Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.4

Haunting and ethereal aromas of roses, tar, leather and so much more. Classic old school pedal to the medal Neb. Smokey and hickory aromas as well. Stunning. Palate is mega juicy and mega structured with amazing purity and depth and just exquisite fruit and lovely length. This has many decades ahead of it and is really a value when compared to what $40 gets you in the Langhe. As this airs i’ll be back. — 3 years ago

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. — 4 years ago

Matthew Ward

9.0

Light, juicy, and again, fun. — 5 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

Andrew Lohse

9.4

Purity / elegance / finesse — 7 years ago

Ron Siegel

9.5

This wine has it all! Great purity, complexity & elegance from the master of Cornas. — 8 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

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. — 10 years ago

Alex Powell

9.3

The clos des papes was so pristine and pure, no wood, but it was massive in the mouth and very finessed at once, bursting with baskets of cherry raspberry and blackberry in dried thyme and wet rocks, couldn't smell alcohol at all and fruit smelled so pure, palate was mega concentrated with a herb and mineral finish, and waves of fresh fruit, felt the alcohol 15.5%!! A bit in the back end, Tannins were very fine and regal, no astringency at all but plenty of grip. A blockbuster but still carried itself with freshness, balance and purity, a fantastic wine that shouldnt be touched for at least 5 more years and for sure will age well for another 15-20. A relative value at $119, and very burgundian in its purity and lacey texture. 2011 vintage. — 11 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Nose has the classic porphyry aromas and are just wonderful. It’s so expressive. Such mineral precision. Insane clarity of wet stone aromas. Nose is a bit quiet as well as it’s too cold. Palate is hauntingly elegant with unreal rockiness and sappy minerality. Not much fruit right now but the underlying architecture is perfect. Stunning purity. This is a rock star. Literally. What intense minerality on the finish but so so elegant. Just stunning. Some apricot now on the nose. Crystalline purity and just so well made and everything in its place. A stunner. — 3 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 — 4 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.4

What a nose and at 6 years old this is in a great place. Wild mint, spice, menthol, cedar, pine resin and mid season and sour cherries plus crazy florals. Very very high toned and aromatic. Doesn’t quite have the aromatic depth of the Grand Crus but it’s got the DNA. Elegant and juicy with luscious cherry, red currant and cranberry fruit. Lovely spice and so fresh. Great acids. Seems like it needs air as nose led me to believe it would be a bit more mature. Terrific litheness and such startling purity. The fruit sweetens with air. I’ll be back as this might get a lot better. Even in 8 minutes it went from a 9.2 to 9.4. — 4 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

Alexa Karstaedt

9.5

Excellent. Great structure. Juicy with dark fruit. — 9 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

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.3

Have not had since 2019. Nose is brambly with a cherry melange. Very earthy. Some wood shavings. A bit aromatically closed for now. Palate is juicy, very concentrated and sappy with great purity. Really long but also seems backwards. But terrific fruit and intensity. Very very sappy. Needs a few more years but you can the low yields of 16 gave this wine density and tons of material.

After an hour this has softened up and is super juicy and the tannins have calmed down. 9.2 to 9.3. Lavieres is such good terroir. — 3 years ago

web bond

9.4

Exceptional purity. — 4 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. — 5 years ago

B K

9.6

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

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... — 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. — 9 years ago

with Matt and David

Peter Wassam

9.4

Smell like fucking fried chicken grease. Light CO2. Definitely carbonic. Gamey but still has that gamay fruit purity thing. Gamey/Gamay. The most caressing of tannins. Licorice taste slightly off putting. Is it growing on me or am I just getting drunk? — 10 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. — 10 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. — 12 years ago