Christophe Hedges

9.3

Its all about life guys. Context is everything. This is very contextual. — 9 years ago

Andrea Phillips

9.5

Prepare yourself, this complex red has a 15% alcohol context! Fruit forward, medium bodied, complex and chocolatey. — 9 years ago

Martin Frowde

9.2

An amazingly smooth and quaffable red which the gaucho sommelier encouraged our table of c. 8 to drink. I have no doubt that the context of an imperial bottle aided maturity but top notch drinkability regardless — 10 years ago

JohnQ Boxler

Sales Berkeley Wine Company

9.0

Blessedly under 14 degrees. Lovely blend of Morello cherry, sousbois, iron, dusty tannins, fresh acid, restrained wood. Served with dry-aged ribeye Florentine, canellini, salad of local lettuces. Did what Chianti should: wash down food, give idea of terroir (not ambition). Fresh and lively. Re-buy with conviction. Very good within context, good value, indeed. — 10 years ago

Rajiv Ayyangar

9.3

1995. Medium garnet in the glass, this had a beautiful nose of sweet tobacco, brown liquorice in the sun, light tones of stewed savory bell pepper, concentrated notes of black raspberry liqueur, and an underlying tamari savoriness (very light, not at the level that I get on Musar). It’s the next day and I’m still getting flashbacks.
In the mouth it felt a bit short. Medium body, medium alcohol, medium acid, definitely plusher than Leoville Barton (both due to youth and probably because this is Right Bank / merlot based vs. Left Bank / cab based). Think a light fur coat. The finish is mostly acid and tannins though. Mostly I smelled this.

LM and BD shared their experience and put this wine into context: This is a solid example but will get better in 5-10 years. Still a bit young to their taste.

Score: Between 9 and 9.5. Despite the promise of improving with age, I was so stoked on this that I will probably drink my other bottle soon-ish. As in tonight. As in I might be drinking it right now.

Vineyard: 80% merlot, 18% cab franc, 2% cab — 10 years ago

Jon Fine

9.1

really dug this at the end of a long boozy day of epic eating. but so austere and zingy I wonder if it'd be a bit much in any other context. — 11 years ago

Saman Hosseini

Writer Maison Abattoir

8.9

Massive. Basically the Macalllan 12 of chardonay; it might as well have been aged in sherry casks. Liquid apple cobbler/piñappple upside down cake. impressive in its own context. — 12 years ago

Amy Yan

9.1

Picked this wine not having much context than the region producing nice reds. Did not regret my house as it went well with Hudson Valley water buffalo — 9 years ago

Tommy Fogarty

Owner Thomas Fogarty Winery

8.9

Tasting this alongside Thomas Fogarty Santa Cruz Mountain Chardonnay 2013 to test the importance of context. It turns out that tasting White Burgundy IN Burgundy is pretty cool. This Burg is a nice wine, but it's probably not gonna bring you to tears. Generously sulfured, but after about 20 minutes it's not noticeable. Pretty serious little wine. — 9 years ago

with Marshal

Yoon Ha

Master Sommelier/Wine Director Benu

9.5

The only flaw here was that this wine was tasted along with a '88 cros parantoux. Context, context, context. — 10 years ago

Jason Heller

Master Sommelier

9.0

This is showing really great. Even in context of actual Rioja. — 10 years ago

JohnQ Boxler

Sales Berkeley Wine Company

9.5

Yellow-fruited, mineral verging on saline, palate-staining, forward within the context of Jobard (open at this stage). Damn good. Re-buy! — 10 years ago

Melissa Sorongon

Co-Owner of Piedrasassi winery, Provignage winemaking consulting company

8.9

Very good and firing strong on typicity, but for some reason I'm not inhaling this as I have other vintages/cuvées from this producer. Will have to try again. Could be bottle variation, could be mood/context, could be the wine. This is the 2011 st Joseph Syrah. — 10 years ago

Sean Smith

9.6

Context counts — 11 years ago

Christof Ellinghaus

9.0

2010 - great finesse but seemed out of place in the context of the other two much funkier wines we had there — 9 years ago

Richard Steinberg

9.1

This unfortunately followed the 2010 VHR in our blind tasting. It was elegant and rich but didn't hold up to the previous wine. The rating is in the context of the tasting and may have scored higher if drank alone. — 9 years ago

with David, Jeffrey and 3 others

Nolen L

9.4

2003v. Enjoyable overripe, dried, black currant, prune, and cocoa overtones. Big, as expected, though balanced in the context of Banyuls. Paired VERY well with dark chocolate. — 10 years ago

S Shaw

9.1

Exceptional estate green red blend....not inexpensive enough for everyday but will hold up to most good Zins in context. — 10 years ago

Kevin Russell

9.8

Context is everything. Eating dope pizza with my love and my brother. 2012 from magnum. Bright meets bitter. Slight CO2 fizz. Grazie Jan D'Amore. — 10 years ago

with Jen

Jean-Marc Troadec

9.2

Black fruit and some gamey leather on the nose. On the palate I'm getting black cherry, some black pepper and a briary aspect. Nice balance of acids and tannins. Medium-light bodied, this is pretty big wine on a such a small frame. It's interesting to experience Mourvèdre in a different context than Provence/southern Rhone... EDIT: This is getting better and better with time in the decanter—at this point I'd have to say it's a killer deal for this much wine! — 10 years ago