Randy Dunn makes wine for your retirement and perhaps your grandkids. This 02 is just coming into it's elegance/groove. When you consider it's been in bottle for basically 12 years, it's still a pretty big wine. Tannins are resolving but still packs a palate punch. On the nose, it's a wild berry blend, baking spices and a mix of dry and fresh roses. The fruits start elegant transitioning to juicy & finishing with dry medium tannins. Blackberries, black cherries, black plum, raspberries with very ripe juicy strawberries painting the back palate. The mix of fruit is incredible. Baking spices of caramel & vanilla, just a touch of spice; allspice & light sage, black tea, dessert style dark minerals that finish with dry crushed rocks, graphite & eucalyptus. Followed by; raspberry cola and acidity that is just short of perfect. The finish pierces the mid palate with dark tannins. However, the mixed berry fruit finishes long, juicy to dry & with sheer beautiful elegance. The finish lasts & lasts. It's simply a guilty pleasure. I have two more bottles. I'll have one in 7 more years and the last in 15 years. Love to note the changes! That's the really enjoyable part of cellaring wine. — 9 years ago
Ripe red fruits (strawberry, red cherries) sweet baking spices (nutmeg, cinnamon) with an earthy core of mushrooms and dried crushed leaves. A medium balanced silky body with bright acidity and soft tannins. A medium flavor intensity of ripe red fruits married to earthy notes. Perfumed floral notes hold on to a long finish. Elegant and floral with complexity and length. — 11 years ago
Gahdamnnnn this is some good Riesling. A less sweet, more nervy, pre-war style. Another stellar example of the '15 crop of Rieslings in Germany. Tense with incredible purity and focus. Pours a bright, ever-so-slightly hazy pale straw hue. Concentrated, complex nose of lime, Granny Smith apple, white peach, almost smoky crushed slate minerality, cherry blossom and jasmine floral tones, a slight beeswaxy character, and a touch of petrol as well as some slight leesiness and cardamom spice. On the palate it's more white peach, crushed slate, lime juice, beeswax, and leesiness riding on a wave of high, intense acidity. Medium (-) body with nice oily texture. Just off-dry. Impeccable balance. For under $30 this is a no-brainer. Delicious. — 9 years ago
1986 Vintage. Butteaux. Dark lemon in colour. Very mature. Mushroom. Oxidative. Lanolin. Earthy undergrowth. Crushed nuts. Ripe baked apple and tarte tatin. Botrytis here. Minerality strong as wine develops in the glass. Dry with sweet impression. Like an old Chenin or Viura Rioja or old Riesling. Waxy and honey and savoury. Huge concentration. Full body. Great acidity keeps this wine powering on. Long finish. — 11 years ago
This $500+ bottle of pure gold is only fit for a small prince man by the name of Matthew Miller. Happy Birthday to the (not so) big man. This 1990 bottle tastes like the grapes were crushed decades ago, because they were. Amazing. — 9 years ago
Sweet blackberry currants, strawberry licorice, black plum, black tea, black earth, dried roses, dry black earth, gravel, underbrush, crushed dry rock powder, dark dry sweet mineral finish. I will open my first bottle in 2020. It's getting close but not quite there yet. Tasted from the Chateau. — 10 years ago
Ron Siegel
Classic older Graves showing soft, sweet core of red & black fruits, cedar, leather, tobacco & crushed rock. Fully mature but still holding, an interesting & enjoyable wine to drink. — 9 years ago