May 25, 2023 - Tasted over 2 hrs
-med dark red minimal clearing
-mild reduction low profile dark berry fruit with some wet stone
-med- acidity, med weight faint shell of dark fruit surrounds a sweet earthy core finishing with a bit of a burnt rubber note carrying to the finish, med tannins
-unusual discordance between fruit remnants and sweet core, this might be a bit flawed as the reduction doesn't totally blow off
July 9, 2020 - Very impressive. My last bottle. Lovely fruit, caramel, complex, long finish. This is a wondefull wine.
June 20, 2020 - At first a little reductive, but this blew off. Dark fruits and a sense of wood on the nose. Obvious more than nuanced. It is dark fruited and brooding on the palate as well, broad and sappy, but lacking clarity and lift that it needed to really be special. Some torrefaction notes and the wood are a distraction on the palate form what seemed like decent fruit underneath. It has palate impact, but lacks grace and nuance. It's good, in a palate impact more than harmony sense, but I don't drink pinot for palate impact. I tend to get that feel in a lot of 09s, more so from this wine. This needed perfume and lift not just size. Foursquare.
July 5, 2018 - Maison Ilan @ Medlar: Dense ruby. Lovely nose. Good fruit, quite meaty with a touch of caramel. Darker, slightly 11 savoury on the palate. **(*1/2) Turns out to score the same as when first tasted in 2011.
March 29, 2018 - Cherry, sous bois, a little bit of tar; medium bodied, good length, some structure but a little undefined, good fruit and substance and generally pleasing
April 13, 2017 - Leiden just before Easter: Wow. This is lovely now. Lots of fruit, spice, sweetness, this has developed since the last time I tasted it. Serious wine, volume and length.
January 21, 2017 - Unpleasant burnt rubber component, possibly severe reduction? Didn't blow off after an hour.
May 8, 2015 - Quality Chop House (Quality Chop House): Blind. Dark fruited. Very dense, sulpherous, heavily reduced nose. So densely so that it smells like heavily charred new oak. Very toasty. Decanted. Poured from glass to glass, pennies dropped in. No change after a couple of hours. Impenetrable. Oh dear. NR
March 31, 2015 - soso. major funk in the beginning. simple straighforward.
March 14, 2015 - A bunch of wines with Friends at NVW&C (Napa Valley Wine & Cigar): Yes, this can be a controversial winery so, I thought it would be an interesting test. Randy indicated that he had tried it once and the bottle was quite flawed. I had purchased this on release. The cork was soaked to the top and broke in half when removing. A prior bottle opened for Randy had a similar cork and was DOA, so we were worried. On opening, it was allowed to breath for 10 minutes and then checked in on. At first there is a nice funk/merde on the nose which I liked a lot. It does smell much older than it is. The body is thin though although there is some cherry fruit. Overall, I thought it good, not great. With air the stink blows off which is good for some but I like that. The body continues to put on weight eventually settling in at a medium bodied wine. It also gets young or perhaps fresher is a better way to say it with air. For me, this seems correct and typical 1er Cru Burgundy. There is nice cherry fruit and layers of fruit and earth. Perhaps slightly advanced for 6 years from vintage but I think a few hours of slow-ox would have been a better way to open. It's easy to say now, but it seems like it would be identifiable as Burgundy in a blind tasting. I have no complaints with the wine, it is really good, and will hold my remaining bottle for a while.