Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.8

Wow. The rarest E and M wine. Blend of the oldest vines from the Grand Crus. Holy crikey. This is insane. The nose has a depth that is rare in Pinot Noir and I’ve smelled a lot of Pinot Noir. Sick. 9.9 nose. Ripe late season cherries, cranberry bog, dark black cherries and sour cherries. It’s got all the cherries, but only the best cherries. Wow. Stunning level of spice and flowers. Just psycho. So complete and endless. Ridiculous. Palate is all there but man does it need air. Which I will give it. Tart cherries, cranberries and huge acidity and freshness with enormous concentration, power and structure. Long long finish that is fresh and nimble. Genius elite wine of the highest level. Tannins are big but ripe and so sweet. Cannot wait to see my score rise with air. The Chambertin. of Germany! With air the minerality on the nose shines through. Wow so airy and mineral on top of all that fruit! Man the palate is sweetening up. Tannins are getting velvety. My god this is elite wine. Insane inner mouth aromas. Keeps opening up. Now after 3 hours of air it’s just ridiculous. Nose is an orb of complexity. Spicey, feral, soil tones. Insane perfume. Cherry skins, black cherry flesh. Oh man what a sweet, velvety and insanely deeply fruited palate. Amazing delineation all the way through. A real deal 9.8. Profound. Big and soft and so precise. — 2 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

A stunning wine. Nose has sweet wood, hay, lemon, lime flesh, so pure. Stunning clarity. But the palate is there the show starts and stops. Stunning purity, detail and precision. Sweet fruit and sweet wood and an orb effect. Amazing balance and sap. Floats. Superb concentration and length. One of the best Weissburgunders I have ever had. Wow. Too bad he only made it one year! — 3 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.2

This is low key a steal and we (commercial shill) sell so much good Langhe Nebbiolo this would garner more attention. Mesmerizing nose of roses, cherry, tar, spice and all served with such completeness. Palate is an orb of Nebbiolo. Spherical, juicy and with lovely just barely cherry/cranberry sweetness of a great Langhe Nebbiolo. Long finish. So impressive. — 3 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Silly great nose. Subtle spices, elegant apples, brown sugar, glorious mineralic spices, pear flesh and green apple skins, even jellied apples, so complex and haunting. Smells so harmonious and complete. The nose is also harmonious and orb like which is what 18 is so good at. Amazing spice and complexity on the palate and big acidity. Highest acidity of any Chavy 18 so far. Incredible inner mouth salinity, like the most gorgeous salt placement on one’s palate ever then straight into just absolutely crazy complexity and freshness. What energy and straight as an arrow. The purity is top notch. The finish just dissipates and the harmony is so gorgeous. What a finish. Minutes at least. Amazing amount of material on the palate and subtle concentration. So saline and juicy. Incredible. — 5 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.7

I have been waiting to taste this wine for 4 years and it’s better than I imagined. Holee fuck. This is the best young Walter wine I’ve ever had. Blind anybody would say grand cru red burg. Easily up there with the top 5 German Pinots I’ve ever had. Just insane nose. It’s insane right off the bat. The nose is a spectrum. There is so much and its so fragrant and so detailed and so vivid and so so delicate. It’s the Pinot Noir experience from a top vineyard that nothing else can reproduce. Huge chestnut, fresh rotting leaves, orange rind, cherry flower, mid season cherry. Tons and tons of the most beautiful spice your nose gets lost. It’s so stunning. And I’ve only described maybe 1/3rd of the nose. There are accents of mint and menthol and also hints I’d very fine cigar. A new nuance and detail every time you stick your nose in the glass. The palate puts the G in Grand Cru. It’s totally seamless. Just this beautiful orb of Hundsruck that is blessing your palate. It’s opulent and sweet but also velvety and has the most velvety, melty, to die for tannins. Just perfect balance. I know Walter and I know this wine is only showing 10% as I’ve NEVER had a mature Hundsrück. The 11 and 12 are still too young. This is a mindboggljng wine that is so distinctive. No Pinot in the world acts like it smells like or taste like Walter’s Hundsrück. This is a masterpiece. This is Walter’s Seven Samurai. So elegant and deep wirh just an amazing finish that keeps on adding length and richness the more the wine aerates. This is a 9.7 right now. Any other producer we are at 9.8 now but this is Walter and air is this estates friend. A masterpiece and a new benchmark in German Pinot.

UPDATE: after 3 hours this is as transcendent as German Pinot gets. Just velvet. Amazing delicacy in this wine. A privilege to drink now at 3 hours. Waffling between 9.7 and 9.8. — 6 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.8

Brilliant aromas of forest floor, mushroom, mid season cherries, dried roses, red roses, herbs, spices and just super mesmerizing. Wow. Ethereal. Just insane. 9.8. Heavenly Nebbiolo. Again a perfect orb. Nothing out of place and god damn this is so refined. Stunning purity and clarity. Long finish and fruit is ripe but nowhere near “too ripe.” Inferno is the warmest vineyard. Wow this is amazing. Nose gets some sort of chocolate. Super concentrated and so sapid. — 2 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.4

Spectacular and deep nose. Dark cherry fruit that is reminiscent of Girard. Pungent and also some cherry flower. But also brambly. Really beautiful aromas here. Some red apple as well. So unique. And an undercurrent of earth. Wow is this a knockout aromatically. Just a 9.5 nose that is so vivid. Very impressive. WOW. What a palate. Insanely perfect balance and just gorgeous purity and a Burgundian earthy sweetness. Long, linear and very delineated. As this opens the nose becomes so floral and the fruit even more deep and concentrated. Terrific inner mouth aromas and superb balance. Really so flavorful but also so restrained and exacting. Good grip and structure and lovely ripe tannins and amazing structure. Seems like it will age for a decade at least. This is the most Burgundian Swiss pinot i’ve ever had. Really glides across the palate. Such a lovely contrast between the silky attack, the mid palate structure and the sweet, silky finish. Wonderful wine. I had an old colleague that always use to say wines were charming and I never really knew what he was talking about but this wine he surely would of said ischarming. It’s so complete for what it’s trying to do. After 3 hours of air it’s completely a sphere. An orb of swiss in elite savigny 1er cru clothes. Right at the edge of a 9.5. The sap and extract on the finish stain the palate. Really a great wine. — 3 years ago

Cameron

8.9

Great wine for the price. Nice dry sweetness berry dark cherry. Light tobacco. Pleasantly surprised — 4 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Yeastiness, lemon, brioche, toasty, minerals, nuts, so concentrated and lemony. Huge power, acids and so so juicy. So long. Balanced and almost orb like. Amazing balance and purity. Showing so well. — 5 years ago

Philip Dobrin

9.9

Very special 18 year aged whiskey bottles in 1948. — 7 years ago

Robert Cunningham

Wine Educator DeVinimus, Wine Workshop

9.4

Beautiful and rich. — 8 years ago

Brett Conway

9.1

Celebrating last day of school year — 11 years ago

with Ann

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.7

What an amazing nose. So so floral. Sweet peas. Peach pit, tangerine flesh, blood orange and so so vivid and clear. A drop dead nose. Some herbs and so much “field in nature” aromas. Just a perfect circle of a wine. Juicy and complex with an amazing orb like presentation on the palate. Silky, subtle and perfectly balanced. So so pure. Nose gets some apricot pit now and also some other stone fruit pit and flesh. Terrific concentration and mineral power with a very mineral finish. So salty. Air will be this wine’s friend. — 2 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Stunning wine. Nose is all violets. Black cherry, spice, discreet oak. Needs to open. This nose is insane after air. Violets galore and unreal vivid earth. Tree bark, some fresh leaves. It’s such a vin de terroir.

But that palate is wow. Stunning texture and purity with black cherry fruit inflected with violets. Amazing balance, nimbleness and depth. Such sweet tiny berry intensity. Lipstick like intensity now on the nose. Stunning wet earth notes and just so complete. More soon. That palate is sick! So round. Orb like. Such fine tannins and great acidity. Def needs some age but I had to taste it. Juicy and long and gets to every nook and cranny. Wow is this long. Black cherries and my god the tiny berry fruit intensity is remarkable. Genius but will open more. Nose is heaven after 4 hours. Complex, layered and ethereal. Psycho. Palate is so sweet, elegant and intense. But soft as well. Concentrated. fresh and sappy. So supple and sweet. Amazing stuff. 9.5 to 9.6. Big tannins ensure a long life. — 3 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

He won’t make this anymore and that’s a tootin’ shame. Stunning nose of pear, apple, discreet wood, lemon flesh and lemon curd, wet stones, mulling spices and more. Just stunning aromatic spectrum. Palate is juicy and clean with no hard edges. Loads of fruit, some sweet wood and awesome texture. Man this is great. Complex and concentrated and has that orb like effect on one’s palate. Terrific density and yet light as a feather. Genius wine. — 3 years ago

Ashley Rapolla

9.0

Amazing pick up. Def one id buy again ❤️ light and fruity — 5 years ago

William Paley

9.3

Not certain this is a “blend”, rather this is straight up Melon de Bourgogne, driven to the fruit edge, but lovely with oysters (as befits) and equally nice without them...delicate acidity and an unusual dark roundness, orb-like, mildly bitter flesh and some medicinal quality, which I think is this grape...wine for watching seagulls. — 6 years ago

with Jess

Lorena

9.0

From Chelsea and Dayna. Very enjoyable 🌟 — 7 years ago

Sarah Thompson

9.3

Absolutely delightful with a cheese and dessert. Crispy caramel & honey. — 8 years ago

Craig Haarmeyer

9.2

Nice little orb of bouncing tight roundocity. — 10 years ago