March 22, 2024 - Sour cherry, some nice earth, and mineral notes, but overall thin and short finish limits this one.
January 14, 2021 - Given 2 hours of air. Healthy ruby throughout. Menthol and light red fruit aromas. Light to medium weight. A glob of oak to start and then...not much, just low intensity, slightly earthy red fruit without a lot of remaining structure. Holding this until age 16 has not resulted in any miracles. Well below average for Premier Cru from a strong vintage. Granted, it is lighter in style in a Gevrey way, but even so, there's just not enough to it.
December 7, 2018 - On opening, this seemed like it might be really disappointing, so I gave it a couple of hours in a wide-bottom decanter and lots of vigorous swirling...transformation ensued. On the nose intense hard cherry candy, licorice, some well-integrated oak, via cinnamon and spice... On the palate, excellent acidity, but this is still a bit hard: more hard cherry candy and licorice, with some bitters on the finish...and some finely grained tannin. Conclusion: this is extremely young...we'll see tomorrow whether that is a reasonable hypothesis.
Day 3 open: still holding strong. No signs of oxidation.
The tannin has softened only a bit. Earthier on the nose, showing a little more stem inclusion and pure red cherry on the palate. Very good. Revising my drink-by dates giving this at least another 5-10 years.
October 27, 2018 - Winebar [4 Whites, 8 Reds, & 12 *shared*, VERY impressive bottles] from 10/26/18 (Vintage Wines Ltd., San Diego, CA): Dr. Tom, thank you, THANK you for this *unparalleled* opportunity to taste a most BEAUTIFULLY aged Red Burg! :)
N: Barnyd (at least init), then mushrooms, finally spice
P: LM body; LOVELY frt met by a BIT of pucker which fairly seamlessly transitions into a VERY LONG finish with a slight spiciness & a refined swtness to the scant, very, VERY fine tannins. Drinking FABULOUSLY right now -- & should "safely" hold for another 3 yrs or so (though a couple of FAR more experienced tasters were speculating 10 addt'l yrs of life left!). 13% ABV: My EXC+/Exceptional-. 90-92 pts Burghound, 90 ea WS & Tanzer, and 16/20 Jancis Robinson. [Apparently purchased from this vendor @ $134.95 earlier that day, though it's unclear whether they have more.]
April 25, 2017 - Bright cherry and raspberry nose with a strong mineral essence. Juicy palate, nice acidity with medium extraction. Very lithe and energetic with silky tannins. Long finish.
January 21, 2017 - this was a really nice wine and a tribute to its excellent 2005 vintage, good acidity with medium body, plenty of angular red fruit, only a hint of minerals and not much spice, nonetheless it was not "only fruit" and so really enjoyable... suffered a bit due to its having been drunk alongside the shockingly outperforming 2010 Dominique Laurent Fixin Hervelets, this is why you buy vintage like 2005 (and 2010)
December 17, 2016 - Un premier cru au style austère avec une bonne structure c'est sanguin et encore assez tannique, mais bien équilibré. Ma blonde n'aime pas!
November 17, 2016 - OK but not great, this wine scored 90 about an hour or so after decant, but on night two it was much less compelling, decent acidity but lacked a ton of volume / staying power, one could argue Ok value at $50 but I would much rather buy an $80 wine and enjoy over two or three nights, drink up for sure, and try to open with others so you can finish on day one
June 26, 2016 - Nez de cerises, sanguin, il fait presque syrah.
Il montre encore une bonne structure, mais c'est quand même bien approchable, fringuant, minéral, il arrive tranquillement à maturité. Assez goûteux, sans être gourmand, un style un peu austère. J'aime bien, même s'il n'offre rien de transcendant. 89-90 pts
June 17, 2016 - I'm not a Pinot Noir fan but this was actually very enjoyable. Soft red fruit and good acidity and tannins. Drink now,