Community Tasting Notes 2

• AGELVIS Likes this wine: 96 points

  December 19, 2023 - Nearly four hour decant. Very very deep ruby magenta color. Blackberry, dark raspberry, Belgian waffle, thyme, limestone, pine nut, and subtle German chocolate cake. Silty, tongue drying palate, with good, lingering acidity. Firm, medium intensity tannins on the long finish.
  
  This will absolutely improve, but it’s already terrific. Quite seamless despite its youth. The herb and mineral notes are mostly on the palate. Provides balance, complexity, and a bit of a Bordeaux flair.

  3 people found this helpful Comments (8)

• sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 97 points

  March 12, 2023 - At the Tesseron-Pontet/K&L Winemaker dinner at Mathilde (SF). It’s pretty much unprecedented that I’m the one writing the first TN for a wine, unless it’s some 20 case wine made by a friend of Cyclist’s. This was the first wine served as we walked in the door at K&L, with the ‘16 and ‘17 being served with dinner, and unlike the Pontets, all were similar in quality and qualities (and in light of that and, believe it or not, sfwl *does* have other things to do than write and respond to TNs, this note will have to stand in for the others). On the moderately potent nose and palate, blue and black berries, black and a slight hind of red currants, dark florals, rocky minerality, lavendar, graphite and a hint of tobacco. Dark purple, medium+ bodied, thick legs. Medium+ acidity and tannins, both well-balanced and fairly well integrated, no heat. VG++ complexity, VG+ persistence, VG intensity. With a suppleness, elegance and slight savoriness of BDX suffused with the sweetness, in a good way, of Napa fruit, these PR wines stood above, for me, the PCs, albeit at a 2x+ price. This was lovely to sip on its own, and its ‘16 and ‘17 siblings were great complements to the duck confit. I’m always trying to put wines I taste in the context of wines I’ve had previously, and these seem to come closest to the Verite Joies, although these were younger vintages, and, unlike in the case of the ‘06 of that bottling, this was just a half glass pour, rather than having the bottle in front of me for several glasses over multiple hours. Whatever Messr. Tesseron and his K&L friends did had all 3 of these wines drinking very well, with nothing sticking out and wonderful mouthfeel, and while underlying structure is clearly apparent, future iimprovement, at least if this is correctly decanted at present, will likely be more in the way of depth than balance. These wines were uniformly lovely, and after I failed to make the cut for 2022 Napapalooza, this producer has been on my list as one to try and certainly didn’t disappoint and outshone the PCs. But—and I know this is unfair since these are so young (by my standards), my tasting was small, over a short time, blah, blah, blah—these, at this point, didn’t have the density of Abreus, the litheness of Spottswoode or Promonotory, nor the intensity of the Ovids at price points at or above what I’ve paid for my Colgins or Abreus (although I did see the ‘17 at Chateau Costco for a bit under $300), so I’d be unlikely to be a buyer. But hey, that’s why BDX wine shops pour $100+ half glasses of the ‘00 Latour or I go to dinners like this, right? 96-97++, and if anyone wants to pop one of these in a decade and I’m still extant, I’d love to revisit my evaluation.

  5 people found this helpful Comments (11)

Pro Reviews 4

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2018
• Type Red
• Producer Tesseron Estate
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard Pym Rae
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Napa Valley
• UPC Code 3511061886306

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 43 (8%)
• In Cellars 489 (87%)
• Consumed 33 (6%)

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