Ethan Karas

9.0

Good wine. Cool backstory. — 4 years ago

Jay Green

9.0

Incredibly annoying backstory but very delicious wine! — 5 years ago

Roman Sukley

9.9

2016 Sine Qua Non "Rätsel 16" Syrah, originally “Cypher 16,” renamed because of potential legal problems with the rock band? Not sure of the backstory on that one, but it’s pretty clear that Rätsel (enigma, mystery, puzzle, riddle) is simply the German word for Cypher (a secret or disguised way of writing; a code). The wine however, not the band, is a monster. Gargantuan really. Typical SQN nose, and black as a moon-free, starless night sky in the stem. Tonight’s photo should not to be confused with Katie Bouman’s Black Hole masterpiece, although no light can escape from either. Very tight upon opening, singing an aria 36 hours later. SUPER concentrated with unlimited upside potential. More detailed tasting note to come. Yet another stunner! — 7 years ago

Amanda Padgett

9.8

Absolutely delicious! A little dangerous because it’s SO easy to drink. Smooth. Slightly sweet. Subtle. And a wonderfully rich backstory. — 8 years ago

Ted Corvey

9.2

Great producer with a unique backstory. Was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to her for a while at tasting event about her vineyard, winery, and methods. Glad to see this is back in the Charleston market. Spice and fruit notes and the nose lead on to pallet with great balance and length. — 8 years ago

Tim Munsell

9.0

Love the backstory, this is my second bottle from 90+ (first Pinot). Both have been quite good.
This one opened with lots of mineral, almost metallic tasting, but after 10 minutes that was all gone and left behind was beautiful fruit, lots of bright cherry and raisins. Light easy nose and body, it's not a very substantial wine but fantastic with chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, and easy to sip on the rest of evening. — 9 years ago

Charine Tan

9.0

Backstory: Tasted this at the winery and loved it so much that we bought a bottle to take along with us to Mexico. Chad Melville is the owner and winemaker at Samsara. He's also the chief winegrower at Melville Winery.

Winemaking Process: Single vineyard wine with grapes harvested from the Cargasacchi vineyard, which is in the middle aka sweet spot of Santa Rital Hills. 75% whole cluster fermentation with native yeast. 50% in new French oak barrels for 22 months, followed by 12-month ageing in the bottle. Unfiltered.

Tasting Notes: Colour is ruby red with some clarity, no sediment. On the nose, it has blue fruit, cherry, cassis, cigar, asphalt, lambskin leather and pronounced earthy notes. On the palate, it is medium-bodied with full, mouth-filling texture. Red fruit notes appear first, and then the taste turns into an earthy, allspice notes, and finishes off with something so bright and refreshing that reminds us of orange peel. The tannins are soft. End palate is long, around 10 seconds, marked by minerality and cherry. I love this wine because unlike many Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara, it isn't over extracted and not too sweet (like fruit pastille). There's a fleeting burst of sweet red fruit flavour on the mid palate and the flavour quickly transits to earthy notes and tannins. It's a more earthy Pinot Noir but yet still elegant and ready to be consumed. At $55, I think it's well worth the price. — 9 years ago

Sean Driscoll

8.9

Day Wines 2020 "Lemonade" Great backstory from a not great year that included smoke from Oregon's fires - but no smoke here. Story aside, great pinot noir rose; cherry, strawberry, good acid and a little mineral. — 5 years ago

Randy Fuller

9.0

This North Coast red blend offers up a dark nose of smoke, tar, plums, cigar box, vanilla, cedar and an old baseball glove. The palate shows huge black and red fruit, also with plenty of oak spice. BTW, the wine is said to pay homage to Abraham Lincoln. He may have been Honest Abe, but he was not a Federalist. But whatever. You’re not really drinking it for the backstory, are you?
— 6 years ago

Andrew Gallo

9.2

Lemony orange peel tastes like great backstory here maybe made by a 19 year old hmm hmmmmm??? — 7 years ago

Scott Rowe

9.0

This blend seems to be on fire in the Yarra right now.
@Bob McDonald can tell you the backstory.
Superb sessionable Pinot/Syrah with enough depth to keep you interested. — 7 years ago

Kirsten Christiansen

9.3

The backstory on this wine company is fascinating. This has big jammy dark fruit flavors, yet still has that dry Cab mouthfeel. Some vanilla too. Really nice. — 8 years ago

Paul J

9.3

One of my favorites for the backstory and value! Deep and bold, and paired nicely with the wild boar and duck. If you haven't tried this Howell Mtn. gem I suggest you do! — 9 years ago

with Brooke

Brianna

9.0

Great nice summer easy drinking wine. A little fruity 🍷😊 — 10 years ago

Ryan Vento

9.5

Absolutely incredible bourbon with an equally as impressive backstory 🥃 Aged aboard a marine wildlife research vessel operated by nonprofit Ocearch, this bourbon has gone through rapid aging due to the constant movement that characterizes time spent at sea, and has accumulated a host of complexity and oceanic tasting notes in the process; a gift from Poseidon, no doubt. This technique of aging bourbon has now been conducted for 22 unique voyages around the globe, this bottle being from the most recent voyage. Drinking like a gorgeous union between bourbon and rum, this spirit offers a litany of desirable and exotic notes like salted caramel, roasted nuts, toasted coconut, glazed figs, molasses, and savory winter spices. This is super good. — 5 years ago

Hayden B. Oothout

9.2

Excellent Zinfandel blend from Orin Swift. The backstory of this wine is almost as great as the wine. Non-compete in a contract from selling of a vineyard, didn’t allow Orin Swift to produce a Zinfandel for 8 years. Hence 8 years in the desert. Just spectacular on the nose with hints of blackberry and cherry. On the palette it is enticing and young, bountiful fruit. Would probably benefit from another year or two in the bottle, but is spectacular now. — 7 years ago

Ted Corvey

9.3

This is one of those lucky finds that just don’t come around very often. Sorry for the backstory but I think the context helps explain my excitement. There’s a small wine and spirit shop in a little beach town I drive through about 2-3 times a year and I’ll usually stop and get a bottle or two because they had a great and unique selection. Sadly, the last few stops there have been a bit disappointing as their variety seems on the decline. What was once a great range of wines with a lot of unique bottles, is now a lot of cheap high volume offerings on one end and on the other a nice selection of super high end bottles that I’m not picking up on a whim. While the high end selection is commendable, the magic of the shop seems to have faded. And if I am going to go high end I would rather do it with a shop I frequent in Charleston. Anyway, browsed a bit and didn’t really find anything I was interested in. Was on the way out and came across a 50% off rack and found this marked down to 9 dollars. Grabbed this and a few others thinking 🤷🏻‍♂️.The second it hit the glass it was beautiful on the nose, continued with deep richness on the palate. Great clarity and balance. My research suggests a 70/30 Cab/ Cab Franc blend. Have to assume this a nod to the famous Cab/Cab Franc blends in the region, and it’s a heck of nod. Have a half bottle left and I can’t wait to see how it held up for night two. — 7 years ago

Jim Fisher

10

Overcoming Obstacles Dinners — 9 years ago

Manny Abascal

9.3

Subtle, elegant, understated. Interesting backstory. Vineyard so steep that workers use climbing gear and helicopters for harvest. — 9 years ago

Charine Tan

9.2

If the world is my oyster, then Matalj Kremen Kamen is the pearl that I'm set out to extract. This wine is THE cult wine of Serbia. It's so hard to score a bottle; the entire process of extraction is documented on Facebook.com/ExoWineTravel, if you're interested to read the backstory.

Tasting Notes -
Medium bodied wine with brick red tone. Nose: Black fruit, plum, violet, tobacco, leather, and a hint of vanilla-flower perfumy smell. Sensational aroma that opens up gradually and elegantly, engulfing every part of my nose. Palate: To me, it has a faultless structure--the entire taste is driven by fruit flavours, from front to mid and end palate; sweet, chewy tannins kick in on mid palate and stay till the very end. Ripe plum, black fruit and black pepper mostly in the mouth, propelled by prominent minerality. End palate is extremely long--I stopped counting after 15 seconds--with round, spicy, sweet and powerful tannins.

Definitely one of the very best wines from Serbia. — 9 years ago