Steve Rura

9.3

Other ratings called this “closed” which I completely agree with. The dense flavors took forever to open up. I popped it at noon for a 7:30p dinner of chick pea and potato pasta, and it was still developing. Highly tannic, but so layered if you have the patience. Darker fruits, yet still some tart red cherry, lavender, rose petals, and ashy dryness. Complex, classic Barolo (from my limited experience). I’ll save my second bottle to see how it develops. — 2 months ago

Mike Saviage

9.9

Tasted blind, from magnum. Light to medium gold, heavy in the glass. Wow! nose. Notes of citrus and spearmint, wet stone, lemon creme. Later in the night, some peach, pear, vanilla, iodine and limestone show up with the spearmint constant and pleasant to the nose. Massive acidity. With so much mint, I guess 89 Ramonet BBM (but alas I should have picked up this is the full Monty!). Opened and decanted at noon we're told... at 9pm this was just hitting it's stride. I've had Leflaive Montrachet, Raveneau Clos and Coche CC from great years, and this is right up there in the top white's I've ever had. What a treat!! (M's 60th bday 2nd of 14) — 3 years ago

Jordan Yu

9.0

On a hot sunny Sunday noon in Singapore, this deep maroon coloured, chocolatey flavoured grape smelling，plumy sweet corn lasting wine, went super well with home made carbonara with truffle oil and baked portobello covered with cheesy deep fried bacon bits. Not any other day during this Covid-19 period. Keep safe! — 4 years ago

John Pavlovich

9.5

Wow, twenty two year old, and still in a lovely spot with no sign of decline any time soon. Full body, incredible bouquet and flavours, with a long, long aftertaste. And powerful too. The label says 16.1 % alcohol, but it felt more like 26.1 %. Opened for valentine’s 2024. It went nicely with our pork schnitzel and delicious ganache chocolate cake. Yum. — 2 months ago

Beth Hamilton

9.8

Have I mentioned how much I love this? I could drink this morning noon and night. — 2 years ago

David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.1

Happy Thanksgiving! 🍁🦃🍽

Not in love with the style. Glad it was only $55-$60. We’ll see if it pairs better.

For my palate, there is a lot of funk here. The extraction is much more than I prefer.

The fruits are ruby, ripe, tart, somewhat sour; blackberries, black raspberries, plum, black cherries, blueberries cranberries & pomegranate. Edgy, grey volcanics, moist forest floor, cinnamon to stick, nutmeg, pronounced clove, dark spice, tree sap with bark, dry crushed rocks, eucalyptus, mid herbaceous-sage leafing with fresh, withering & candied florals of; dark, red, purple, blue framed lavender. The acidity is ok. The finish just doesn’t seem right to me. The bottles not corked or off. Just not my style or a very off vintage for them. It also shows elevated alcohol burn.

Can’t say the turkey made it better...did get a little better with my homemade cranberry sauce.

This did come around a bit after nearly 5 hours in the decanter, 9.0 to 9.1. Who thought I should have started decanting it at noon. — 3 years ago

Kristina Barton

10

Vintage 1997. It’s the most complex wine I’ve had to date. Opened at noon. Put into a filter aerator around 7 and served to me at 9. Wonderful. Tobacco, leather, smoke, and later changing to oxidized apple. So good. — 9 months ago

Shengli Hu

8.9

Visited the vineyards with Tim Mosher on a hot late summer day at noon - Sep 3 2022. Drove through and tasted berries from the OG ungrafted DRC vines, old and new Pinot Noir vines, Grenache, Syrah and Carignan vines. It was a blast.

Barrel fermented, 10 months aging on lees which were stirred once a week, full malo. Yearly contract with Pride Mountains for making wine. Since 1996. 13.2% abv. Yellow delicious apples and other stone fruits, hazelnut, stony characters, butterscotch, Brioche, lemon curd, yeasty sea salt, smoke and flint. A mix of new Francis Fevre medium toast barrels (they get 12 new barrels every year) and 1 year old barrels from Pride Mountains. Ever since 2016 elevage was down to 10 months (instead of 18 months) for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. — 2 years ago

Raul Puga

9.3

Surprisingly refreshing and by far better than any seltzer I’ve tasted #summerfun — 4 years ago

with Ana and Carlos

Jay Kline

9.2

My first impression of the just released 2018 Zinfandel. Due to climate related issues, overall Zinfandel production was down in 2018 but regardless, Rafanelli only bottles about half of what they produce with the remainder being sold off to others. Some Petite Sirah (13%) made it into the final blend. Being so young, I opened the bottle around noon and poured it into a decanter with intentions to drink later in the evening. By dinner, this was more open and ready to enjoy. Obviously primary with loads of powerful bramble fruit, pepper, red rope licorice and baking spices. I absolutely love the balance. The acid that Rafanelli achieves in their Zinfandel always seems to bring a smile to my face; so much lift which balances the lush fruit giving an impression of freshness. Long, very satisfying finish. The tannins are pretty steep right now and they seemed to build as time went on. I expect this will be a vintage that can age very well. 18mos in a combination of new, 1-year and 2-year old French oak barrels. 6,500 cases were made. — 4 years ago