In great shape, rich, softened up but still good structure with deep black and blue fruits and nice black pepper notes after about 30 minutes or airing out. With rib-eye. Simi Valley w/V
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Excellent condition, a bit cloudy, unfiltered, good faded purple; lightly stewed blueberry/blackberry; note of pepper after 20 minutes, with a little licorice, nuance of smoke, richer, velvety but with good lift for this vintage. Excellent with Korean BBQ. Bal. w/A
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After sixteen years the closure is nigh on perfect. More purple than garnet still with a clear rim the only giveaway of age. Nose is liquorice, black pepper and raw meat. Palate is dried ham, fig and blood with fine taffeta tannins and a super long finish. Great wine - still with its original paper wrapping and nowhere near the end of the road.
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{Bought on release, still in its paper wrapper, perfect fill, PopNPour & consumed over 3-4 hours} Long distance runner. Smoky, aromatic, burly yet elegant wine with very fine tannins as well as fine depth of fruit. It had an interesting cocoa note in the mid to end palate initially that was gone by ~ 30 minutes. Developed and filled out some. Can drink now, for sure will go another decade, an outstanding St. Joseph.
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Very disappointing. Austere nose, still showing a lot of wood. Short mouth, extremely drying tannins. No off aromas, so not sure that the bottle was flawed.
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Une Syrah puissante, ferme, minérale et stricte, qui semble taillée pour la garde (me rappelle les 2001, structurés et fermés pendant des années); ce st jo 2005 a vraiment besoin d’air et de temps. La teinte opaque et ternie laisse apparaître un bord peu évolué, il ne fait pas son âge, ni au nez, très poivré, épicé, avec un pue de cèdre et de minéral; le fruit est discret, une pointe de réglisse tout de même. En bouche il ne plaisante pas, ne joue pas dans la finesse, arborant un coté solaire, chaud, bien aidé par une finale acidulée et granitique (!). Un vin automnal en qq sorte, qui manque cruellement de charme et de fruit, de complexité et de profondeur aromatique. 88++
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Still youngish, with firm mineral notes, fresh blackberry, and some funky earth and licorice on the nose. Very pretty. Lots of complexity in the mouth, tobacco, cassis, black fruit, and the beginnings of tertiary flavors coming out with age. Tannins are still quite firm, giving the finish a dusty character, but the fruit is luxurious and persistent. Delivering on the promise of the bottles I drank too young. Decant an hour or so for now. Drink in the next five years, but ten years will be fine if you like that development.
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Deep red. Dense and a bit tight. Brambly ripe fruit, and quite a lot of fleshy oak. ripe though not sure would guess was syrah. finish is still a bit tannic - it's nice, but it's trying very hard and not sure it's the most elegant syrah. Certainly not worth the price tag today compared to other top St Joseph at half the price...
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Après mariage de Michel. Bon vin à maturité, assez viril pour l'appellation, mais harmonieux dans un style rappellant certains Hermitage un brin austères. Bien.
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Drinking beautifully with many years remaining. No red bricking at edges, better after hour+ decanting, etc. Smoke, pepper, black fruit hints. fyi Chapoutier recommends pairing this with duck breast with a sechuan pepper sauce.
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Dark red with some bricking. A lovely nose of dried flowers, spice box, and dark fruits. Medium bodied, with notes of dried flowers, tobacco, and toffee, with a drying finish. Terrific.
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Hoage, Pax, Chapoutier, Felsina (Home): Drank while watching the Browns-Saints game. I hadn't had this since release. It is holding up well. Purple in color, ruby at the rim. The nose has a slight funk to it with black raspberries and black pepper. Medium to full bodied. Nice juicy acidity. Pnp, this was out of whack for about 30 minutes and then came together beautifully. Nice fruit. Good balance. Very pretty wine. Doesn't seem to be past prime, I would think a decade left at least.
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Ap:purple red Ar: initially loads of sulfids that needed some time to dissapear. Cold dark fruits, herbs, minerals and spices. Medium intensity. Full bodied, structured and balanced. Good length
50+4+11+17+8
Unfortunately my only bottle, and took it definately too early. If I had more I would give it 4-5 years before trying the next. Potential for great things in this wine, but currently too young.
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Un nez discret, poivre et caramel, des mûres La bouche montre une structure étonnante, de bons tanins, assagis par un élevage mesuré. Une belle dimension mais un peu "osseux", il lui manque l'opulence du 2009 et me parait un peu cher, malgré une qualité indéniable. 89 pts
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Fresh air, cranberry, mint, eucalyptus earth on the nose. Soft, round palate of cherry, coffee, herbs, dirt, cranberry. Coffee and black licorice on the 30 second finish. Very much similar to a Chambolle Musigny in it how it oozes elegance. Lithe, entrancing. If you cannot enjoy this, you should move to another planet.
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Elegant nose, with anise, flowers, blackberry and hot stones. Nice blackberry fruit in the mouth, but this is still fiercely tannic. The tannins help the finish persist a long long time. Not its best showing, but this is a special wine.
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Dinner Coco Jo – Showing MUCH better than the last bottle, lots more together and interesting. Sleek, with a lovely slightly subdued nose of forest floor, herbs and spice, roasted coffee and dark chocolate. Wonderfully elegant on the palate with good Rhone-y pepperiness. Sleek yet expressive, and the peppery goodness worked great with the food.
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Really hasn't budged much from the 8/08 bottle: still young and relatively tight. At the present, it's got loads on stones and meat going along with the pure currant and blackberry fruit. Pepper, coffee grounds, and some subtle exotic spices. I'm still very excited about this wine, but won't touch another for at least another two years.
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Just as the Ferne des Sept Lunes was a surprise hit this was a surprise dud with the group. I liked it more than most but I do feel it needs 3-5 more years before it is approachable. Extremely big and dark wine. Muted nose, big sweet dark fruit, rocks and huge tannins that make it very difficult to drink young.
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Brooding nose with ripe black fruit, leather, sweet spices, animal blood and a hint of cigar smoke. The palate is still rather tight, especially right after opening. The fruit is still overshadowed by the sweet oak and citruslike acidity, but is beginning to shine through. Additional impressions of leather, smoke and black pepper. A very clean wine; needs decanting and can withstand additional bottle aging.
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Dinner at Joya -- Spicy big fruity French syrah funk on the nose, showing a bit lean now but still a good Francophile's syrah with dried fruit and some oozy licorice/spice.
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Les Granits and Black Bart; St. Joseph and Napa; paired tastings of marsanne and syrah (Our house): This was dense and tight, somewhat reticent nose at first, but opening up to give licorice and black currant and berry. In the mouth it was likewise tight and dense, with meat, stony minerality, and black fruit. Pretty huge tannins, but they're very fine and ripe tannins, and bode well for the future of this wine. Some espresso on the finish. This wine obviously needs time. But despite its tightness, it still found proponents who preferred it to the comparitively generous Black Bart syrah. I'm stuck in the middle on this one: I think the Black Bart showed better tonight, but I'm happier having the Les Granits in the cellar. 91-92 tonight, but I think this will be 93-94 in a couple years.
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This is one you have to judge based on where you think it's going. At the moment, still tight and a lot of tannin. Strong mineral flavors to the wine and you can imagine how interesting this gets with time. Not much oak presence and fairly ripe fruit. I will forget about my remaining bottles.
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Beautiful delineated red and black berries on the nose with a hint of vanilla and a dollop of black coffee. Still a fair amount of tannins on the palate, but this has a lot of material: fruit, vanilla, balancing acidity, hint of minerals. Very young still. On the second day this was a bit more open, and more serious. This needs time in bottle, 3 to 4 year at least. A serious wine.
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10/7/2023 - peternelson Likes this wine: 91 Points
In great shape, rich, softened up but still good structure with deep black and blue fruits and nice black pepper notes after about 30 minutes or airing out. With rib-eye. Simi Valley w/V
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6/14/2021 - peternelson Likes this wine: 92 Points
Excellent condition, a bit cloudy, unfiltered, good faded purple; lightly stewed blueberry/blackberry; note of pepper after 20 minutes, with a little licorice, nuance of smoke, richer, velvety but with good lift for this vintage. Excellent with Korean BBQ. Bal. w/A
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6/3/2021 - europat55 wrote: 92 Points
Nose: 92 ; Palate: 91-92
My #2, Group's #4; Tasted blind.
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3/21/2021 - J'agnes Likes this wine: 92 Points
After sixteen years the closure is nigh on perfect. More purple than garnet still with a clear rim the only giveaway of age. Nose is liquorice, black pepper and raw meat. Palate is dried ham, fig and blood with fine taffeta tannins and a super long finish. Great wine - still with its original paper wrapping and nowhere near the end of the road.
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10/30/2020 - Musigny1955 Likes this wine: 93 Points
{Bought on release, still in its paper wrapper, perfect fill, PopNPour & consumed over 3-4 hours} Long distance runner. Smoky, aromatic, burly yet elegant wine with very fine tannins as well as fine depth of fruit. It had an interesting cocoa note in the mid to end palate initially that was gone by ~ 30 minutes. Developed and filled out some. Can drink now, for sure will go another decade, an outstanding St. Joseph.
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4/3/2020 - Hamozus Does not like this wine: 86 Points
Very disappointing. Austere nose, still showing a lot of wood. Short mouth, extremely drying tannins. No off aromas, so not sure that the bottle was flawed.
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3/1/2020 - Rupert wrote:
Dense, smoky, sweet fruit, sweet oak, very grippy tannins - a bit too big and burly.
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1/9/2020 - Raage wrote:
Une Syrah puissante, ferme, minérale et stricte, qui semble taillée pour la garde (me rappelle les 2001, structurés et fermés pendant des années); ce st jo 2005 a vraiment besoin d’air et de temps.
La teinte opaque et ternie laisse apparaître un bord peu évolué, il ne fait pas son âge, ni au nez, très poivré, épicé, avec un pue de cèdre et de minéral; le fruit est discret, une pointe de réglisse tout de même. En bouche il ne plaisante pas, ne joue pas dans la finesse, arborant un coté solaire, chaud, bien aidé par une finale acidulée et granitique (!). Un vin automnal en qq sorte, qui manque cruellement de charme et de fruit, de complexité et de profondeur aromatique.
88++
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10/11/2019 - danstrings Likes this wine: 92 Points
Amazing aromatics of licorice, cassis, black cherry... silky syrah, lovely
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9/17/2019 - pgm Likes this wine: 94 Points
Still youngish, with firm mineral notes, fresh blackberry, and some funky earth and licorice on the nose. Very pretty. Lots of complexity in the mouth, tobacco, cassis, black fruit, and the beginnings of tertiary flavors coming out with age. Tannins are still quite firm, giving the finish a dusty character, but the fruit is luxurious and persistent. Delivering on the promise of the bottles I drank too young. Decant an hour or so for now. Drink in the next five years, but ten years will be fine if you like that development.
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3/21/2019 - I1bearup Likes this wine: 90 Points
Decanted for 2 hours. Blew off some weird stink that i was not diggin. Opened up with olive, dark fruit, meat, spice.
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9/22/2017 - danielbleier Likes this wine: 94 Points
This was fantastic, blackberry, licorice, stone and funky undergrowth. Full bodied and well integrated.
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8/21/2017 - latimer wrote: 90 Points
Deep red. Dense and a bit tight. Brambly ripe fruit, and quite a lot of fleshy oak. ripe though not sure would guess was syrah. finish is still a bit tannic - it's nice, but it's trying very hard and not sure it's the most elegant syrah. Certainly not worth the price tag today compared to other top St Joseph at half the price...
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12/18/2016 - Rupert wrote:
Placeholder
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12/7/2016 - jerbearjb Likes this wine: 93 Points
Lovely elegant wine. With some air, red fruit comes through, balanced by crushed stones and smoke with drying tannins on the finish.
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8/13/2016 - d'Artagnan wrote:
Après mariage de Michel.
Bon vin à maturité, assez viril pour l'appellation, mais harmonieux dans un style rappellant certains Hermitage un brin austères. Bien.
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4/3/2016 - Rupert wrote:
Cedar, smoke, spice - very claret-like - showing some maturity and rather good
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1/24/2016 - kmerriman wrote: 93 Points
Drinking beautifully with many years remaining. No red bricking at edges, better after hour+ decanting, etc. Smoke, pepper, black fruit hints. fyi Chapoutier recommends pairing this with duck breast with a sechuan pepper sauce.
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3/28/2015 - nav2u Likes this wine: 92 Points
Dark red with some bricking. A lovely nose of dried flowers, spice box, and dark fruits. Medium bodied, with notes of dried flowers, tobacco, and toffee, with a drying finish. Terrific.
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9/15/2014 - Loren Sonkin wrote: 92 Points
Hoage, Pax, Chapoutier, Felsina (Home): Drank while watching the Browns-Saints game. I hadn't had this since release. It is holding up well. Purple in color, ruby at the rim. The nose has a slight funk to it with black raspberries and black pepper. Medium to full bodied. Nice juicy acidity. Pnp, this was out of whack for about 30 minutes and then came together beautifully. Nice fruit. Good balance. Very pretty wine. Doesn't seem to be past prime, I would think a decade left at least.
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4/19/2014 - admid wrote: 90 Points
Ap:purple red
Ar: initially loads of sulfids that needed some time to dissapear. Cold dark fruits, herbs, minerals and spices. Medium intensity.
Full bodied, structured and balanced.
Good length
50+4+11+17+8
Unfortunately my only bottle, and took it definately too early. If I had more I would give it 4-5 years before trying the next. Potential for great things in this wine, but currently too young.
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2/10/2014 - d'Artagnan wrote: 89 Points
Un nez discret, poivre et caramel, des mûres
La bouche montre une structure étonnante, de bons tanins, assagis par un élevage mesuré. Une belle dimension mais un peu "osseux", il lui manque l'opulence du 2009 et me parait un peu cher, malgré une qualité indéniable. 89 pts
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9/15/2013 - Rupert wrote: 91 Points
Dense, spicy, fresh, coal, earth, loads of tannin. Just about approachable, but this seems built for long ageing
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6/17/2012 - slaughterer wrote: 95 Points
Fresh air, cranberry, mint, eucalyptus earth on the nose. Soft, round palate of cherry, coffee, herbs, dirt, cranberry. Coffee and black licorice on the 30 second finish. Very much similar to a Chambolle Musigny in it how it oozes elegance. Lithe, entrancing. If you cannot enjoy this, you should move to another planet.
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11/17/2011 - pgm wrote: 91 Points
Elegant nose, with anise, flowers, blackberry and hot stones. Nice blackberry fruit in the mouth, but this is still fiercely tannic. The tannins help the finish persist a long long time. Not its best showing, but this is a special wine.
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4/26/2011 - Cloverstudio wrote: 91 Points
A solid effort, but nothing spectacular.
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12/5/2010 - ricknat1 wrote: 90 Points
Dark ruby color, smokey, spicy raspberry with soft tannins after 3 hours of air. Stephanie likes.
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2/4/2010 - Jozefs wrote: 92 Points
Consistent notes, but the fruit is more forward on the palate now. Clean and tasty, accessible now, but can age more.
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1/22/2010 - danstrings wrote: 93 Points
Dinner Coco Jo – Showing MUCH better than the last bottle, lots more together and interesting. Sleek, with a lovely slightly subdued nose of forest floor, herbs and spice, roasted coffee and dark chocolate. Wonderfully elegant on the palate with good Rhone-y pepperiness. Sleek yet expressive, and the peppery goodness worked great with the food.
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12/25/2009 - pgm wrote: 92 Points
Really hasn't budged much from the 8/08 bottle: still young and relatively tight. At the present, it's got loads on stones and meat going along with the pure currant and blackberry fruit. Pepper, coffee grounds, and some subtle exotic spices. I'm still very excited about this wine, but won't touch another for at least another two years.
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4/7/2009 - Cheryl wrote:
1st Tuesday - Saint Joseph (PDH, New York City): Big like new world
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4/7/2009 - henrychinaski wrote: 94 Points
Just as the Ferne des Sept Lunes was a surprise hit this was a surprise dud with the group. I liked it more than most but I do feel it needs 3-5 more years before it is approachable. Extremely big and dark wine. Muted nose, big sweet dark fruit, rocks and huge tannins that make it very difficult to drink young.
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1/8/2009 - Jozefs wrote: 92 Points
Brooding nose with ripe black fruit, leather, sweet spices, animal blood and a hint of cigar smoke. The palate is still rather tight, especially right after opening. The fruit is still overshadowed by the sweet oak and citruslike acidity, but is beginning to shine through. Additional impressions of leather, smoke and black pepper. A very clean wine; needs decanting and can withstand additional bottle aging.
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9/3/2008 - danstrings wrote: 90 Points
Dinner at Joya -- Spicy big fruity French syrah funk on the nose, showing a bit lean now but still a good Francophile's syrah with dried fruit and some oozy licorice/spice.
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8/9/2008 - pgm wrote: 92 Points
Les Granits and Black Bart; St. Joseph and Napa; paired tastings of marsanne and syrah (Our house): This was dense and tight, somewhat reticent nose at first, but opening up to give licorice and black currant and berry. In the mouth it was likewise tight and dense, with meat, stony minerality, and black fruit. Pretty huge tannins, but they're very fine and ripe tannins, and bode well for the future of this wine. Some espresso on the finish. This wine obviously needs time.
But despite its tightness, it still found proponents who preferred it to the comparitively generous Black Bart syrah. I'm stuck in the middle on this one: I think the Black Bart showed better tonight, but I'm happier having the Les Granits in the cellar. 91-92 tonight, but I think this will be 93-94 in a couple years.
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6/6/2008 - 100pp wrote: 90 Points
Needs much more time. Revealed some of its complexity and finesse after 4 hours after opening the bottle.
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6/1/2008 - Mr T wrote:
This is one you have to judge based on where you think it's going. At the moment, still tight and a lot of tannin. Strong mineral flavors to the wine and you can imagine how interesting this gets with time. Not much oak presence and fairly ripe fruit. I will forget about my remaining bottles.
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4/9/2008 - Jozefs wrote: 92 Points
Beautiful delineated red and black berries on the nose with a hint of vanilla and a dollop of black coffee. Still a fair amount of tannins on the palate, but this has a lot of material: fruit, vanilla, balancing acidity, hint of minerals. Very young still. On the second day this was a bit more open, and more serious. This needs time in bottle, 3 to 4 year at least. A serious wine.
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1/25/2008 - EMichels wrote: 86 Points
Wine Exchange - The Dark Side: BIg fruit nose; Dusty; Tannic; Needs time
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