3/23/2024 - Mimesis Likes this wine:

Yesterday I saw that six-packs of the 2020 were on sale for 25% off ($29.99/bottle), which was less than I paid for my first six-pack on futures. "Should I buy more?" I wondered. So, seeing the positive reviews here, I cracked open my OWC last night to try a bottle.

I had been pretty dubious about giving a 3.5 year old Saint-Émilion the pop and pour treatment, but this Tour St. Christophe was shockingly ready to drink with just 15 minutes of air.

The wine pours a deep violet color, and is nearly opaque. The nose hints of Merlot, but it's fairly faint. Then from the first sip, the flavor comes on strong. It's very forward, even flirty. The densely packed ripe (but not overripe) fruit is fortunately balanced by enough structure to keep it from being too cloying.

I don't know how this vintage will evolve from here, but it hardly matters, as enjoyable as it is now. I went ahead and bought that second six pack, so I can enjoy its youth while still keeping some for the long haul.

7/3/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine:

Ahoy there shipmates! Pirate Admiral Leve has nailed his colours to the mast and in tasting terms I like the cut of his jib!

I love the contrasts between 2019 and 2020 in so many parts of France, Italy and Germany (I don't have the tasting mileage to comment of the Iberians). I think both are indisputably excellent to great vintages; 2019 tends to offer muscle and punch along with luscious fruit, whilst 2020 seems to be a little more feline and less heavily built, but still offering glorious fruit. Some will find more in one of these vintages to please them, some in the other.

This is easy to drink from the moment the cork is wrestled out the bottle (and very difficult until you do), but it is definitely showing its best on day 2. Regardless it is classical in its styling and characters.

All pirates and, especially, aspiring Zen pirates should be drinking this. The ship's surgeon recommends a bottle with breakfast. I recommend this vintage for making love and the 2019 for making war. Ideally, you should be doing both each day as part of a balanced lifestyle - the yin and yang of the pirate; or is it the Tao of piracy? You work it out, but I suggest before my 2-bottle miracle cure takes full effect.

PS: Why are there so few reviews of this vintage of this popular wine? What is wrong with the drinking public? Are you all such utter bastards that you can't even be trusted to review these wines in a timely fashion? Lift your collective game, or else I will raise the red pennant and sail your way and adapt and adopt the call of Tippermuir against thee "For Telegraphe and no quarter!"

4/14/2022 - apple1813 Likes this wine:

2019 Chateau de Rouanne Vinsobres was well-structured and packed with Southern Rhone vibes of ripe fruits, garrigue and spices. The youthful Southern Rhône blend is clear and deep ruby in colour without any sediments. Freshly uncorked, there were expressive nose of ripe red cherry, strawberry, crushed violet and lavender. With four hours of aeration, it opened up notes of black pepper and olive tapenade.

The mouthfeel was dry and verging full-bodied, with medium levels of acidity and a rather high level of chalky tannin. There were flavours of kirsch, lilac, smoked meat and a vein of salinity in a medium spiced finish. The high 15% alcohol was a common trait of Grenache-dominant Rhône blend, but it did not feel overtly heavy. The empty bottle weighed 592 grams.

Chateau de Rouanne was a recent acquisition of Chateau de Saint Cosme in May 2019. It was an unbroken, 62-hectare vineyard at the edge of the Alps, planted to massal selections of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre with substantial genetic diversity. The complexity of viticultural work was an unimaginable quantum leap for Louis Barruol and his team, as their domaine holdings jumped from 32 hectares to 94. Despite that, they maintain their respectable quality and adhere to adaptable, organic farming principles.

The blend is composed of 50% Grenache, 40% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre. The soil is rich in marl and limestone. The grapes is co-fermented in concrete tanks. The wine is aged for twelve months in a combination of Burgundy casks and demi-muids. Readers interested in the winemaking philosophy from the perspective of the winemaker should read Louis Barruol's newsletter on the winery website.

4/24/2016 - Mimesis Likes this wine:

Big, coarse, hot wines like this were still fashionable back in 2009, when this vintage was harvested. So was Valencia, the region where it came from. Then the economic crisis hit and wine tastes changed, dooming both to obscurity. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I still like this stuff when I'm looking for a cocktail wine. (The scene of seduction on the label helps there, too.) It also washes down a burger really well.

5/31/2012 - Loren Sonkin wrote:

Table wines (mostly) from LVMH (Pat O'Briens Wines): From vines over 100 years old on their own rootstock. A picture shown of the vineyard was like looking at old Zin vines in the middle of a dessert. This is inky purple in color. The nose is dark cherries and some iodine. The wine is intense. There is a complexity here of layers slowly unwinding. Tannic with dark cherries on the palate. This seems to be a wine that could last for 30 years. We were told 200% new oak but it does not show too much. These grapes seem to handle the treatment.

5/16/2011 - Mimesis wrote:

"What the hell?" was my first reaction, seeing this translucent wine pour out of the bottle. It looks like a dark rose', or a few drops of blood mixed into a glass of water. Why did Thackery decide to filter it? With those old vines, would there be an inch of sediment in the bottom of the bottle if it were left unfiltered? Or maybe he just wanted to pay homage to the old-school Burgundy producers. In any case, it's incongruous to drink a big red California wine that's see-through.
The flavor is equally disorienting - more of a mash-up than a blend. For me, the Sangiovese comes through first, coarsely simulating the tangy chewiness of a Brunello. Then there's the bright cherry of a cheap pinot, and a splash of vanilla oak. The Rhone varietals contribute a lot of body; otherwise they remain in hiding - like three buffalos standing behind a tree.
After a few hours pass,I catch the aroma and taste of a Manhattan - the caramel of the bourbon, then the sweetness of the vermouth, all finished off by the heat of alcohol.
My conclusion? I'd have to say that Pleiades XX is very complicated, but unfortunately not all that complex. Yet for all my doubts, it's still a great conversation piece, so I've added a couple of points to my rating for novelty interest. If you believe that the best wines are the ones that give you stories to tell, this one is a classic.