Zombie wines of North London (Terra Rossa): A funny one, this - almost awful, but I liked it. Volatile and funky nose, with a smell like kidneys. Cloudy, slightly foxy, earthy, some raspberry. Cleaned up with air, with some deep violet notes developing. Also a sense of being candied and slightly foecal. Complex and compelling.
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Zombie Wines at Terra Rossa (Terra Rossa, Islington): A medium dirty red, lots of fine matter suspended. What a stunner this was, with characteristics of aged burgundy but somehow striking a different tone. So sweet and mellow, with red fruits and a spicy finish. Two bottles opened, both similar and both in great condition. How lucky were we? Totally capitivating and delicious. Second bottle probably did not benefit from decanting, pop and pour would seem to be the way to go.
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Lots of sediment adhering to the bottle. The wine is gorgeous, bright, and lively in coloration. These 70s Musars sometimes seem more youthful than the late nineties and early 2000 vintages I’ve tried recently. There’s a slight bit of oxidation on the nose but not what you’d expect from a wine of this age. The palate has subtle cherry fruit, fully resolved tannin, and a slight mushroomy quality, but the fruit isn’t overwhelmed by savory or funky flavors. An excellent bottle of Musar...especially considering the difficult circumstances in the country at the time it was made!
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This was one of the tightest old corks I’ve ever seen, and the wine reflects it. Clear, pure, and still showing ample sweet fruit. There was just a little bit of an off-aroma at first but it quickly blew off. This is remarkably clean for a Musar but has a great savory undertone. A beautiful wine from an exceptional man.
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Typical old Musar with oxidized fruit, prunes, dust, ample acidity and life to go. Certainly not a wine to drink on its own but if you have some dry-aged beef, wild mushrooms, or other funky and umami-rich food this will be a real treat to pair with it.
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I had the '78 along with the '93. It was a great pairing and hence a great evening. The '78 was in great shape 10 minutes out of the bottle. Leather, soy, tobacco and a raisiny fruit. It had a clarity that comes with Musar age. The '93 took longer to get going and had more plum with a lighter touch on the tertiary flavors. However by the time we were 3 hours into the evening the bottles were becoming more and more similar. The amazing thing was that the '78 was still going at the end of the evening and the '93 was showing what it would be like in another few years. And Musar does the longevity thing with a medium bodied wine. Amazing. Great evening!
Malt, typical sweetness sweet corn, malaga like. So traditionally Musar, but then again the sweet corn was kind of odd. Less impressive than other bottles
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Drank the 72 and 78 Musar side by side tonight. Both in perfect shape. Both orange in color, the 72 "looked" older. There were five of us, and it was two to two with one abstention as to the favorite. The 72 showed more classic Musar, and it showed just beautiful aged fruit tones. I loved it, and liked it materially better than the 78. The 78 showed thicker, with more grit and less age (and thus appealed more to the non old wine drinkers I suspect). All in all a great pair, and a lot of fun. Thanks (six years later) to Bartholomew Broadbent for the perfect provenance bottles.
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Five Decades of Chateau Musar....with Serge Hochar (Shanghai Room, Langham Place Hotel, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong): Tasted blind as one of 12 vintages over 5 decades. Small serving. Amazing bright-jeweled transparent ruby colour....it must be a 1990s. Nose is reticent......you really have to chase it down corridors to get a whiff of the classic musar elements. Palate is absolutely classic Musar.......complex fruits, tons of exotic dry spices in an Eastern market, broodingly thunderous power rumbling in the background, gorgeous dusky powdered tannins like the dust from old bricks. Lovely! The 1978 is always a consistent pleasure....too bad it was only a small tasting....this one of the wines that would have shown better as a bottle drank on its own over a long evening. My #3, group's #3.
This wine is getting better and better with age, I am happy to report. My third bottle in three years, and the best yet! The nose was spice and rose petals, the palate was a balanced combination of fruit and acidity, at the same time the tannins were well melted. While we did not decant the bottle, it lasted in the glass for over an hour... unfortunately we finished it before it declined!
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Brought at a BYO dinner, facing pretty stiff competition (Haut Brion 1983 included). In the end most people agreed this was the wine of the night! Beautiful, mature nose but the palate is even better. Plenty of fruit left, long and complex. Could not get enough. What a wine. When people were told this was a lebanese wine they were all very surprised. Special. (from a bottle in near-perfect condition: apparently there is a lot of bottle variation with this wine).
A very enjoyable wine. It took a good 30 minutes for the "stuffiness" of an old bottle to clear, even in a large Syrah glass. Then, an earthy and slightly spicy nose developed. In the mouth, the tannins had all but softened, the fruit was present, and without have madeirized, a sweetness characteristic of the terroir was enjoyable.
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Decanted three hours. Pale and brown in the glass, but holding up nicely. Expressive nose of strawberries, with a bit of barnyard funk. Strawberries and raspberries on the palate, with tart cranberries, straw, burnt sugar and a little bit of mint. Beautiful, feminine, majestic, ethereal -- the Grace Kelly of wines. Like velvet in the glass. My friends thought it was a Chambertin. WOTN
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Chateau Musar-smaking i regi av Aperitif (Gamle Logen, Oslo): Farge: Middels tett rød med innslag av rødbrunt, klart lysere mot kanten. Duft: Lær, sigarkasse, plomme, rik, parfymert nese. Smak: Elegant, på den lettere siden mht. fylde, men flott balanse. Moden stil, flott syre og sursøt karakter. lang ettersmak. Bløte, men tydelige tanniner i ettersmaken. Perfekt moden nå,selv om den sikkert holder seg i mange år til. Laget på Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache og Mourvedre.
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Drunk over lunch "a deux" with Ralph Hochar at Chez Patrick Sun Street in Hong Kong. Double decanted 12 hours earlier but kept vacuumed overnight in the fridge. Beautiful light clean colour with very little thinning around the rim and no trace of bricking. Initially a slightly oxidized nose (but nothing like as strong when first opened) but this blew off and Ralph explained that this was the residual influence of the old cork affecting the wine temporarily, which is why you need to open them so long before you drink them. Some volatile acidity but not intrusive and blew off. Initial nose of mushrooms and feral elements but opened out beautifully in the glass over time to exhibit gorgeous, quite ethereal high notes of woodland wild strawberries, white chocolate, creme brulee and the characteristic cedar plantation signature notes of Musar. Unusually beguiling on the palate with a blend of feminine lightness and delicacy of mouthfeel and still noticeable acidity (the element Serge Hochar emphasised that year) but deep, multi-layered complexity. Very long and ethereal finish that interrupted our conversation. Ralph remarked that his favourite Musar is the '72 but that this wine is increasingly developing to the same level. I also learned the reason for the characteristic high VA associated with Musar: the wine is not bottled for three and a half years so there there is way more time than normal for temperature and humidity factors to affect it before it is sealed in the bottle. The family took the decision a long time ago to embrace this characteristic for the sake of complexity and ageing capability rather than to subdue it. Bravo, I say.
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Chateau Musar Vertical (Tabla): Next best after the 1972 and similar in character. Basically this was just as supple with all of the elements of the '72 but not quite as seamless, and a little more corporeal. I wonder if this is just a few years away from that state.
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Chateau Musar Dinner with Serge Honchar (Tabla): This wine seemed to me to be a scaled back version of the '72. A delicate nose showed perfume and black currants. It was certainly in tune with very nice fruit and good acidity. A beautiful, mature Claret that fell short of classic. Harmonious for sure, perhaps it just lacked that "it" factor.
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Drunk over New Year's lunch at Top Deck in Hong Kong. I am a great believer in double decanting old Musars at least 12 hours before drinking (into a decanter, straight back into the cleaned bottle and then put in the fridge door) and this proved no exception as we drank it 18 hours after opening and the difference between a small taste on immediate opening and a glass 18 hours on was profound. I decanted this in parallel with a Musar '77 and this is definitely the lighter, more feminine of the two. Quite light in colour, beautiful purity of colour, wondeful high notes of cedar plantations and resin and Rosemary on the nose. Wow, light but piercing mouth sensations with a touch of balanced residual acidity and gorgeous poise. Lovely length which evocates fine, supple shoe leather. I'm drinking a '94 Musar as I write this and it (unfairly) seems like a brute by comparison. You can't keep these wines too long.
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Drunk 2 bottles with Duck & Foie Gras main course when a friend from London came to stay. Outstanding. Super translucent, almost transparent, brick red colour, great structure and still quite a lot of fruit. Super leather and cedar notes. Reasonable length. A touch of "old wine" oxidization but not as pronounced as in the '81 drunk a few weeks earlier.
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With MPL at Singer & Foy survey of 1978 Rhones at Zola's. (This one was inserted as a ringer.) Medium ruby. Brick rim. Looks older than the other wines. Nose is light, though it has plenty of fruit. Fine in the mouth. Good balance, length and concentration. Long finish. Dry finish. Slightly bitter aftertaste. The group and I ranked this wine number five out of 11 wines tasted. 4-10-16-7: 87/100.
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With MPL at the office. Very light ruby color, but not looking old or tired. Fresh berry nose. On the palate, the wine is exciting and alive. Lots of juicy fruit and berry flavors. Never brooding or heavy, but good backbone. Very pleasant surprise. 5-10-17-7: 89/100.
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11/17/2023 - Fausto_Coppi Likes this wine: 90 Points
Well balanced, mature, pale red with fading fruit, light tannins and smooth acidity.
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3/16/2023 - fourdan wrote: 94 Points
Amazing, classic old Musar
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2/9/2023 - NickA wrote: 91 Points
Zombie wines of North London (Terra Rossa): A funny one, this - almost awful, but I liked it. Volatile and funky nose, with a smell like kidneys. Cloudy, slightly foxy, earthy, some raspberry. Cleaned up with air, with some deep violet notes developing. Also a sense of being candied and slightly foecal. Complex and compelling.
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2/9/2023 - oenanthe Likes this wine: 93 Points
Zombie Wines at Terra Rossa (Terra Rossa, Islington): A medium dirty red, lots of fine matter suspended. What a stunner this was, with characteristics of aged burgundy but somehow striking a different tone. So sweet and mellow, with red fruits and a spicy finish. Two bottles opened, both similar and both in great condition. How lucky were we? Totally capitivating and delicious. Second bottle probably did not benefit from decanting, pop and pour would seem to be the way to go.
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12/24/2020 - BillBell73 Likes this wine:
Lots of sediment adhering to the bottle. The wine is gorgeous, bright, and lively in coloration. These 70s Musars sometimes seem more youthful than the late nineties and early 2000 vintages I’ve tried recently.
There’s a slight bit of oxidation on the nose but not what you’d expect from a wine of this age. The palate has subtle cherry fruit, fully resolved tannin, and a slight mushroomy quality, but the fruit isn’t overwhelmed by savory or funky flavors. An excellent bottle of Musar...especially considering the difficult circumstances in the country at the time it was made!
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9/7/2019 - BillBell73 Likes this wine:
This was one of the tightest old corks I’ve ever seen, and the wine reflects it. Clear, pure, and still showing ample sweet fruit. There was just a little bit of an off-aroma at first but it quickly blew off. This is remarkably clean for a Musar but has a great savory undertone. A beautiful wine from an exceptional man.
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5/3/2018 - sharonandroland wrote: flawed
Both bottles corked
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5/3/2018 - CMStrong wrote: flawed
Corked :(
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11/19/2017 - AudunG wrote: 91 Points
Delicate, developed aromas af barnyard, leather and some wood. Reminds of an old Rioja. Light and elegant.
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6/23/2017 - BillBell73 wrote:
Typical old Musar with oxidized fruit, prunes, dust, ample acidity and life to go. Certainly not a wine to drink on its own but if you have some dry-aged beef, wild mushrooms, or other funky and umami-rich food this will be a real treat to pair with it.
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11/5/2015 - kenv wrote: 78 Points
WCC Blind Tasting of Chateau Musar and Chateau Montrose (Salty's Pub & Bistro, Clifton Park, NY): [Double decanted for one hour the previous evening.] Musty, too old or too much air time.
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11/3/2013 - Winevestor Likes this wine: 95 Points
I had the '78 along with the '93. It was a great pairing and hence a great evening. The '78 was in great shape 10 minutes out of the bottle. Leather, soy, tobacco and a raisiny fruit. It had a clarity that comes with Musar age. The '93 took longer to get going and had more plum with a lighter touch on the tertiary flavors. However by the time we were 3 hours into the evening the bottles were becoming more and more similar. The amazing thing was that the '78 was still going at the end of the evening and the '93 was showing what it would be like in another few years. And Musar does the longevity thing with a medium bodied wine. Amazing. Great evening!
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8/14/2013 - G_H Likes this wine: 88 Points
Malt, typical sweetness sweet corn, malaga like. So traditionally Musar, but then again the sweet corn was kind of odd. Less impressive than other bottles
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4/25/2013 - henrygjeffreys wrote:
smells like old madeira, spicy some cedar
very sherried, lots of vinegar
past it for me though others might enjoy it
disappointing
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12/18/2012 - cooberp wrote: flawed
Brutally corked. I guess you can't blame them too much, given that there was a war going on when they made it.
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12/18/2012 - coremill wrote: flawed
Horribly corked.
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9/1/2012 - BradE wrote:
Drank the 72 and 78 Musar side by side tonight. Both in perfect shape. Both orange in color, the 72 "looked" older. There were five of us, and it was two to two with one abstention as to the favorite. The 72 showed more classic Musar, and it showed just beautiful aged fruit tones. I loved it, and liked it materially better than the 78. The 78 showed thicker, with more grit and less age (and thus appealed more to the non old wine drinkers I suspect). All in all a great pair, and a lot of fun. Thanks (six years later) to Bartholomew Broadbent for the perfect provenance bottles.
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6/1/2012 - Goldstone wrote: 93 Points
Five Decades of Chateau Musar....with Serge Hochar (Shanghai Room, Langham Place Hotel, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong): Tasted blind as one of 12 vintages over 5 decades. Small serving. Amazing bright-jeweled transparent ruby colour....it must be a 1990s. Nose is reticent......you really have to chase it down corridors to get a whiff of the classic musar elements. Palate is absolutely classic Musar.......complex fruits, tons of exotic dry spices in an Eastern market, broodingly thunderous power rumbling in the background, gorgeous dusky powdered tannins like the dust from old bricks. Lovely! The 1978 is always a consistent pleasure....too bad it was only a small tasting....this one of the wines that would have shown better as a bottle drank on its own over a long evening. My #3, group's #3.
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3/6/2012 - Dubie wrote: 93 Points
This wine is getting better and better with age, I am happy to report. My third bottle in three years, and the best yet! The nose was spice and rose petals, the palate was a balanced combination of fruit and acidity, at the same time the tannins were well melted. While we did not decant the bottle, it lasted in the glass for over an hour... unfortunately we finished it before it declined!
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2/24/2011 - don_quichotte wrote: 93 Points
Brought at a BYO dinner, facing pretty stiff competition (Haut Brion 1983 included). In the end most people agreed this was the wine of the night! Beautiful, mature nose but the palate is even better. Plenty of fruit left, long and complex. Could not get enough. What a wine. When people were told this was a lebanese wine they were all very surprised. Special. (from a bottle in near-perfect condition: apparently there is a lot of bottle variation with this wine).
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12/18/2010 - belhysys wrote: 80 Points
nice and complexe but full of deposit
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3/31/2010 - Dubie wrote: 90 Points
A very enjoyable wine. It took a good 30 minutes for the "stuffiness" of an old bottle to clear, even in a large Syrah glass. Then, an earthy and slightly spicy nose developed. In the mouth, the tannins had all but softened, the fruit was present, and without have madeirized, a sweetness characteristic of the terroir was enjoyable.
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2/18/2010 - SimonG wrote: flawed
Musar & Pinot (L'Abat Jour, London): Horribly corked.
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12/18/2009 - Fielding wrote: 95 Points
Decanted three hours. Pale and brown in the glass, but holding up nicely. Expressive nose of strawberries, with a bit of barnyard funk. Strawberries and raspberries on the palate, with tart cranberries, straw, burnt sugar and a little bit of mint. Beautiful, feminine, majestic, ethereal -- the Grace Kelly of wines. Like velvet in the glass. My friends thought it was a Chambertin. WOTN
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11/5/2008 - SAND wrote:
Chateau Musar-smaking i regi av Aperitif (Gamle Logen, Oslo): Farge: Middels tett rød med innslag av rødbrunt, klart lysere mot kanten.
Duft: Lær, sigarkasse, plomme, rik, parfymert nese.
Smak: Elegant, på den lettere siden mht. fylde, men flott balanse. Moden stil, flott syre og sursøt karakter. lang ettersmak. Bløte, men tydelige tanniner i ettersmaken.
Perfekt moden nå,selv om den sikkert holder seg i mange år til.
Laget på Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache og Mourvedre.
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8/22/2008 - mgaetzi wrote: flawed
oxidized
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1/17/2008 - Goldstone wrote: 93 Points
Drunk over lunch "a deux" with Ralph Hochar at Chez Patrick Sun Street in Hong Kong. Double decanted 12 hours earlier but kept vacuumed overnight in the fridge. Beautiful light clean colour with very little thinning around the rim and no trace of bricking. Initially a slightly oxidized nose (but nothing like as strong when first opened) but this blew off and Ralph explained that this was the residual influence of the old cork affecting the wine temporarily, which is why you need to open them so long before you drink them. Some volatile acidity but not intrusive and blew off. Initial nose of mushrooms and feral elements but opened out beautifully in the glass over time to exhibit gorgeous, quite ethereal high notes of woodland wild strawberries, white chocolate, creme brulee and the characteristic cedar plantation signature notes of Musar. Unusually beguiling on the palate with a blend of feminine lightness and delicacy of mouthfeel and still noticeable acidity (the element Serge Hochar emphasised that year) but deep, multi-layered complexity. Very long and ethereal finish that interrupted our conversation. Ralph remarked that his favourite Musar is the '72 but that this wine is increasingly developing to the same level. I also learned the reason for the characteristic high VA associated with Musar: the wine is not bottled for three and a half years so there there is way more time than normal for temperature and humidity factors to affect it before it is sealed in the bottle. The family took the decision a long time ago to embrace this characteristic for the sake of complexity and ageing capability rather than to subdue it. Bravo, I say.
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12/24/2007 - mgaetzi wrote: 93 Points
Mature nose of cassis, red fruits, spice and leather. Medium Bodied, elegand, spicy, medium long aftertase.
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10/22/2007 - BradE wrote:
One of the most mature of the night. Liked it a lot, but seems past its prime and likely a candidate to drink up.
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10/21/2007 - Keith Levenberg wrote: 94 Points
Chateau Musar Vertical (Tabla): Next best after the 1972 and similar in character. Basically this was just as supple with all of the elements of the '72 but not quite as seamless, and a little more corporeal. I wonder if this is just a few years away from that state.
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10/21/2007 - bsherwin wrote:
Chateau Musar Dinner with Serge Honchar (Tabla): This wine seemed to me to be a scaled back version of the '72. A delicate nose showed perfume and black currants. It was certainly in tune with very nice fruit and good acidity. A beautiful, mature Claret that fell short of classic. Harmonious for sure, perhaps it just lacked that "it" factor.
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12/31/2006 - Goldstone wrote: 92 Points
Drunk over New Year's lunch at Top Deck in Hong Kong. I am a great believer in double decanting old Musars at least 12 hours before drinking (into a decanter, straight back into the cleaned bottle and then put in the fridge door) and this proved no exception as we drank it 18 hours after opening and the difference between a small taste on immediate opening and a glass 18 hours on was profound. I decanted this in parallel with a Musar '77 and this is definitely the lighter, more feminine of the two. Quite light in colour, beautiful purity of colour, wondeful high notes of cedar plantations and resin and Rosemary on the nose. Wow, light but piercing mouth sensations with a touch of balanced residual acidity and gorgeous poise. Lovely length which evocates fine, supple shoe leather. I'm drinking a '94 Musar as I write this and it (unfairly) seems like a brute by comparison. You can't keep these wines too long.
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5/15/2005 - Goldstone wrote: 90 Points
Drunk 2 bottles with Duck & Foie Gras main course when a friend from London came to stay. Outstanding. Super translucent, almost transparent, brick red colour, great structure and still quite a lot of fruit. Super leather and cedar notes. Reasonable length. A touch of "old wine" oxidization but not as pronounced as in the '81 drunk a few weeks earlier.
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5/7/1990 - MicklethePickle Likes this wine: 87 Points
With MPL at Singer & Foy survey of 1978 Rhones at Zola's. (This one was inserted as a ringer.) Medium ruby. Brick rim. Looks older than the other wines. Nose is light, though it has plenty of fruit. Fine in the mouth. Good balance, length and concentration. Long finish. Dry finish. Slightly bitter aftertaste. The group and I ranked this wine number five out of 11 wines tasted. 4-10-16-7: 87/100.
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2/17/1990 - buckeye76 wrote: 92 Points
DEEP RICH PORT LIKE FRUITY AROMA. RICH TASTING RHONE STYLE BUT DEFINITE CABERNET GIVING IT PLENTY OF BACKBONE. LONG LINGERING FINISH.
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3/25/1989 - MicklethePickle Likes this wine: 89 Points
With MPL at the office. Very light ruby color, but not looking old or tired. Fresh berry nose. On the palate, the wine is exciting and alive. Lots of juicy fruit and berry flavors. Never brooding or heavy, but good backbone. Very pleasant surprise. 5-10-17-7: 89/100.
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