to try.
Was not impressed in the slightest.
$50 at Costco while there were Brunello and Barolo for about the same price would have been way, way better.

Do NOT buy for this price.
There are dozens more wines from the area that are just as good for more than half the price.

A huge disappointment, though it was quality, I will never guy another Gaja.
Classic example of name putting over value to quality.

This is a $20 wine masquerading as $50+.

10/29/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Such a great wine. This might be my last bottle.
Maybe one more in there.

Leather, plums, raspberries, earth all blend together to make a great wine after at least 4 hours of air.

Opened for guests tonight. Such a hit.
Down to the dregs, so good.
Love it.
Italy rocks for quality that lasts such as this.

10/28/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

My case of this finally arrived. I shined my LED into this bottle to see that it was clear, so I opened it and decanted. Big cherry and earthen plum wafted into my nose. There were sharp leather and soft acid, or maybe the other way around.

A full 8 hours later it opened so well. It was soft and luxurious like a real wine should be. Cake spices and sharp fruit on the nose. The palate held lush berry and interesting spices that fell across the sides of the tongue with salivating acid. All of it had a very natural effect. Very well treated.

Eban Sadie was good to recommend this producer. Thank you.

Tegan, I will paint with your wine.
Just send an email or call me.

Much love!

10/28/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

I am Massimago,
Profasio 2014, Valpolicella Superiore

The trip took a bit to take on, but once it did, it took off like a bang.

I found myself in a very familiar alley. The darkness wasn’t so dark. The shadows brought out many familiar images of foliage, fences, plaques of numbers. I can’t remember specifically why I remember those numbers, but I knew them. Down the way were lights brighter than the occasional of those lit in the backyards. I went to them. Familiar shops closed, restaurants bustled and people were on the walkways. The fountain was there as it should have been. The lights glistened the spouts. People were playing ping pong. Music was making me want to dance.
It was so strange. Right there in the middle of the plaza was a bottle. It had a black and white label and on it was the word Profasio. I went up to it, stood in front of it. I looked around. No one was looking at me. I stared at it for a bit. Then I shouted, “Does this belong to anyone?”
I looked around me 360. No one protested.
I picked it up. It was mostly full. This felt wrong. I poured a bit into my palm. I smelled it. It smelled good. Why was a mostly full bottle of Valpolicella Superiore just sitting here? Do I dare? In this age of diseases of worry, why would I do this? Alcohol kills bacteria and viruses, right?
Without putting my mouth to the bottle I poured it into my mouth.
Gorgeous raspberries, earth, fresh, delish. I swished and downed in one gulp. I looked around as the finish lingered, tempting another such swig. The finish showed light and dense complex spices such as fig cake. I looked around again at no one protesting and took another massive mouthful without putting my mouth to the rim. There were more spices. Raspberry cakes of dry herbs, fine and very longing to do that again. This time I walked over to the fountain and looked out at the lights of University and Emmerson. I thought of the last decade having come here most every night pre-COVID to partake in my neighborhood’s culinary delights. I mused at how it had changed. My eye turned toward Stanford Theater. The lights were on again, finally, but he pub next door with my favorite pinball machines weren’t. They weren’t coming back either. I took another swig. I looked at the back of the label. I knew these varietals well. Corvina was one of my top 10. This blend was of the same that was used to make most Amarone. This being much lighter, but of perfect quality I had to remember this, so I took a picture. Rondinella was a descendent of Corvina. Corvinone used to be thought as a clone of Corvina, its name meaning “large Corvina”, but it’s not. Its larger berry makes it an excellent use for drying in the Amarone and Recioto.
Another large mouthful brought me to pure love of this find. I wondered how this was ever left to be abandoned there and felt a touch guilty for taking it. I still looked around and no one even so much as glanced at me and my swigging, that I could tell. Then my mind really started to mess with me. Maybe this had been drugged and someone was watching me from one of those windows up there, or from a car over there. Then my heartbeat started to race. I threw down the bottle and ran.

10/23/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

I don't rate wine, normally, but this bottle deserved a perfect score.
All scores are vastly subjective, and I love them insomuch as the Parkerized numbers stay away from the real wines to keep their prices in line with what I can afford.
This score simply puts to those who read my reviews a connection to what my tastes deem a cuvee to be the top.

For my palate a wine cannot get any better than this.
I dream after wines of this truth and salivated at this aroma upon decant: Crushed granite, nose of alpine granitic dust, ground down belly of ancient volcano by millions of years of glaciation to leave this gorgeous nose to tickle my imagination. It was bloody. There was bacon. The cured meats and rawness of bull’s blood with touches of liquid asphalt, notes of tobacco added such endearing fondness to make me wonder how I can find more of this.

As you might notice, this is my 666th Tasting Note, which may make this even better for those who know about the magic of this falling. Carbon: six protons, six neutrons, and six electrons, which is the foundation of all organic matter rendering 666 a number of life, a number of this wine, which is life and gives life, at least to me to delve deeply into this night. Much more can be written on this, but I shall continue to this juice opening.

The palate was lush, open, luxuriously delivering perfect dryness of bull’s blood, heirloom tomato, rocks, tobacco, bacon, meats. It was well rounded and blackly delicious in my mouth. I doted on its opaque density and filled my lungs over and over with multiple attempts at deciphering the symphony.

Tobacco lunged at me. Cured meats softly fell over my tongue. Beef and pork withy those rocky, dusty drying effects kept me in awe at this.

Perfection.
I need to find more.

10/18/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

These bottles have started to close up. This one had a very reserved nose and palate for days.
Literally 8 days later, I had 6oz left in the bottle undecanted and was still very good. This Mencia will last decades.
Oubliez ce-lui-ci pour dix ans ou plus.

Let them shut down.
Revisit in 5-10.

10/18/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Love this wine!
Joy to drink.
Soft and easy with mucho herbs including licorice and depths of hot hill's lavender, thyme and perfect rounded fruit.
Could drink this always.
It's hands down the best organic wine I've yet tried.

Need to get a case or two.

10/11/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

The most interesting thing about this wine is that it's actually certified biodynamic, which is a very rare thing in California.
These guys boast no inoculation! That's GOLD!

My wine standard, because the Gods of wine demand it, is that inoculation offends the Gods of wine, so at every winery I stop to taste, that's my first question. If yes is the answer, I will always spit. If they don't know what that even is, then I educate and slightly shame, but if it's no, then I celebrate and drink and buy!
That biome on the grape skin is sacred. It should not be killed! It deserves to be nurtured and celebrated as those creatures make the wine. If they are murdered, then in my opinion that juice can no longer really be called wine. Debate me on this as much as you would like, but terminated life that was given to us to make wine is such an offense to the Creator of life that I feel there to be a special hell for those who abort the true engenderers of wine.

Therefore, we celebrate L. Preston! Even if it has some oak undertones.
It’s black and red fruit with meats is delicious and still can be cellared further to at least another 5 years.
Tonight, it took about an hour to start to show, and then continued to open up. I won’t know fully as I drank the bottle after only 4 hours.

Excellent wine.

Even better to visit the winery, where on Sunday’s they allow you fill up your jug with their cask wine.
Their Syrah is even better, and less money, than this cuvee.
I would recommend sticking to the Syrah, as it’s more in line with Northern Rhone for my palate.

10/9/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

OMG good!
Love that nose.
Such copious horse ass and barn funk.
Flavors of dry earthen juice with gentle extraction of berries, such as Mulberries, Marionberries, Olallieberry.

10.5% makes this a joy to imbibe. Real and delicious. Would buy this every night to drink.

10/4/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Yum, yum crunchy tar and roses.
So delicious.

Decanted to huge aromas of tart cherries. This aroma was markedly different than other sharp cherries of other wines upon decant in that this one was sort of luxuriously intoxicating and assuredly of very high quality.

It took 3 hours for the sharp edges and rusticity to resolve and come together with power, sweet tars, delicious baking spices and length.

I could down this every night for a month.

Buy.
And could be held for another decade for sure. Will get better.

9/17/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Wine trip: Kadarka by Mucsi Zalan

I oftentimes roam. Where, depends on the moment and what whims become my intent to gather my hopes and to leave my spontaneity to the eye and attractions thereof. Tonight, it’s the alleyways of the lesser traveled. They’re clean. I’m reminded of my hometown, but these areas border million-dollar homes, though they are small and simple, this area is of the highest prices of the world. Despite this American west coast hamlet, can I actually call Palo Alto a hamlet? Maybe I can, and tonight I will. This hamlet sports this crazy foreign combination as in my belly rests an entire bottle of Kadarka, an important grape from Hungary. Most know this country’s fermentations of a sweeter concoction called Tokai, but this is a dry expression of an old varietal that made its way into Romania and Bulgaria. Strange that Kadarka be here in Palo Alto roaming the behinds of Stanford. Bizarre that here it’s Gods are being called to view this, under the full moon, on this powerful night. My heart is not fearful, but still wary of being suspected to wander and peer into these backyards. Misty wafts of fog-clouds float by, obscuring the moonlight, a fantastic vision that belongs to the Peninsula. The hills here, called the Santa Cruz Mountains create a unique and rather perfect weather where the heated valleys of Southern California draw down cool air across the Pacific Ocean into the Bay Area.
The Hungarian varietal opens my creativity, connects blood to ancient ancestral communications. Thoughts beget deeper imaginations, and I know that it’s my fathers or rather my mothers of ancestry who speak. Most don’t know the power of the vitus vinifera blood to connect to the human blood: The two intertwined forever to dance and to reveal. To me, the unveiling is becoming a fantastic display of fantasy, yet it only speaks truth. What does this truth speak on this evening?

He falls and dreams.
The dream is the story.

What the!
I trip and my face is before a puddle of recent rainwater. The water houses memories.

The Leolon flutter about my face. I don’t swat but allow. They are sacred to me. I wonder what Wernold will play tonight. What will manifest from those sounds. My parents have told me about the wonders of the music that emanates from that instrument, and I have always yearned to connect to it. They have prepared me well, or so I thought. As we leave our home, others too are walking by. Like a stream joining a river we connect to the grand hall. Each family has a place, seats there to join. It is a grand bowel. Suspended in the middle the intricate workings of Wernold’s creation displays shiny rainbows of refraction of myriad crystals designed to resonate with the performance. Our family sits along with the rest of the citizens. As we wait, we are employed, in our minds by psychic connections to intonate together to create a fantastic tone of our own: Almost two million voice boxes connecting, summoning an opening to breach the heavens. The Leolon fly above to witness. Even trees gather on the outskirts to partake. They join in as well, with their unheard vibrations, which obviously augment the event.
Then, Wernold appears. The crowd silences, then cheers. He is elevated into his creation. He climbs upon and sits in the center of the massive amalgam of crystals and pipes. Each can see his hands hover over the controls. There are smalls clinks that echo out. He casts a note from his mouth. It blasts out one hundred-fold to the crowd. That tone dwarfs what the people made. Everyone smiles.
Then it begins.
The sounds from his mouth, the playing of his fingers are simple at first, then augment in crescendo to complexity that boggles my mind. Everyone looks elated. The performance lasts and colors build. The colors, yes, the colors, there are images in the colors. I cannot say if they were on purpose or if they were placed there by my mind: A sort of pareidolia based on my own consciousness. Maybe others were seeing this too, or maybe it was just I. I will never know. But it felt profound. It felt sacred.
Obviously, it opened windows. Obviously, it called energy from beyond. I could see glorious faces. It were as if the Gods peered in to feel this, to see this. Wernold was the genius of the ages. He was the penultimate of expression of our genes. He came to release this unity to call upon this unity to bring universes to this oneness to express this love of what humans were destined to created: What humans were designed to create.
I left that concert changed.
No one, afterward, spoke of it.
There was an aura about everyone that was of so much peace. Everyone smiled more broadly for weeks after. It was a fantastic event.

My knees were bloodied by the trip to the asphalt and dirt. My jeans were torn. I looked up to the moon, which was almost setting behind the fog. I needed to get home. The scent of the fresh air woke me. The details of the dark were plain to my eyes and this evening was most ethereal and dream like. Will I forget this?

Derek K. Nielsen
17 September 2022
Wine Trip

9/16/2022 - Fractalage wrote:

Corked.

Despite the taint, it was obvious that this needs years before it's gonna calm down.
Very structured.
Very austere.
It's a biggie.
Probably needs 5 more years.

9/13/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Love this bottle.
Needs at least 2 hours of decant off sediment.
It's a must to let this rest after transport as there is much fine smoke to settle out.

This might be my favorite Dolcetto after Mascarello and Giacosa. It's truly excellent.
Liquid flowers, meats, in balance with levity and density.
There's cherry sweetarts and a delish smoky/herb length to the finish.

If you don't let it settle til totally clear, you'll get mucho bitter of the tannins in sediment. So make sure to use a powerful LED to shine through. If it's the least bit cloudy, leave it alone until clear.

Excellent bottle.

9/4/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Excellent wine!
My second bottle since I cleared out my cellar of this.
Let stand for 5 weeks, as there was plenty of sediment.

This bottle held obvious notes of whole cluster fermentations with lots of stem tannins, that I love.

It had a super interesting nose of sharp berry and bacteria. It smelled like wine had spilt on a barn floor of straw and had putrefied there.

Hours later it's nose was of gorgeous flowers, and I could not stop smelling.
Wow wine.
Love this wine.
Wish I could find more of this.

Years ago I purchased all that this old company had on Camino Real and San Antonio in Mountain View. Now, it seems that only Biondivido has bottle of Fumin, but from Gros Jean.

Such a good wine.

Dregs from bottle, now 9 hours decanted:
Nose of sharp cherry and rhubarb, dense with complexity other than that.
There's baking spices and yummy cakes, with a core of cherries and and earthen component that is very endearing.
Palate is very enjoyable with sharp acid and cherry, concentration and yumminess that I've found in Christophe Baron's wines.
Paid $23 for the bottle, years ago.
What a bargain.

8/16/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Might be the 2nd best Dolcetto I've had to date.
(Bartolo Mascarello being the best so far.)
Initial decant to big fresh cherries and musky lows.

15 minutes later after the first pour:
Big black dense nose of black fruit. There's a sharp acid upward twist.
Palate of round open fruit.
Black dark tars, very tarry and long good acid that is very balanced. Yum!
Opened to more cherries and fruits. Palate had dusty tannins, soft and round: A very good wine.
Was even better with lamb.
Black fruit and tars: DELISH!

8/16/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

On my Dolcetto spree, this hits so well the next day.
I slow-oxed overnight, after pouring 1 glass the night before.

Yesterday the initial decant sported yeasty nose, but was for the most part closed up.
After a a few minutes showed flowers and tars hints.

The next day, licorice, tobacco, meats, dried herbs, blood, lots of minerally beef blood. Just a great wine.

8/16/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Great Dolcetto.
Loved it yesterday. Couldn't stop pouring, yet I left half the bottle for today.
After slow-ox, it held up perfectly with not much change. Perfect acid, excellent balance for the fatty meat dinner. My preference is lamb. This cut that fat so well.

Bit tart cherry, beef blood, excellence.

8/16/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Holy goodness!
To think that I found this at the Foster City Total Wine!
Wow!
What a find.
Credit to that establishment, as they had very knowledgeable staff and I was able to have a few interesting conversations about their stock, so I picked up a case of Dolcetto. To my benefit, the locals absolutely do NOT know what's there. Loved seeing this below the other bottles, literally buried treasure.

This guy is fresh, long and bloody. Just like the name says. It's beef blood with some acid and fruit. Yum, so yum.

I will slow ox over night. As for now, enjoying a glass.
Perfect with lamb.

Slow-oxed overnight, but had not opportunity to drink, so I corked and put in fridge until tonight.
Our of fridge, was incredibly fresh with delish herbs of hot hills, licorice, complexity that I can't pin down, dry, grip: Simply DELISH.

As it drips into my throat, it lingers quite excellently with tart and herbs. Definitely not as bloody as many of the other Dolcettos I've been tasting from my two cases of diverse producers, and not my favorite, but excellent still.

8/12/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

I am quite convinced that Dolcetto is in my top five of favorite wine grapes.

This particular expression took hours to open up. After decant there was left a few ounces of sedimented juice left in bottle, that was very much enjoyed.

At first, the palate held dense cherries, tars, black ripe earthen cherries with rich plums, earthen and tarry with herbs of complexity: Simply delicious.

After 1.5 hours it was rich, big, taught, dense but really came forward with lamb pairing. I pan seared lamb chops from Australia to reveal such a beautiful juice to reveal tobacco, more density of tars, depths of volcanic substance, yet fresh and perfectly balanced with acid to cut the fat.

Despite all of the palate enjoyment, the best was the feeling of spirit in my body. This took hold and really opened my creative spiritual nature. This is what all wine deserve to represent to the soul, to awaken to oneself and reveal the peace and joy of the heart.

Thank you Marie Theresa for creating this beauty!
It's truly art.

8/12/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

As I tumble into what may be called my consciousness, I wonder if it really is that, because to declare such means something beyond what humans can define: Consciousness. Yet I tumble. There are passings of thought, passings of air across my naked body, passings of things that may be snakes, yet I cannot know that due to the density of darkness. Yes, there is no light. In this state my palate is blessed by a juice that seems to be administered by an angel. In my mind I would call her the angel of peace through the pouring of juice from the heavenly states as processed from Earthly means to transfer the essence of the Goddess. She is in my mouth and the tastes of such are divine, for sure, and hold highs and lows of perfection. This is the juice of Cantina Mascarello.

This particular expression happens to be Barbera D’Alba 2015. It took two hours for it to come around. After decant it left plenty of sediment to be enjoyed at a later time, but the juice opened to power, density of fruit, firm tannins, spices and delicious cakes of other-worldly delight, delicious elderberry and mulberry.

All this had to pass through the evaporation of a yeasty nose, but after the 2 hours, it was perfect, and the dregs were totally enjoyable in a sweeter denser sort of way.

Need to buy more of this. Such purity of delight worth the money.

8/8/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Brought that bottle to the beach. The one that had been opened for the last day and then poured back to exhibit the excellent qualities of this wine.

Herbs, tobacco, licorice all brought such good palate expression as I drank it on the Pomponino beach.
Such a great wine to last this long and to be so much enjoyed from bottle.
Love it.
Last bottle so will have to look out for it at auction.

DKN

As I contemplate this wine after two weeks of time, I'm haunted by it's purity, concentration, complexity and length.
Literally haunted.
It seemed to be that iconic choice, by accident, due to all the other wines opened the night before, for this to have been left in the bottle with such volume to have been chosen to be brought to this beach on this very rare warm August day.
I was seen by those on the beach that I had this bottle with a white label, my feet in the sand with cold waves crashing onto my hips, taking occasional sips. Looking at the cliffs, the horizon, the water, the birds, my family, with this exquisite juice in my mouth, lingering in all its complexity, was heaven.
This experience haunts me.
I wish to recreate it, but I know that was a one of one experience in August of 2022. Priceless.

8/8/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

For all you Burgundy lovers of aged excellent Pinot Noir, this wine might just convince you to cross over to cool climate, high elevation Nebbiolo, as it's very similar to the excellent Cote de Baune and Cote de Nuits cuvees.

It's very hard to find, but for $45 worth the price.

It's light and elegant, with power and grip with sparkle of stars that last for a long finish, delivering dusty tars, cola, cherries, touches of rusticity of funk for a complex mouthful.

If heaven had multiple tiers, this would be reaching to the highest, yet having a few grounding strings to hold it back.

There are many reasons why I really love this wine, but the main is that it's so light, yet packs a punch of powerful starry grip. I say starry because there are millions of tiny explosions all over my palate that feel like a mini galaxy of stars in my mouth. Those bang for almost a full minute, then diminish into smoke of tars and light remnants. It's truly a mini-bang in my mouth. The best of the Burgundy do the same, such as most Clos Vougeot that I've tasted.
That effect builds and builds so gloriously that this might be my favorite of the year, so far.

8/6/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

No notes yet?
Great!
I think this is the best quality find from Costco yet, at $38 per bottle.
This is tasting so far beyond that price, to where I would expect this go his at minimum $60-$80.
This is why I bought a case.
It will shine for years to come and sport that excellent CDP quality.
The blend on the nose gives away it's Grenache dominance, but the meats are why I love it. It's clean, meaty and dense and light at the same time lending to a beautiful combo of quality unexpected.

Here after 9 hours of decant it's in a perfect place. It will compliment any fatty meat, and tonight it was roast chicken.
Don't buy. I might want another case.

8/6/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

A lot of bottles produced and I'm happy to have had my case.

This guys is perfect to drink now. Excellent blend.

Gorgeous soft nose of plummy cherries and musky earth. There's an aspect of wet straw that had been sun dried.
Palate has great balance of acid and fruit that make this a great steak wine.
Would never turn down a glass of this.
Beautiful even through to the next day of slow-ox. Yummy to the last.

8/6/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

OMG good juice!

This hits perfectly my palate for what I crave and love.

As soon as I opened, yesterday, right after pickup from the Rare Wine Company, who was gracious enough to let me have 6, I was blown away by the funk, the stones, the minerals, the density: Just CRAZY amazing nose and palate. This guy is a baby! But still open. It's crying and whining to be drunk in its complete raw, juvenile state.
Loved it then and LOVE it now.

I double decanted and let sit on my table over night and now I'm enjoying the last glass after 32 hours of double decant, which is really saying something, because it's actually perfect. All that funk is gone and now it's something of rather legendary beauty with violets, meats, musky cured cranberry charcuterie with raspberries, maybe Chambord cured prosciutto,.
It was dry and loaded with personality: Something of a unique person with a mohawk and goatee, in linen suit, who spoke in that perfect English with accent of Liverpool.

Elizabeth Bourcier, thank you!
Tell Christophe that I'm creating a masterpiece with his Horsepower that he sent.
I'll also create one with this.
Wow. So good.

8/6/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Purchased last year direct from winery. Met the winemaker and we had trouble interpreting that I was artist who painted with wine and wanted to paint with his juice, but at least I got to buy 6 of this excellent wine.
In Gorome this was $100 a bottle in the good restaurants but $35 from the winery, which was on top of an ancient facility that we got to tour.

Cappadocia is an amazing area of the world. I highly recommend visiting. Was some of the highlights of my life to see the white sands holding ancient bush vines of indigenous varietals among the chimneys.

This bottle had been in my cellar for a year and upon decant held massive amounts of sediment.
After 2 hours of air still held no nose, but sported palate of purity with plums, cherries, tars herbs and nary a detect of oak, which is a plus. I opened to taste with the folks at Rare Wine Company as I figured they rarely get to taste such as this, and I was right.

Yum for the ancient wine history and yum for the quality, and yum for the experience.

8/6/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

My last bottle.
It was overshadowed by some quality CDP, No Girls, Vina Cubillo, and Burlotto, yet held its own very well. Such a great wine with obvious balance.

Enjoyed immensely.

8/6/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

OMG good!
Poured two small glasses out last night and let the rest slow ox until now.
Such a perfect wine: Balanced to fruit, earth and acid.
Joy to drink.
Gorgeous nose of flowers, herbs and touches of tars.
15% abv, wow, but doesn't taste like it in the slightest.
I had open 5 bottles today that were all over $60 plus a few over $100, but I liked this one the best of them all.

Even the dregs were amazing.

This is the best example of Barbera I've yet to taste.
Grapes from Verduno and Roddi. Imported by RWC, so you know it's good.

Yesterday I picked up my 150 bottles from RWC and this was in vertical from 2016-19. Can't wait to taste the rest.

This particular bottle was interesting, because there were aspects of flabbiness, but kept a rigid backbone of length to where that flabbiness was adding to the quality and enjoyment of the whole, something I've yet to experience in a wine.

I will continue to buy this as much as offered.

8/6/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Initial decant revealed no nose.
Palate was very tart, but with power and stars, going on coating my mouth with delicious herbs and tars.
This much acid needs food. Good fatty food.
Lamb was excellent with this wine. Made it taste much better.

Loved it.

8/3/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Way overdelivers for the price.
Crazy delish nose of steely fruit of cherry, mullberry and elderberry with earth bits and spices.
Palate crushes it with spice and length. Power and oomph that continues for a minute that endears me to it greatly.
Will buy again.

As I continue to imbibe it gets deliciously spicy with a godly nose of immense flora and baking spices: Evolving into an excellent wine.

7/16/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Just a great wine.
Upon opening and decanting 5 days ago, this guy had hard edges and much earth and mushroom, which lent such yummy notes but also indicative of it's price to quality.
Here now 5 days later, wow, it softened and showed much excellent quality after the slow ox effect.
Plums, earth, dense real notes of goodness. Worth the penny.

7/15/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Good wine.
Had open for 5 days and was in a perfect state.
There's power and nary a rough edge.

Here at 5 days slow ox, I'm loving it.

Recommend a 6-24 hour decant.

7/15/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Don't get this rating stuff: 88, 89, 92, bla bla bla.
What the hey.
It's either quality or not. Seriously trying to quantify with these numbers is pretty ridiculous, in my opinion.

This wine is good.
I had it decanted for a full 2 days and was soft and approachable with body and spices. I was surprised that it wasn't as new oak heavy as expected. Hardly detected the oak, which was nice.

From the bottle I left two glasses undecanted, which were even better: That slow ox effect, so good.
This 2015 will last for decades. In 2055 it will still be enjoyed. I don't recommend that to be your target date, but just to testify to its quality.

After initial opening and decant I was very surprised as to the quality for price. I paid under $30 for the bottle and this very much over delivered.

7/11/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Excellent wine.
Perfect to drink now. I can't see how it can get any better, though it might. (Yep, it will assuredly get better!)
It was so excellently balanced, delicate and with perfect royalty of power, speaking in that gorgeous Spanish accent. (Who doesn't love Spanish spoken from Spaniards?)

I was at Sandy State Liquor store again, having just done a 10 day teetotaler stint. I must admit that it was nice break. But now, it was the TIME FOR WINE! So I bought the most interesting, most expensive bottle they had. The guy there said it was from Australia, (huh? the label said Toro, and it was sitting in the Spanish section.) and that it's been there for a while: $210 paid. About that he was right, as the cork was dry! It broke in half! I had to push the other half into the bottle, dammit, but it did not affect the wine.
To match this beauty, I picked up a USDA prime tomahawk steak: OMG so good pan seared blue with Real Salt.

Decanted the bottle to rich, delicate aromas of cherries and soft wood.
Those fell away and the nose closed up big time.
But it's texture was Godly! It was soft, with delicate acid and delicate notes of fruit and fine wood. I normally hate wood in my wine, as you may know, but I guess this guy got a pass.

It opened to tars, among the soft, elegant vanilla.
There was a dust, a fine dust about the palate.
That dust ended up congealing into a grip that demonstrated the need for more cellar time.

This was the wine of the Spanish King.
I was the guest from the Kalmar Union.

3 hours later, it still had no nose!
I guess, I need to keep this open till tomorrow.

As it got more air it actually got more tannic!
More grippy.
Maybe this guy was too young!
(This happens to good Barolos too, where upon opening they are open and then close up to not show for 48 hours.)

We'll see.
I'll revisit tomorrow.

Nope, revisited on the 15th 4 days later from last 2 glasses of undecanted juice.
Still good.
Big, spicy, full bodied, bold, tarry, excellent.
It actually had a nose! The nose of of something old and leathery and rustic.
Just a great wine, but not worth the $$$$.
I'll tell you what, though, if it came between this and Opus 1, I'd choose this every time.
If it came between this and August Clape, HELL NO!
If it came between this and Chistophe Baron juice, HELL NO!

Basically, I'll never put money to this again, because there are plenty of other bottles to experience and not enough time in my life.

DKN

7/2/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Great wine.

I've never had a wine that truly exhibited qualities of cigar box as much as this one.

Plums, cigar, cedar exude from this juice.
I've never had a Nebbiolo display such flavors before. So glad to have purchased.

Long finish of juicy cherry and cigar.

Very dry and literally tastes like a cigar box.

7/2/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

My last 750. 1 mag left.

Holy amazing nose!
For the nose it was a perfect 100.
Had everything to make me sad that I was drinking it, because I do not want it to disappear.
This bottle was haunting!

It had been standing upright in my closet for almost a year.
Its cork was in perfect condition.
A full glass was left in the bottle as I stopped pouring at the first sign of the smoke.

Initial waves of aromas held tart cherries.
After the first glass was poured I never wanted to leave that smell: Big rich meaty dirt, earth, barn, rustically powerful, tars, herbs, fine and long.

This Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot blend was incredible.
Its first sip was about the best wine I've ever had: Very youthful grip of herbs, tars, length like crazy, evolution and stars galore. It was a full minute of changing godly elixir that left millions of puffs of explosions that held to my tongue with black, tarry fruit.

I love that quality of funk that smacks of old word delicacy, sporting steely umami of sea urchin (Uni).

Pour after pour I lamented this bottle's demise, yet enjoyed every moment imagining if there weren't some future creatures looking in through my body to take advantage of this rare evening.
Have you ever wondered if your human shell's experiences were ever sold?
Imagine that human experiences were marketable: Specific brokers on the intergalactic market sold minutes of what your experiencing right now. Would you know it?
What if who you think you are is not who you think you are, but a collective of eyes looking though your human body, experiencing the expanding moment's human rarity.

If I ever get beyond this world and life to be somewhere else in space/time, then I would assuredly pay to have this wine experience again.

As this thing continued to open, there were more and more tertiaries that came out such as tobacco, plum, cherry, smoke, cassis. Just delish.

7/1/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Interesting wine.
A touch flabby.
Enjoyable to drink.

7/1/2022 - Fractalage Likes this wine:

Clean nose of honey, garrigue and a touch of horses ass.
Meats, roasted meats, honey BBQ, bite of Brett, acid, soft tannins.