4/29/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

expressive bouquet of dark fruits and herbs. On the palate, the wine showed good balance and persistence with smooth tannins and firm structure.

4/20/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

a bouquet like a walk in a Spring garden, with a palate brimming with acdidity to add good energy to the fruit. This wine is a real bargain at the price point!

4/20/2024 - thwacker wrote:

The best Gigondas i have ever tasted, it brought me to my knees. Six years old but an eternity to go. With air over an hour, this wine was in another league. Explosive bouquet and palate- coating, this is an artistic wonder.

4/20/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

A marvelous wine, tons of fruit and an expressive bouquet that goes beyond expectations! On the palate, the wine is soft and rich with a finish that goes on forever. Enjoyed with a cheese course. After the Brebirousse d'Argental, this wine was especially sweet, soft and caressing. Loved it!

4/20/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Had this with a duck dinner right after a 2020 Saint-Joseph for comparison. The Côte Rôtie was evolving toward tawny and had taken on a complex of tertiary aromas and flavors. Like saddle leather, forest floor, barnyard, tobacco leaf, yet had rich fruit compote with solft tannins and balancing acidity, i uncorked and tasted, then re-corked until we were ready to pour so it didn't have a chance to die from air. It was marvolous, probably on its last legs but marvelous in its old age!

4/20/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

words cannot do justice to this wine. Smooth tannins, rich fruit, intense flavors and a bouquet that lept from the glass. Years ahead for this wine. Wish i had more. Hard to imagine a better cndp.

4/1/2024 - thwacker wrote:

Never had a wine from Cinque Terre, but with the gorgeous landscape and Rosenthal on the back label, i really wanted to like it, but it seemed either over the hill, a product of casual attention to vinification or simply a grape combination i did not like. The first half of the bottle was ok, though not terribly impressive, but the second half brought forth resiny and petrol nuances on the nose. I am assuming it was merely too old, given that the color was trending to amber and notes of oxidation were evident. i have no idea what the longevity is of this wine, but 4+ years may be pushing it.

4/1/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Enjoyed with oysters on the half shell -- no sauce. Simply, the best Muscadet i have ever tasted. Great complexity and balance with shimmering acidity, and minerality, offsetting the rich stone fruit and finished by evoking the sea. The bouquet lept from the glass! The age and longevity sur lie have given this wine richness on the palate and creamy softness. i returned to my Wine Shop and bought every bottle on the shelf --unfortunately, only 2 more bottles. If they had had more, i would have bought them and cellared them to see how long and how they would evolve. At least another decade in my opinion. Two bottles of this nectar won't last long in my house. Several reviewers unfairly, in my opinion, damned this wine with faint praise, comparing it to Chablis with varying impressions. Were they thinking of a Grand Cru, a Premioer Cru, a Village Cru Chablis? For goodness sake -- this is Muscadet, not Chardonnay! It proudly can stand on its own!!!

3/20/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

A bit heavy on the brett but otherwise a well-made wine with good balance and a rich flavor. Smooth tannins, Good for a few more years.

3/11/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Hard to imagine a better, fuller, more luxurious rose. Great balance and complexity, fabulous aroma and none of the bitterness of lesser rosés.

3/3/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Perfect for a Sunday afternoon. Frizzante, rich and harmonious, apples and pears, perfect acidity/fruit balance. our favorite!

3/3/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Prunes, dried figs, brown sugar, wonderful end to an afternoon of Italian foods and wine.

3/3/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

This wine, like velvet, rich, diaphanous, perfectly in harbony among all its elements. Marvelous, the best Montepulciano i have ever tasted.

2/21/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Outstanding. Brooding with lots of secondary nuances going on. Color is fading to tawney. Beautiful bouquet of rose petals, dark berries, strawberry compote and spices. Very earthy with hints of tobacco leaf and forest floor. A super wine, ageing well. Held up well for three nights.

2/16/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

The bouquet lept from the glass with dark fruits and spices. On the palate, the wine was rich and mouth-filling with good acidity and structure. Built for the long haul.

2/13/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

for the nodest priv=ce, this wine hits it out of the park. Rich and flavorful, perfectly balanced, full of complexities. Great bouquet.

2/10/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

I grabbed two bottles that impressed me at a wine tasting, but i was surprised when i pulled the cork at a private dinner at how complex this wine was, with citrus, spices and aromas that lept out of the glass and brought me back to sniff over and over, enjoyable and captivating almost more than the flavor, which was typical Loirean -- not too much citrus.

2/10/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

OMG, opened and poured and the bouquet lept from the glass like a racehorse! Dark fruits, spices -- a cornucopia of various aromas too complex to separate out from each other. On the palate, the wine was velvet, perfectly in balance with perfect fruit, acidity and tannins soft as a baby's bottom. The wine had depth and tactile substance not often experienced, and with unbelievable length. This was the best wine i have tasted in years! One more in my cabinet!!!

2/5/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

A well-made wine with soft and round mouthfeel and some of the bouquet of a Melon de Bourgogne. It lacks the crispy, almost saline nuance that a Muscadet offers, obviously since it has its feet in a different soil. Not being from the Loire, it's not expected to taste like a Muscadet and is good on its own.

1/17/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Even at $17, this PN underperformed. Well-made, so maybe better times a coming! I hope.

1/17/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Not offensive, but neither did it show much typicity. Well-made but not sauvignon blanc-ish. Neither New Zealandish or Loirish. Just there. For the price, i would expect more elements of SB. Sorry.

1/4/2024 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Extended lees ageing brought unbelievable creaminess to this wine, great balance and super fruit/acid balance. Lemony and other notes add complexity. Great quality/price.

12/17/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Color working toward light tawny overtones; bouquet a bit reticent but great subtle nuances of red fruits and some spice; soft tannins but still a good structure. Balance is outstanding with fruit and secondary aromas, such as saddle leather and forest floor. Outstanding!

12/9/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Love this Mencia, a bit peppery, plums blackberries. Wonderful balanced elements. This wine should get more play.

12/6/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

one of my fav whites from Italy -- like a walk in a springtime garden. Beautiful.

12/6/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

My go-to Chianti. Lovely wine, with good integration of all elements, rich nose and flavor with cherry and raspberry nuances. Good acidity and softening but still robust tannins.

12/6/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Light orangy color and the bouquet and flavor are very floral and spicy, hinting at gewurz. it went marvelously with a Tikka Marsala dinner!

11/23/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Alvaro Palacios is a magician. This wine drinks like a Bordeaux, and at 10 years is as smooth as it gets. Great balance and smooth tannins, good acidity and still years to go. Sorry, this was my last of the 2013.

11/23/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Delich! Lioke a spice cake, shimmering like a bell and a perfect match for this Thanksgiving fare.

11/21/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

As good as ever!

11/14/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

I was absolutely bowled over by this wine. Poured into large Bordeaux glasses, without decanting, it lept from the glass like a tiger, enveloping my senses in its embrace. Becoming a bit tawny in color, the bouquet was ripe cassis, blueberry preserves, cedar wood, licorice, mint, rose petals and much more. In the mouth, the wine was silk and cashmere with good structure and balanced elements of tannins and acidity, just now reaching its peak. My previous bottle was a disappointment, but this one over-delivered. What a masterpiece!

11/1/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Beautiful light straw color. This wine keeps improving with age (just like me!) Great fruit/acid balance, tons of various citrus/peach/pear stuff going on. Every sniff and sip brings something new, like a good wine should. Great price/quality ratio.

10/23/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

For the money, this is the best Chardonnay on earth. Rich, round, well balanced with bright acidity and scents of pears and golden delicious apples. i could drink this all day!

10/23/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Inky dark and powerful with supple tannins and refreshing acidity. very complex with nuances of forest, licorice, and dark fruits. no secondary surprises yet. Hold for another decade if you have the patience.

10/8/2023 - thwacker Does not like this wine:

Well-made but not my style -- too jammy.

10/1/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Fabulous and well-balanced with bracing acidity and succulent fruit. Outstanding!

9/14/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Smooth and almost creamy with none of the bitterness found in many over-manipulated rosés. Great brouquet and mouthfeel.

9/10/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

A lighter style PN with good aromatics and a fruity flavor. Good acidity and moderate tannin structure. Good value/quality and well-made.

8/23/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Lovely Furmint, nose of quince and pear with good acidity. Price is right for this wine. Went very well with salmon.

8/23/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

A well-made wine but too big and too dense for a PN, at least for my taste.

8/21/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Super-crisp and tart with good fruit of the lime/grapefruit style. Great minerality and a refreshing profile. I really have fallen big time for this wine!

8/13/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Delicious! Crisp acidity nestled in a cocoon of a fabulous fruitiness. On the nose, the wine has lychee, apricot, kumquat, white grapes and floral notes of gardenia, night-blooming cereus and orange marmelade. Every whoff brought forth a different sensation, the epitome of complexity in a wine. On the palate, the wine is palate-coating and refreshing with good acidity. Very little of the Rieslingesque petrol, thankfully! I love the low abv, as i can enjoy glass after glass without getting blotto. As Robert Parker would say -- "a hum-dinger"!

8/11/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Inky purple robe; Bouquet dark fruits and liquorice. On the palate, the wine has abundant tannins and acidity, flavors of blackberries and plums. The wine is fresh and youthful, surprisingly firm for a wine 16 years yound, but this is Aglianico after all. Probably opened too soon, but oh so good!

8/10/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

A bit darker in color than a rosé from Provence, and the nose and palate were very expressive and showed good acidity, in good balance with the fruit. A very fine rosé abnd for a great price!

8/10/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Unfiltered, so a bit cloudy, flamboyant nose and rich flavor, all elements in perfect balance and showing marvelously at age 5. A tour de force!

8/4/2023 - thwacker wrote:

i was surprised it was this good! Light coloration and pretty bouquet. On the palate, the wine had a bit of texture, probably from the skin contact, which gave it an interesting element. Fabulous price/quality relationahip.

7/30/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Well-made, bouquet of citrus and the flavor likewise, with a pronounced nuance of grapefruit zest. Hard to beat at this price. Good acid/fruit balance, not very complex so nothing more than a pleasant summer quaffer.

7/27/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

This is a terrific rosé, always mo go-to when i can't get a Tempier (which i can't most of the time). Mourvèdre-driven with full mouth-filling flavors and perfect balance and classy with no bitter or strange notes than so many rosé wines have. Bravo!

7/5/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

This wine features tons of fruit and is smooth and well-balanced. Delicious strawberries and cranberries, framed by good acidity. Drank this well-chilled on a scorching summer day -- perfect and very refreeshing.

7/5/2023 - thwacker Likes this wine:

Well made, great fruit and balance. Tannins are ripe and smooth now. Good acidity. Has got to be at its peak. Lovely!