Delectable Wine

Follow to learn about our favorite wines & people.

9.4

The 2012 Montrose has a taut and focused bouquet with crisp blackberry, tobacco and light earthy scents on the nose. Fine vigour and class evident here. The palate is medium-bodied with chewy tannins on the entry, fine acidity, lightly spiced with a nicely proportioned and focused finish. This is a solid, almost swarthy Montrose, though it is surpassed by more recent vintages. Tasted twice at Bordeaux Index's Ten Year-On tasting and blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting. (Neal Martin, Vinous, September 2022)
— 4 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.5

Classic Cabernet descriptors of Cedar, Tobacco, Red and black fruits and a herbal note. Lovely on the palate, drinking at its peak with excellent balance - smooth, fluid, resolved tannins. One could easily pick this as a Left Bank Bordeaux in a blind tasting. Shows more French restraint than the full blown Napa style for me. Medium + weight palate with balance and concentration. Probably my favourite Napa Valley Cabernet though admittedly I have not tried some of the big guns like Harlan. Post script: A blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 7% Petit Verdot. No Merlot was used in the blend for 2004. — 5 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.4

Tasted blind. Reddish tawny. Nose is closed and not yielding much. I get cranberries, some cherries, iron and stones, some wood. Has a high pitched character to it. Has some pucker in it yet. Tight with ample acidity. I guess 97 Vogue Bonnes Mares. In my experience this wine has had some variations in its performance. Today it was better than most, but suffered by not getting ample air before it was served. — 6 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.6

Tasted blind. Reddish tawny color. Edges suggest its old. Notes of strawberry, raspberry, iron, roses. Some zing and power in the nose. Slaps your face when tasted. Sappy. Powerful impact. Long finish. Other guesses were in Burgundy land eg Griotte but I went with 90 Rayas. Bingo. — 6 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.4

Tasted blind. Tawny color, translucent with amber rims. Notes of black cherry, cedar, some spice and a little barnyard floor. Sweet fruit in the mouth, with tannins fully resolved. Guessed 1955 Calon Segur. Perfect looking bottle, the cork revealed this bottle was reconditioned by the Chateau in 2000. — 7 years ago

Sylvain Wilhelmy

9.1

Wow!!!! Super Pinot noir! — 8 years ago

Mike Saviage

10

Tasted blind. Light gold color, youthful and heavy in the glass. Notes of citrus, white clay, sea shells, wet river stone, kiwi and some honey. High pitched. Massive fruit and structure. This powered along all night and never slowed down. Easy to guess as the 90 Raveneau Clos as we've had this many times. A debate ensued about what is a perfect white burgundy and where this sits... it would be really hard to get better than this, IMO. Spectacular. — 4 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.4

Tasted blind. Light reddish/scarlet and mostly translucent. Notes of red fruit, tobacco leaf, violets. Very linear in its delivery, with no tannins and a mid-palate that is very light. Very refined. Guessed 61 Mouton. A good but not great Lafite... the critics are correct in marking this a level below some of the other 61 first growths. Drink up. (M's 60th bday 11th of 14) — 5 years ago

Jim Maynard

9.4

2012 vintage. Really good; developed some additional notes beyond the big youth. Someone noted they smelled it 6 feet away. Indeed fragrant. — 5 years ago

Stephen Redenbaugh

9.2

Lemon zest, candle wax, sea salt, almost ripe nectarine...what a glorious dinner companion. Round, almost viscous, but zippy acidity and a long caressing finish. I am smitten with white Italian varietals nurtured in California and largely unoaked. — 6 years ago

John Van Trijp

9.4

World greatest Chardonnay blind tasting — 6 years ago

Shay A

9.2

Monthly WTF guys blind tasting group. This month was our annual, and famed, Left Bank vs Right Bank theme. All wines served blind as usual. Started off with a Rosé and a champagne. Great night.

The first of two GPLs from the evening. Lots of saddle leather mixed with ripe fruit on the nose. Underripe black-cherry on the palate with an herbal dominants finish. Drink now. Thanks @Will Adams . — 7 years ago

with Andrew, Jack and 6 others

James Gourley

9.0

My first viognier with some age on it. Major coconut cream pie, with other stone fruits as supporting cast. Still noticeably high alcohol, but maybe because I usually drink fairly low alcohol whites. Interesting and tasty wine. — 8 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.6

Tasted blind. Dark tawny color. Sweet, candied fruit nose with notes of dark raspberries, some spice, some mocha, some gravel stone and a little soy sauce. In the mouth, there is a dryness to it when compared to the great nose and smells this gives off. Very masculine. Punches you in the face. Guessed 89 Rousseau Clos de Beze. Great juice! — 4 years ago

Will Stanley

9.5

Decanted for around an hour, the recently released 2013 Grand Vin from Chateau Musar is an enormous wine at present in its youth. Gradually, it opened into a gorgeous, exotic and utterly unique product of this unlikely corner of the wine world. There’s plenty of Bordeaux-like character in the form of dark fruit and cigar box, but there are notes too of cranberry, liquorice, clove, mandarin and five spice. The mouthfeel, as a whole, has a quasi Brunello quality to it, with its bright cherry fruit and mouthwatering acidity. But woe is anyone to compare this wine to any other, for it is incomparable. One of Serge Hochar’s last vintages before his passing in 2014, and one that will doubtless have a long life. — 5 years ago

Austin Hohnke

9.2

Capsicum, peppercorns, and cedar. Silky red fruits. A blind taster’s dream Chinon. Always good, but a stunning value in great vintages. Happy to have half a case of this. — 5 years ago

Rick Baumgarten

9.6

Top of a double blind flight of French Syrahs. Oh, so good. — 6 years ago

Rhys Owain Davies

9.5

Very easy drink and great with red meat dishes recommended — 7 years ago

Kirk F

9.2

Wine #2 in ‘old world’ flight. Tasted blind, decanted and from magnum. The most unique and fascinating wine of the evening with crazy exotic sweet flavors. Flight winner. — 8 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.5

Tasted blind. Deep dark and opaque. Red center with amber rims. Looks young. Very rich and luscious in the mouth. Black cherry, forest floor, tobacco leaf and a hint of old wood. Amazing impact out of the gate, but this declined in what it gave as the night went on whereas the 53 Lafite got better. — 8 years ago