Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.4

Just an awesome nose. Stunning purity. Cherries galore. Mid to late season and it’s got a lipstick like intensity. Just gorgeous. What clarity. Girard killed 2019. The fruit is so deep and Girard is a fruit master. Unreal spice and beautiful subtle earthiness. Terrific palate. Fleshy and so pure. Sappy and sweet. But also a wonderful sweet/sour edge. Amazingly purity. This is so nimble and elegant. Nose gets more complex by the minute. The sous bois is cranking. So elegant. Velvety sweet tannins of very high quality. Unreal purity and depth. This is stunning. So close to a 9.5. — 3 years ago

Matthew Ward

9.0

Light, juicy, and again, fun. — 4 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Terrific, lifted nose. Gorgeous cherries that are ethereal like nothing else. So so lifted. Just intoxicating. Moss, tree bark, firm vein of minerality and just glorious Pinot. Hoisin and soy sauce after some air. Even a hit of honey. Stunning lifted aromas that just get better and better. Palate is so elegant and juicy with silky/velvety caressing fruit and just melting and juicy tannins. So complex and complete. Terrific freshness and purity. Terrific sweetness and man those tannins and so, ripe, fine and delineated. Superb. Years to go. But accessible like the Hundsruck. As this airs it gets so much sweeter. My god this is good.

With 15 minutes of air this goes to 9.5 from 9.4. — 4 years ago

B K

9.6

LOVE THIS!!!! Fizzy bubbelach glou. Zoom cards and cocktails during the pandemic. — 5 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Dark, brooding, mysterious, beautiful nose. Dark mashed flowers, dark berries, gorgeous minerality, smells limestoney, amazing details and precision to this nose. Just gorgeous and so deep. Rich, ripe and wow levels of purity with an engaging limestone sweetness accented with deep pure sweet berries. So well made and refined. But so deep and so much more to say. This is so greet. Structure and so classic. Such a long finish. Dynamite. — 6 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

More notes later. Stunning. So smoky and sweet. Ethereal.

Nose of smoke, mesquite, sweet raspberry fruit, violets and other flowers. Unreal.

Palate is soft and sweet and spreads to every nook and cranny. Unreal purity, length and delicacy. — 7 years ago

Alexa Karstaedt

9.5

Excellent. Great structure. Juicy with dark fruit. — 8 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Soaring nose of clean minerals, alpine spice and the sound of music. Stunningly pure, deep and refined. Shouts and whispers. What I love about '15. Palate is hyper balanced and just dazzling. Wow. Only open 5 minutes and this is an insanely structured and dense ja ja. So clean. Such purity. Blows away 14. 15 is so special in the Savoie, especially Chignin. The balance is uncanny here. — 9 years ago

Erik Nordman

9.3

First Dönnhoff! A truly electric, crystal-clear Riesling and very much to my preferences with German Riesling, I definitely need to explore the Dönnhoff line of wines further. Very precise, with laserlike acidity with great purity of fruit. Ripe nectarine, green apple, and pineapple, great wet slate minerality, apple blossom, jasmine, a slight waxy honeyed character, and a tiny bit of that classic petrol character, which is very muted and subtle right now but it'll probably come out with a few years in bottle. Body is medium; fuller than most other Kabinetts I've tried. Even with the slightly fuller body, that lovely acidity keeps it so fresh and nimble, and counterbalances what is IMO, the perfect amount of RS for a Kabinett style, it's perfectly off dry, with noticeable sweetness but it still finishes clean and fresh. Just some delicious juice. — 9 years ago

Sébastien Burel

9.5

A wonderful vintage, crisp and dense at the same time. A wonderful contrast between concentration and purity. — 10 years ago

Jason Chiu

9.4

Great purity and acidity, and a touch of reserved tropical fruit. Who says you have to pair salmon roe with champagne? Works nicely with this — 3 years ago

Michael Greene

9.4

Night two of extravagant eating and drinking in Vermont. Rich and muscularity. Great purity of dark fruit. Earth with ripe tannins. — 4 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Terrific. In a great almost ideal place now. Nose is apricot, honey, candied lemon, spices, citrus, salt, so so aromatic. Big fruit skin energy as well. Also earthy, confectionary and gamey. Just so so complex. Palate is just pure harmony. Not a hair out of place and long saline finish with apricot skin that lingers. Stunning purity. So pretty. Really lingers. A knockout. — 4 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.3

Glorious nose. I love this 1er Cru. Red or white. Gorgeous cherry fruit, licorice and spice. Alluring mineral. Floral. Beguiling and hypnotizing nose. Juicy and also structured and tannic with exquisite balance and purity. 17 is so good and correct. Red fruits galore and superb depth. Earthy sweetness and wonderful hint of that Monthelie earthiness. Love sap and length. Just an awesome wine.

With air nose comes alive! Wow. Sour cherry and insane cherry spice complexity. Perfumed. This is so good. Stunning sappy and sweet fruit. — 5 years ago

Shona Sanzgiri

9.5

Blueberries, licorice, cocoa, spice — instant smiles. — 6 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.3

Wow. More notes later.

Mushroom, tar, roses, cherry fruit, mineral and so so aromatic. Really gets in the deep nostril areas. Juicy and so so complex with wonderful purity and big tannins. Finish is a hint of licorice and a swarm of cherries. This needs 3-5 years but seems to really be a another winner at this estate. — 6 years ago

Antonio Galloni

Founder, Vinous

9.6

A superb Barolo. The 2008 continues to blossom in bottle. The purity of the fruit and aromatics....striking. Proof that world class wine is still reasonably affordable. — 8 years ago

Conrad Green

8.9

Fresh and bristling on the nose. All the lifted tartness of the voignier on the front. A little lacking in deep Syrah purity. Well crafted, but a little underwhelming. — 8 years ago

with Matt and David

Tony Garcia

9.2

2008. Half bottle. Gorgeous primary nose of bright cherries, currants, soil. Great purity on the palate, grippy ripe tannins. Love this vintage but needs some time. — 9 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.4

Super floral, mineral, peach pit, silky and sexy but still mineral power and punch. Lovely purity. — 10 years ago

Red Wine Lovers

9.7

Wow. Clape Cornas deserves your praise and applause. Such purity. Blackberry, blueberry, olives, herbs. Serious — 12 years ago

Josh Morgenthau

9.1

🚨WINE HACK🚨 If you 1) own a sodastream, but no expensive wine gadgets 2) have a wine which needs to come off sediment but you don’t want to expose to oxygen [eg low/no so2 gamay], try decanting the wine carefully into a clean empty bottle pre-flooded with a few gentle pumps of co2 from your sodastream. Co2 is heavier than air. This works and I swear by it!

The Foillard was beautiful. Licorice, black raspberries, purity and poise that reminds me why I fell in love with Beaujolais in the first place, and affirms what has been an oft-times rocky love affair ever since. — 4 years ago

Conrad Green

9.3

A slight light whiff of coffee on the nose with corn and lemon oil. A sweetish core. Surprisingly under but great balance and purity. Surprisingly pretty and gentle. — 4 years ago

with Tony, BOT and 2 others

Ron Siegel

9.5

Another great one from the master that had a perfumed nose showing both floral & elegance with amazing purity & balance that is hard to find elsewhere. — 5 years ago

Michael Everett

9.0

Really like this — 5 years ago

Dr. Owen Bargreen

9.7

The 2016 MacDonald is a stunning new release, utilizing 100% To-Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon fruit. This downright sexy Cabernet is absolutely singing in its youth. The wine shows incredible richness and complexity with a vibrant mineral backbone. With a sumptuous mouthfeel, the palate reveals sage, black tea, anise, tar and creme de cassis with mocha with lighter wet stone accents. There is an incredible purity of fruit here. Seamless and intense this is an absolutely incredible new wine from this storied family in Napa. Drink 2022-2045- 97 — 6 years ago

Vijay Parikh

9.5

With a one hour decant the wine is classic! Aromas of smoked meat, dark fruits, a slight green olive long finish it is a beautifully balanced wine giving a lot of pleasure! Drunk slowly over two hours post decant. The purity and freshness is simply amazing! The second hour post decant the wine continued to unveil more complexity... — 7 years ago

Tom Kobylarz

9.8

If there were ever an archetypical Syrah, Jamet's Cote-Rotie would be a strong candidate. To me this is a pure expression of a classic Northern Rhone Syrah. It is not a single site, but a blend of terroirs, encompassing over 20 sites mostly from hard rock schist bedrock with little to no topsoil. There is NO Viognier in this wine like one might expect from most Cote-Rotie that might have 1-5% co-fermented.

Importantly, there is also a lot less of the oak character that can dominate and overwhelm many Northern Rhone wines. The oak maturation, while not short at 22 months, only uses 15% new oak with no trace of it on the palate as it is perfectly integrated. Grape bunches are whole cluster fermented and macerated for up to 3 weeks.

The 2007 we have here was drinking superbly for a young wine, showing lively and racy layers of peppercorn spice, roast beef, and warm blackberry and currant fruit from the hot 2007 vintage. While from a warm vintage, not a hair is out of place. Density and purity exude from the nose and hint at what a brilliant future this wine has. Perfect acidity and fleshy ripe tannin provide the backbone structure for father time to peel back the layers of this beauty. I will be chceking back in 5 years at the earliest. — 9 years ago

Michael Horkay

9.6

Wow what a wine..... We had it twice with foie gras. Stunning in both concentration and purity.... Very few wines can match this. — 9 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.1

Needs maybe 24 hours open but when it does. Great freshness and purity. Big fruit, skoche of oak. Lovely. — 11 years ago