Palmer Emmitt

Owner/Winemaker Judge Palmer

9.0

This wine is singing right now and was a pitch perfect pairing with broiled Salmon and broccoli with toasted pine nuts. The nose is ever so slightly oxidative with dried fruits and a light-potpourri floral character. The acid envelops the palate but in a way that is in perfect balance with the significant weight of the wine. The citrusy salinity finishes clean and long and brings me back to Vernazza. — 5 years ago

Peter Sultan

9.2

1 of 2 byob choices with classic French bistro food (gem salad with Roquefort & hazelnuts, my friend had delicious Baked trout with crispy skin). A real eye opener: classic Fume smoky nose & such an elegant mouthfeel. Pitch perfect balance. Damn. — 6 years ago

with Paul

Raj Harb

9.6

This is so damn good. The complete package and pitch perfect. Aromatically intense and complex. Orchard fruit, flowers, earth. A bit of skin contact lends textural grip. Just keeps getting better — 7 years ago

Andy Mc Nees

9.3

Pitch black coco and blueberry. Fine structure of tannins. This has 10 more in the tank. Chad thumbs up! — 7 years ago

Narun P

9.1

This drinks like spring awakening! It's so scented and perfumed reminiscing a meadow full of assorted blossoms. Deep, almost pitch black appearance. Full bodied with medium plus acidity. It dances in your month with a complex mingling of black fruits, compote, gravel soil, with just enough hint of spices. I have not enough experience with the aging process of Etna Rosso but might not need it because this is so enticing now! 91++ — 8 years ago

Cheryl

9.3

Great with a meal not too dry — 9 years ago

Matt Duncan

9.2

Cherry blossom nose, if a bit closed. Stoking tannin and pitch change to mushroom, forest floor resolution. — 9 years ago

Neal Ferry

8.9

Best of the evening... I like it — 6 years ago

with TwiLea

Jason Gelman

9.1

pitch perfect Chinon for $20. so good. — 6 years ago

Rochelle

9.4

Full bodied big wine great price — 6 years ago

Jay Ciccarelli

9.1

Great big gobby nose full of horse shit, leather, crushed stone and hot road tar/pitch. Grippy tanins medium to light bodied. A bit wound up and tight and a little dusty and short on the finish. Not ugly just not ethereal or majestic as it can be in its youthful stages. Over the hill maybe. After two hours it's opened up and put some weight on. I'm going to bump it up. 88 to 91 — 7 years ago

Joni Hedgpeth

9.3

Outstanding black fruit, black as pitch — 8 years ago

Eric Smith

9.3

Pitch perfect Pinot. Tang and fruit on point. Smoothed out finish — 8 years ago

Marshall Todd Herron DPM

9.8

This is Neal 2011 100% Napa Cabernet. The cork is perfect. The color is pitch purple black. The bouquet is a bit sharp but very nice with hints of roses and blueberry bushes filled with ripe fruit! The initial palate has a quick boysenberry and blackberry with a somewhat dry long finish of chocolate and silky smooth coffee. I need another sip NOW! — 9 years ago

Keith Levenberg

9.7

Mind blown. How is it possible I've never even heard of this producer before? Thank you to Mannie Berk and Rare Wine Co. for putting Champet on the radar. This fully lives up to the sales pitch. It is about as ultra-classic a Cote-Rotie as I've ever had, almost like a cross between Levet and Jamet. Even the label design is retro. The material is red-fruited, savory, and succulent, with a pronounced stony/graphite streak. The stems are immediately evident giving the wine some spine and tension and a bit of a green snap. On some sips the tannic muscle is evident, on others it's fully absorbed into the wine and the texture is almost velvety. Thus, while the flavors have that meaty syrah succulence that you could sort of describe as rustic (more beefy than bacon here), the texture here is actually quite refined and civilized. No funk going on here either. It seems pretty close to straight soil-to-glass transfer Cote-Rotie. — 9 years ago

Aaron Tan

9.4

@Dominik SonaYou're the best! Walks off into the cellar, comes out carrying a massive bottle in a sleeve that could barely cover the label. I just love how ridiculous magnum riesling bottles look! I mean, we could see that it's a Koehler-Ruprecht for sure and the table shot straight to a warm vintage on the first sip (warm finish). Didn't take long for Franzi to identify the vintage and the rest of the pieces fell together subsequently (the body = spatlese, forget identifying the "R"). Guess making wines at the winery itself helps 😂

What to say about this wine? It's pretty intense, but the acidity and minerals kept it in check. Finely strung with pitch-perfect tension. This is the kind of wine that needs very little to push it over the edge into the hedonistic territory. Begs for time (like other 09's), as it's true elegance only revealed itself with air (bring on the crushed rocks and chamomile!). The nose is deep, with exotic fruit aromas, flint, toasted almond, florals, and that classic KR funk. Immense palate with lots of lychee and grapefruit, plus superb minerality with air. Creamy and long finish. Yes, the wine finishes a little warm and could be touch more focus, but it's a real class act for 09'! Power without weight, if you ask me. — 6 years ago

Peter Sultan

9.1

Uber pitch perfect with greek style cod stew & siracha aoli-low tannin, bright life saver red fruits, low alcohol. Skurnik imports. — 7 years ago

with Owen

Rajiv Ayyangar

10

This is a knockout wine, a stunner, a pitch-perfect expression of love for wine in general, and Loire Cab Franc in particular. It's wild in all the right places, and impressively refined where it counts.
Medium ruby color. Arresting and straight-up delicious nose that has a certain choreography to it. Specifically it reminds me of Jiří Kylián - finding freedom within a melange of classicism and visceral impetus. Exuberance in wine is rare enough, but exuberance with such focus and intention?
The classicist bent was my first impression - a correct nose of stewed bell peppers and coffee grounds (pyrazines), earthy dog fur with slight clove (brett), and a savory blackberry-cherry fruit compote.
Tasted blind, you would guess Loire, but you might wonder at the shifting nature, at how occasionally the bretty flavors rear up in a flourish, only to be overshadowed a second later by a warm, pure fruit. There is something haunting about the fruit here - it seems to contain memories of many different wines. The wildness is complex - dried leaves, dog fur, toasted mushroom, spiced clove, moist earth. The pyrazinic aromas have uncommon depth and character - stewed bell pepper, coffee, and nascent tobacco.
On the palate, the wine dances with an elegant 12.6% alcohol frame, vibrant acidity, and satiny tannins - the medium on which the finish is printed. There is a moment, mid-palate, where the individual components come together seamlessly - a strong argument for structural-aromatic integration in the Clark Smithian sense. On the finish, the flavors subtly unravel, then persist like a vocal ensemble with synchronized vibrato.
Get this. — 8 years ago

Scott Wren

9.3

Furmint, yes! Like a saline broth with pickles, pine pitch and peach thrown in. I kid you not this really mixes it up with flavors. — 9 years ago

Steven Schoenfeld

9.0

One of the truest great, individual and distinctive American whites. Always a treat when Saxon Brown does it. France has nothing on this Semillon! — 9 years ago