12/20/2020 - Tim2 wrote:

to be drunk at Xmas eve dinner 2020

6/8/2020 - Jeff Leve wrote:

The color is so dark it tells you that you're not in Kansas anymore. Flowers, licorice, truffle, spice, wet earth, smoke and plum liqueur aromatics get noticed easily. In the mouth, this rockstar wine coats your palate with fruit that does not quit. Opulence bordering on decadence in texture, the fruit feels like polished velvet. Rich and nuanced, concentrated and fresh, the fruit, earth and bitter chocolate endnote sticks with you for over 50 seconds. Produced from a blend of 97% Merlot and 3%, this is so good, I want some for my cellar. This is the finest wine ever produced here in the history of the estate and should age effortlessly for 3 decades. 96-98 Pts

5/21/2020 - AaronMaxwell Likes this wine:

Delicious.

On open, it was all packed really closely together, but I could already tell there was a lot going on.

After an hour in a decanter, it's expanded to fill my palate. Medium tannins, medium body (for me. others say it is fuller)...dark fruit flavors, not overly oaked.

Note to self: don't open the remaining bottles for another 2-4 years!

2/29/2020 - Rob-Rah Likes this wine:

I found this delicious! A pale-ish brownish-red. Lovely fruit scents and violets. Silky, luxurious palate. Sweetish. Really quite beautiful fruit. Restrained and classy, and just beautiful. Caressing finish. Right up my alley.

11/18/2019 - Rob-Rah Does not like this wine:

Opaque, black-purple with a reddish-magenta rim. Tight tarry fruit. Bit of floral aspect. Palate hard, tannic, dry. Hot alcohol. No sweet fruit at the moment. Tarry fruit but veering toward red rather than black perhaps. Certainly nothing like the moniker suggests about chocolate. I'll follow over the evening. On initial pour this is not very friendly at all.

A few hours later: nah, this is a tough, charmless, oaky, tarry wine. Big scale but just so unfriendly. Hard to drink and harder to enjoy really. I wouldn't buy this in the hope it transforms after a few years in bottle.

1/3 bottle tried after being corked and kept 24 hours...... still pretty nasty stuff. So bitter and aggressive. Downgraded score.

12/28/2019 - elevwine Likes this wine:

According to label this is Bosnian wine, not Croatian. Very drinkable, bright and acidic with an old world style. Paid about half of community valuation and that would be all I would pay for another bottle.

10/30/2019 - WhatsSamSipping Likes this wine:

This bottle was in rough shape but the wine made it through very well. Considerably rich in body and flavor for an eight year kabinett. Let it sit open for a while and the acidity will freshen things up. Will age for longer if you want more petrol and condensed flavors, especially if your bottle is in good shape.

10/26/2019 - 83Vintage Does not like this wine:

The ripe weight shows itself too much, with a flat round texture, lacking in focus and form. There is no secondary components, depth, or vibrancy that I’m looking for. Not my style

10/25/2019 - Slaz wrote:

My first bottle from this vintage. Studied it over 4+ hours of decanting. Overall, fairly unimpressive relative to the price tag of $250. Upon opening, it tasted monolithic and ungiving, as I expected. With air, it improved but not to a point where my tastebuds found this memorable. Plenty of graphite and raw wood, with fairly generous but still moderate acidity. I kept looking for tertiary notes but never found them. The nose was similarly restrained (e.g., I've had much more floral explosion from some of the better Brunellos from 2010, as a reference point). I'll give the rest of my bottles 5+ more years.

10/15/2019 - csimm wrote:

This took about 2-3 hours of decanted air to fully open up. Wild blackberry, red and black cherry, red and purple plum skin limestone, muddled strawberry seed, and violets. A near-perfect combination of speed and concentration. Medium-to-full bodied, with a finish that displays notable verve, tension, and back end flavor expansion.

Best to hold for another 3-5 years, but not a sin to open now with a few hours of a decant. Ideally wait until 2023+. 95+ points.

5/4/2019 - baxter67 Likes this wine:

Interesting. I bought this wine at the Chateau, drank three soon after, then put the remaining three in the cellar and forgot about them. A pleasant surprise. Still sound, quite light with good fruit, still redolent of Provence with the Grenache, Mourvedre and other grapes very much in evidence. Reading the other reviews, it seems to have a second wind? ***

1/16/2013 - Rob-Rah wrote:

Dark. Deep, fruity. Strawberry and roses. Iodine, a little tar. Palate powerful and rather tannic. Covered up by a little residual sweetness. But this is off-dry rather than really semi-sweet. A bit one-dimensional. This appears to be in need of bottle age. Well balanced. I have 12 of these so will save rating until I understand it a bit better. My impression is good though.

1/10/2019 - Rob-Rah Likes this wine:

A massive, bruising and brooding wine. Already quite some sediment staining the inside to the bottle. Amazing depth both of colour and taste. Superb cassis and dark plum fruit quality with depth and just the right balance of plush sweet fruit and tannins and acid. Long, frankly delicious blueberry-fading-to-chocolate finish. Really very good indeed, and a wonder this isn't far more expensive. But also rather young right now and those tannins need to soften - give a LONG decant, or wait 5-10 years. 95+

5/10/2019 - Justinito wrote:

Stupid Steph

5/4/2018 - Benjamin on Wine wrote:

Spatburgunder at its best and very typical Concentrated red fruit aromas, as well as smoke, cedar wood and overall quite strong in aroma. Very nicely balanced on the palate, with a medium body, medium + tannins and high acidity. That balance makes it so delightful, Ahr this is great!

6/28/2018 - Rob-Rah Likes this wine:

Very, very good. Though I have a nasty feeling that I am missing out on something in 15 years by drinking these now.

5/21/2018 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Mint with a handful of earth is the first thing you notice. From there the cherry and plum notes pop up. Medium bodied, silky, polished, soft and sweet, the wine offers cherry pipe tobacco, plums and earthy notes, The soft tannins and layers of fruits keep on going on the palate. The wine was produced from a blend of 54% Merlot and 36% Cabernet Franc.

4/3/2018 - mmh wrote:

Eight years after buying this bottle i finally popped the cork with high expectations....which were not quite met. Decanted for 2 hours. Fairly complex on the nose, worked very well with food but on its own it was slightly astringent and boring. I am not sure if it was past its peak (doubtful), too young or just a slightly off bottle.

1/22/2018 - Eric Guido wrote:

The Larcis Ducasse was intense on the nose with spiced raspberry and sweet herbs. On the palate, I found silky, broad textures with glossy red berry fruit, yet it lacked in the mid-palate, as I craved acidity and grip. The finish was medium in length with lingering spice.

8/18/2017 - evanqian wrote:

closed nose, powdery tannins, some leafy and earthy notes, dry finish. not open at all. this bottle seems weird.

Ap 5/5, Ar 11/15, Palate 16/20, Overall 3+3/10
Total 87/100

5/14/2017 - zut alors! Likes this wine:

Completel agree with TREPAK (1/29/17): perfect resolution. balanced, slightly acidic (just enough to cut through the fat of a steak). Better than most entry-level Chat du Papes. Burnt toast notes and Black berry so dark and flavorful, practically seemed syrup-y. Quoi se veut "Coudoulet" en fancais? Une traduction, s'il vous-plaît!

11/11/2016 - Tgarthe Does not like this wine:

Upon opening I got plenty of hay and leather on the nose before it turned quite pugnant.

It improved after an hour or so, although prune was evident throughout.

Was ok on the palate, didn't feel like it had much body, although the long finish was there.

Think it had just fallen apart a little too much. Purchased from graysonline, so unsure of cellaring conditions.

Will try again soon.

12/21/2010 - Rob-Rah wrote:

Bouquet of this one different from previous vintages I have tried. Less of the baked fig. More freshness, and an unexpected precision of cassis (almost cabernet-esque!). Palate elegant and rounded. Again, less of the heady mix of wet hay, baked figs and raisins and port flavour. There seems to be less residual sugar than previous vintages as well as carrying its alcohol level more deftly and lightly. More freshness of blackcurrant. Superb structure.

Lovely, and remarkable for Plavac mali. But I hope this marks a vintage variation (2007 was the most recent very good vintage in the region since 2002 amd 2003), and not a change towards a more "international" style. I like all that caramel-fig-and-eucalyptus stuff that is typical for coastal Plavac mali...!

1/23/2015 - NineteenEightyTwo wrote:

Medium-light rosewood color. This has an airy, bright nose of red fruit. The palate is similarly light-bodied; smooth, with very faint flavors of cranberries. Overall this is very clean, showing minimal oak. There's a little bit of tannin left, but this wine has basically reached maturity. Several hours of aeration did not cause the nose or palate to expand at all. An understated effort that pairs easily with food, this is neither dramatically overpriced nor a screaming value at $25/bottle.

3/23/2014 - Crispin Likes this wine:

Excellent. Brick red. Took an hour to open up, still plenty of tannin but once open it was fruity with vanilla and cedar. Going to leave remaining bottles for a few years.

1/26/2014 - Deven Blackburn Likes this wine:

Heaven on the nose. Peachy, white flower aromas - I could sniff this all night without getting bored. Surprisingly fresh fruit on the palate for 10+ year old ice wine. Pleasant surprise!!

6/24/2013 - Orlandus wrote:

Rich Riesling character with some complexity. However, its natural sweetness was overwhelmed by a strong sour fruit taste evident on opening and which did not improve after two days in the fridge. Judging from other comments, this is just a bad bottle, although it had been well stored since purchase and did not show any oxidation. I have drunk hundreds of Mosels over the years, so it's not that I don't know what to expect. Approach with caution.

1/10/2013 - mattmoy_2000 wrote:

A nice port, opening up to honeyish flavours after a (long) while decanted (a couple of weeks). Still fruity and young, but with an ever so slight colour change towards the orange/brown.
No detailed notes, but an enjoyable glass.
Was opened for a birthday party meal on 08/12/12 but not really touched. Drank slowly over the next few weeks, watching the flavour evolve. Re-bottled half-bottle of decanted stuff in a smaller bottle to travel home for xmas with.
Cork showed no signs of staining, and was simply branded "Vintage Port 1994", suggesting a re-corking to hide the Quarles-Harris origin of the wine. (Label simply said "Symingtons"

9/21/2012 - mstrigel wrote:

a slight taste if plum, much less intense as classic zinfandel (crljenak supposingly the grandfather if zinfandel)