March 1, 2024 - Some Wine Tasted at the Acker La Paulée Auction (Maybourne Hotel - Beverly Hills CA): Tasted at auction. Certainly charming, but very "2004" in its weight and faint green note. The first time I have ever tasted this vintage of La Tâche.
February 7, 2023 - A quality wine but far short of the best La Tâche.
January 6, 2023 - A notch lower in pleasure than the last bottle but still excellent, just less assertive; I don't see this getting any better as the fruit falls off and the leafy notes get more pronounced but it is really delicious at this moment. It's not green in a bad way but tastes really old school, tastes and smells exactly like it should....
November 4, 2022 - Stored in one cellar since release, not to be too repetitive but this is just prototypical elegant La Tache, not too green but a little leafy in a positive cool vintage way, massive room filling aromatics, etc. So many superlatives….easy to drink now and it’s not declining but it may be less balanced some day.
September 12, 2022 - Upon first sniff I wrote down ‘ this is La Tâche’. Had the classic Hoisin, sandalwood and rose petal thing going on. There’s some ginger spice, a lacy feel against the gums and it is an elegant wine of supreme balance. It has terrific persistence. I’ve been lucky enough to have had this a few times and it is the wine of the vintage for mine. A truly excellent La Tâche.
June 21, 2022 - Quite green aromatically with palate veering towards bitterness. (00208/17193)
March 29, 2022 - Epic tasting across 5 decades
1974 Dirty delicate, floral subtle
Stemy, a little green but layered and delicious, 94pts
1982 hawthorn a little watered down preferred the 74, 92pts
1992 Closed initially and with time in the glass started to open up but just too green and unbalanced to be appreciated at this juncture, 92pts
1996 a little Green, good structure. Really not ready but has more potential and could be good in a few years, 93pts
2001 a little oxidized, not scored
2004 best nose with ephemeral flora aromatics, delicate and layered, simply gorgeous 95pts
2006 slightly more muted nose than the 2004, but I preferred the palate more than the 04 with just a little bit more complexity. 95pts
2014 this was my WOTN shows how far modern winemaking has come and is the value wine of the night. Layered structured and simply magnificent. 96pts
September 6, 2021 - No meanies, no greenies, no polka dot bikinis.
Quite a nice wine - all the iron fisted power that accompanies La Tache albeit it a TOUCH leaner than other vintages. There is a rustic tannin around the edges of the wine but otherwise, quite a bit of expressive red fruit with nice sweetness with a savory dose of spice that only LT has. The nose is the real star here - it's aromatically gorgeous as all La Tache are - full blown red berry, sweet barrel spice and a bouquet of red petals.
August 26, 2021 - This needed all four hours of decanting I gave it. And then it delivered its usual beauty. This is a great wine. Not "in spite of the vintage" - it's simply flat out terrific.
August 15, 2021 - Unfolds beautifully, though more of an unabashed fruit expression, with floral and herbal accents. Not a whole lot of depth or structure to it, like the 99’ GE had, served alongside. I’d say this is at or near peak right now, not quite up to expectations, hearing it was a great Tache, though still excellent.