1/15/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

I had pulled the 1988 Pertimali Bruno di Montalcino as a back-up bottle to the 88 Pergole Torte about which I posted yesterday. Acquired on release. This cork was also in good shape, and I followed about the same decanting protocol as the PT. The initial impressions were positive, indeed there was a very fine bouquet of spice, leather and cedar that I found a bit lacking in the PT. The wine was very good, rich and round and with all of the flavor notes I'd expect to see in a BdM of this age and fine vintage, markedly on the redder side of the sangiovese color spectrum. In contrast to the PT, there was less acidity than the PT, so the wine came across as somewhat less structured. It seemed almost a bit watery in the center. So this showed as perhaps slightly on the downslope but was still a very heady experience. I'd say that it's greatest shortcoming that it was consumed 24 hours after a monumental bottle of Pergole Torte.

1/14/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Revelatory bottle. Opened mid-day and I was encouraged by the relative freshness and presence of the fruit. Good cork, not fully saturated and decent pop when I pulled. Poured a glass about 3 hours and then set about seriously evaluating the wine at about 4-5 hours. The fruit is bright and red, morello cherry but backed by some spice and leather. In time, some earthy underpinnings emerge. The wine keeps getting better over a several hour period, remains bright, held together by good acid, and seems very much at peak. I might have rated higher if I could coax more aroma from the glass but on the palate the wine is oh so good! I had an early revelation with 79 PT in Florence in the mid80s, and always hold after-acquired bottles to unrealistic expectations. But this one really showed up and was a profound experience. Thank you Mr Manetti and Mr Gambelli!

1/13/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This wine is soooo good and seems to have budged very little over the past several years, so I suspect a long future. Drank at cellar temperature and it is textbook Tondonia Blanco, Golden color, waxy texture, only slight oxidative notes, rich, full, with a flowery, slightly sweet edge from the Malvasia. A lovely wine to savor...

1/7/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This is in a very good place. bright red morello cherry fruit with the savory notes that are the hallmark of this house. The warmth of this vintage is resolved and this wine is in a very fine place, somewhat hedonistic, but I think ready to go.

1/1/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

[my facebook group post] 2010 Costi Costanti Brunello di Montalcino. I've been studying this wine the past three nights before posting. It's quite an impressive wine, and still way too young to drink. Brooding, dark, earthy spice fruit, edged with blue and violet notes, rich and concentrated without being heavy; 48 hours into coravin a bit of acidity starts to emerge on the edges of the palate, while the dark core remains intense. This wine is way too young to drink and has an impressive future ahead of it. I'll try to be patient with my remaining bottles, and give them at least 5 more years. Profound effort.

12/28/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Enjoyed over several days. The color is golden and there is a pronounced nuttiness that is decidedly the hand of the Lopez house. But over several days, the nuttiness holds while the wine at the same time become fresher and more complete. A wonderful interplay of oxidative and citrusy notes. Last glass as enjoyable as the first, and definitely a wine to enjoy with a range of foods.

1/6/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Wine is in a truly excellent place. Decanted for about 4 hours. Poised. Complete. Complex. Cedary/leathery noise Extremely well balanced with a pronounced, substantial inner core of bright red fruit from the garnacha. Everything you want with a mature Lopez -- on a high plateau of maturity that should hold for quite some time. No rush to enjoy but no reason not to. Perfect wine for a dreary wet winter's night.

1/5/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Lovely, lively wine, quite fresh. The grenache is very pure, but the addition of some syrah and other varietals in smaller quantities adds some structure, backbone and a bit of heft without significantly altering the impression of the bright red, strawberry notes. Excellent work. Very solid value. Added a few bottles

1/7/2024 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

update to 12/30 note: I drank the Vinudilice over a week's time, initially on Coravin for a few days. It retained its creaminess and the savory notes a bit more pronounced. Quite a lovely, almost meditative wine, and fully enjoyable on its own as a late afternoon aperitif. Excellent work, this bottle has grown on me and glad to own more,

12/9/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This wine, from mag, showed brilliantly. Surprisingly clean when opened and slow-o'd for 4 or more hours. Good acid. Really changed in the glass, filled out, distinct notes of clove (faintly reminiscent of the oral anaesthetic from childhood in its intensity), earthy, spicy, black fruited, light bodied bvut complex at the same time, definitely can detect the mourvedre (or whatever it is called in the Baleriacs); a joy to share with friends who were not winegeeks but nonetheless recognized what a special treat this was. Sadly, I understand that the garagiste winemaker struggles to find space to make his wines and that this wine my no longer be available.

12/8/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This wine showed very well. It has mellowed, softened, earthy, loamy, expressed the place and totally enjoyable (this is not a real time note, so not as descriptive as I might be)

12/31/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Opened early this morning, at about 7 hours of slow-O this wine was a mess, drying wood tannins on entry, boullion and soy in the mid palate. But a few hours later it turned itself around and was quite a lovely experience. Perhaps there is still a tiny inflection of oak in the spicy, firm entry, but the wine is complete, well structured with a good acidic spine, red fruited, and some of the classic rose-inflected-with-red iron notes appear in the bouquet and the finish. Perhaps the oak was not entirely resolved, but this wine was more similar than dissimilar to the memorable 1989s and1990s of yore, and a highly enjoyable, heady experience-- paired superbly with braised shortribs and pureed parsnips (that I should not discuss with my cardiologist)

12/30/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Like Xavier said in his note below, totally on point; I've found an almost creamy note in prior vintage (maybe 2017) and that I sometime find in other roses (e.g. Cotat) that seems lacking here. But a very alluring wine nonetheless, and nice to drink nearer to cellar temperature than chilled...

11/20/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

I liked my prior bottle significantly more than this one, although there is plenty of pure fruit going on. I'm getting some moderately spicy, almost dilly new oak. I'm wondering whether there might have been a new barrel introduced in this vintage. I don't think these guys use barrique, and I wouldn't say this is overoaked, just noticeable to this reactionary palate.

11/19/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This is a new producer for me, and a pleasant find, given how Jura prices have escalated. Another excellent find by Rosenthal. Pale, limpid, slightly muddy color belie a rather full expression of Poulsard, dried strawberries, wet leaves, a hint of tobacco. Very well balanced and well made. I will be interested in seeing the evolution overnight in the bottle and will endeavor to update this note.

10/7/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

I think I liked this wine better in 16, and Suertes' 2017 effort a bit more elegant. Still a beautiful wine. This seemed warmer to me than my recollection of the 2016. The bouquet was alluring -- volcanic soils, reddish fruits. The finish was perhaps a bit more rustic than I'd expect, didn't have the feeling of completeness and elegance that I know that Borja can produce at his best. My impression that these grapes were more of a challenge than in the monumental 2016.

10/7/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

This in a fantastic place. My score may be conservative. Intoxicating bouquet of slate, smoke, petrol, honey, and pink grapefruit. Quite full and complex on the palate with the smoke and petrol at the forefront, complex honey notes in the middle, and a lingering finish of citrusy/grapefurit notes. The color is golden. The concentration of fruit is impressive, gives an impression of sweetness. This has changed substantially since the acidic baby it was, and should last and give pleasure for quite some time yet.. patience is required for those that only have a bottle or two left

10/9/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This one seemed ready to go, a little lighterfooted, not as tightly constructed as several prior vintages. I know they change the blend from year to year, will be curious to study the evolution. Always a treat and great value, however!

9/23/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

Enjoying this library release. It's now in a nice place. It has mellowed and has some tertiary notes, yet still a good acidic streak and fine-grained tannins. I think we drink good Dolcetto, particularly Dogliani, too young and this tasting confirms that impression.

9/8/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

Might have enjoyed a tad bit less than prior showing, and the wine may have been shut down. (Last minute substitute for an over-the-hill barbaresco). Well balanced, the bouquet is very much of Verduno fruit. Very well made, crazy good value.

9/8/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Brilliant showing. Decnated for 3-4 hours. Great aromatic lift. Schisty footings and a spectrum of blue-black fruits typical of Portugese varietals. Compelling. Hard to set aside. Superb winemaking.

9/8/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

Love this wine. Not as overtly fruity as some earlier efforts (in a relative sense, given that this wine is made in amphora). The fruit remains bright red, faint notes of pomegranate, firm acidic streak hoks the wine together, a few hours in the decanter helped soften. Brilliant winemaking as we've come to expect from Elisabetta.

9/8/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

To answer the question posed in my 2022 note, the wine is a notch better with the additional age. So rich and full yet crisp. A glorious bottle of rose to savor, not to quaff.

8/16/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

This wine lives up to the hype. Full yet balanced. Great strawberry fruit, but restrained compared to some of the warmer Grenaches from elsewhere in Spain and in the Southern Rhone. Over a several day period (on Coravin) the wine added depth but remained quite balanced. I still long for that mind-blowing granitic experience when I first tried the Rocas 1ere in 2016 (took me back to young Rayas), which is not here -- this wine is somewhat more fruit-driven but still soil driven. The quality is superb. Definitely a wine to own in the cooler vintages and clearly that was the case in 2021

9/9/2023 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Delicious, ripe, round pinot noir from the Pfalz. Terrific value. One of the small side benefits of global warming!

9/5/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This wine is showing exceptionally well, garnet red, spicy, slightly lifted aromatics with some inflections of cedar and tobacco, excellent weight especially in the mid-palate, and long lingering finish. Quite rich for a basic chianti. Great vintage, very representative of the house style and in an absolutely delicious place.

9/4/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Terrific showing. Decanted for about 6 -7 hours (actually 2 bottles into a 1.5 litre ernlenmeyer flask). Bright, red cherry fruit on opening. The wine resolved beautifully over the course of the decant. The fruit remained forward but the wine developed a nice, mellow earthiness. This wine has many more years ahead of it but is close to irresistible now. Great effort!!

7/20/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

CCT nailed the tasting note. This wine at first is a little closed or reductive. But after a few days in the bottle (on Coravin) this classic bright red spicy note burst through and the wine is totally captivating. A truly moving glass of sangio.

8/14/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Very well made, classic grenache blanc flavor profile and good mineral backing. Round but well structured. Very balanced. Tasty wine.

7/4/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This wine, with a couple days air, exploded with bright, fresh, clean, oak-free tempranillo fruit. Absolutely delicious

7/7/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Excellent ribeira sacra blend. Shows the ancient field grapes and slatey soil exceptionally well. None of the grapiness I asosciate with Mancia, and none of the slight polish I sometimes get with this producer's higher end bottlings. Fun, well made wine, great value (at least on closeout)

7/3/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

Well made and balanced. I find I prefer the all Garnacha to the Monastreil blend. That bottle is surprisingly fresh.

7/3/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Very well made, surprisingly fresh Garnacha from Jumilla. Stupid great value!

8/7/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Very well made. A bit of nebbiolo grip and earthy/strawberry notes. Very refreshing, fun to drink. Excellent value. Worthy of the hype and nearly worthy of the allocation challenges.

6/26/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Well made. Bouquet has some minerally notes, a bit of alcoholic heat. Very balanced on the palate, excellent acidic spine, very classic malvasia notes. Great bottle. Will follow over coming days and weeks and update.

6/26/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Beautiful wine, opalescent, shimmering, orange-tinged salmon pink. Palate of strawberries, volcanic ash, and saline minerality. Very savory. Excellent with food and an all around terrific rosado, similar quality to prior vintages.

5/22/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Does Rose get any better than this? Dark pink. Round, rich, deep, strawberry inflected fruit with a pronounced underpinning of saline minerality that makes for an absolutely scrumptious yet serious bottle of pinot noir.

5/22/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Very well made, pure, garnacha/carinena blend. Balanced, comes across as a bit hot for my palate, when compared say to the Terroir Sense entry level blend, but this wine is a stunningly good value and not fair to compare to that monumental effort from Montsant at nearly 2x the price.

3/25/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

I have a very warm memory of a visit to Andreas in 2010. I really loved what he was doing in vintages such as 2007 and 2009, putting his youthful imprint on wines from important sites the middle mosel. I must concede that in recent years, I've found some of these wines to be somewhat flamboyant and my preferences perhaps tending more toward more toward "correct" Mosel winemaking. And that the warmer vintages do not age as well as I had hoped. That said, I loved this wine, certainly on the flamboyant side for a vintage like 2010, but absolutely delicious and hedonistic and displaying the flavor profile of this important site and I'm certain what Andreas was intending to express. Exotic, somewhat tropical mango, peach and lime notes and a great peachstone note to the palate. Delicious wine and paired brilliantly with a curry with a tad of heat. In a really great place and sorry to learn, as I enter this note, that this may be my last bottle.

3/12/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

I had forgotten my last note from 2020 where I remarked that the bottle seemed dead. This one tasted significantly older than a 2004, lot of and bouillon to start with some iron shavings on the back end. After a few hours, it picked up a bit more structure, and perhaps this would have benefited from a longer decant. But my overall verdict tothose who still own is drink up, this bottle is showing its age and the warmth of the vintage and is not destined for greatness.

2/13/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

"5/15/2021 - SOTTO325 favorite WROTE:90 Points
At best, a disappointing showing in need of another five years to flower. At worst, an off vintage that does not deliver the soulful deep earthy character that this wine can deliver. Little on the nose except for some strong moist earth notes, and a very dark red/black color.Some Briary forest notes, certainly a wild, very mild mushroom sense, and evidence of a strong fruit concentration without matching delineation. I will wait for the remaining bottle"

Sotto325 is a longstanding friend and someone whose palate I greatly respect, so I demur with some reluctance. My bottle last night was typical of 04 vintage challenges in many regions in Europe. Many excellent winemakers produced ripe wines that lacked the structure of great vintages, and fascination with additional oak and winemaking trends, in this bottle, resulted in drying wood tannins that competed with some very fine fruit and the telltale salty notes of this terroir. I got some of the impressions of a truly memorable bottle of 86 Migoua I had 15-20 years ago, in a mildly discordant package. I don't have any hopes that this wine will get any better from here, if this bottle is representative. It was well stored, in the coolest part of my passive cellar and owned more or less from release. I know I'm not the only one who is concerned that Tempier had been on this modernist streak

2/2/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

I think this wine has taken on some weight and is in a great place right now. I think my prior notes were correct, I think the wine has developed, which it tend to do even in questionable vintages such as 2014. Immensely enjoyable last night and my prior notes, including the one below, surprised me a tad:

8/13/2020 - I LIKE THIS WINE: (Edit)87 Points
A good bottle. Pure. Morello cherry tending to wild strawberry. Hints of menthol and other aromatics. Small scaled. But the clarity and consistency with the house style is rewarding. I had just come back to a Riserva from a well regarded Chianti Classico House and a more heralded vintage (2010) that suffered (mightily) from new oak, and in contrast this wine was ever so more satisfying. But I doubt that objectively this bottle was any different from one I had opened a few months ago and didn't score quite as generously. Confirms why Montevertine is my top cellar holding of sangiovese and why so much pleasure and pure sangiovese fruit experience can be obtained from simple Chianti Classico or other entry level sangios where the winemaker allows the fruit and terroir to speak unaltered and not attempting to be anything more than it is

1/30/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Love this wine. Oxidative notes blew off quickly and this wine is rich, savory, complex, very hard to describe. But drank beautifully with a pork and ginger dish. In a wonderful place right now

1/30/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

I found this wine dissolute, not cooked, but nevertheless, showing the challenges of the vintage. Fruit was decent and some darker notes from the mourvedre and the syrah, but was hoping for more. I'm surprised by some of the recent ratings if this bottle is any indication.

1/28/2022 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

I wouldn't necessarily say "over the hill" but this bottle was decidedly past peak. Showed the warmth of the vintage and not the structure I recall from bottles over the years. Excellent early effort from this project, but expected it to have held up better based on recent bottles of 04 Chianti Classico, though perhaps not fair to hold this one up to Felsina's Rancia.

10/8/2021 - baroloboy55-2.0 wrote:

My very good wine friend (and superb writer) cct wrote as follows in 2011: "A riper profile than the schonfels, with some salty mineral driven depth. Richer citrus-orange like almost. Still beautifully fresh, truly stony and just flat out pure. Just enought RS to add some complexity but not really be noticed. Beautiful again. 94 pts" These description remain accurate a decade later; the wine is rich yet fresh
The room was dark, so hard to detect the color of the wine, but seemed a bit golden. The fruit profile, to me is more white peach/peach pit with the citrus inflection more in the background, but the wine drinks beautifully and seems to have a great long road ahead of it. I too wish I hadn't been so confused by this master's labelling and do not have nearly enough of these wines.

7/2/2021 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

This wine is all umami, impeccably balanced, with a subtle stone fruit core. Crushed oyster shells with some oyster liquor. Enjoyed with raw and baked oysters, and the oyster notes recede in favor of subtle citrus notes. In contrast, the 12 enjoyed recently had some brighter lemon curd notes but I split hairs. This is a perfectly beautiful example of this vineyard and this style of winemaking. Showing beautifully on an unseasonably cool early summer night. A leaf night albeit! I think some of the other tasters underappreciate the beauty of this wine and its future prospects!!

6/19/2021 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

I shared the bottle with DC Wine described below and have not had a bottle of this gem since. I totally agree with his observation, but always add the descriptor "oyster liquor" when I think of this wine and the house style. Last night I enjoyed with a few raw oysters, some superb Oysters Rockefeller, and a ceasar salad with fried oysters -- all farm raised oysters from a project on the western shore of the Chesapeake, and the wine worked great. At the end of the meal, there was definitely an oyster liquor aroma coming from the glass, and not my fingers. Great work, and I thought an appropriate wine to drink on the eve of the Summer Solstice:

2/10/2019 - DCWINO WROTE:94 Points
Riesling Freaks lazy afternoon lunch (Chez Hugo - Baltimore): Expressive nose displaying ripe yellow citrus fruit, lemon curd, candied lemon peel, a hint of grilled cep, sweet spices and limestone. Excellent concentration, finely layered yellow citrus, dense yet pure precise, bright acidity, strong limestone mineral and a long sweet citrus fruit driven finish. It is also showing exceptional complexity. Clearly displaying the producer style, excellent showing.

3/27/2021 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Sublime bottle. Double decanted for sediment at breakfast time and the cork seemed fine but the bottle a bit muted. Left to breath in a cool part of my cellar and then decanted into a wide-bottom flask perhaps two hours before serving. Lifted, soaring, spicy aromatics. Still a bit grippy around the edges, the the sort of tannins associated with a warmer vintage. Superb typicity on the palate, winter spices, reddish notes of iron and clay perhaps. Wonderfully expressive of all of the distinct notes of this terroir. An excellent bottle in a superb place. Delivered all I could ask for and then a bit more... and continues to make me wonder what Il Maestro did with the 01 Asili, which seems to be a very different wine. Very grateful to experience this wine last night. (And excellent pairing with lamb shanks braised with cinnamon, coriander, cumin and juniper berry) Perfect wine for a festive Passover meal

3/13/2021 - baroloboy55-2.0 Likes this wine:

Remarkably fresh and bright, rich and somewhat round. I don't get oak (and I'm sensitive to oak, including on Rodriguez' higher end tinto). Nor do I get much bottle evolution. But a very nice, well built wine.