December 3, 2016 - Nose: Raspberries, cherries, smoke, tree bark, and a little musty. Taste: pretty one dimensional, long finish, dark fruit mixed with rocks, mineral, still a bit tannic, went well with a NY strip
April 30, 2013 - Decanted for 1 hour. Black cherry, cigar box, and chalky tannins. Better now vs. a year ago.
March 16, 2012 - I think folks have been pretty hard on this wine. Dark cherry, earth, tobacco, and chalky tannins that I love. Protypical St. Emillion. This wine will be so much better in a few years. If you dare to open it now, decant for at least 2 hrs.
December 10, 2011 - Bordeaux is either amazing or average. This is the latter. Weak, thin, and with off aromas (definite barnyard notes especially initially). Perhaps a combination of vintage and pedigree, but this one is just so so.
October 22, 2011 - Dark, opaque purple. Nose has lots of dark purple fruit and floral. Once it opened up, there's quite a bit of fruit on palate, mainly dark berries. This wine has big structure and seems quite young still. Finishes with powdered tannins and the fruit locks in for quite a while.
September 20, 2011 - Dark, mild red. Tiny hint of barnyard and cigar box on the nose. Tannic and dark. Mild for my Cali-wine palate. Went very well with steak. Probably a 90+ wine for the French wine lovers.
June 27, 2010 - At this point, lots of character of Merlot, intensity and grace, both on the bouquete and on the palate. Great quality of fruit in harmony with aproachable structure, length, and other infused character and nuances. Very elegant and accomplished. Calls for food, but it is a dinner on its own right. Quite the quality and grace.
December 1, 2009 - Nose:
Palate:
Great bordeaux, had with heritage kids dinner
September 28, 2009 - I'm not going to rate this because I just don't know what to think. It's all green and stems. Nothing but. The finish literally tastes like a grape stem. I thought I detected some manner of red fruit lurking in the background, but no amount of air or running the wine through the Decantus could bring it forward. I'm not sure that the fruit will ever overcome the greenness in this wine.
Edit: After re-corking and tasting the next afternoon, the fruit has come forward a little bit and I can now say that there is definitely a tangy, red fruit character to the wine. The other green and stemy components remain, though. I just don't have the proper frame of reference to score this wine.
March 28, 2009 - No score for this one. Tight, tight on the nose, not giving anything up. Pure stem and green on the palate all the way through, and this only grew as it got air. Not a good wine RIGHT NOW. Maybe in a few years. While I expected young, I expected more drinkable.