Centura Churchill

9.5

A very refined Zinfandel. One of my favorites — 7 years ago

Sipping Fine Wine

9.0

Over 30 years ago, Jack Cakebread came to photograph the Napa Valley for a book, one thing led to another and he found himself making an offer on the vineyard that later became Cakebread Cellars. Wonderful fruit aromas with soft spice notes. Cherry and raspberry flavors with black tea spice, pepper and mineral tones. Fine tannins, great mouthfeel and balance. Give this more time to develop. — 8 years ago

Jen Barrett

9.4

Hands down, best port we've ever had. Even for people who aren't big port fans - this one could change your mind — 8 years ago

Canon Thomas

9.8

2015 "Clear with bright green hues" "nose: fresh citrus and crushed mint with fragrant floral aromas" "palate: concentrated and textural with a fresh, herbal finish"
Very limey and herby, one of the best Sauv Blancs I've had yet
2nd day: lime, grapefruit, a little melon / white peach, jalepeño, Jack says passion fruit — 8 years ago

Eric Eustace

9.4

Maybe one of the best California Pinot Noirs. Well balanced despite age, lush but good acidity. Cedar notes on finish. Raspberry and currant on the nose. Wish I had more! — 9 years ago

Scott Petrus

9.5

If you know me you know that my first love is Austrian hard bodies. A close secon, and one that shares many traits is this Grüner Veltliner from the venerable Wachau region. This wine is similar to those blonde haired blue eyed beauties. It's youthful and refreshing. With a huge mineral back bone that is synonymous with the the Wachau region. In addition you get some lime notes with the iconic white pepper finish. This is a wine to write home about. Just like an Austrian fräulien, the deeper you go, the better it gets. — 9 years ago

Camille Vaughan

9.9

One of our favorite wines for special occasions. — 10 years ago

with Michael

Zach F

10

Fruity, yet subtly spicy. This is one of my favorite wines. — 10 years ago

Christina Ahlheim

9.2

Jenna got it from Air Show — 11 years ago

Mitchell Mulder

9.8

One of the top IPA's brewed in the USA, Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Paso Robles CA, also my favorite wine region, not to be missed,Outstanding! — 11 years ago

April Fox

9.7

Light & sweet — 12 years ago

Michael P. Rooney

10

One of the best wines I have had this year! Absolutely beautiful! My very best to Jack Cakebread as well as the wine maker and the wine growers on a job well done! — 8 years ago

Narun P

9.2

100% Chenin Blanc

Medium amber gold color. Clear and transparent. Gorgeous.

The bouquet shows a complex array of nectar, honey comb, apricot, peach, honeydew melon, and jack fruit, backed up by the characteristic Loire Chenin Blanc waxy note which develops with time in the bottle.

Semi dry to sweet, med plus plus acidity. A lot of fresh fruit profile left. The balance of refreshing acidity and the right level of sugar makes this wine so enticing that one can easily finish the whole bottle without getting overwhelmed.

This is a direct import from the Domaine so you're never going to get a better provenance than this. Can easily last 20 more years. Amazing value too! 92+ — 8 years ago

Colin Cahoon

9.6

Black pepper, grilled beef, saddle leather and clove with mineral undertones. The 2003 Black Jack pasture is one of my favorite cabs, period. It has smoothed out with age, but is still drinking strong and complex. — 8 years ago

with Claire and Susan

David Greer

9.5

Wow - always enjoy Vaudesir - This one is special - has everything - power, (without weight Jack) beautiful long velvet finish and went brilliantly with our diverse entrees - quail, octopus and pate. At Altair Warandyte. 5/11/16 — 9 years ago

with Graeme and Glenda

Robert May

10

Lagunitas crushed it with this Red. Before I got into IPAs, ambers were my thing. This one is off the charts good. If you are a big Fat Tire fan, you may not appreciate the higher IBUs and ABV. If you are someone who likes both IPAs and Ambers, you're going to friggin love this. Makes me teary eyed to think this is a limited release and yet Buttweiper continues to exist. — 9 years ago

Mitchell Mulder

9.5

One of the best session IPA's, I personally like this a lot, my past favorites have been Stone "Go To" and Firestone's Easy Jack, Lagunitias 'Day Time" this one is right up there as well, big on flavor, not to watery, love the hop profile, maybe because definitely feels like a regular IPA, compared to the others, had some malt backbone that makes it feel like a bigger beer, love it — 9 years ago

Craig Otten

9.3

One of Benoit's finest — 10 years ago

Mitchell Mulder

10

One of the best Black IPA's out there, if you do not try this, you are missing out on something so special, this beer set the bar for the style, outstanding!! Big west coast hops with massive amount of citrus and tropical notes, pine, and roasted hops added, Fantastic!!! Now Langunitas has NightTime, and Green Flash has Road Warrior, also outstanding beers, but this really set the bar, with be nice to see what comes next in this style — 11 years ago

Barbara Crane

9.5

Oh my goodness! We tasted this wine with Jack Edwards while in Napa last September and ordered some. Finally, tonight, have opened it and --- WOW!!!

We forgot how outstanding this wine is and wish we had ordered more! Hope no one, other than Jack, sees this review! :). Thank you, again, Jack!! B — 11 years ago

Ryan Key

9.0

Great blend. Characterized by heavy competition between fruit and spice. Eyed this one for awhile before buying it on sale at $14. Great stuff. WBA — 12 years ago

J B

8.9

Eileen and jack liked this one — 8 years ago

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.3

On the nose, boysenberries, olallieberries, blueberries, blackberries, baking spices, dry powdery soils, dry stems, bramble and bright, fresh, fragrant purple florals. The palate is warm, lush, round and elegant. Tannins 65% resolved. It's still fairly big and very fresh. Palate fruits are; boysenberries, olallieberries, blueberries, blackberries, black raspberries and raspberries haunting the background. Lifting warm spices, black pepper, black licorice, vanilla, clove, nutmeg, dry crushed rocks, volcanic minerals with liqueur notes settling in at the mid point to the long finish. Dry stones, dry straw, tarry notes, violets, purple florals and palate raining acidity. The finish is long with good balance of fruit & earth. There's still nice tension, length and structure. The 05 still has another 7-10 years of good drinking ahead. As great as it was to be at the property tasting their new releases, it's a pleasure to enjoy one of their well aged wines back in the states. Photos of; the view from the new estate (love that red Barossa soil), tasting bar, Andrew Tierney, Torbreck International Sales Ambassador who hosted our visit(left) and Owner, David Powell (right). Producer history and notes...Torbreck Vintners was founded by David Powell in 1994. Before founding Torbreck, he worked for Robert O'Callaghan at Rockford Wines in the Barossa Valley. Rockford is an historic old winery and they love old historic wine relics...all you have to do is walk the property. In trying to start his own label, David lacked the funds to buy grapes outright. So, David began to share-farm a vineyard, a practice which involves working without pay until the grapes are sold, at which time the owner is paid a percentage of the market rate for his grapes and the share-farmer keeps the grapes for their own use. The share-farming principle or as we call it, sweat equity. This enabled Torbreck to obtain fruit from the very best vineyards in the Barossa Valley, while giving David Powell experience working in the vineyard and winery. In 1995 Powell crushed and fermented his grapes in a shed on his 12-hectare Marananga property; which continues to be home to the winery. The winery was named "Torbreck" after the forest in Scotland where Powell worked as a lumberjack. The first wine made under the Torbreck label was the 1995 RunRig. When it was released in 1997, Parker gave it a score of 95; which went a long way in launching Torbreck Vintners. Lisa, now Managing Editor at Robertparker.com raised that score to 98 in 2010. In late 2002, Torbreck was placed into receivership due to financial pressures on Powell from a divorce settlement. Torbreck was purchased by Australian businessman Jack Cowin for 6.5 million Australian dollars with Powell retained as winemaker and managing director. In 2008 Powell reacquired the estate in partnership with Peter Kight, the owner of Quivira Winery in Sonoma County's Dry Creek Valley in California. Torbreck produces around 70,000 cases of wine per year, depending on vintage conditions. 6.5 million Australian dollars is not a lot of money in today's environment...actually quite a deal. They had just completed their new facilities as shown in the photos two weeks prior to our visit in April. If you haven't had their wines, their lower price wines are very good at great values. Torbreck makes everything up to their high end RunRig at $300 plus a bottle with lots of quality wines in between that are really quite good and value priced vs. the rest of international market. — 8 years ago

Ben Brenner

9.4

Pretty cool old vio - @Jack Edwards you know this one ? — 9 years ago

stephanie rutan

9.3

First impression: this going to be a good one. Well balanced with dried fruit and tannins. — 10 years ago

Kihyun Yoon

9.2

One of the best double IPA. Only this IPA can be compared to Pliny the Elder. — 10 years ago

Garrett Reed

9.5

One of the best cabs I've ever had! — 11 years ago

Debbie Wilhelm

9.0

Spicy and a bit sweet, I do love this one. — 11 years ago

Tony Guntermann

9.7

Kelly's been saving this one for a while! — 11 years ago

David JW Bailey

9.8

Kept a library of bottles from various special evenings: this is one of them - this wine launched Caroline on her career, and us on our relationship, when we won a trip to Noval in 1986 from a wine magazine as two wide eyed students! — 12 years ago