Lynn Derbyshire

9.2

Smooth, full, crisp and buttery. Vanilla on the nose, stone fruit on the palette. Absolutely delicious with Doug’s pan-fried garlic sea bass. At the Wilsons on 1/30/21. — 5 years ago

Fredrik Finn

9.1

Sneak peaking on Wittmanns 2019 for the Morstein launching on thursday. There is no doubt that the German Rieslings remains one of the under priced gems of the wine world.
The Westhofener presents a pronounced intense nose, youthful but complex and nuanced aromas, well defined characters that is playing in several clusters. Lemon zest, white pears and plum juice followed by ginger and a prominent wet stone minerality over a savoury and salty canvas. A cut through acidity drives the palate through an intense fruit profile and a solid finish.

Paired with pan fried Salomon filet, creamed cabbage and a soy and brown butter vinaigrette with plenty of lemon juice. — 6 years ago

Jeff Miller

9.1

This wine was very elegant and quite impressive for under $20. Fresh ripe raspberries and bing cherries on the nose with floral scents of dried rose petal, fresh pine and clove. The palate is incredibly smooth. The wine glides across the tongue with the rich red fruit and but provides a nice dose of mouth-watering acidity that keeps you coming back for more. Dangerously easy to drink. Thought this was a big enough Pinot to pair with a pan seared skirt. steak. — 7 years ago

David Kline

9.0

Sweet Madura tobacco and mocha with a touch of tar, dark roast coffee, prime rib, iron pan, luxardo cherry, cedar bark, toasted marshmallow in this autumnally aromatic feast of perfumes. Spicy and lean into dense graphite and dark chocolate, blueberry, cassis, smoky raisin, baked plum, blackberry and pomegranate reduction. Violets for miles with a rich sloe-berry and burnt sugar cookie finish. #williamfèvre #carmenère #espino #chilewineday #chile #wine #redwine #svs #singlevineyard #grancuvée #mountainwine #mountainfruit — 8 years ago

with Courtney

Ken Z

9.0

Drank 5/26/28

#steakandclaret night. Paired nicely with a pan seared ribeye.

This is another Chateau owned by the makers of Chateau Dalem.

Nose of plums and black cherry start to reveal some earth and graphite notes with time in the decanter. Palate with more red fruits. After a couple of hours more mocha flavors emerge. Medium, well integrated tannins and a relatively long finish in the 40 second range. Like many of the '15's I've had, you can drink now for primary fruit, or age a few years. Nice, but I do prefer the Chateau Dalem for a few more dollars.

3/21/8/4/4 +50 = 90 pts — 8 years ago

Peter Wassam

9.2

Smell like a fleurie. But also cedars with some pan drippings. Raspberry, watermelon, fig, black cherry. Oozes freshness, perfectly woven interplay of acid/body/tannin. Light to medium body but loads of freshness and a beautiful touch in the cellar. — 9 years ago

Petra

9.2

Gorgeous Italian Chardonnay. Very complex with tones of rich almond, honey and oak. — 10 years ago

Ian Hamel

9.1

2020/12/22 with pan-roasted venison loin and tenderloin with sauce poivrade (after Richard Olney). This is a tricky one. I love Clape, and this wine was quite nice, in a brambly blackberry and funk vein. It did not, however, have any of the notes you’d expect from a mature Clape. It certainly didn’t feel old or faded - quite the opposite, it was still fleshy and fresh, if not terribly deep. Sometimes this happens, but sometimes I feel it happens a bit frequently with wines from my cellar. Perhaps it’s just too cold - I have heard some views that in cool, stable “benchmark” cellar conditions, wine can age much more slowly than is generally expected. One thing I can say is that my 2004 Clape and Allemand, stored with no cooling with family in the Bay Area, has already started to shown those delicious, gamy aromas. Should I raise my cellar temp a few degrees? As is, who knows how much longer this one could or should have gone, but as it’s my last bottle I guess I’ll never know. — 5 years ago

LM Segal

10

The nose immediately established this CDP as royalty, and the palate followed accordingly. Silky smooth, big and round. Black fruit, Asian spice, black truffles. Pure as heck, layered with so much going on while your nostrils are sending your brain unseen before signals of red flowers, bacon frying and fairy dust. Should not have been better than the ‘01 but it was unanimous winner blind. — 7 years ago

Livio Pastorino

9.0

Suave este vino, equilibrado, ciruelas, especias, en boca ligero, fresco, generoso, redondo, se aprecian las frutas, se percibe la madera muy sutil, lo acompañamos con una tabla de quesos, pan baguette, charcutería, pomarola (salsa de tomate), untada en las tostadas con aceite de oliva virgen extra, calidad precio muy buena, temperatura de servicio 16° a 18° C #winelover #pisco #Perú #Lima #vino#wine #vinotinto
#winelovers #piscolovers



— 7 years ago

Boris Mathiszik

9.2

13 year old blend from the Beira Atlantico region. Just beautiful. Smooth and soft, but still very aromatic. — 8 years ago

Elise Marie

9.0

Strawberry — 8 years ago

Noah Michael

8.9

Great on its own. Let it sit open for 30 minutes or so. Pairs AMAZINGLY with a pan-seared Ribeye Cap. — 9 years ago

Austin Beeman

9.4

Out of control. Halfway between a dry red and a port. Black raspberry pie filing complete with burnt crust and little melted bits on the bottom of the pan. A hedonistic wine. $100 retail. — 10 years ago

with Barbara, Laura and 2 others

Severn G

9.5

Nose has ripe plum, mashed blackberries, dark chocolate powder, strawberry jam on leather, molasses, molasses cookies, wet soil, nutmeg and vanilla bean.

Palate has blackberry compote, black cherry reduction, partially dried plum, wet baking spice, wet+dry leather, dark chocolate shavings, (light) oak/vanilla influence remains. Extended finish, really starting to pick up incredibly at 3-4H in the decanter.

Paired with Allen Bros. ribcap (USDA Prime version) tonight, unfortunately our grill has a 4ft. snow drift in front presently so the best I can muster was a super hot cast iron pan from the oven, then onto stove with lots of butter and in 7m total we had beef to die for...Which I had some competition for dining this evening.

This bottle was a very generous gift from my West Coast brother @David T from earlier in the year. My work travel schedule was hectic and never found a good time to settle in on a weekend with the wine or pairing, until now. (I've lost track of the amount of COVID tests I've done in the past 5M, but all have been negative 🙏 to date.) A fabulous gift to enjoy now that I'm hopefully relaxing for the next 2w...
Happy Holidays to everyone.🎄 — 5 years ago

Vasanth Balakrishnan

9.0

Interesting 100% #sauvignongris #bordeauxblanc. Mix of grassy notes and tropical fruit on the nose; slightly oily texture on the tongue with an effervescent-like zing at the same time. A teensy bit of green apple and loads of white/yellow citrus up-front and grapefruit pith bitterness linger on a long finish. This one paired nicely with pan-seared barramundi with a lemon and dill pollen marinade. ***Update: After a week in the fridge it’s actually even better as the zing has gone away and the bitterness has mellowed out. Simply lovely wine. #wsjwineclub — 7 years ago

Doggfather

9.1

Excellent with pan fried chicken thighs. — 8 years ago

Ardis Burst

9.0

Slightly fruity aroma but nice and dry. Served with scallops and also used to deglaze the pan. — 8 years ago

Jay Kline

9.4

My notes on this from May of 2017 still apply. Popped and poured. Drank well over two days. Immediately this wine impresses visually. Sure, the color is an expected deep garnet but what's most striking is the fact that it's never completely opaque at the core. You can just barely get the faintest amount of light to see through it. It's quite beautiful, really. The nose is initially a bit reticent but a few minutes of air in the glass does the trick and then it really begins to show off the most lovely perfume of mixed red and dark fruit; so fresh and pure with just a flash of garrigue. No perceptible heat on the nose. On the palate it's a veritable wonder of berries, Rainier cherries, black berry liqueur, and just a touch of fine white pepper. The body is perfectly proportioned and the finish lasts for over 30 seconds. In summary, this is an incredibly balanced 2010 CdP that is already hitting its prime. Personally, I felt it was really at its very best about two hours in which leaves me to believe it should be a great pop and pour for the next couple of years and potentially has the balance to be great for longer. That being said, there is no need to decant, just pull the cork, pour and enjoy the evolution in the glass. The hard part is allowing it to last for two hours and longer. It should be noted that this is dangerously quaffable wine and it wouldn't be hard to take the whole thing to the head. Might as well drink these sooner than later as I'm always a bit wary of CdP much beyond the 10 year mark, where I tend so find many of them fall apart on the palate. Perhaps others with more experience in the long-term ageing of CdP can chime in though. Absurd value at $30.

As a side note, this paired very nicely with pan fried pork savory bacon wrapped filet mignon. — 8 years ago

Matt Trader

9.3

Finally! Barolo at last. Nothing is like Nebiolo from Barolo in the glass, especially one that has had time to mature. The color wants to say, "I'm mature Burgundy!", but the rest of the wine says otherwise.
The nose is unique, with the unmistakable aroma of fresh rose petals, followed by cigar ash, red apple skin, wet pine needles, and tar.
This wine was decanted for 4 hours before consumed, and the tannins were as gripping as if I just opened it and poured it. The juice exhibited notes of sour dark cherries, raspberry tart, black tea, rose water, bay leaf, and a faint smoke tinge, all stretched out evenly through the lingering finish. Twas a true treat, and yet this puppy could have laid down to rest for another 15 years, still singing of its youth.
I paired this with what I made for dinner: Pan seared Bison Loin, with a cognac shallot sauce, and sautéed mushrooms, with steamed kale and garlic cloves.
Perfection.

$49.99 — 10 years ago