1/21/2024 - Zweder Likes this wine:

Walkaround tasting so just short notes: This wine is made of 50% Merlot, 49% Cabernet Franc and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged for 80% in new French oak. Extremely full bodied and delicious with ripe dark berries, licorice and beautiful oak and cedar. Beautiful acidity and round tannin and also a pleasant touch of sweetness. Enormously tasty and beautiful wine. Already a pleasure, but around 2035 this wine will probably be even more impressive. 95 - 96+

10/28/2023 - Shugs_Claret wrote:

Dark cherry and a bit of oak on the nose. Dark black and blue fruit on the palate. Still a bit of oak left to integrate. Hints of coffee. Velvety tannins that have a bit of bite. Nice mid palate for this estate, which is unusual. Good effort and QPR. Best wine I’ve had from this chateau.

10/1/2023 - Nutty08 Likes this wine:

Terrific Chianti. Red fruited with a crystalline quality to the fruit. Fine if somewhat astringent tannins. Really fantastic at this point. Will
Soften and deepen but great with pasta at this stage.

6/16/2023 - AKC Likes this wine:

From the outset the wine has a richness to the nose. On the palate it is rich and full. Characteristics of plums and chocolate come through. It will develop further in the bottle but it has good balance now. I will continue to drink this wine every few months or so.

10/12/2022 - desler Likes this wine:

This bottle has settled down from 2 years ago, Now a nice well balanced chianti, rich fruit and Light acidity

6/12/2022 - Marvin77 Likes this wine:

The Clos des Papes 2017 is bright red, medium to full bodied and young but already delicious. On the palate red fruits like strawberry are dominating and there are aromas of garrigue and herbs. Really gread quality and will be much better in 8-10 years from now. I will try to wait.

2/13/2022 - NostraBacchus Likes this wine:

Deep garnet color. This is still very young, but wow is this a great vintage for Vigna del Sorbo. It had a touch of warmth right after opening, but after a 2 hours decant everything is starting to come together better. This still needs another good 5+ years to open up, but this is an excellent wine with great potential. Notes of dark and red cherries, graphite, savory herbs, crushed flowers, sweet spices, some smoke, also some minerality, cedar and tobacco. This seems very refined and elegant considering the war vintage. It‘s medium-full bodied, with excellent persistence, it has medium-high tannin that is exceptionally polished, there is also some medium-high acidity (that could have been a touch higher for my personal taste). Long finish with layers of complexity building up. Like I said, this is still a baby in terms of evolution but I wanted to crack a bottle open to check in on it as I only did a very short tasting of this at a larger event between many other wines. Another great vintage for Fontodi’s Vigna del Sorbo. (96-97)

4/11/2022 - Triforwine Likes this wine:

This wine is outstanding and just entering a drinking window that is very pleasant. Nice ruby color with flashes of brighter color and generous aroma of truffle and earth. The mouthfeel is delightful. Still has some pretty significant tannin that is a little overbearing but the potential of this wine is evident. Nice red fruit, dark fruit mix in and out and truffle and spice here and there but any secondary development is a bit muted overall right now. I took it on a trip because I figured it would travel pretty well and it did. I have a good bit of this but I'll probably hold the rest for a while. Over a few hours, it improves but saving a bit over 2 days, it did not change so I think it needs time. I think this will be one of the 2015 wines that ages very well. I'm not sure all of them will. 94+

5/27/2021 - Marvin77 Likes this wine:

Very powerful Supertuscan withe 50% Cab. Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 10% Cab. Franc. After 4 hours at the Decanter opened a bit. But much too young in my opinion and with powerful tannins. The palate is dominated by fruits and earth with very interesting hints of mince, rosmarine and other herbs. Will develop very good over the next years and probably try again in 4 years.

10/31/2021 - Marvin77 Likes this wine:

The Chateau de Pressac 2015 is a very interesting cuvee of 76% Merlot, 12% Cab. Sauv., 9% Cab. Franc and a splash of 1,5% each of Carmenere/Malbec. One of few wines with Carmenere and Malbec and it is a steal for around 32 EUR. The Pressac is powerful, smoky, with dominating dark fruits, spice but also a very nice adidity. The wine is open for business but will develop very good over the years because I experimented a little bit with aerating and left a small amount for almost one week in the bottle. It has only changed little bit and was even a little bit better as 5 days before. Really interesting and a nice experience. By the way. Normally there is more Cab. Franc then Cab. Sauvignon in this blend but not in 2015. I also bought some 2016 for my cellar and think about buying more or 2018. Excellent QPR.

11/26/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote:

With a blast of garrigue, pepper, red fruits, spice and meaty aromas, the wine is earthy, fresh, round and fruity. The wine is made using a blend of 75% Grenache and 25% Syrah.

11/23/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote:

Deep in color, the wine explodes with its dark red fruits, fresh cracked black pepper, earthy garrigue, crushed rocks and flowers. Rich and intense, with ample, sweet, ripe, kirsch and cherries that go on and on, this supple blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Cinsault and 10% Vaccarese is quite strong, especially considering the vintage.

7/17/2021 - Marvin77 Likes this wine:

A young St. Emilion with 82% Merlot, 16% Cab. Franc and 2% Cab. Sauvignon showing perfect after a 2 hour decanting. The wine is dark red with purple reflections and is showing great in the nose and in the mouth with red berries, dark plum and hints of herbs and spices. The P.M. is powerful, fruit driven but elegant in one way and hard to descripe. The finish is driven by berries, plum and currant. The tannins are silky, fine and really beautiful. With the decant it is really great at this young age but it will get a real beauty after some more years in a cool and dark cellar. Superb.

3/20/2021 - Triforwine Likes this wine:

First taste of this out of a case recently arrived. First night Coravin taste (and then another glass because... yummy). Notes deferred to 2nd night because I was tired first night. Color is VERY dark purple, almost black on initial decanting the 2nd half of the bottle into a large glass that I used as a small decanter. On 2nd decant into another glass, still dark purple with some lightening in the edge. Legs suprisingly not that long for something so young. Aroma is much more complex than i remember the 2015 being at this stage and much more open than the 2016 is even now. The nose is still developing with lots of air but it definitely has a minty and cinnamon note along with the smoke and mix of dark cherry and black fruit. SO interesting. The mouthfeel is a tad "chewy" but the tannins are not overwhelming and the wine is not overly "hot" and the "chewiness" is something I don't mind in a young wine. The palate and flavor are mainly the same fruit profile as the nose but I do get some espresso and chocolate and maybe a hint of anise in there as well. Might still update this note as I'm drinking this super slow tonight. Finish is 20-25 seconds or more. All I can say is this might well be the best TSC yet based on the early tasting interest and pleasure. It will be fun to compare the 15, 16, and 18 in the future. My bet right now is on the '18 in the long run. And I've been reading the 2019 is even better and available at under $30? Glad I ordered that too. Buy this wine in every vintage you can now before more people understand how great this wine is. At $32 a bottle (or for that matter anything under $40), this 2018 TSC is the best QPR in all of Bordeaux and for me the best wine you can buy for the price. So delicious. 94-95 for now, possibly will be higher in 5 years if I can wait that long. I wish I had room for 3 cases of this in my cellar. Only other comment is I drank the last glass very slowly over about 5 hours with Venturi plus double decant and frankly, I think right now, this wine is just about as good in terms of flavor on opening as it is with air although the tannins do seem to mellow a bit with hours in the glass. In fact, I think the nose is more explosive right off the bat so at least get a whiff and a sip right away even if you want it to mellow a little by giving it air. I thought maybe it was too quick to open after it traveled but it's so young, has no sediment whatsoever so I think it was fine and worked out perfectly. Might try another one this year as this wine might well shut down for a several years nap at some point so if you have a case, try it now.