Lewis Chester

9.2

2003 vintage. From Jay. Very nice. Much better than expected. Goes down all together way too easily when you're surrounded by snow! Deep ruby core washing out towards the edges. No bricking...yet. Nose is a preponderance of dark fruits together with blueberries and ripe cassis with slight under tones of cloves and a hint of graphite. This is a very fruity affair- takes me back to Christmas. The wine expresses on the palate as it does on the nose. Layers of rich fruit with traces of brown spice. There's a lovely sweetness here that makes the wine a pleasure to drink despite the relatively modest acidity. The tannins are soft and lush. The finish is good with a continued preponderance of fruit right to the very end although it is moderate in length. This is a very quaff able wine...could be at this all night with pleasure just sit me down in front of an open fire and hand me a Montecristo! 92+/100. Drink now to 2028. NB - no need to decant. This wine can happily be poured from bottle post opening and allowed to open in the glass. — 11 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

Nichole Mao

9.0

Dark berries, cherry, dried herb,
Same palate as nose, cigar box, coffee, high tannin, high but well balanced tannin, full body — 11 years ago

BStro

9.0

$30 for the glass — 11 years ago

Andrew Benn

9.3

Very delicate until 90 minutes in
very different than other vintages
showed that power, black fruit and balanced tanmins in last glass
lots of.life left
enjoyed with Jim and Anna over an apple stuffed pork roast — 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

Anne Marie Marji

9.2

From Doreen / had a glass at Janice's new house — 11 years ago

Jae Cho

9.1

Still tightly coiled, giving its perfumed nose after 1.5hours in glass. Medium to full with a focus long cab fruit — 11 years ago

Coco&Lucie

9.6

One of my favorite of the appellation. Spice is perfectly balance with red fruit. It´s earthy, complex and refined. A piece of beef tenderloin on barbecue, fleur de sel and a glass of Beaucastel, what else?! — 12 years ago

Lucas

9.3

My final bottle of red wine for 2014 paired with ribeye. Absolutely delicious, changing in character with almost every glass. I woke up this morning to read the sad news that Serge passed away yesterday. Rest in peace Mr Hochar. — 12 years ago