March 26, 2024 - Canon vs. Duffau-Lagarrosse 2009-2020 tasted blind (Fribourg): Medium plus garnet, rich and ripe, very generous, beautiful aromas of ripe plums without being overripe. A very full throttle wine, dark chocolate on the finish with toast and caramel. Certainly plush but the package works.
January 23, 2024 - Pop and pour, takes 2 hours to open up to reveal a terrific forward young nose of dark berries, plum, floral notes, hint of green. Full body, very concentrated, palate coating lush ripe fruit welk-balanced with acidity and fine tannins. Too young for any aged complexity. Long finish. Expect improvement over the next 5-10 years. Excellent-outstanding.
April 25, 2023 - An Exploration of 2009 St. Emilions (plus a few bonuses) (Los Olivos, CA): Served blind. The nose was quite offputting, either VA or Brett (or both?), kind of vegetal (think mushrooms and onions). Disjointed on the palate as well, rustic, textured and ungenerous, almost astringent. I was disappointed when the label was revealed, as this same bottling had shown beautifully 2-1/2 years ago, besting the Pichon Baron and Trotanoy served alongside it.
March 14, 2023 - nicely balanced nose of ripe black plumbs and cassis - full body of ripe sweet fruit - long 20-30 second finish - drinking beautifully now, but no way the drinking window is finished at 2020- give it another 3-5 years to fully develop the complexity that underlies the abundant fruit in this wine
December 22, 2022 - Inky dark, very intense plum and purple fruit. No doubt classy and elegant yet very primary, and to me a bit too extracted. Perhaps in 10+ years it would be a true beauty but not at the moment.
June 10, 2022 - Well, this is just a home run from the start. Full bodied and well-rounded, tastes of cooked dark berries, muted chocolate, leather, and slight oak. smooth as silk. Truly a legend! After 1st tasting, I decanter this after 1 hr and it opened even more. After 2 hrs it opened up to a crescendo of fruit and chocolate flavors. The scents of wide flowers, soil, and slight plum.
April 28, 2022 - Mostly Domestic Wine Dinner (The Capital Grille at Tysons corner, VA): Expressive nose displaying ripe concentrated black fruit, blackberry, blackberry pie, a hint of plum, dark chocolate, dark flowers, a hint of green, dark spices and crushed rocks. Excellent concentration, very finely layered concentrated black fruit, silky and fluid, perfect amount of acidity and mineral, very fine tannins and a seamless long ripe concentrated black fruit driven finish with dark chocolate and mineral at the end. This is starting to reach the early drinking windows. I am hoping that it will drink like the 90 five to ten years ago. Not the most complex but really hedonistic wine.
September 5, 2021 - Plum and blueberry nose. Prune plum and blackberry on the palate with soft tannins, sufficient acidity and lengthy finish. Merlot influence is dominant.
June 20, 2021 - although I generally don't drink Bordeaux younger than 20 years, I wanted to see how this wnie was developing given the reported drinking window from 2012-2020 - very nice nose of ripe plumbs and cassis - full body of ripe merlot fruit - medium 15-20 second finish - drinking very nicely now, but no way the drinking window is finished at 2020- give it another 3-5 years to fully develop the complexity that underlies the abundant fruit in this wine
April 3, 2021 - Silky, velvety bordeaux with great purity of fruit and no hard edges. Lots of berries with some flowers and spice. This wine was great on pnp, double decanted, and left in opened bottle for 4 hours. improved throughout the night and is definitely worth opening if you have multiple bottles.