Ripe red cherry with forest floor and plenty of minerality. While ripe and powerful this is balanced with bright acidity. Very good with a lot of upside.
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This is pretty nice… And it took a while to come around. I had just pop and poured two very nice 2006s the prior two days I tried the same with this one and hit a roadblock. Yeah yeah yeah 2009 I know. The next day it was really singing. I know Ducs is a big wine and 2009 but this was a dark wine for Lafarge anyway. The next day this was singing. This baby was pure, dark black cherry that is still Lafarge-like clear. The wine was more cologne, than say perfumed, or spiced. There were plenty of lovely black earth tones. I marveled a the purity of this, saying to myself, I love Lafarge. While it leaned toward black and purple fruit, it was still very much Lafarge. While it was certainly cool to check in on this one, I would give it more time unless you have a half a case or more.
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JT and Marty Super Bowl Extravaganza (Chez Newman): A stunning wine that is still in its infancy. The nose is phenomenal and explodes out of the glass so that it is easy to smell from 5 feet away! Essence of Volnay here with beautiful bright red fruits, floral notes, and a mineral tinge. The palate has great intensity and power, yet still feels balanced and elegant. No hints of heat, just pure fruit and a driving mineral finish. Exquisite stuff. Clearly the wine of the night for me and maybe the wine of the whole weekend!
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Absolutely delicious. Ruby color. Wonderfully aromatic with cherry fruit, exotic spice and dirt. Velvety palate that is just hitting its stride. The mid palate is explosive. Super finish. This will be a winner for years. Pure and damn good. (94+)
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Deep red, little colour fade. Absolutely glorious nose of primary red fruits, notably strawberry and bitter cherry. Little in the way of secondary or tertiary development. High acidity and tannin but the fruit powers through. I can easily see this lasting another 25+ years. Probably the highest level of acidity in a 2009 red burgundy I can remember. Magical. Drunk at cellar temperature on a hot-ish day (for the UK, at least!) and it's just perfect.
Around the village, we are here on the best terroirs of Volnay, on this enclosure below the village, there is limestone below a good layer of clayey marl. On the nose, it seems to be a not so distant cousin of Clos de Vougeot, there are aromas of plums and leather, but one can also feel the strict Comblanchien limestone underneath. The palate is round, sweet and spicy, suave and sensual while remaining dense, with a nice lingering finish. Generous wine and wears his heart on his sleeves.
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We opened several bottles and a couple were oxidized. (Storage problems?) The good ones were gorgeous, fruity complex and lots of potential in reserve. Silky, of course. Now in its drinking window
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Casual and Great Domaine Lafarge Tasting (Chez Winefool): 95/03/07/09/11. Powerful aromas that show delicious candied, ripe red cherry with toasted herbs and spice. Amazing powerful and concentration here, that is more than you'd expect for the house style, but well-balanced and pure. This is fun and delicious now but I suspect will be even better in 10-20 years. Several points of upside.
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Drinking Some Great Lafarge as an Hommage to Becky Wasserman (The Winefool - Chicago IL): In 95/03/07/09/11 vertical. Lots of ripe black and red cherry with plenty of power, well supported by robust tannins in the near background. Perhaps not as perfectly harmonious as the 2007, this is bigger, denser and more attention-grabbing. Group was split between this vs 2007 as wine of the flight, but I prefer this 2009 for its potential.
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Volnay 1er cru 2009: Des fruits rouges frais au nez. La bouche est fraîche, sur les cerises et le cassis, avec une finale légèrement épicée et acidulée. Un vin d’abord un peu simple mais qui développe de la complexité à l’aération. Un vin de finesse qui se termine sur une finale d’une très belle longueur. Excellent.
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Tasted double blind. This was a bit complicated to drink after all the bold wines before and at the end of a long evening. So the 91 points might be a bit harsh. I was surprised that it is a 2009 Burg as I expected a slightly cooler vintage and not this bold one. Yes, the fruit is ripe but the wine was more dominated by a slight astringency, the freshness with the purity and precision as the highlights. Just a bit too astringent this evening and in this lineup to be fully enjoyed but hinted at its potential.
TN: Rather muted nose. Better on the palate with with fresh but ripe red fruit, lots of cherries, a dominating factor of minerality and some cola. Superb purity, high freshness, good concentration and texture but not yet in a really charming phase.
Decanting: I would give it at least 3 hours in the decanter.
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No decant. Great, clear cut red cherry fruit profile with some first aging notes discernible if you look for them. A bit earthy and green notes, elements of spices there too. Still plenty of acidity and tannin and probably in need of more aging. This is promising but I clearly opened this before its prime.
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Volnay with Jasper Morris MW (67 Pall Mall): Classy stuff. Starting to look pretty mature. A lovely complex nose, with an indefinable melange of red fruits. Elegant, balanced and quite savoury, its freshness belies the warm vintage. Very long finish. All coming together nicely; this site matures earlier than the Clos des Chenes.
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Medium garnet. Lovely nose here as well, dominated by sous bois, earth, licorice, herbs, complex, musk. Elegant palate but with demanding tannins still. Fresh, no 2009 heat visible. Good quality, built for the long haul. Wait till 2024. Should hit 95 once mature.
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Layers of elegant red fruit give way to a mineral streak that unfolds into silky tannins, all the while leading you to a nice long finish. Lots to think about and dwell on. This is one classy wine, with a long way to go. It's starting to show it's stuff now, but certainly has many years ahead of it. I would be inclined to let them sleep a while longer, as I think this will blossom into something really, really special. Top notch stuff, that has left me thinking about it endlessly the next day. If you only have one or a couple, I would keep holding, but if you have a bunch, worth a look now.
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Beautifully developed with moderately stemmy overtones and textbook aroma complexity - very true to Lafarge and Volnay. Quite a powerful wine with ripe red-berried fruit, silky tannins, glycerol viscosity and a long, oriental-spicy, warming finish. Has reached its plateau of prime drinking.
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Souper avec Frédéric et Chantal Lafarge (à la maison): Un vin voluptueux et sérieux à la fois, avec une profondeur saline, des tanins très soyeux, un fruit opulent. La finale est complexe et magnifiquement équilibrée. Un grand Volnay. 93-94 pts
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This wine is the embodiment of the Lafarge house style. Elegant, silky, and light, especially for the vintage. This is certainly on the riper end of the Lafarges that I've had, but the fruit is still crisp and there's still a lovely tart red-fruited acidity here. The palate has a lot of thick tannins, which will need some time to ease out. It's not the most expressive right now, but there is plenty of depth here. I love the red-fruited spectrum and clean acids in this wine. Brilliant.
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Still rather primary in terms of fruit character on the nose, crisp and expressive, hints of spices, earth. On the palate quite tight still and firm, but approachable. Great, lifted fruit notes, good acidity, mineral. Great length. This is a little too young in my view, but was already showing very well. Great future. 92-93+
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Wineberserkers Eat Duck in Midtown (Peking Duck House (Midtown), NYC): Pale ruby. Freaking textbook nose: roses and iron, delicate and enchantingly perfumed, a jewel caught in a web of precious minerals; gushing with friendly red berry fruit and in no way overripe. Totally primary, of course, but wowza it's gorgeous. The palate is perfection: perfect balance, pure and bright; cherry and a touch of confection. Very long, indeed, but far more delicate than I anticipated though exceptionally persistent. This is a great wine, a Volnay exactly calculated for a palate like mine (which loves it some Volnay, lord knows...). This thing is going to bloom into a ravishing belle with time in the cellar.
The Underground Blind Tasting Group: "Clos" (Houston): At first, the nose was shy and not giving up much more than an intense perfume of red fruits and tense chalky limestone note. More red fruits on the palate, with a very bright, high acidity that made the wine seem very long and linear on the palate. I picked up the slightest bit of herbs on the back end that added a savory element to the bright red fruit. The tannins were pretty firm, but fine grained and worked with the fruit to give a slightly sour cherry puckering sensation on the finish. After a few hours in the glass, this went through quite a transformation. The fruit fanned out on the palate with more purple flowers and blue fruits, the savory herbs were complemented with a meaty, brambly quality. Both the nose and the palate took on a beautiful and beguiling citrus quality that was so remarkably similar to mandarin oranges. The tannins were still firm and fine grained, but they were less noticeable after the fruit opened up. What a great wine that should age gracefully for decades with plenty of stuffing.
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Volnay night at Cory's (Chicago): Beautifully ripe and pure red fruit, touch of earth and spice. Creamy and full in the mouth. Oak was more evident, but really worked. Very pretty. Long finish.
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Extremely young. Won't score it, as I could not quite put my finger on this one. The acidity is certainly there, in a good way for this wine. Seems like it will be good with some time, but right now it just seems very thin.
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Quite a hefty wine. Its pretty rich with both blue and red fruit. There are some violet tones as well. A long and fresh aftertaste. 2009 is not a year I normally prefer but this is very good. I am happy I have more in the cellar. It needs to pend some time down there. This will not peak in many years to come but it is lovely right now as well.
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9/30/2023 - Chasse_spleen Likes this wine: 94 Points
Very good, elegant and very balanced. Sweet fruit underpinned by acidity and complexity. Volnay at its best, very true to style.
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5/29/2023 - winemaker Likes this wine: 94 Points
Beautiful concentrated wine. Sweet fruit. Likely much better in another 10 years.
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4/29/2023 - rlove wrote: 93 Points
Ripe red cherry with forest floor and plenty of minerality. While ripe and powerful this is balanced with bright acidity. Very good with a lot of upside.
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2/21/2023 - Charlie Carnes Likes this wine: 94 Points
This is pretty nice… And it took a while to come around. I had just pop and poured two very nice 2006s the prior two days I tried the same with this one and hit a roadblock. Yeah yeah yeah 2009 I know. The next day it was really singing. I know Ducs is a big wine and 2009 but this was a dark wine for Lafarge anyway. The next day this was singing. This baby was pure, dark black cherry that is still Lafarge-like clear. The wine was more cologne, than say perfumed, or spiced. There were plenty of lovely black earth tones. I marveled a the purity of this, saying to myself, I love Lafarge. While it leaned toward black and purple fruit, it was still very much Lafarge. While it was certainly cool to check in on this one, I would give it more time unless you have a half a case or more.
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2/13/2023 - jnewman77 Likes this wine:
JT and Marty Super Bowl Extravaganza (Chez Newman): A stunning wine that is still in its infancy. The nose is phenomenal and explodes out of the glass so that it is easy to smell from 5 feet away! Essence of Volnay here with beautiful bright red fruits, floral notes, and a mineral tinge. The palate has great intensity and power, yet still feels balanced and elegant. No hints of heat, just pure fruit and a driving mineral finish. Exquisite stuff. Clearly the wine of the night for me and maybe the wine of the whole weekend!
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1/1/2023 - dbkitc wrote: 94 Points
Absolutely delicious. Ruby color. Wonderfully aromatic with cherry fruit, exotic spice and dirt. Velvety palate that is just hitting its stride. The mid palate is explosive. Super finish. This will be a winner for years. Pure and damn good. (94+)
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9/8/2022 - lepetitchateau wrote: 94 Points
Great aromatics, minerality, intensity, lightweight but power… still young but pleasurable - still wait for this.
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9/7/2022 - hprphf wrote: 94 Points
Magnum. Vanilla hue, dark fruit, super elegant, big format just makes it the cherry on top. 93-94
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4/30/2022 - CambWine Likes this wine: 95 Points
Deep red, little colour fade. Absolutely glorious nose of primary red fruits, notably strawberry and bitter cherry. Little in the way of secondary or tertiary development. High acidity and tannin but the fruit powers through. I can easily see this lasting another 25+ years. Probably the highest level of acidity in a 2009 red burgundy I can remember. Magical. Drunk at cellar temperature on a hot-ish day (for the UK, at least!) and it's just perfect.
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4/18/2022 - Mag357 Likes this wine:
Around the village, we are here on the best terroirs of Volnay, on this enclosure below the village, there is limestone below a good layer of clayey marl. On the nose, it seems to be a not so distant cousin of Clos de Vougeot, there are aromas of plums and leather, but one can also feel the strict Comblanchien limestone underneath. The palate is round, sweet and spicy, suave and sensual while remaining dense, with a nice lingering finish. Generous wine and wears his heart on his sleeves.
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2/25/2022 - KVM wrote:
We opened several bottles and a couple were oxidized. (Storage problems?) The good ones were gorgeous, fruity complex and lots of potential in reserve. Silky, of course. Now in its drinking window
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8/31/2021 - Nanda wrote: 93 Points
Casual and Great Domaine Lafarge Tasting (Chez Winefool): 95/03/07/09/11. Powerful aromas that show delicious candied, ripe red cherry with toasted herbs and spice. Amazing powerful and concentration here, that is more than you'd expect for the house style, but well-balanced and pure. This is fun and delicious now but I suspect will be even better in 10-20 years. Several points of upside.
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8/31/2021 - Burgundy Al wrote: 94 Points
Drinking Some Great Lafarge as an Hommage to Becky Wasserman (The Winefool - Chicago IL): In 95/03/07/09/11 vertical. Lots of ripe black and red cherry with plenty of power, well supported by robust tannins in the near background. Perhaps not as perfectly harmonious as the 2007, this is bigger, denser and more attention-grabbing. Group was split between this vs 2007 as wine of the flight, but I prefer this 2009 for its potential.
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10/20/2020 - robferguson1 wrote: 92 Points
I am realising how drinkable 09s are , lovely and long , I kept sipping for 2 great hours
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8/28/2020 - Finare Vinare wrote: 94 Points
See the note from 181224. It went extremely well with grilled chicken, a creamy chanterelle sauce and oven-baked "hasselback" potatoes.
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8/5/2020 - Mazy Likes this wine: 92 Points
Volnay 1er cru 2009: Des fruits rouges frais au nez. La bouche est fraîche, sur les cerises et le cassis, avec une finale légèrement épicée et acidulée. Un vin d’abord un peu simple mais qui développe de la complexité à l’aération. Un vin de finesse qui se termine sur une finale d’une très belle longueur. Excellent.
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5/26/2020 - Cailles wrote: 91 Points
Tasted double blind. This was a bit complicated to drink after all the bold wines before and at the end of a long evening. So the 91 points might be a bit harsh. I was surprised that it is a 2009 Burg as I expected a slightly cooler vintage and not this bold one. Yes, the fruit is ripe but the wine was more dominated by a slight astringency, the freshness with the purity and precision as the highlights. Just a bit too astringent this evening and in this lineup to be fully enjoyed but hinted at its potential.
TN: Rather muted nose. Better on the palate with with fresh but ripe red fruit, lots of cherries, a dominating factor of minerality and some cola. Superb purity, high freshness, good concentration and texture but not yet in a really charming phase.
Decanting: I would give it at least 3 hours in the decanter.
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5/8/2020 - sirpat00 wrote: 93 Points
No decant. Great, clear cut red cherry fruit profile with some first aging notes discernible if you look for them. A bit earthy and green notes, elements of spices there too. Still plenty of acidity and tannin and probably in need of more aging. This is promising but I clearly opened this before its prime.
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2/24/2020 - NickA Likes this wine: 92 Points
Volnay with Jasper Morris MW (67 Pall Mall): Classy stuff. Starting to look pretty mature. A lovely complex nose, with an indefinable melange of red fruits. Elegant, balanced and quite savoury, its freshness belies the warm vintage. Very long finish. All coming together nicely; this site matures earlier than the Clos des Chenes.
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8/26/2019 - Beachfan Likes this wine: 93 Points
Long lovely Volnay
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8/26/2019 - Beachfan Likes this wine: 93 Points
Lovely long Volnay
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5/17/2019 - Collector1855 wrote: 94 Points
Medium garnet. Lovely nose here as well, dominated by sous bois, earth, licorice, herbs, complex, musk. Elegant palate but with demanding tannins still. Fresh, no 2009 heat visible. Good quality, built for the long haul. Wait till 2024. Should hit 95 once mature.
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2/28/2019 - Irisland Likes this wine:
Layers of elegant red fruit give way to a mineral streak that unfolds into silky tannins, all the while leading you to a nice long finish. Lots to think about and dwell on. This is one classy wine, with a long way to go. It's starting to show it's stuff now, but certainly has many years ahead of it. I would be inclined to let them sleep a while longer, as I think this will blossom into something really, really special. Top notch stuff, that has left me thinking about it endlessly the next day. If you only have one or a couple, I would keep holding, but if you have a bunch, worth a look now.
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12/24/2018 - Finare Vinare wrote: 94 Points
Beautifully developed with moderately stemmy overtones and textbook aroma complexity - very true to Lafarge and Volnay. Quite a powerful wine with ripe red-berried fruit, silky tannins, glycerol viscosity and a long, oriental-spicy, warming finish. Has reached its plateau of prime drinking.
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2/4/2017 - d'Artagnan wrote: 94 Points
Souper avec Frédéric et Chantal Lafarge (à la maison): Un vin voluptueux et sérieux à la fois, avec une profondeur saline, des tanins très soyeux, un fruit opulent. La finale est complexe et magnifiquement équilibrée. Un grand Volnay. 93-94 pts
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12/9/2016 - barryjkeller@gmail.com wrote:
I thought quite closed and lacking freshness. Did start to open a bit after 2-3 hours (Did not decant - a mistake)
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12/5/2016 - acyso wrote: 93 Points
This wine is the embodiment of the Lafarge house style. Elegant, silky, and light, especially for the vintage. This is certainly on the riper end of the Lafarges that I've had, but the fruit is still crisp and there's still a lovely tart red-fruited acidity here. The palate has a lot of thick tannins, which will need some time to ease out. It's not the most expressive right now, but there is plenty of depth here. I love the red-fruited spectrum and clean acids in this wine. Brilliant.
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1/27/2016 - rossi.wine wrote: 93 Points
Still rather primary in terms of fruit character on the nose, crisp and expressive, hints of spices, earth. On the palate quite tight still and firm, but approachable. Great, lifted fruit notes, good acidity, mineral. Great length. This is a little too young in my view, but was already showing very well. Great future. 92-93+
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3/18/2015 - Matt Neel Likes this wine:
Wineberserkers Eat Duck in Midtown (Peking Duck House (Midtown), NYC): Pale ruby. Freaking textbook nose: roses and iron, delicate and enchantingly perfumed, a jewel caught in a web of precious minerals; gushing with friendly red berry fruit and in no way overripe. Totally primary, of course, but wowza it's gorgeous. The palate is perfection: perfect balance, pure and bright; cherry and a touch of confection. Very long, indeed, but far more delicate than I anticipated though exceptionally persistent. This is a great wine, a Volnay exactly calculated for a palate like mine (which loves it some Volnay, lord knows...). This thing is going to bloom into a ravishing belle with time in the cellar.
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2/9/2015 - tate491 Likes this wine:
The Underground Blind Tasting Group: "Clos" (Houston): At first, the nose was shy and not giving up much more than an intense perfume of red fruits and tense chalky limestone note. More red fruits on the palate, with a very bright, high acidity that made the wine seem very long and linear on the palate. I picked up the slightest bit of herbs on the back end that added a savory element to the bright red fruit. The tannins were pretty firm, but fine grained and worked with the fruit to give a slightly sour cherry puckering sensation on the finish. After a few hours in the glass, this went through quite a transformation. The fruit fanned out on the palate with more purple flowers and blue fruits, the savory herbs were complemented with a meaty, brambly quality. Both the nose and the palate took on a beautiful and beguiling citrus quality that was so remarkably similar to mandarin oranges. The tannins were still firm and fine grained, but they were less noticeable after the fruit opened up. What a great wine that should age gracefully for decades with plenty of stuffing.
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4/25/2014 - johnh1001 wrote: 93 Points
Volnay night at Cory's (Chicago): Beautifully ripe and pure red fruit, touch of earth and spice. Creamy and full in the mouth. Oak was more evident, but really worked. Very pretty. Long finish.
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9/28/2013 - Aenie wrote: 95 Points
Greatest Perfume ,full with red flower and white flower , balance , big wine , long finished
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9/27/2013 - noppakit s. wrote: 94 Points
Light ruby color, clear and beautiful. Elegant, mild toasted oak, vibrant, beautiful texture and well-balance.
Good to drink now but I prefer to keep another 7-10 years to feel the true terroir.
Good finished. 94-95/100
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12/6/2012 - fournet wrote:
Extremely young. Won't score it, as I could not quite put my finger on this one. The acidity is certainly there, in a good way for this wine. Seems like it will be good with some time, but right now it just seems very thin.
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11/1/2012 - St Paul wrote: 94 Points
Quite a hefty wine. Its pretty rich with both blue and red fruit. There are some violet tones as well. A long and fresh aftertaste. 2009 is not a year I normally prefer but this is very good. I am happy I have more in the cellar. It needs to pend some time down there. This will not peak in many years to come but it is lovely right now as well.
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