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

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

Christine Havens

9.0

Outstanding. Gossamer pale peach with honeyed highlights, expressing pure alpine air, catmint, dried honeycomb, white peach, cherubs tears, and meadow flowers. On the palate, it’s elegant and beautifully balanced, each note perfection, not unlike Vivaldi’s Le Quattro Stagioni, here is lilting, refined, pitch-perfect acidity set against a backdrop of dewy raspberries that extends to sweet saline-edged oblivion. — 9 years ago

Tom Wood

9.2

Savoury forest fruit, tomato leaf, red berry and vegetal notes. Perfect accompaniment to the cricket — 9 years ago

Hannes Huefken

9.0

After opening, it reminds me of a northern Rhone syrah: translucent ruby red, not a Bordeaux nose, lighter, higher acidity and all. Now after 2 hours, it's become darker to the eye, nose, and palate. Opaque, almost pitch black. Milk chocolate and smoke on the nose. Some sweetness and less acidity on the palate. Some grippy tannin left. Plummy finnish. A good deal for €18 in 2015. 50+3+12+17+8=90 — 10 years ago

Keith Levenberg

9.2

This is as great as it's ever been. One of the all-time great values when some store blew it out for seven bucks. Classic Campania. Tar, volcanic rock, gamy meat, pitch-black fruit. Tannins are maybe getting edgier than they were before but the fruit is still rich and ripe. And every time I see the label I sing the name to the tune of the Krusty the Klown "Canyonero" jingle. — 10 years ago

Rhonely Boy

9.2

Very tasty now, but for me, needs more time. Would love to revisit in 5 years. I'm loving the gnarliness factor, and fruity red fruit notes. Super concentrated. Wow! Rich deep blood red berries with a solid core of pitch black gnarliness, and screaming finish. Will try to review tomorrow, on the 2nd day. — 10 years ago

Neal Ferry

9.7

Thanks to Dean Leisman VP of Pitch for this bottle of Pitch Black wine....Pitch is likely the best place to eat and kick back in Omaha... We appreciate Dean's attention to every detail — 11 years ago

zekun shuai

9.1

Tasted in a wine tasting, therefore, tasting note can't be too adequate and precise. This Vega-Sicilia winery in Toro should be cellared for another 3-6 years at least. Not open on the nose with not much black fruit. French oak used? toasty and very smoky with the feeling of charred wood, coffee, dark chocolate and pitch. Incredible tannin that coats the whole mouth, full-bodied and great structure. Medium+length and may be longer. 88-89points. Good value at 50-60 $. This wine is still too young to be tasted. Should be enjoyed from 2015-2022. — 12 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

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

Kaitlin Gaska

8.9

this Portugal pours/hard bodied and thick accent/as the cricket chirps 🍷 — 9 years ago

with Derek and Anthony

Craig Thompson

9.5

Ripe fruit but not jammy. Perfect pitch of acid, fruit sweetness and seamless follow through. A lovely, delicious medium weight Shiraz. — 9 years ago

Scott Wren

9.7

Like no Chenin Blanc I have ever tasted this is searing in its mineral intensity. Definitely not for the faint of heart. It think Pineau de Loire is an apt name cause I picked up a pine pitch flavor. Would be amazing with anything in a shell. But maybe also as a foil to rich pork or something really creamy. Check it out folks. — 10 years ago

Hannes Huefken

8.9

2006. Pitch black, purple on the rim. Predominantly cassis on the nose. Very tannic and grave on the palate. Opened up with air after two or three hours. Not an easy one, but very enjoyable if given the space. — 10 years ago

Carlos Mata

9.0

Pitch dark garnet with beautiful dark crimson rim. Abundant berry aromas, raspberry, blueberry pie, and secondary sweaty horse. Delightful, fulfilling and elegant on the plate, showing unmistakeable black currant flavors, blackberry, wild mushroom, hints of spearmint, also rosemary and thyme. Fine acidity that lingers passed this wine's long, dark fruit finish. Delicious green and black peppercorn sensation on the finish. Fine tobacco on the retronasal. Negre, negre. Quite dry and very fruity. Solid 89 pts. — 11 years ago

Dimitris Skouras

9.6

A very aromatic wine not so typical riesling lots of minerality and also a lot of white fruits mostly white pitch great joyfull acidity and golden color — 12 years ago

Jessica Dowd

9.5

Wine at the Standard — 12 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

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

Lars Rasmussen

9.2

Pitch black colour. Black currants and licorice, old rope and tar. Harmonious tannins and great length. — 9 years ago

Alex Alvärëz

9.4

Goddamnit. Pitch perfect. — 10 years ago

Erik McLaughlin

Vice President Seven Hills Winery

9.4

Pitch perfect Merlot. Dense and lush, with full body yet polished round tannins. Plenty of earth, spice, and savory elements without being vegetal. — 10 years ago

Neal Ferry

9.3

New Product from my favorite place to eat in Omaha — 11 years ago

with Tom

Jonathan Wood

9.1

Pitch perfect — 11 years ago

Steve Unwin

9.6

Oh wow. Comes off like a comic book version of a napa cab. Just dump trucks of pitch black fruit. Finish is lighter and tannins are less grippy than its cabby cousins but this is so bloody delicious I can't stand it. — 12 years ago