12/24/2022 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine:

Twas brillig and the slivey toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; all mimsey were the bovergills and the momeraths outgrabe.

Clutching my vorpal corkscrew I approached the sleeping beast. One two and through and through! I detached the cork and poured a schlumock.

What a lark this '75 is, as in uffish thought I stood!

Decanted and left to slam for about 3 hours, I drank this from an ISO shape.

The colour is burnished copper. Surely, we are speaking old wine but not over the hill wine (no brown or khaki notes).

The nose is a riot of Saturnalian proportions, all apricots, peach, a touch of lemon twist, creme brulee. More complex wine of this style can easily be found, especially if made from Riesling, but this is like listening to a perfectly tuned motor. There might be faster from 0-100, or better into corners but it is the ride with this beast.

The palate is as per the nose but there is a marmalade aspect that adds to my pleasure and the intensity and length are a thing to behold. You will keep coming back to this. Truly wonderful wine.

6/13/2022 - WineGuyFL Likes this wine:

Same as the last couple of bottles......both good and bad. The good is that this wine is still very good......classic high-end Napa CS and classic Dominus. Was decanted for about an hour and a half. The bad is that this was, I believe, the fourth bottle in a row where only the top half of the cork came out.....and the remainder more or less crumbled. The crumbling was so bad that I had to decant a second time with a cheese cloth filter because there was so much fine cork crumbs floating on top after the first decant.

One other comment......there are a lot of bottles of this wine still in cellartracker.com inventories. It is not going to get better from here. We should be enjoying this one now.

12/8/2021 - oncocyte Likes this wine:

This blew the tasting group away. I called it red fruit on the attack--some pomegranate ? followed by tongue coating but supple, dark but gentle tannins, forest floor kind of thing, and a 2+ minute finish. Tres concentrated. Will live for years and years.

12/14/2021 - Hi.its.Don.4.Wine Likes this wine:

It's Like Catnip

Not wanting to alienate any cat lovers out there (I’m not one of you); take a wine containing a grape or grapes I like, add to it an outstanding review, and I’m unable to withhold my potential enthusiasm, just like catnip to a cat.

That’s what today’s wine is all about; no, not catnip! It’s that wine made with grape(s) I like and having obtained an outstanding review, in this case, a whopping 98 Points! It’s even a producer that I’ve known for some time and produces an array of great wines.

DuMOL Chardonnay Wester Reach 2019

There seems to be some sort of time continuum (space-time) in play as well. Back less than a year ago I reviewed the same wine, different vintage, actually it was 2016. So how does one year translate into 3 vintages; I would contact my good friend Albert to see if he could explain things, but he’s in a place that I don’t want to go, at least not yet. Besides, I don’t think I have his number up there.

Wait, you thought I was talking about Albert Einstein, funny, no; it’s a friend of mine who lives in Saskatchewan who understands things like this much better than I do, who doesn’t? I think I’ll table the physics lesson and concentrate on the wine.

Blended from 5 vineyards, 30% DuMOL estate, 22% Morelli, 16% Flax Estate, 16% Charles Heintz, and 16% Ritchie, the wine is hand-harvested and then fermented and aged for 11 months in 30% new French oak followed by complete malolactic fermentation. Their approach is both systematic and natural as they try to minimize the footprint in the fields.

Rich and lush with ginger and a nuttiness presented to the drinker, fruits of Apple, peach, butterscotch, help round out the wine. Its great acidity (even after complete malo) helps with that roundness. The 98-point rating may be a little generous, more like a solid 95 96. But I’m probably splitting hairs.

After picking some up at $55, I had the good fortune to find it elsewhere for just under $50! Couldn’t pass up getting more ON SALE!!

You don’t need to be a cat lover or a physics major to appreciate the wine, it’s a wonderful, full-bodied Chardonnay that is sure to please.

Cheers

1/13/2022 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine:

I have rated this as 'Outstanding' on the Cellar Tracker scale, albeit with a little hesitancy. This vintage of this wine is regarded as being an exceptional vintage and more long lived than was usual for Poyferre at this time. I have to say that this bottle supported this view. It created a very strong emotional response for me that I believe is supported by the objective elements that we look at when tasting and evaluating wine.

The wine was under cork, of course, with excellent provenance. The cork was a swine. It was stuck to the sides of the bottle and the corkscrew merely provided ever diminishing core samples. These core samples were in inverse proportion to my mounting rage, the kindling provided by a long and slightly shitty week at work. Anyway after digging away for a bit, I gave up, launched an unprovoked assault on the nearest object/person (and let's not pretend that it doesn't feel great), pushed the remaining cork down and into the bottle, filtered into a decanter and glared at the contents, really feeling the hate. There is a closure that doesn't produce this level of variability and malfunction. I wish people would use it. Maybe there is still time to use the stockpiles of Agent Orange on lucky Portugal and any other place where there are significant stands of cork.

'What of the bloody wine?' I hear you grate through clenched teeth. Well, sometimes context is very important with wine. We want to believe that we are above such things as emotion and atmosphere, but the truth is we are not.

As I glowered into the decanter, looking at the dark, brick and brown colour, I was ready to hate. Then the glorious and concentrated aromas of dark plum, cassis and mulberry wafted up. Primary fruit from a wine of this age and colour? But there it was. Every time I came back, it was just getting deeper, more dense and inviting. There are some sawdust, wine gum and polished leather elements, a touch of earth and mushroom. Glorious.

The palate follows through on the nose with tremendous drive and volume. This fills the mouth, yet it retains elegance - sometimes you see a fat person waddle to the swimming pool but then glide through the water with incongruous but undeniable grace and poise. That is this wine. The tannins are supportive and the wine is surprisingly fresh. At this stage I would not cellar further, yet I would not be surprised if bottles were still coming out like this in 10 years time. It is still building weight as I write this, an hour after finally wrestling it into the decanter.

I often find that on Friday nights I don't feel in the right mental/emotional space to enjoy good wine and it is more a Martini massage I need. This wine overcame a lot of obstacles to completely turn my whole world around (apologies to Robbie Robertson's 'Broken Arrow').

7/30/2021 - joraesque wrote:

Just broke my last bottle; couldn't taste it, but the concrete floor smels of lots of new French oak...

6/21/2016 - oncocyte Likes this wine:

The blind tasting group failed severely here, calling it a 90's California. The moderate bricking alone says older than that. Having brought it, I could immediately recognize the Cordier funk on the nose. Tasted of sweet fruits balanced by acidity and mature tannins. Scored in the mid 90's around the table. I would not hold it too much longer.

4/14/2016 - g289519 wrote:

Very little fruit or alcohol left, poured the last 3 bottles out