April 26, 2024 - Medium ruby. Healthy nose of sharp red berry, heady high pitched violets, earth, damp cellar. Layers of youthful delicious raspberry, holiday spices, fine iron shards, hints of oak, fine earth on the satiny palate. Fresh acidity and firm but fine-grained tannin. Long finish of lifted red berry, iron flecks, and tart bramble. Already delicious, this wine is stacked for future glories. Opened to celebrate L’s 75th.
April 7, 2024 - No rating, this bottle was good but just that. I have had this many times and the nose seemed a bit off.
March 16, 2024 - Opened to accompany the cheese course of a milestone birthday dinner at the Inn at Little Washington, this bottle was actually in a better place than the Clos des Ducs. No decant, but very soft tannins and really lovely red cherry fruit. Great pairing with the Inns fabulous cheese cart.
Wines:
Krug Grande Cuvée NV;
2010 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru;
2010 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru;
2009 d'Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs;
1989 Chateau Montrose; and
1988 Chateau d'Yquem (750 ml).
March 14, 2024 - No notes, first CDL but did buy the 2020 vintage. Was so excited to try, and the timing couldn’t have been better as the Vinous article just came out. I can see why this property gets a lot of opinions but you can’t ignore its pedigree. Since first taste, can’t extrapolate nor tend to understand more recent vintage changes and possible enhancements, it comes across less dynamic than I would have expected for such a ripe vintage. It does have great balance both in structure, fruit, mineral and overall delivery. Look forward to tasting a more recent vintage.
February 14, 2024 - Presumed stolen; missing at 2/24 inventory
October 19, 2023 - Tremendous density, complexity, depth and more importantly all elements are in sync. A powerful, textural wine with a mineral wild streak typical of MSD
September 18, 2023 - Lovely. More iron and mineral driven than the last bottle.
August 30, 2023 - Bu côte à côte avec le 2018 et un Clos de Vougeot Lamarche 2016. Couleur, nez et profil plus évolué, des épices au nez comme en bouche. Belle finesse avec le fruit qui semble un peu en retrait, texture soyeuse et ma favorite de cette première série en ce moment, mais bouteille à boire déjà. 92-93
Side by side with the 2018 and Clos de Vougeot 2016 from Lamarche. Color, nose and style show more evolution and probably more then it should, wine is gorgeous though, spices, fruit seems backward a bit, very nice velvety texture, my favorite of this series right now but not sure this will go very far down the road despite that amazing vintage.
August 4, 2023 - Tasted over 2 hrs and on day 2
-nearly semi-translucent med red minimal bricking
-high-toned gum drop cherry raspberry subtle savory notes including black pepper and spicy stems, mild varnishy note blew off; warm spicy earthy red fruit on day 2
-med/med+ acidity, med/med- weight bright sappy tart fading red fruit trying to pick up some sous bois, not all that complex, bit of bitter saline mineral essence surrounding the med tannins; seamless well-balanced smoky spicy dark red fruit
-lack of complexity and somewhat awkwardly balanced make this a bit disappointing hopefully just an off-bottle as this should be firing on all cylinders at this point; reassuringly, much better on day 2
July 29, 2023 - Slightly old - bottle showed several sign of age / ox.