Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

GK. Day three and still absolutely gorgeous. Opulent nose of peach, apricot, ripe pear, vivid green apple and fruit skin, with slate, mineral and a touch of vulcanized rubber adding complexity. The palate is rich and creamy through the middle but still racy and highly structured, with tremendous purity, sap, acidity and freshness. Huge mid-palate presence, beautifully balanced sweetness and a long, energetic finish. — 14 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Tighter than my previous bottle and needed a solid 45–60 minutes to really come alive, but once it did the wine was beautiful: dark cherry, a hint of licorice, florals and tremendous purity. The palate is velvety, sweet, haunting and ethereal, but still carries the amplitude, richness and density of a great 2018, with that distinctive Clos des Chênes sweetness and depth. Brilliant now, but I would still give it another three or four years if I had more bottles. — 2 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.4

Beautifully complex nose of cassis, blackberry, apricot, citrus and subtle Cabernet Franc herbaceousness. The palate is the real knockout: dense, structured, sappy and saline, with powerful yet beautifully delineated fruit, terrific elegance and a remarkably persistent finish that grips the top of the gums and just keeps going. Serious rosé with real depth and architecture, and clearly built to open further with air. — 7 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Stunning, vividly three-dimensional nose of red cherry, tar, roses, sweet spice, desiccated leaves and orange rind, with extraordinary complexity and purity right out of the gates. The palate is juicy, complete and deeply terroir-driven, with explosive tiny-berry fruit intensity, painful concentration, unbelievable finesse, velvety sweet tannins and tremendous length. Still needs around 30 minutes to fully knit together, but the depth, clarity and architecture are already remarkable. — 14 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Stunningly confectionery and perfumed on the nose, with cotton candy, limestone, spice and a brown-sugar exoticism that turns almost spice-bazaar-like with air. The palate is juicy and ripe but still skeletal, architectural and bone dry, with terrific sap, density and mineral precision. Long, focused and beautifully mature, seemingly right in its prime drinking window. — 2 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.0

Severely mineral and impressively concentrated, with grilled nuts, yellow fruits and a clean, stony aromatic profile. The palate is crisp, dense and textured, with terrific mineral intensity, excellent freshness and very little overt fruit, almost carrying the structural energy of a light red wine. Long, clean and distinctive. — 4 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.7

Absolutely gorgeous nose of cedar, wood shavings, pine, cigar, cassis and florals, with classic Margaux perfume and extraordinary depth. The palate has really smoothed out since my last bottle, with creamy cassis, unbelievable juiciness, tiny-berry concentration, sweet velvety pointillist tannins and beautiful minerality carrying an enormously long finish. Still structured and angular enough to age, but now far more integrated. One of the great Bordeauxs. — 11 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Gorgeous, deeply terroir-driven nose of wet earth, wax, green herbs and green fruit, with a faint natural-wine wildness that adds complexity without sacrificing clarity. This is almost Silvaner made through a Burgundian lens, so focused on place, texture and mineral architecture rather than overt fruit. The palate is opening beautifully, becoming more complex as the acidity comes forward, with tremendous purity, juiciness, earthy minerality and a long, salty finish.

After an hour, I’d move this to 9.5, teasing 9.6. The big change is finesse. It has gone from mineral, earthy and architectural to something much more elegant and complete, with terrific sap, intense flavor concentration and a thunderous, salty finish. The wine is still almost entirely about terroir rather than fruit, but now the texture and acidity have knitted together so beautifully that it feels genuinely profound for an entry-level Silvaner. — 14 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.7

Spectacular showing and considerably more open than my last bottle, needing only around 30–35 minutes to fully come alive. Extraordinary mousse, incredibly fine and integrated, with deep yeast, intense salinity and gorgeous freshness. The palate is dense, sappy and energetic, with superb acidity, seamless texture and an extraordinarily long saline, yeasty finish. Completely harmonious and one of the finest showings I’ve had from this wine. — 2 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.4

Soaring nose of crystalline cranberry and red currant, with sour cherry, spice and beautiful limestone energy underneath. The palate is gorgeous, elegant and almost weightless, with mid-season cherry fruit, a touch of richness, explosive tiny-berry intensity and tremendous purity. Juicy and luscious, with wispy, perfectly ripe tannins and a long limestone-driven finish that wildly overdelivers for a sub-$30 Pinot. — 9 days ago