Dark ruby red in color with a red rim.
What a gorgeous nose, with vanilla, spices, blackberries, cherries, oak, chocolate and black pepper.
Medium + in body, smooth and elegant.
Dry and smooth on the palate with cherries, black currants, Wood, vanilla, smoke, oak, spices and black pepper.
Long finish with round smooth tannins and peppercorn.
This is an awesome wine. Eight years old and showing a great capacity to age even longer.
If it had a little less vanilla this would be a perfect score, for me. If vanilla is your thing, this is it. Great Napa Valley Cabernet.
Only 400 cases were produced on this Howell mountain Reserve. 94 points wine enthusiast.
14.4% alcohol by volume. — 9 years ago
2008 vintage
Very nice, some evolution, sweet red fruit, velvetty tannines, lingering aftertaste.
On the second day this wine really comes alive. Younger feeling, fresh and lively fruit. Adjust score to 90! — 10 years ago
Only 400 cases produced biodynamic producer — 11 years ago
Villa Creek 2010 Avenger 60% Syrah, 30% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache - 400 cases produced — 12 years ago
Tahoe neighbor love. $400 a bottle?? — 12 years ago
Made at Hagafen estate bottled single vineyard 400 case production earnie weir started winery in 1979. Best of show white peaches a note of petrol and classic Riesling wow great intensity with lots of peach and melon fruit sweet tart with a dry finish a note of petrol finish 50+ most excellent and this is kosher! — 12 years ago
It is easy to over look the 94s, but when given a chance to taste Le Pin, you must. You first see the dark inky color, and then you can smell tobacco and a hint berries. This wine was as smooth as they come. I let it sit in my glass for one hour and it was even smoother. I was told this was lighter then other vintages. Purchased from the gray market many years before the Rudy K. was in business. Production is tiny at about 400-500 cases. — 9 years ago
Sooooo much happening on the nose here walnut, blood orange marmalade, creme caramel, 400 year old oak sideboard that's recently had a beeswax polish 😉 baked banana, old oak barrel cellar, spiced pineapple, cinnamon dusted apricot pastry, peaches in cream. In the mouth the first shot is pretty full on alcoholic hotness but as the mid palate rolls over the crest of the hill a huge intensity of dried fruit sweeps through your palate with a huge freshness of spicy tropical fruits then on the finish the nutty notes come through, caramel drizzled over walnuts, white truffle oil. Gorgeous! — 10 years ago
Хорошо очень. Понравилось.400 — 11 years ago
A year my senior, but 10 times purer. 400 ever bottled. Drinking the last of it. Perfection. — 11 years ago
Jean Van Roy's amazing story of Zwanze 2013. When we started renovation works in the cellars of the brewery two years ago, much to our surprise we came upon the remains of some very old walls. In agreement with the medievalists of the city of Brussels, the works were stopped in order to allow archaeological excavations to take place.
Shortly thereafter we were astonished to find out that Cantillon brewery had in fact been built on the ruins of the very ancient Abbey of Cureghem! According to the medievalists, this religious community was well-known during the middle ages for its fowl fed on draff and, more specifically, for its dish of stuffed Cureghem capon, which was served with a beer brewed at the abbey and apparently drew pilgrims from all over Europe.
Yet it was truly a heavenly surprise when the excavations uncovered the cell of the abbot, Father Faro. In the small room the archaeologists found quite a few old reference books, one of which contained the original recipes for the beers brewed at the abbey several hundred years ago. We didn’t hesitate for a second and decided on the spot to recreate one of these mythical beers.
This beer, which will be our Zwanze for 2013, therefore bears the name of its illustrious place of origin, Abbaye de Cureghem (Cureghem Abbey). Cureghem was formerly a village established many centuries ago on the banks of the Senne, the river running through present-day Brussels. The area was very heavily industrialised during the 19th century and, among other things, became home to many breweries. Today, it is part of the municipality of Anderlecht.
Since beers commonly referred to as “abbey beers” are not, or not any longer, products of spontaneous fermentation, we decided to brew a top fermentation beer, from a technical point of view in any case. The yeasts were selected in collaboration with Institut Meurice, a post-secondary college in Brussels specialising in biotechnology. Brewed in March 2012, our “Cureghem” beer fermented four weeks in stainless steel tanks before being blended with 10% lambic and pumped into 400-litre barrels of various origins. After maturing for six months, the beers were blended and put into casks or bottles to undergo re-fermentation and reach 7.2% ABV (Alcohol by Volume).
Inevitably, a top fermentation beer brewed in a spontaneous fermentation environment will be affected by the wild yeasts in the air, and this is certainly what happened in our case. For our Cureghem, the cultured yeasts were clearly the main factor behind primary fermentation and I think that the wild yeasts in the beer will instead play an increasingly important role as the product ages. However, despite the addition of the lambic to give it a little “extra something” in terms of character and ageing characteristics, this Zwanze cannot in any case be considered a spontaneous fermentation beer.
The long fermentation period coupled with the presence of wild yeasts lends this beer a solid character with a dry finish that lingers on the palate, while the combined use of fresh and aged hops yields both freshness and bitterness. Moreover, the different malts used give this year’s Zwanze a coppery colour along with a touch of caramel and candied fruit that provide body. Clearly, this is not your standard “abbey” beer but, perhaps, it is representative of what these beers were one or two hundred years ago — 12 years ago
You're sitting on the sun-drenched patio of a 400 year old farmhouse in the hills of Tuscsany. On a lazy Saturday afternoon. This is the Brunello you want. Lush, but not to fruity. A little tannin, but not much of a bite. — 9 years ago
Gamay 4 latas — 9 years ago
Restaurant i London - 400 £ — 10 years ago
セブンで400円くらい — 11 years ago
Cab Night. Alex's favorite. Paired with Gouda, Bleu Cheese, and rare meats. — 12 years ago
Two vineyards. Fresh crisp, pineapple nose, balanced acids with good mineral. all SS fermented. 400 cases produced — 12 years ago
Gregory Knaps
One of the first vineyards planted to Arneis. 400 years ago! — 9 years ago