Scott G

9.5

How does she do it? That shimmering Alsatian minerality balanced out with this almost metallic salinity, nutty sherry oxidation, and a squeeze of lime. — 5 years ago

Young Bock Lee

10

Aroma came up very easily, showing extreme floral and feminine aromas with silky texture of shiraz. It is rich but never too full. Maybe the most elegant shiraz that I've ever tasted in these days. — 5 years ago

Andrew S

9.2

A lot of power, plenty of fruit and acidity for days. This is in a nice spot, but still on the way up. There’s a nice dusty/tar note, fennel, a touch of leather, maybe even a hint of violets. Best with a big rich meal. — 7 years ago

Michael Greene

9.4

Exceptional. Nose explodes with peach, melon, and grapefruit. Finish goes for days. — 7 years ago

Hayley McCord

9.2

What a great benchmark for my first White Rioja. This special wine has notes of fleshy ripe cantaloupe, jasmine and anise. Balanced with the yeasty and oxidative almost sherry like quality. I could drink this on a cold winter evening or a bright summer days. It is balanced, elegant and the finish is long and complex. — 8 years ago

with Jamie

Ellen Clifford

9.1

K, this rating is certainly biased by my past experience with A. Rafanelli which has been amazing. Unless you want to open 2015 and allow to sit a couple days...wait! This is too young to be opened which makes me grateful I have another bottle I’ll crack open in, say, a year or so and it’ll be perfect out of the bottle. That said I tasted this day by day for three days and it just kept improving. If you open too young give it TIME. In youth it needs some time but once it has time? Hot damn. The tannins, alcohol, acid and fruit are in equal balance three days in...now. Wait two years and it may be extraordinary out of the bottle. — 8 years ago

Vijay Vaidy

9.8

Hard to find a better ambassador for 2001 Napa style. I'm not sure these wine makers ever surpassed this era ... Unfortunately a bit premium priced these days, but worth dropping some $$$ for, more than the average peer — 10 years ago

Ira Schwartz

9.0

They are making some very interesting wine! — 11 years ago

Austin Ferrari

Wine Director Hillside Supper Club

9.6

Real wine! Lapierre takes me back to the chez days! — 12 years ago

with Aran

Jake Schepps

9.4

Dig it after 3 days open! #nicolasjoly #joly — 13 years ago

Kai Wright

9.2

We had the 2018 version of this a few days ago, and what a difference 23 years makes. “This one tastes like it’s already wine and cheese.” -@Jedd Flanscha 🤣

Dark, dried fruit wrapped in leather. Fruit’s waning, but still nice. — 5 years ago

with Jedd and Derek

Mick Farrell

9.4

This is the 1998... two days late, but still exceptional... and I disagree with the experts... slightly better than the 1996! — 7 years ago

with Stacey, Richard and 21 others

Jay Kline

9.3

Popped and poured; consumed over two days. Day 1: very primary, fresh, vibrant fruit with some tobacco but super compact. Day 2 was a different story with fresh raspberries, cassis, plums, and tobacco and wonderfully balanced. Loads of structure to go with. Finish is long and delicious. This bottle already exhibits a lot of sediment, expect more in the future. Best yet to come. — 7 years ago

Alec Jeffery

9.3

Incredible complex wine, such class, drank 2 days and enjoyed its development. — 7 years ago

Justin Hart

9.4

Ah, the Rocks at Milton-Freewater produce such remarkable and distinctive fruit. Morgan Lee’s take on the Stoney Vine Syrah is outstanding. Earthy, gamey, succulent, dark and full stone fruit (plum) that just keeps going. This is good for another 5 years I think. — 8 years ago

with Cherish and Jen

Neal Dessouky

9.6

Reconditioned bottle. Super complex, almost resolved. Lacking a little fruit which I’ve experienced in past bottles, so I think this wine’s best days are behind in this format - but it’s still an excellent 1982 Bordeaux. — 8 years ago

dan boedeker

9.4

Best surprise in a long time, had a bottle sent to me from my college roommate half a country away. Very floral, well hopped balanced with a good malt backbone. A balanced beer more IPA than traditional pale ale. Only 10 days old. Would definitely buy if they ever distributed to CO. — 9 years ago

Glenn Chance

10

Unassuming color, flavor that will blow your mind. Rich velvety fruity nose and a finish that lasts days. — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.8

Informal gathering to drink some Bordeaux varietal bottles with steak.

1986 Cheval Blanc: This one showed suspect ullage, to the point where it had been hard to flip it. And in the end, it did turn out to be a controversial wine--was the orgasm 40 days, or was it 36 days? Hard to say... An extraordinary wine, classic in its own way, with fragrant dark flower and black cassis aromas wafting from the glass, and maybe more importantly for us, exploding in the mouth. Some of the more ordinary adjectives, like "smooth" and "balanced", are accurate enough, but obviously don't do this one justice. One could do a fluid dynamical description of the time evolution of this wine in the mouth, a broad attack that gave way in about 3 seconds to a sensation of acceleration and flaring across the entire breadth of the palate as the wine detonated, an oenological version of a jet... And then a persistent finish where the inner mouth perfume resonates as it fades slowly (or simply moved off to some parallel universe). — 11 years ago

Katrina Ryan

9.8

What a fun cab from the old days:) — 12 years ago

Jim McCusker

9.2

From Russell From of Herman Story. Love his wines. This is one we probably should have had a year or two ago. Still really good, but a lot of the vibrancy that makes grenache so spectacular has largely fallen away. — 5 years ago

with Vanessa

Ely Cohn

9.1

Bianco Antico sees a ridiculous 180 days on the skins of Malvasia di Candia Aromatica (different from plain Malvasia). It’s a grippy fully hopped juicy East Coast IPA. Copper tone. Bitter citrus and green tea and grapefruit.

Must love orange wine. Must love bitter dry. — 6 years ago

Muralee Murugesu

9.6

For a 20 year old St Estephe this Cos d’Estournel is sublime. Perfectly aged but shows a lot of youth throughout the hour opening with red fruit mixed in with leather and chalk. A good 35 sec finish. A classic Bordeaux that rocks! Kept from my Phd days ( Rodolphe this is the last one buddy) is surprisingly vibrant. happy birthday 🥳 Philippa. — 7 years ago

Andrew Lohse

9.4

This ‘94 was rich and enticing - plenty of freshness and pyrazine, vanilla (light), bitter dark chocolate, and young tannins / black fruit and a finish for days — 8 years ago

Giancarlo Cicero

9.9

Two days later later and still kicking. — 8 years ago

Joe Davant

9.1

I wish I could remember everything we said about this when we had it a few days ago. It's got plums and red fruit plus a deliciously long finish. I definitely remember thinking that I was a fool not to order my full allocation. Excellent "entry level" wine from Jamie Kutch. — 9 years ago

with brent

Erik Bader

9.2

One of the weirdest, most intense wines I've ever had. Decanted literally for days. Day three was the best! — 10 years ago

Vic Goel

9.2

Cherries, dates and an aged color that nicely straddles dark cherry and burnt umber. This is probably not as good as the 2002 vintage I had a few days ago, but it's still kick ass. — 10 years ago

Beth Feather

10

Three days and still vibrant wine. Smooth and a bit of oak. Lovely wine — 12 years ago

Patrick Knöfler

8.9

The wine was medium to dark garnet in colour. On day one it offered red fruit, cherry, balsamic vinegar, cola, leather, mushroom, earthy and vegetal notes and a wet sewer component on the nose. On the palate the the wine showed red fruit, cherry, blackberry, tobacco and earthy notes, the acidity was quite pronounced, the wine became slightly drying and even more acidic after some time in the glass, and the fruit faded a bit. Two days later, on day three, the medium-bodied wine was more balanced and showed red and dark fruit, some chocolate, some tobacco, spices and earthy notes on the nose, and red fruit, cherry, leather, tobacco, earthy and balsamic notes on the palate, with just a faint touch of greenness, paired with medium-plus well-integrated tannin, medium-plus acidity and very good length. I had almost written-off the wine on day one and then, surprisingly, it showed much better the third day. Holding-up well. 90 — 12 years ago