Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.3

Very traditional nose at first, with wet earth, dirt, mint, spice and wildflowers, with very little obvious fruit. The palate is much richer, with deep dark ripe fruit, excellent freshness and energy, and a beautifully full mid-palate. The tannins build with air but stay ripe, chewy and velvety. Very complete, beautifully balanced and long. Fantastic Barbera, with room to move higher. Also the acidity is just incredible. — 17 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

8.6

The raw material is clearly good, with ripe cherry, wet earth, juiciness, real concentration and substantial velvety structure, but the 15% alcohol dominates everything. The nose smells overtly alcoholic, almost like vodka and Sangiovese blended together, and the palate never escapes the heat. There is plenty of fruit and serious material underneath, but the alcohol pokes through at every stage and leaves the wine messy and disjointed. At 13% this could have been excellent. At 15%, the balance is gone. — 7 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.1

Extremely unusual and completely charming. The nose has all the aromatic DNA of sweet Brachetto, with candied raspberry, confectionery sugar and citrus rind, but also desiccated leaves, a little wool and a bright, savory, almost woodland quality. The palate is dry, juicy and teeming with energy, with light raspberry fruit, citrus, excellent freshness and a texture that sits somewhere between red wine and rosé. Fun, distinctive and wonderfully refreshing, especially served slightly cool. A terrific antipasto wine. — 9 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.2

The nose is pleasant and classically Sangiovese, with cherry, earth and a little funk, but the palate is where the wine really earns its score. Outrageously juicy fruit, terrific energy, excellent purity and serious, well-shaped tannins, with enough finesse to keep the structure from feeling heavy. The early angularity settles beautifully with air and turns into real architecture, while the fruit stays lively and persistent through a surprisingly long finish. Delicious, energetic Rosso with enough substance to age, almost the Italian equivalent of a really good Cru Bourgeois. — 14 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.2

Bright, lifted and beautifully red-fruited, with cranberry, sour cherry and a stony mineral undertone. The palate is tangy, juicy, ripe and very pure, with excellent balance and a lovely linear shape. With air it fills out a bit, gains some density and brings in more tannin, but the tannins stay impressively refined for village Santenay. Elegant rather than powerful, very fresh, very precise and just delicious. — 17 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

10

First 10-point bottle I’ve had of the 2023 Abbaye de Morgeot, and just extraordinary. What is fascinating is how completely opposite it is from the 2024. They are perfect for entirely different reasons, yet equally perfect, which is exactly why a great domaine is great. This was emotional, beautiful and complete. It made mincemeat of two other extraordinary wines tonight. What a wine. What a night. — 2 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.3

Starts off enormous and almost brutally structured, with dark black cherry and blackberry fruit, wood shavings, clove, cardamom and cinnamon, then really transforms with a few hours of air. The nose opens into this gorgeous spicy perfume and becomes unmistakably Freisa. Palate is huge but never heavy, with a massive fruit soak, excellent freshness, terrific juiciness, nice opulence, and big ripe tannins that gradually calm down and fold into the wine. Still rustic and powerful rather than elegant, but beautifully balanced and completely unique. Great wine. — 9 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.3

Ultimately disappointing after how beautifully this showed at the estate. There is good texture and some attractive Syrah fruit, but the nose is dominated by spicy wood, with a little prickly heat on the palate, and the whole thing feels strangely anonymous for a wine with this pedigree. Perfectly good wine, but nowhere near the layered, silky, distinctive Peygros I tasted in June. — a day ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Absolutely stunning nose that seems to change every few minutes. Granite, gras, yellow fruits, white flowers, Meyer lemon and a faint seashell, almost Chablisian salinity, all incredibly airy despite the density. The palate is rich but beautifully controlled, with dazzling purity, superb freshness, terrific inner-mouth aromatics and tremendous balance. Low in acid as you would expect from white Hermitage, but there is so much mineral structure and dry extract that the wine never feels heavy. Long, complex and almost tannic on the finish. Superb wine, and clearly nowhere near done opening. — 8 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Over three hours this opened beautifully, gaining depth, flesh and amplitude while keeping terrific freshness. The nose became increasingly brambly and spicy, with damson, moss, forest underbrush and deep cherry fruit. The palate filled out into a velvety, juicy, richly fruited expression, with the classic 2023 chord progression from sour cherry through sweet and mid-season cherry, substantial ripe tannins and excellent acidity. Forward and generous for Fichots, but still unmistakably structured and site-driven, with a long, tangy finish and real depth. Delicious now with air, but clearly built to evolve.

Day two and this has fully arrived. The tannins have melted into the wine and become beautifully textural, while the fruit is now deep, luxurious and completely seamless, with terrific freshness keeping all that richness alive. Gorgeous amplitude, purity and balance, with the classic brambly, spicy, woodland Fichots character still underneath. I gave this 9.5 back in May, and after day two I see no reason whatsoever not to put it right back there. — 12 days ago