Favorite wine! Sweet and fruity
15% alcohol! — 2 months ago
1985 vintage. Nice fill. Excellent cork. Decanted and tasted after 15 minutes thru the 1.5 hours it lasted. Very little sed. Plenty of color. Light-medium body but got bigger and more developed after 45 mins or so. Tobacco, earth and cedar in spades along with dark fruit. This has plenty of life remaining at a high level. Wonderful stuff. 3.24.24. — 3 months ago
Privileged to sample the 2016 Monte Bello at the winery as part of their Library offerings. The bottle is $375 at the winery. Tight and tannic after 8 years (and half an hour of decanting) but promising much more. Josh at the winery concedes that it’s in a dumb phase but should reach its peak in 20-30 years. I could analyze and pick apart this one for hours. — 4 months ago
Medium, spicy, full body — 5 months ago
Delicious and fine. Nice balance and rich. — 5 months ago
Classic NZ label. Smells funky. Lawn just cut or a piece of fresh grass in the teeth. And lemon citrus peels. Flavors are complex and very audacious. Bombastic even. Plenty of citrus, but something else as well. Shells? Like the calcium carbonate in those. Also big gooseberries. This is a good example of how NZ Sauv Blanc differs from the other styles out there. This wine packs a punch. — a month ago
Bit over the hill. — 2 months ago
Pale straw color, grassy notes, acidic and balanced with a finish that lingers in your mouth. — 2 months ago
Never had a Marlborough Pinot before. Was having duck, so Pinot an obvious choice. Loved this. Light, which is what I was after, and slight fruity. — 3 months ago
Great with a cheese tray! — 4 months ago
Imagine a great Cote Rotie, Cornas, and a Cal Syrah step into a bar. The atmosphere is all French but the ‘Mercian makes it interesting and overblown with too much density. It was spectacular, but if it were a bit more reserved, and didn’t stain my Riedel, it would have been on another level. — 5 months ago
So good. Leaner vintage. — 2 months ago
On first open, the butter/malo notes are overpowering everything. Some fruit and acidity in there but hidden. Will see how it evolves with some air. — 3 months ago
At Ogino’s post Thanksgiving. Excellent ripe modern style but of old Zin. — 7 months ago
Kelley Raymond
Surprisingly good and well balanced with lots of oak and finish — a month ago