December 9, 2023 - Very impressive. Creamy. Round. Not the reduction of other rose and arrow wines. Sweet red and black fruit. Long balanced finish.
December 8, 2023 - Birthday Celebration (State Street Manor & Racquet Club - Chicago IL): Walk around tasting, brief note from memory. Complex red and black fruit on nose and palate with lots going on. Still slightly firm and nearly awkward, but you can see this is going somewhere beautiful. Perhaps 92 points today, this could have used more air, and 93-94+ point potential.
April 26, 2022 - this was opened and decanted 24 hours ahead. The obvious winner in the line up. The lengths and consistency is breathtaking here. The aromatics linger for a long time. I am a little puzzled why there is such a bit step up into this wine but guess this is just the perfect location in the vineyard and the quality of the oak treatment may also give an edge. Blind I would probably guess a good GC Chambertin.
March 30, 2022 - Rose & Arrow Dinner (RPM Steak - Chicago IL): This also had been opened in the morning, but I was told 24 hours would have helped more. A charming wine indeed, so elegant and finessed with plenty of black and red fruit and subtle spice. The textures are the star here, with very silky tannins, but those tannins are fairly big. To some extent, I think a little new oak might have given this even more, finding the wine to be like a beautiful woman without any makeup... absolutely beautiful but not as perfect as possible... if that is your goal. But that's just one man's opinion. I hope to try this again. 93-95 point potential.
May 9, 2021 - First, this is too early to accurately score. My wino friends generally dislike my interest in scoring; they prefer the reactionary notion that scores unfairly convey an objective measure of quality, of goodness; they say accurate adjectives will suffice sans the number. For me, it’s a discipline, a personal impetus to engage in fair qualitative comparison, not to convince others, but to force myself to see how this bottle measures up to similar wines I’ve scored a point or two in either direction. It’s an unpopular view, these days, so be it, it won’t be my last.
I’ve noted the Hopewell Hills’17 on CT twice. How is this different? It’s less about fruit, more about mystery. It’s tight, even after hours, density without heaviness, dynamic tension, character without flamboyance. It already offers more balance, structure, and concentration than almost any American pinot, the question is will time peel the layers to allow the influence of the targeted ancient volcanic basalt columns to influence the flavor in a way unique to American pinot. It’s not fully there yet, but it’s in the shadows, and I’m betting it will be obvious in 4-8 years, making this a “Touchstone”, unless someone else gets there first. Given the science, expense, and effort behind this wine, I doubt they will., and, on my scale, this will gain 2-3 points. Get it while you can.
May 3, 2021 - Privileged to add the first tasting note for TOUCHSTONE. Tasted at Benoit in NYC with a very seasoned group of collectors in the same night as 90 Chave, 90 Ponsot Griotte, 90 DP out of Mag, 16 Upper Terrace and several others. Bottle had been decanted for 24 hours.
-Riveting nose - leathery and dark. Opposite of red cherry.
-Tannins were not overbearing, young obviously, but manageable.
-Clearly lots of structure, clean fruit and the beginning hints of earth and promise of tertiary development. Lots of energy. Length
-If the wine can continue to integrate and develop earth it has the chance to be wonderful.
All in all, it was clearly an outstanding wine that unanimously showed extremely well even amongst this extremely Franco-centric group.