Chosen Family Wines
Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier
Clos de la Maréchale Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Pinot Noir 2006
Chosen over 2005. 06 is beautifully open and ready to drink showing plenty of fruit character, exotic spices, hints of earth and minerals. The finish is long and lingering showing great depth and complexity. — 5 years ago
Brancott Estate
Chosen Rows Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015
The nose was full of petrol and I thought of 100% riesling. I strongly like this wine though it confused me once grape was revealed. Lemon curd ? Then the palate is quite high acid and a bit tart. Extreme length with Aubépine notes and cut grass. I genuinely liked this wine — 6 years ago
La Spinetta
Il Rosé di Casanova Prugnolo Gentile - Sangiovese Rosé Blend 2017
Terrifically mineral and just-underripe strawberries. A beauty of a wine with beast on the bottle. Taken down in the sidebar at Covell. Proper wine for cheers-ing to chosen family. — 7 years ago
Ferrari-Carano
Sonoma County Merlot 2014
Family-owned and operated since 1985, from a small, 30-acre plot of grapes to the present 20 estate vineyards, Don and Rhonda Carano's success is based on their commitment to quality. Select lots of grapes are chosen from their vineyards in Sonoma County to create this medium-bodied Merlot. Dark fruit aromas with cedar and spice notes. Palate shows Blueberry and Plum flavors with coffee, oak and cacao notes. Medium body, soft tannins, nice balance on lingering finish. Great value! — 8 years ago
Château La Pointe
Pomerol Red Bordeaux Blend 2016
Saturday afternoon and the wine I have chosen is the 2016 Château La Pointe. A right bank Bordeaux from Pomerol that is a blend of 87% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc.
On the nose there is black cherry, raspberry, ripe plum, black currant, cocoa, sweet tobacco, cola syrup and gravel.
On the palate there is black cherry, raspberry, plum, bell pepper, black currant, white pepper and gravel.
This is a full bodied wine with a velvety mouthfeel, medium + acidity and fine sandy tannins that moves very well to a long dark fruit gavel finish. A wonderful wine for a winderful weekend. I hope everyone is still well, healthy and safe. Nostrovia! 🍷🍷🍷🍷 — 4 years ago
Xavier Monnot
Les Duresses Blanc Monthélie Chardonnay 2015
Enjoying a gifted Burgundy from a dear friend, she knows what my palate is like, and strategically chosen wisely to keep a smile on my face!
Struck flint, partially burnt wood, pear peel, dried lemon rind, cold yellow apple, fresh lemon zest, wet sandstone, medium acidity, long finish, very satisfying and not even 1er Cru but drinking like one tonight! Could hold easily another 3-5 years. — 5 years ago
Goose Bay
South Island Sauvignon Blanc 2017
Happy Halloween everyone. I stopped today and picked up a few wines for the weekend and this 2017 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc South Island Marlborough New Zealand is the one I have chosen to have tonight. New Zealand continues to amaze me with their Sauvignon Blanc.
On the nose are beautiful fruit notes and grapefruit leads the way and lime is right behind, white peach, nectarine rind and a nice mineral backbone.
On the palate that citrus fruit continues with lime, grapefruit, white peach, nectarine, herbs, spice and minerality.
This wine is medium bodied that has a really a good crisp, clean, fresh mouth feel and medium + acidity that leads into a long fruit mineral laden finish. I hope everyone are enjoying their Halloween just please be safe out there. Nostrovia! The 🥂🥂🥂🥂 — 6 years ago
Château Franc-Mayne
Saint-Emilion Red Bordeaux Blend 2015
Tuesday evening and the wine I have chosen tonight is the 2015 Château Franc Mayne St. Emilion. I picked this wine up last week and wanted to try it last week but things came up that I had to attend to. This wine is 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernat Franc, a very typical Right Bank Bordeaux.
On the nose there a notes of black cherry, blackberry, ripe plum, black currant charred oak and wet gravel.
On the palate are beautiful notes of, black cherry, blackberry, boysenberry, black currant, bell pepper and wet crushed rock.
This is a complex medium to full bodied wine with medium acidity and mesium+ fine mouth coating tannins that leads to a long fresh dark fruit finish. A beautiful week is ahead and we ha a lot of people that won't know what to do with themselves. Have a wonderful week ahead, just remember to keep yourselves safe. Nostrovia! 🍷🍷🍷🍷 — 6 years ago
Man Family
Skaapveld Coastal Region Shiraz
I generally like South African Syrah as I do this one but it could have come from anywhere in the west. Soft and smooth with M intensity. This description generally applies to most airline wines which tend to be chosen to be easy to like, not to offend and tend to be middle of the road. For the amount that the charge for Business Class Airfares it is not good enough to be serving wines which cost sometimes as little as $25 as Qantas does. They should all be in the $80 to $100 range. An exception tends to be Champagne - the Drappier Rose on Qatar was very good. — 7 years ago
Marco Abella
Clos Abella Priorat Carignane Blend 2009
The 2009 Clos Abella from Marco Abella won Wine in China Magazine's 2014 blind tasting of more than 1,000 wines, which was chosen by a panel that included 7 Masters of Wine and Jancis Robinson.
50% Carignan, 39% Garnacha, and 11% Cabernet Sauvignon from Porrera in Priorat. Potently dark aromatics of creosote, espresso, charcoal, blackberry, licorice and schist. Everything translates through to the palate adding some secondary dark chocolate, raspberry, and baking spice, along with a floral overtone. — 7 years ago
Young Ridge
Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
14.42% alc. (I like precision 😁).
I don't think I've had a wine from them where I did not detect Brett so I assume that is their chosen "style".
I'm normally not a huge fan but in this vintage think it is kept at an acceptable level and thus making this wine more interesting.
Could be fun to throw it in blind with some older Bordeaux wines....
— 8 years ago
Vaso
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
VASO cellars is essentially Dana Estate’s third label. However, what makes VASO unique is that while it’s a third label, the fruit that is used is the same fruit that goes in to Dana. No young vines or anything like that here. The main difference is the way it is oak aged.
Enjoyed during the WNH virtual tasting with a theme of 2014 Napa cab, chosen by Carl.
Similar to the ‘12 Sauv Blanc I popped, this is also from Dana’s Hershey Vineyard on Howell Mountain. Due to the ‘14 vintage being one that is drinking fairly well now, I assumed this would be close to pop and pour...wrong. Very tightly coiled on day one. Very crunchy and underripe fruits with herbs and baking spice. Re-corked and gave an hour decant on day two and it was immensely better. Sweet toasted oak, violets, charred plum, baked mixed berry pie with some added herbal flair on the nose. More plush on day two but still flexing those powerful mountain tannins. On the palate it is full of rich dark fruits, dark chocolate, mocha, nutmeg, licorice and quite a bit of graphite. It’s dusty, herbal with a good amount of ripe fruit with nice lift. I’d hold for a few more years. @Mike R , these are very nice wines. Thanks buddy! — 5 years ago
So glad you liked it bud
Sauska
Cuvée 113 White Blend 2017
Hungarian Dry White chosen by daughter Georgie. An eclectic blend of Furmint, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and 2 unspellable Hungarian varieties. Pale lemon in colour. A palate like so many of the European Whites I have had on this trip to the UK. Medium bodied with M plus intensity. Notes of Peach and Pear on the palate with low acid. Thoroughly delicious. — 6 years ago
Charles Krug
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1974
Chosen for dinner by John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter in honor Open That Bottle Night. Very beautiful for about 10 minutes before it began to fade. Dipped whiling talking wine politics and feminism with Karen MacNeil the other fellows at The Professional Wine Writers Symposium. What an honor to get to share in this with peers! — 6 years ago
Lykos
Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
Chez Katrin Sept 2017. With chateaubriand. Smooth red. Chosen by Vagelis — 7 years ago
Krug
Brut Rosé Champagne Blend
There are certain occasions that call for Krug Rosé. So, HBTM! The bottle was corked in the summer of 2014. It’s a blend of 45 reserve wines with the oldest being from 2007 and the youngest 2002. This is why I think Champagne Makers are some of the most talented people making wine. They are constantly blending up to 100 plus wines to bring that bottle to bottle and year to year branded flavor of consistency. On the nose; red & pink spring flowers, cherries, strawberries, watermelon, black cherry, black raspberries, notes of blood orange citrus, baked bread, soft volcanic mineral and elegant chalkiness. The palate is always ridiculously delicate. Micro bubbles, silky rich texture with beautiful soft acidity. The palate fruits are similar to the nose; rich & ripe cherries, strawberries watermelon, black cherry, black raspberries, notes of blood orange citrus with hints of marmalade. Red & pink spring flowers, baguette crust, soft powdery minerals that give the palate a slight sting and super powdery chalkiness done just right. The finish is beautifully rich, textured, revealing itself in layers and lasts minutes. Photos of; Founder Joseph Krug, House of Krug, Winemaker Eric Lebel, Krug’s Clos du Mesnil, a small plot of 1.85 hectares of Chardonnay...one of the world’s greatest vineyards and their salon tasting room. Producer history & notes...Krug was founded by Joseph Krug in 1853. They are based in Reims, the main city in France’s Champagne region. It is one of the famous Champagne houses that formed part of the Grande Marques. Today the house is majority owned by the multinational conglomerate LVMH, which owns Moët Hennessy, Louis Vuitton S.A. and who’s wine producer portfolio includes other well known wine brands such as; Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Château d'Yquem, Ruinart & Cheval Blanc, Dom Perignon and many others. Despite LVMH's majority ownership, the family is still actively involved in all the key decisions of the house but does not manage the day-to-day operations. Joseph Krug was born Johann-Joseph Krug, a butcher’s son, in Mainz, on the Rhine in 1800 when the city was part of the Napoleonic Empire. Having dispensed with the name Johann, he left Mainz in 1824 and in 1834 moved on to Paris. Germans were in demand in France as accountants and bookkeepers. So, Joseph joined Champagne Jacquesson in Châlons-sur-Marne. He spent eight years with Jacquesson. His work took him beyond accountancy. He went around Europe testing the market and assessing criticism from wine sellers and customers. He learned about composition and taste so that by 1840 he already seemed to have been blending Champagne for at least one other house. In 1841, he married Emma-Anne Jaunay. The daughter of a French hotelier based in London’s Leicester Square. The following year their son Paul Krug was born. In 1842 he moved to Reims and following a year later, Krug et Cie was founded with his partner, Hyppolite de Vivès. Joseph was fluent in French, English and German and even spoke some Russian, putting the company in position to exploit key overseas markets. Joseph died in 1866 and was succeeded by his son Paul Krug, who had been trained by his father to takeover. Joseph under the supervision of Paul, Krug was established as a Grande Marque. By the 1880s the prestige of Krug was acknowledged in the United Kingdom and became the primary overseas market for Champagne. In 1866, the House moved into Rue Coquebert, in Reims as it remains. After Paul’s death in 1910, he was succeeded by his son, Joseph Krug II. However, during World War I Joseph II was taken prisoner and his wife Jeanne played a key role in the House at a time when the Western Front divided the region between the Allies and the Germans. After the war, Joseph II’s slow recovery led to his nephew Jean Seydoux becoming joint manager in 1924. In that decade, the Krug 1926 and 1928 vintages were created, which have been considered by critics to be amongst the greatest Champagnes. Lawyer and wine writer Maurice Healey declared “Krug” the king of all Champagnes. Further, “that the 1928 Krug was the best wine made in the present century.” By the mid-1930s, Paul Krug II, the son of Joseph II, was active in the business and would become head of the House from 1959 to 1977. His father died in 1967, by which time he was, according to Patrick Forbes, “one of the most popular and respected figures in the Champagne district.” In 1962 Henri Krug, the son of Paul II, joined the management, as did his brother Remi three years later. Their arrival was followed by a series of innovations, including extensions in the range of Champagnes. In 1979, for the first time, a graduate winemaker joined the House. In January 1999, the House became part of LVMH and by 2007, the brothers, while remaining on the tasting committee, had stepped down from day-to-day responsibilities. In 2009 Olivier Krug, the son of Henri, became House Director. At harvest, Krug grapes are pressed close to their plots with the first juice kept for 24 hours in a vat prepared for the fermentation stage. The pressing from each plot is vinified separately. A pressing contains 4,000 kilos of grapes and yields 20.5 hectolitres of first juice (cuvée), which is poured into twelve oak casks chosen at random. Once fermentation is complete, the eleventh and twelfth casks are used to top up the other ten casks in order to protect the new wines from oxidation. For fifteen days, each cask is topped up with wine from the same plot. Krug uses small 205 liter oak casks tailor-made from trees that are more than two centuries old in the forests of Hautes Futaies in Central France. The average age of Krug oak casks is 20 years. They are retired after approximately 40 years of use. The wines remain in the casks for several weeks. During this period, clarification occurs naturally from the cool temperature of the cellar given the coming winter, as does a micro-oxygenation process from the use of natural containers, making the wine more resistant to oxygen over time. Finally, between December and January, the wine is drawn off into small stainless-steel vats. From here, depending on the decisions of Krug’s tasting committee, the wines will either contribute to that year’s assemblage or be stored in steel vats in the House’s library of 150 reserve wines to be used in the blend of a future Krug Grande Cuvée and or Krug Rosé. — 7 years ago
Daniel P. Drake
Happy Labor Day. The wine I have chosen is the 2010 Domaine Eden Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon. From Saratoga, CA a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot and 1% Malbec.
On the nose there is black cherry, blackberry, plum sauce, nlack currant, green bell pepper, vanilla, smokey oak, spice and earth.
On the palate there is black cherry, blackberry, black currant, green bell pepper, woody oak, black pepper, spice, herbs and dark earth.
This wine is full bodied well integrated and balanced with medium+ acidity and medium+ firm mouthcoating sandpaper tannins that leaves you with a long dark fruit oak driven earthy finish. This wine still has a long way to go and a loy of pleasure to give. I hope everyone's weekend has been enjoyable. With the new week ahead please stay safe and healthy. Nostrovia! 🍷🍷🍷🍷 — 4 years ago