May 13, 2024 - Nose: Blackberry and cassis, candied wildflowers. Palate: Noticeable oak that morphs to cedar with more time in the glass, ripe blackberries and thick dark cassis, blackberry liqueur without the alcohol flavor; plush tannins. A very well-structured wine that nicely straddles the line between Bordeaux and Napa, maybe a touch too much wood for me at this stage, but I'm nitpicking...it's very good.
March 16, 2024 - 93-94
Violets, cassis, licorice, sweet and juicy black and blue fruits, nice minerality and cedar. Slightly chewy but nice freshness. Needs less sweetness, stronger flavor, a bit more concentration on the midpalate and back end to be a great wine in the 95+ range.
Great value!
March 14, 2024 - First of 2 from Costco ($43@) about a year ago. On the nose and palate, black currants, blackberries, dark plums (where on earth are others finding all that red fruit?), anise, dark chocolate, dark roast coffee, dusty earth and lighter notes of violets and tobacco if you look for them. Deep purple/black, medium+ bodied, thick legs. Robust tannins which smooth out pretty quickly, medium+ well-integrated acidity, no heat. VG complexity, intensity and persistence. Needing about 45 minutes-hour to sort itself off the pour, this got into shipshape really quickly thereafter, becoming just the kind of $40ish LBer I’m looking for: accessible (where are people finding this needs 5 more years of bottle age to become drinkable?), immaculately balanced and with good concentration. At its price point, it’s very much a LB analog to RBers like Fleur Cardinale (no, alas, not *that* Cardinale) and Barde Haute (nope, not Brigit Bardot), not terribly profound but terribly delicious with a friendly price to match (I just picked up 2 ‘20s at CC for $35@). It’s also versatile, working well a hearty chicken orzo while being easy to sip on its own. SFWL’s week in BDX in 6/22 was fantastic in all regards *except* the chateaux where we tasted (I know: how was the rest of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?), picked, alas, by sfwl’s friend and biggest client (you try telling him you don’t like his choices); Dauzac, which I’d not heard of prior to that time, was the pick of the litter, (although I drank some outstanding wines outside of the chateaux), and while I didn’t purchase any across the pond, was pleased to find it so available locally. I’ve been known to say that I have little interest in CS-dominant blends until the bottles have an inch of dust on them, but with minimal aeration, I think that these will be best in the next 5 years or so (2041, really?) as a lot of life left the bottle the third night and it would have merited a much lower score. 92-93+
February 25, 2024 - Same notes as before
February 23, 2024 - Solid albeit young… lots of upside, well made, hold
January 31, 2024 - Was quite tightly wound on the first day, unsurprisingly, but opened up well on the 2nd. 93+pts.
December 23, 2023 - So muscular and strong with notes of dark earth and jasmins burried deep under the rich, powerful depth. I had this again last night and temptation is flirting with me this morning..Another case? Hmmm...Reminds me of the 2005 Malescot St. Exuprey in its youth with more power. This will be my final post on this wine, I promise. Drink with hours of air or HOLD
December 3, 2023 - After 1 hour in the decanter it started to shine.
October 20, 2023 - Im thinking...This is all I should be drinking for a while.
October 5, 2023 - Dark fruits, leather, and spices. Young and powerful. It’ll be so much better in a few years.