Decanted for 4 hours and this was really shining. Perfectly balanced. Nose what was somewhat restrained but the palette made up for that. Wish I had more. This was my last bottle
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Appearance: Bright and clear, the wine is of light ruby colour, with fading garnet and legs. Nose: Clean, with medium (+) intensity aromas of black fruit of blackberry, dried fruit of prune, red fruit of ripe cherries and raspberry, pungent spice of liquorice, kernel notes of chocolate, oak notes of cedar and vanilla. The wine is developing. Palate: Dry with medium acidity, the wine has medium (+) tannin of ripe and smooth texture, high alcohol, full body, with pronounced intensity flavours of black fruit of blackberry, red fruit of strawberry, oak notes of vanilla and cedar, pungent spice of black pepper. The wine has a medium (+) finish. Conclusion: Very good quality Rhone CDP with an intense nose showing wonderful complexity, with plenty of black and red fruit, spicy and oaky, with also nice chocolate and vanilla aromas even though it has not yet fully developed its potential. On the palate it is powerful but showing up well-balanced, with smooth tannin and phenomenal concentration of flavours. Finishing with a very long length, it is ready to drink but can further develop for another 4-6 years.
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This is a breathtakingly gorgeous CdP Grenache. The wine combines immense concentration, ripeness and freshness all at once. Resembles Saxum to be honest)) Layers of super ripe black cherries, raspberry and strawberry liqueur, cured meats and milk chocolate both on the nose and on the palate. outstanding sweetness and freshness, purity of flavors and delineation. Dusty super ripe tannins, considerable, but oh so polished. This wine is ready to drink but has so much potential to expand its breadth, depth and complexity. A true wine experience. PS: despite the extremely high levels of concentration and ripeness the wine never feels over the top, over ripe and vulgar. The alcohol is perfectly integrated and unnoticeable. The wine leaves a long lasting impression of freshness, ripeness and concentration in one tightly coiled package.
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decanted about an hour with lamp chops; this wine is in a great place right now; tasted before decanting and it initially had a "pruney" characteristic ; I almost thought it was going to that place some CDP's go as they get older if they were made too extracted and high in alcohol; however I was wrong, this wine opened up and was awesome; Plus we enjoyed it over 2-3 hours and it just got better; If you open this soon, give it plenty of air and you will be rewarded; This wine could go another 3-5 years, longer then that and I think it would be in int's decline, so why wait
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good depth of fruit and spices....blends plum, red berries, figs, herbs, and licorice into a full bodied and long palate. Tannins are present but sweet and well integrated, you have to think about them to notice. I’d like a little more tension, but overall very enjoyable (94-95)
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Wow - what a delightful wine to open up during the covid-19 stay-at-home time. Tannins are fine and mature, nose has that elusive garrigue. Dark red fruit notes. This improved on night 2 (vacu-vinned), so probably has plenty of years to go.
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On the nose: cherries, dried fruits, with pleasant notes of blue cheese and salt. On the palette: Berries, figs, jam and licorice. Very long finish. This is soft and incredibly sexy, even the running legs on the glass seem to perform a can can :). Perhaps erotic is a better word, as it is never cheap nor in your face. Perfectly balanced, nothing feels out of place. Jaw-dropping good. Robert Parker scored this 94+ in 2011, thank god he put the + in there. Today, 6 years later, 94pts does not do this justice.
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Truly, a super wine, in a great style says it all. The wine is silky, lush, sensuous and concentrated, with richness and purity of fruit that stands out. The ripe and very ripe black cherries, raspberry and kirsch are made all the better with licorice, herb and earthy notes. This is only going to get better with age.
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CDP Tasting (Irene's House, St. Paul): Very dark red color. Decanted for 3 hours. Drank 1 glass over 90 minutes. Oh, this was even better than a couple weeks ago. Some additional air really made a difference. This is remarkably approachable now though. I love the fruit on the nose, wonderful mix of cassis, blackberry ,& blueberry followed by cedar, smoke, dry earth and some spices. The palate really wows with impressive concentration while maintaining its finesse, lovely fruit again, very flavorful, cassis, plum, blueberry and blackberry sleek, earth, and a very long 70+ second finish. Definitely more modern, but absolutely delicious. My and group #2 WOTN. 94(+)pts.
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Lost my notes but was at the same tasting as rocknroller and my opinion is about the same as his. Decanted for 3 hours. There was a lot of alcohol initially but most of it blew off. Big, tons of fruit, hedonistic, extracted but not cloying. At this stage one small tasting pour was plenty. Seems to be built for Robert Parker. I don't know if this will age gracefully, I would not bet on it. It went well with a chocolate dessert.
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Monthly Tasting Group: CDP's and Southern Rhones (Cafe Lurcat, Mpls, MN): Very dark purple/red color. Decanted for 2.5hrs. Drank 1 glass over 30 minutes. The nose is intense with black fruits, cedar, vanilla. The palate is dense, concentrated, full bodied and powerful, a hedonistic wine, full bodied, blackberry, blueberry, plum, oak, spices. This is a big styled, primary, young, fruit forward wine. It will be interesting to see how this evolves. 93(+?)pts.
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11/26/2023 - vr.bart Likes this wine: 97 Points
Decanted for 4 hours and this was really shining. Perfectly balanced. Nose what was somewhat restrained but the palette made up for that. Wish I had more. This was my last bottle
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8/2/2023 - peterchoy wrote: 94 Points
Appearance: Bright and clear, the wine is of light ruby colour, with fading garnet and legs.
Nose: Clean, with medium (+) intensity aromas of black fruit of blackberry, dried fruit of prune, red fruit of ripe cherries and raspberry, pungent spice of liquorice, kernel notes of chocolate, oak notes of cedar and vanilla. The wine is developing.
Palate: Dry with medium acidity, the wine has medium (+) tannin of ripe and smooth texture, high alcohol, full body, with pronounced intensity flavours of black fruit of blackberry, red fruit of strawberry, oak notes of vanilla and cedar, pungent spice of black pepper. The wine has a medium (+) finish.
Conclusion: Very good quality Rhone CDP with an intense nose showing wonderful complexity, with plenty of black and red fruit, spicy and oaky, with also nice chocolate and vanilla aromas even though it has not yet fully developed its potential. On the palate it is powerful but showing up well-balanced, with smooth tannin and phenomenal concentration of flavours. Finishing with a very long length, it is ready to drink but can further develop for another 4-6 years.
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2/17/2023 - mcar20156 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Slightly worried on opening this as the nose was very funky. Couple of hours in the decanter and needn't have worried.
Phenomenal power, but even at 15% has the perfect foil of acidity to avoid being too heavy. Tannins are big, but not overpowering.
Fully developed I would say, but no rush to drink.
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8/28/2022 - IvanLi Likes this wine: 96 Points
This is a breathtakingly gorgeous CdP Grenache. The wine combines immense concentration, ripeness and freshness all at once. Resembles Saxum to be honest))
Layers of super ripe black cherries, raspberry and strawberry liqueur, cured meats and milk chocolate both on the nose and on the palate. outstanding sweetness and freshness, purity of flavors and delineation.
Dusty super ripe tannins, considerable, but oh so polished.
This wine is ready to drink but has so much potential to expand its breadth, depth and complexity. A true wine experience.
PS: despite the extremely high levels of concentration and ripeness the wine never feels over the top, over ripe and vulgar. The alcohol is perfectly integrated and unnoticeable. The wine leaves a long lasting impression of freshness, ripeness and concentration in one tightly coiled package.
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5/23/2021 - JimSlatin wrote: 94 Points
decanted about an hour with lamp chops; this wine is in a great place right now; tasted before decanting and it initially had a "pruney" characteristic ; I almost thought it was going to that place some CDP's go as they get older if they were made too extracted and high in alcohol; however I was wrong, this wine opened up and was awesome; Plus we enjoyed it over 2-3 hours and it just got better; If you open this soon, give it plenty of air and you will be rewarded; This wine could go another 3-5 years, longer then that and I think it would be in int's decline, so why wait
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7/19/2020 - kr522 wrote: 95 Points
good depth of fruit and spices....blends plum, red berries, figs, herbs, and licorice into a full bodied and long palate. Tannins are present but sweet and well integrated, you have to think about them to notice. I’d like a little more tension, but overall very enjoyable (94-95)
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3/28/2020 - clayh55 Likes this wine: 93 Points
Wow - what a delightful wine to open up during the covid-19 stay-at-home time. Tannins are fine and mature, nose has that elusive garrigue. Dark red fruit notes. This improved on night 2 (vacu-vinned), so probably has plenty of years to go.
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11/3/2017 - vr.bart Likes this wine: 97 Points
On the nose: cherries, dried fruits, with pleasant notes of blue cheese and salt. On the palette: Berries, figs, jam and licorice. Very long finish. This is soft and incredibly sexy, even the running legs on the glass seem to perform a can can :). Perhaps erotic is a better word, as it is never cheap nor in your face. Perfectly balanced, nothing feels out of place. Jaw-dropping good. Robert Parker scored this 94+ in 2011, thank god he put the + in there. Today, 6 years later, 94pts does not do this justice.
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11/20/2015 - Jeff Leve wrote: 95 Points
Truly, a super wine, in a great style says it all. The wine is silky, lush, sensuous and concentrated, with richness and purity of fruit that stands out. The ripe and very ripe black cherries, raspberry and kirsch are made all the better with licorice, herb and earthy notes. This is only going to get better with age.
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6/29/2015 - Niagara wrote: 90 Points
meh
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2/23/2014 - galewskj wrote: 93 Points
Another 3 hour decant. Consistent with previous note but seemed slightly better. I now really want to see how these age.
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2/22/2014 - rocknroller wrote: 94 Points
CDP Tasting (Irene's House, St. Paul): Very dark red color. Decanted for 3 hours. Drank 1 glass over 90 minutes. Oh, this was even better than a couple weeks ago. Some additional air really made a difference. This is remarkably approachable now though. I love the fruit on the nose, wonderful mix of cassis, blackberry ,& blueberry followed by cedar, smoke, dry earth and some spices. The palate really wows with impressive concentration while maintaining its finesse, lovely fruit again, very flavorful, cassis, plum, blueberry and blackberry sleek, earth, and a very long 70+ second finish. Definitely more modern, but absolutely delicious. My and group #2 WOTN. 94(+)pts.
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1/28/2014 - galewskj wrote: 92 Points
Lost my notes but was at the same tasting as rocknroller and my opinion is about the same as his. Decanted for 3 hours. There was a lot of alcohol initially but most of it blew off. Big, tons of fruit, hedonistic, extracted but not cloying. At this stage one small tasting pour was plenty. Seems to be built for Robert Parker. I don't know if this will age gracefully, I would not bet on it. It went well with a chocolate dessert.
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1/26/2014 - rocknroller wrote: 93 Points
Monthly Tasting Group: CDP's and Southern Rhones (Cafe Lurcat, Mpls, MN): Very dark purple/red color. Decanted for 2.5hrs. Drank 1 glass over 30 minutes. The nose is intense with black fruits, cedar, vanilla. The palate is dense, concentrated, full bodied and powerful, a hedonistic wine, full bodied, blackberry, blueberry, plum, oak, spices. This is a big styled, primary, young, fruit forward wine. It will be interesting to see how this evolves. 93(+?)pts.
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11/27/2012 - rdewolff wrote: 94 Points
Joli fruit, frais, magnifique! Wow!
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