Mike Saviage

9.4

VTS bottle. Dark purple tawny. Opaque. Fragrant nose. Notes of black cherries, forest floor, walnuts, some pepper and a touch of black licorice. With air some menthol develops. Still big and bold in the mouth. Showed well tonight. — 6 years ago

Jennifer Lakari

9.1

Rich garnet color. Deep black and red fruits. Big flavor. High alcohol. Velvety mouth feel. Long finish — 7 years ago

Chris England

9.7

A review of 9️⃣’s for fun 😁

The 2009 was made 9 years ago @ £39 & 19 years after the 1990 @ €90 😁 so I thought it would be fun to compare how my favourite Pomerol has evolved 😁

💵 Oh & Petrus next door to this Chateau is 90 times more expensive 🤣

🥊 So 90 vs 09

🏵 90 - 97-98 points
🏵 09 - 94-95 points

🍷 90 - Garnet opaque ruby w/ bricking
🍷 09 - Opaque ruby

⏩ scroll for colour pics on Instagram ⏩

👃 90 - Bordeaux nasal sex of soggy earth, sooty underground 🚇, char-smoked oak, old leather, damp musty cellar, mushroom, mirabelle plums, damson compote, obliterated blackcurrant, herbs, toasted fig, bitter mocha & liquorice
👃 09 - Dark jammy plum & blackcurrant through smokey oak, choc mocha, flint, pencil lead, soggy earthy leaves & wet rock minerals

👄 90 - Med body of creamy earthy smooth silk dark plum & berry bathed in ground mocha & liquorice
👄 09 - Med+ creamy smooth ripe dark plum & blackcurrant body w/ a mocha infusion & mineral tone

🎯 90 - Long mocha liquorice dark fruits mouth filling linger w/ a big happy smile 😃
🎯 09 - Long smooth ripe dark fruit, minerals & rich mocha linger - oh & still big happy smile 😀

⏰ 09 I can’t wait to revisit you in 19 years 😘

👏 @josephjanoueix @jeanphilippejanoueix 😍
— 8 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.3

Murky ruby. Transparent. Gamey nose. Notes of plum, earth, white pepper, herbs. Big and masculine in the mouth, but mellowed with air time. Very CdP-ish showing the full power of Rhone varietals. — 8 years ago

Douglas Braun

8.9

Drinking nicely deep black fruit currants and big blackberry fruit in the mouth — 9 years ago

Shawn R

9.3

Real deal Holyfield...@Eric S thank you Sir for sharing this bottle with me. My first time but not the last. I get this big rush of smoked meats and dried strawberries on the nose with secondary hint of alcohol that blows off. Rich and lush on entry; no sign on tannins, integrated well. Mouth coating flavors yet light and bright. This stud has none of green herbaceous element. Hot charcoal, coulis and currant paste fill the palate. Ends with slight cigar box and dusty road. Wonderful. @Eric S thanks again! — 9 years ago

David Refuerzo

9.2

Nice cedar nose, dense and mouth coating. Very good aged Bordeaux style wine. Not as big as we thought it might. Excellent choice for our 25th anniversary wine. — 9 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.4

Dark tawny and opaque. Bright fruity nose. Ripe black cherries. Sappy. Big structure in the mouth. Long finish. Still young. Was strong the next day too. — 7 years ago

Tyler Martinelli

9.7

This is just like a Napa Cab! Big, tannic, long finish, lots of acidity, velvety mouth feel! Amazing! — 7 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.3

Light gold. Sharp nose. Notes of citrus, clay, baked lemon merengue pie and stones. Big and rich in the mouth. Powerful. This was very angular and hard to enjoy, even after hours of air. Needs to soften a bit more in the bottle. — 8 years ago

Clay Robins

9.2

Really solid wine. Big in the mouth with balanced fruit. A little dusty, but in a good way. — 8 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.1

They should have called the Winery Floral Springs based on the nose. Beautiful; blackberry, black raspberries, dark cherries, strawberries, dry cranberries and plum floral fruits. Nice spice, vanilla, touch of clove & cinnamon, used leather, dark rich soil, crushed volcanic minerals, black fruit tea, black raspberry cola and dark fresh florals with violets. The tannins are 95% resolved. The body is lush & ripe. The length, tension & structure are nearing the end. Just a few years left of being worthwhile. However, the balance is stereo tuned. The fruit on the palate shows even more elegant & ripe floral fruits than the nose. Blackberry, black raspberries, dark cherries, strawberries, dry cranberries and plum floral fruits. Nice spice, vanilla, light clove & cinnamon, used leather, dark rich soil, crushed volcanic minerals, black fruit tea, black raspberry cola and dark fresh florals with violets for days. The acidity is like a waterfall. The beautiful, long, elegant finish is a little lean yet has a nice richness. Beautiful wine that just missed 9.2. Photos top to bottom and left to right. The Winery; which is separate from the other tasting room only on Hwy 29. The tasting room on Hwy 29 in St. Helena, Flora Spring caves and the front of their tasting room along Hwy 29. Producer notes and history...the stone winery on the grounds were built in 1885 by two immigrant brothers from Scotland, James and William Rennie. They were in construction, built the winery and planted 60 acres of grapes. The brothers had some bad fortune when phylloxera consumed the vines, and then a fire in 1900 destroyed their wine press and cooperage. In 1904, they sold the winery and fifteen years later Prohibition started. The winery was then closed until 1933. That year, Louis Martini, looked into their magic eight-ball and saw Prohibition collapsing and bought the Rennie property. They built a new stone house and also made a reserve wine from the hillside vineyards. However, the old winery remained empty until the Komes family bought the property, 325 acres, the old farm house, the newer stone house and 60 acres of vineyards. The son thought he’d persuade his dad to restore the old winery and proposed to call it Chateau Jerome. Although it had been designed by Hamden McIntyre an architect of several other classic 19th-century Napa wineries, by 1977, the place was a wreck. The tin roof of the building had so many holes in it. They called it the starlight roof. His father looked at it and stated, “I’ve worked all my life for my good name. I don’t want to squander it now.” John’s mother, Flora, however, sided with her son on the potential of the property. Carrie Komes suggested they could name the winery for her mother-in-law. Combined with the abundant springs on the land, they decided the name would be Flora Springs. It was a sure way to their mom’s heart and father’s wallet. Komes put his construction expertise to work on renovating the old winery, which still had scorch marks on the walls. So skeptical was his father about his son’s wine-making project, they divided the winery building. John rented half where he put his first fermenting tank, which he named R2D2. He invited a couple of friends from his wine-making class to help make wine at the new place. He also hired Mary Ann Graf, who in 1965 had been the first woman to graduate from the viticulture and enology department at UC Davis to help manage the project. She told John, “if you don’t hire a winemaker, I’ll quit.” He did and the 1979 Flora Springs chardonnay won a gold medal at the Los Angeles County Fair. In those days, it was fairs, not ratings. This was his first lesson in marketing as they sadly sold all the wine before they won the medal. Fairs were the big news instead of ratings as Parker had not yet risen to fame as he was the only one to call the grand 1982 Bordeaux vintage correctly. They submitted their 1981 Cabernet to eight fairs and won seven gold medals. From there, the winery just kept growing. They were the 67th winery in the county. Over the years, they had their ups and downs, but kept growing. One of their highlights was the creation this wine, Trilogy. It was one of the first Meritage blends in the valley. By 1984, they planted all the Bordeaux varietals; Malbec, Merlot, Cab Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. They wanted to create a blend “by taste”, not by formula for a nice smooth wine that goes deep into the palate. They worked with a little of this and little of that. The first Trilogy was Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cab Franc. It was dubbed as velvet in the mouth. A lot of what they do is taming the tannins. One man who bought Trilogy by the case said, “it’s the only red wine his wife would drink young.” From the leftovers, they began making single-varietal estate wines. Another highlight was the discovery of a unique clone of Sauvignon Blanc in vineyards his father bought in Oakville. UC Davis could identify nothing like it in their vast library of clones. They were a bit ahead of the times, but this clone showed Flora Springs how different in that time period what Sauvignon Blanc could be like as it took all the grassiness out of Sauvignon Blanc. — 8 years ago

Chris B.

9.2

Dark, rich, full mouth-feel... this voluptuous Pinot is chock full full of fruit. Imagine freshly picked raspberries rinsing in a forest stream and you get a good idea of the fragrant nose. Tannins and alcohol are big, but rounded off so the wine goes down easy. — 7 years ago

Tom Casagrande

9.1

Second exemplary bottle I’ve had of this. Nose is rustic/complex. A little barnyard, a little Brett, crushed stones, iodine, and dark berry pomace. Dry and earthy in the mouth, with nice concentration, length, and balance, and a touch of rusticly not-so-soft tannin still. I don’t see this improving, but big fun now. — 7 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.3

Nice color, dark ruby and mostly opaque. Bright black cherry and rhubarb nose. Also notes of brown spices and some moist dark soil. Big masculine structure in the mouth. Puckering. Long powerful finish. Great wine but still mostly primary. Needs more age to gain complexity and soften up a bit. — 8 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.7

Tasted blind. Dark tawny, almost opaque. Nose of dark black fruit, cedar box, roasted meat, pencil lead, some mint and some forest floor. Smoky. Still young and youthful in the mouth. Tannins integrates but still has a big backbone. Has some power in the finish. Guessed 66 Latour. — 8 years ago

Robert A. Manchester IV

9.2

Huge nose!! And that's on a head cold. Solid fruit whiff but with a some understated sweet. Full mouth first sip. Draw back on tongue reveals sweetness and ripe cherry (maybe recall the head cold). This is a big fruit wine. Stands up to hearty faire and dominant flavors. — 8 years ago

Justin Hart

9.6

Big, chewy, mouth coating Syrah, absolutely gigantic actually. Leathery, peppery, tannic and silty/coco powder notes dominate throughout, but a nice, ripe red raspberry note slips right through the middle and finishes so sweetly. Yum!!! — 9 years ago

with Jen and Cherish

Roman Sukley

9.2

2015 Kutch Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. I think we all know Jamie's story, stock trader turned winemaker, so I'll not repeat it here. Suffice it to say that I lived vicariously through him for years as he apprenticed with Michael Browne and then graduated to his own label. A nicer man you will never meet ( and he knows a thing or two about Porsche as well). Expressive nose of cherries, plums, menthol and forest floor. The palate is slightly sweet with cherries, black raspberry, clove and a touch of oak and brambles. In recent years, Jamie has progressed away from the big, over-the-top, high alcohol Pinots currently dominating the California market. This wine has an earthy, Burgundian character with mouth-watering acidity and smooth tannins. 12.9% alcohol. I see your vision Jamie @kutchwines and I'm still interested in that 912.) — 9 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.3

Ridge Wine Dinner. Dark ruby, almost opaque. Herbal nose with notes of black fruit, gravel, tobacco leaf and cedar. Secondary notes show this has evolved. Rich and big in the mouth. But still shows it's big angular tannins and needs more time for them to resolve. Hope the fruit stays along for the ride. — 9 years ago