Robert Agans

8.9

Very good. Paired with bolognese ragu over penne pasta and Parmesan cheese... home run. — 8 years ago

Erik Nordman

9.3

Killer Willamette Valley Riesling from a fellow MN native! Pure mineral intensity with razor sharp focus. The nose is a bunch of wet slate minerality, with a really interesting sesame oil note as well, along with subdued underripe stone fruit and lovely jasmine and chamomile. A bit of petrol character is present but subtle. More fruit starts to show in the nose as it gets air. Palate shows more wet slate and petrol, but the fruit comes out much more with more prominent just-ripe white peach and yellow plum notes. The sesame note from the nose is there but very subdued in comparison to the palate. Medium (-) body with a slightly oily texture from being kept on the fine lees in neutral barrel during elevage. Acid is high and focused yet not too cutting or sharp. Dry but not like, entirely bone dry. So tasty. Seek this producer out, Bill is gonna do great things in the future I imagine. Gives a lot of great Alsatian and Austrian examples a good run for their money. Decant this if opening soon, this is built to last and needs time to unfurl at the moment. Would love to try some of this in a few years to see how it develops. — 9 years ago

with Cassie

Tsuyoshi Enoki

Sake Specialist Hasegawa Sake Shop Tokyo

8.9

Bright brown garnet with good gradation.
First scents: dried fig, raisins, prune, vanilla, run, barrel, woods, brown sugar.
Second note: beef, bacon, red flowers, nutmeg, dried tomatoes, black olives, cloves, red cabbage, spices. Good complexity.
Smooth fruitiness, mild acid. Good rich body, comfortable tannin and bitterness with sweet dried feign and barrel nuance. — 9 years ago

Deborah Parker Wong

9.4

Partial barrel fermentation adds complexity to crisp notes of melon, pear and toasted nuts. — 9 years ago

Gillian Koh

9.4

Incredibly smooth finish. Love it. — 9 years ago

with meng

Hiram Carrington

9.3

This is a 29 barrel production. Rich and velvety and full bodied. Love this winery and the dudes who run it. — 9 years ago

Justin Hansohn

8.9

The bare dragging ass minimum of acidic brightness is holding this ripe Syrah up adequately. At this age it's happening at a lovely rate. Definitely has got a classic Santa Barbara heat and deep extraction (regardless of this being free-run juice). Thankfully light weight though. A nice bottle to keep around...on day 3 now and still enjoying it. Update: good to the last drop. Held up and in style the whole journey. — 11 years ago

Christine Yost

9.2

Sterling cabin in AK! 1st night after sadie cove. Label says: vanilla, toast, hazelnut flavors combine with juicy apple, pear, and melon. I actually liked it a lot- just make sure to drink it out of a wide glass! Very warm yet with some acidity. Probably steel barrel? But hard to tell. — 12 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.4

Pichon Lalande is my favorite 2nd growth with a steak. Yup...it's #SteakandClaret night to quote my buddy Gary Westby. Further, it's certainly one of my favorite producers period. I've waited for this wine to be in the bottle for 10 years before finding out definitely how good it was or wasn't. You see, the 05 Bordeaux vintage was exceptional. It's drinking right now better than 00. 00 may turn out to be better, but not for some time. The real issue was the division of scores between RP & NM. Parker had this as low as an 86 and now has it at 89. Neil Martin has been consistently at 95-96. I found it simply inexplicable that Pichon Lalande could have bombed in such a great vintage. Tonight, I know they didn't. This wine is beautiful. Although, I don't believe it will cellar as long as their some of their very best vintages and many others I've enjoyed. On the nose, bramble, ripe blackberries, dark cherries, notes of blueberries, poached strawberries, graphite, baking spices, cedar, lightly perfumed violets and dark, fresh & dry red flowers. The body is medium-medium plus, tannins nicely resolved with 10 years to be completely resolved. Fruits of; ripe blackberries, dark cherries, notes of blueberries, poached strawberries and pomegranate with a whiff of spice. There's notes of dry bramble, soft leather, fresh violets, graphite, cedar, dry stones, dark rich earth, limestone, tobacco, spice-box, vanilla, very light cinnamon & nutmeg. The finish is very long, elegant, ripe, round, smooth, good acidity and beautifully elegant...50-50 earth & fruit. I bought more bottles of this at $85 after it's was first released in futures and I do not regret it. $85 is proving to be a steal for this wine when it normally sells for between $100-$150 a bottle and higher. Might heavy up further after tonight if I find more around the same price. Oh yes...I'm with NM on the scoring. Photos of the Chateau, estate vines, newer tasting room & the Virginie de Pichon-Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande. Forgive my long post, but my passion and love for this producer is profound. Producer history and notes...as I wrote in an earlier post for Pichon Baron, Pichon Baron and Lalande started as one entity. The first mention of what is now called Chateau Pichon Lalande was the creation of Pierre de Mazure de Rauzan. Pierre de Mazure de Rauzan is responsible for forming many of the top Bordeaux estates today. Pichon Lalande was given its name when Therse, the daughter of the founder received the estate as a dowry when she married Jacques de Pichon Longueville. Pichon Lalande was essentially managed by three women, Therese de Rauzan, Germaine de Lajus and Marie Branda de Terrefort. On the eve of his death in 1850, Baron Joseph de Pichon Longueville divided the property between his five children. His three daughters received Pichon Lalande and his sons Pichon Baron. What happened next was Virginie, the wife of the Count of Lalande took over the management of the estate under the name of Comtesse de Lalande. In 1850 she commissioned the popular, architect Duphot to build a residence inspired by the Hotel de Lalande, located in Bordeaux. Without heirs, Pichon Lalande passed down from aunts to nieces. Following World War I, the Miailhe brothers, bought Pichon Lalande in 1925. They were the ones who planted even more Merlot. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, the daughter of Edouard Miailhe became the new owner and general manager of Chateau Pichon Lalande in 1978. She expand the size of Chateau Pichon Lalande from 40 hectares to it's current 89 hectares. Chateau Pichon Lalande remained in the same family for more than 250 years! In fact, over three centuries, only two families have owned Pichon Lalande. May-Eliane de Lencquesaing sold Pichon Lalande to the owners of Roederer Champagnein in January 2007. This family-run company is managed by Frederic Rouzaud who owned several other wine estates in Bordeaux; Chateau Bernadotte, Chateau de Pez, Haut Beausejour and Chateau Reaut la Graviere. He sold Chateau Bernadotte in December 2012. In February, 2011, Sylvie Cazes was named the director of Chateau Pichon Lalande. She replaced Gildas d’Ollone. Sylvie Cazes was replaced in 2012 by current Director Nicolas Glumineau, who was previously at Chateau Montrose. In 2012, Pichon Lalande renovated the estate with a budget estimated at over 15 Million Euros. The new facilities included; building of a new underground barrel aging cellar and several new buildings...one that houses their new tasting room as shown. This renovation provided numerous improvements in their wine making. Most importantly, in the vinification. They created a new, triple tiered, cellar where everything moves by gravity. They also added numerous new, stainless steel, temperature controlled, double skinned vats. These new vats allow Pichon Lalande to vinify on a parcel by parcel basis as well as get much softer & gentle extractions. The 89 hectare vineyard of Chateau Pichon Lalande is located adjacent to Chateau Latour and and across the road from Pichon Baron. The terroir of Chateau Pichon Lalande is deep gravel with clay and limestone soil and is planted to; 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot. — 8 years ago

Sue Shay

9.1

Recently rated 92 points by Wine Advocate this Pinot lives up to the hype. Small production (100 cases), the fruit comes from 30 to 40 year old self rooted vines on the family's Century Farm. Winemaker/Vineyard Manager Merrilee Buchanan Benson hits a home run with this delicious Pinot from the great 2012 Willamette Valley vintage. — 10 years ago

August Deimel

9.5

First time, amazingly, that I have tried the iconic Argetsinger vineyard Riesling. As a rule, I find Ravines' Rieslings to be a bit austere for my taste. They're fine examples of the style - it's just not a style I gravitate toward. This, however, is a different beast from the standard Ravines Riesling bottling. A percentage of the wine is barrel fermented and you can tell. The textural qualities that come from the barrels do a great deal to smooth out the potentially searing acidity of the wine. The aromatics are showing tell-tale petrol notes indicating that the wine is getting a bit of age on it, but rather than covering up the rest of the nose it adds complexity to a wine that only now at 3 years old seems to be coming together. Great wine! Thanks to Ms. Gummoe of Fox Run for sharing! — 11 years ago

Kristie Tacey

8.9

Apricots, pepper, earth/dirty, some barrel aged, lanolin — 9 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.2

This is one of my more interesting Bordeaux stories. I attended the 14 Bordeaux En Primeur largely through the kindness of Clyde Beffa the owner of K&L Wine Merchants. For those of you that aren't familiar with the En Primeur, it's a professional event where you basically barrel taste the new Bordeaux vintage. The 13 vintage we tasted was one of the most difficult vintages in recent times. Perhaps, even more difficult than the 97. Time will certainly tell...it always does! Over the 5 to 6 days I was there, we tasted somewhere between 1000-1500 wines. Not for the faint of heart. Nearly all the 2013 wines we tasted that week were brutally rough tannic wines. It was like coarse sandpaper on the sides of your cheeks, gums and palate. So much that when we went to the Negotiant Joanne and tasted 250 wines over 3 hours, I brushed my teeth at least three times without toothpaste as the tannin build up on the gums etc. was more than one can handle. However, when we went to Chateau Palmer and tasted their second wine (Alter Ego), it was elegant heaven on the palate. We asked ourselves, what had the other producers gotten so wrong that this second wine had gotten so right. It stood out above & beyond the first & second growths wines we tasted that week. Not that those wines in the long haul won't be better in the years to come over the Alter Ego. However, the Alter Ego was elegant relief after so many brutally tannic red wines. It was so soft, elegant and beautiful. Tonight is the first time I've had it since then. It's not as fresh tonight as it was in the Spring of 14 but delicious none the less. This is the only 13 I purchased in futures. Tonight it's showing everything I expected back in the Spring of 14 except the freshness. This is not a wine that will cellar 20 plus years but it will certainly cellar 10 years plus. This 13 would fool many as a new world wine as the fruits are so ripe. The fruits run ripe to dry and are; blackberries, black plum, dark cherries, pouched strawberries, spice, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, caramel, milk & dark chocolate, dry florals, lavender, dark soil with crushed dry rocks, volcanic minerals, leather, dry stems, The acidity is a little lean. However, the structure & tannins are fairly smooth and the length is beautiful for such a young wine. It still needs some cellaring time to bring forth the complete balance of fruit and earth into harmony. The finish is still a bit dry but at the same time rich and complex. Quite impressive with food and or on it's own. — 9 years ago

Scott Cowan

9.6

Worth every penny:
Big, Round, Rich, Luscious.
Darkest purple possible without being black, with a thing ring of burgandy red-to-rosé/pink floating around the edges of the purple-black wine in the bowl.
Deep alcohol-leather-pipe tobacco-chanterelle aromas when I swirl. Many lovely spindly legs run down the sides of the bowl and back to that inky pool of tantalizingly rich, "dangerous, dark woods forbidden" purple.
The first sip brings huge wild cherries to mind -- but these cherries must have been fire-roasted and spiced with black pepper, cloves, then mixed with tart red plums, a single just-barely-ripe raspberry, and a handful of sun-kissed blueberries all macerated in pure Madagascar vanilla.
This is ambrosia worthy of wild boar, venison, the boldest, richest steak of all time -- no tender cuts for this big wine.
The finish: LOOOOOONG. Not complex, but delightful even if one note. One long, alcohol-hot note of goodness to remind one that this was oak-barrel aged and will grow and grow and grow if cellared. — 9 years ago

Jeremy Shanker

Sommelier at RN74

9.7

From Ernie's private cellar! He makes one barrel a year only for personal consumption and lays them down for 25 years. This '90 Graacher Himmelreich is the current release and must be the best Sekt in Germany. I think it would give some top Champagnes a run for their money in a blind tasting. #notmessingaround — 11 years ago

with Stems

Debi Cali

10

Delicious barrel co-ferment 50% Cab and 50% Cab Franc. Once again, a home run for Trespass!! — 12 years ago