January 26, 2023 - Decanting for three hours is a must, don't stress over it. Dark Madagascar chocolate melted in Kenyan AA coffee, blended with Indian chai spices and brewed blackcurrant compote. Warm long length. Deep kiss with a hot milf and yes - very psychedelic wine. Four bottles left, wont sell it.
July 31, 2019 - Wine Group Dinner #169 - 2009 Gevrey Chambertin Grand Crus (Urbane Restaurant, Brisbane): Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. This wine is immediately notable for its dense dark cherry colour and rich nose of black and red fruits with touches of compote character, earth and game. The palate is similarly rich and verges on surmaturite with touches of fig and dark chocolate yet there is still good balance and a fine finish. There is that Bernstein glossiness that is immediately attractive but which can be a little too much of a good thing ! Still this is a delicious wine of a particular style.
February 27, 2015 - La Paulée de New York - The Verticals (Colicchio & Sons - New York NY): Tasted in 11/10/09 vertical, brief note. An interesting contrast to the 2010 just tasted, this is more lush and ripe, with almost as much spice, but slightly less well balanced. New oak seems to slightly protrude here. Good length but I'd like a little more textural nuance.
February 27, 2015 - The Verticals Tasting at La Paulée 2015 (Colicchio & Sons, New York): Crystallized red fruit, deeply saturated color. Fantastic fruit clarity and depth while remaining incredibly refined. Layered and long. So much more balance and room to grow than most 2009s. These wines from Olivier Bernstein were downright thrilling!
March 15, 2012 - Oliver Bernstein Tasting (Fix St James, Sydney): Redcurrant, white pepper, truffle and some forest floor aromas. The palate has incredible structure, there is brooding fruit, tannin and acid all working together. Young but it is already obviously a serious and brilliant wine.
April 18, 2011 - Domaine Tasting at Olivier Bernstein (Burgundy, France): From barrel at the Domaine. Scheduled to be bottled in the next week or so. Deep dark color. Very dark cherry and berry aromatics with tons of spice and some nice earthy notes. Powerful and seductive wine. Great fruit on the palate. Great balance of acidity and minerality. Sweet coffee notes. Absolutely fantastic.
September 13, 2010 - Olivier Bernstein Cellar Tasting (Burgundy): Barrel tasting. Powerful dense fruit with great spice, interestingly spice that was almost more Vosne to me than Gevrey. But this is a gorgeous hedonistic wine showing great power and sexy charm. I think it at the same level as the Mazis, making it one of his two top cuvees for the vintage. My more experienced colleagues thought this even better than the Mazis.