Shay A

9.6

A few wines from last week’s 4th Friday event!

The sheer opulence of this is astounding. Obviously young, this was actually my first Realm BTK courtesy of @Keith Fisher . When thinking back to the last stunning 2016 BTK I had (MacDonald), where the MacDonald is more dusty, slightly more herbal and full of tightly coiled BTK power, this was an embarrassment of rich dark fruits, baking spices and sporting a creme de cassis like profile. Classic To Kalon power, with so much to unpack. Thank you, Keith! — 7 years ago

Matt

9.5

Tremendous depth, laced with golden tree fruits, intense fruit balanced by complex and heady savory notes; verbena, aloe, cool herbs and white flower petals, wax and white tea. Edgy and coiled acidity at play here, WOTN for me — 8 years ago

Mono Head

8.9

Duck horn 2014-slightly dryer than carneros. But not complex but enough. 8.9 — 9 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Stunning nose, citrus, lime, chalky, limestone, great nose. Palate is deep and citrusy. A deep, dense and thick wine with elegance, super minerals, lanolin, and an endless finish. Insane acids. Needs 5 years. — 10 years ago

Anthony Lombardi

9.6

Opens up as a coiled up bundle of nerves & acidic tension. Slowly opens up to show a delicate richness. Pure clean citrus & floral aromatics accented with a hint of honey. The elements from the nose follow to the palate once it opens up. Another @Matthew Bigby bottle! — 10 years ago

Myra Smith

9.3

Paired well with lemon-pepper chicken over linguine. Good counterpoint to the lemon. — 10 years ago

Dock Hooks

9.2

This fine thing pulls me in as I breath her earthen essence faintly fragrantly post-rain flowerlike wet, dripping a whiff of some distant weed working its way around the corner as a horn player lays out a rhythm to which we dance turning, twisting, eyeing discriminately she shows her plum-to-burgundy rim, then goes deeper, as she lightly touched my lips showing red fruit unctuously lava-like clinging leaving a ripe plum-like memory touched by cassis long and lasting begging for more - so we continue...amazing locally-farmed, open-water oysters... — 10 years ago

Josh Shields

9.3

Very unique example of CA chard. Has salinity of Chablis with restrained CA fruit. Minimal nuttiness compact wine coiled up for mid term improvement. — 11 years ago

M sh

9.4

1998 vintage. Fantastic nose of blood and smoke. No decant so still pretty tightly coiled but some dark fruit and blood or iodine on palate. Shortish finish. — 11 years ago

Frank Wood

9.9

A nice Cab. Has character — 13 years ago

Bill Bender

9.6

Another wine that shook me late on Saturday night along with the Shafer Sunspot and Schrader T6. With such a horn a plenty at the table certain bottles just had that extra gear. The depth and complexity here were astonishing. Woke up my mouth and mind immediately. Sandalwood, cherry pie, liquid leather and exotic spices. Best ‘Cos since ‘82 for me. — 7 years ago

Conrad Green

9.2

Lovely deep fruit. Very intense and coiled steel with buckets of minerality and drive. There’s a whiff of stewed apple here. I see premox on the horizon, but this is fun now. Should be better in 5 years but certainly not this bottle. — 8 years ago

with Howard, Walker and 2 others

Brandon Boesch

8.9

Nice easy drinking cab. No sense of place, typical duck horn style. Tasty and good on half off wine nights. — 9 years ago

Aaron Rankin

8.9

I knew what was coming. Consistent with other recent reviews, this one's tightly coiled, zesty, fruity (for a CDR) and bright. And I gave it an hour long proper decant. Enjoyable as a daily tipple but needs time to develop depth. — 9 years ago

Ekasit Poositranusorn

9.0

Wow nice wine. Very beautiful & bright dark ruby color with very nice aromas of red fruits, berries, cedar wood, and cigarette on the nose. Full-bodied and followed by full flavor of ripe plum, fresh raspberry, caramel, and spicy almond on the palate. Elegant texture, firm & smooth tannins, and reasonable & soft length at the end. Dry & a bit of complexity; like it and want to taste the real Duck Horn next time. — 10 years ago

Jan de Weerd

9.0

Refreshing. Great fruit without the 'butter'. Paired it with Italian salami. Excellent. Makes you rethink Riesling. We loved it. — 10 years ago

with Tammy

Benjamin Laguna

9.5

Restrained. Coiled. Non overpowering fruit. Tension. — 10 years ago

with Kirema and Adam

Lewis Chester

9.0

2013 vintage. At a sunny Cap Horn, Courchevel. Pale lemon green hue. Creamy apple sauce. Honeysuckle and lemon citrus. Youthful. On the palate, very balanced. High acidity, good concentration of flavour and persistent finish. Well made Chablis. Drink 2020-2030. — 11 years ago

Peter 0'Neill

9.1

All the descriptors are here, just coiled and waiting to be unleashed. Hard to rate in this shy state but the potential is pretty huge. For now, 91. With big upside. The 2012. — 11 years ago

Matthew Cohen

9.7

Coiled and young but great. Licorice. Acid. A great wine. — 12 years ago

John Trinidad

Wine Blogger SFWineBlog

9.4

Mein Gott - little horse, single horn wine — 13 years ago

with Max

Julia Geisler

8.9

Still not a Chardonnay fan, there’s just something annoying about its bite that reminds me of someone poking me relentlessly or a car horn going off. It’s smooth on the finish but leaves that bothersome chemical taste from the first hit. — 7 years ago

with Matthew, Gautham and 3 others

Alan Weinberg

9.2

Super tight Corton Charlemagne with a menthol note, packed and coiled like a spring. Great density. Clean fine fruit. Great stuff. — 8 years ago

Robert Rothfield

9.5

Classic Prichard Hill intensity, densely coiled...will improve with additional cellar time — 9 years ago

Ryan M

10

I am new to vodka.

The wifey is Ukrainian 🇺🇦 & Polish 🇵🇱 so it's in her veins. But until late I always stuck with the brown stuff.

I have to say Grey Goose is the champ over Tito's. Not in a Pacquiao vs Horn way (it was close but Pacman won) 🥊 .

Perhaps it's the wheat vs corn but I don't think I can go back. The goose prevails 🦆!!

Feel free to share your vodka favorites. — 9 years ago

with Larissa

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.0

Saturday night...time for steak and claret as my buddy Gary Westby says. In this scenario, I envisioned the wine being equal or even better than my steak. Not to toot my horn but most everyone that's had my steak simply says meaningfully that it is the best they've had. Myself, I've only had one better the Ribcap at Bourbon Steak in SF; which sadly closed as the hotel took back the space they were in. Hopefully, soon to reopen again elsewhere in SF. However, back to the Pichon Baron. I can't say I loved it. I wanted to love it as it is one of my favorite properties in Pauillac. The wine isn't bad but it just never shined. Maybe, it's just not a good moment in it's evolution to open. It's soft, elegant but missing the beauty, flavors and complexity I've come to expect. The fruits are dry blackberry, dark cherries, black raspberries, a touch of juicy strawberries and black plum skin. Dark dry powdery minerals, saddlewood, lead pencil savings, underbrush, dry dark earth, dry pebbles. There is not much on the mid palate, it finishes a little flat and the fruits never really shined. Surprising for such a warm vintage. Hoping it improves over the years as I've got 5 more. Unusual that the wine really needed the steak more than the steak needed the wine. — 10 years ago

Benjamin Disesa

9.5

Young, big fruit flavor a, refreshing acidity with rough coiled tannins. Dark color beautiful nose. — 11 years ago

Eric Newhouse

9.0

Tightly coiled beast. Black cherries and coffee hiding behind a wall of tannin. 2002 vintage. — 11 years ago

Christine Havens

10

A study in elegance and finesse. The absolute satiny-silkiness translates on the nose. Transporting notes of Lemon Budino pudding, Bosc pear, anise, a whiff of smoke. It's actually so well-integrated, it's tough to tease apart—this wine glides, weightless and yet impossibly glycerolly and rich. The attack is deceptive, leading to underlying grip and power, wet stone and shell, coiled acidity, trace white pepper and staggering persistence. There is a reason why Raveneau enjoys the cult reputation it has. — 12 years ago

Tom Kobylarz

9.2

Impressive, everyone knows the precocious nature of the 2009s from Bordeaux, but this is showing plenty of acidity and of course full grain tannins. Wonderful aromatics, currants, fresh cut flowers, roasted coffee and toasty oak. The palate is impressively compact still after an hour, like a tightly coiled spring. A long tannic and red fruit finish. Bravo! #bdx09 — 13 years ago