Dock Hooks

8.9

Kicking back letting the local tunes adjust my attitude with wine:30 showing on the clock she strolls in my direction digging the slow roll Hendrix spinning left then twisting right dressed in deep purple clinging and flowing interestingly crimson along her rim and edges back to casually claret whispering that she's from a small chateau hanging on the right bank of the Gironde near Arveyres. Offering her hand, I accept pulling her in close then a slow spin and a slower twirl she comes close bathed in the essence of blackberry and spice, young but ripe, wet earthy slowly working her way to a first kiss dripping then gripping, pulling tightly then going soft and silky still clinging while working her way deeper. I close my eyes, Hendrix stops and she's gone. A distant guitar string bends an unknown player. I spot her by the bar, her colors waving in the breeze of a lazy fan I reach out take her firmly by the neck, then lower bending her gently back then spinning her my way, she again engages, her essence lingering in my memory, we dance on as the tunes continue their spin. Later, when we are both done I figure she's likely a fine Merlot brightened by Cab Franc having found her way through new French oak nestled by the river, intelligently nuanced well worth the dance and cost is not an issue...

Hanging at Promise' Land Market where the tunes are always righteous, the people are cool, the conversation is groovy and wines dance from the walls... — 9 years ago

"Odedi"

8.9

Ok. It's Friday, isn't it? Time for some Napa Cabernet...

Dark ruby/Inky in color with a thin, dark ruby rim.

Tight on the nose, with blackberries, blueberries, cherries, licorice, figs, cloves, earth, leather, cherries, oak, smoke, eucalyptus, chocolates, vanilla, herbs, spices and black pepper.

Full bodied with medium plus acidity and long legs.

Bone dry on the palate with blackberries, black currants, plums, cooked cherries, oak, vanilla, licorice, cloves, earth, leather, black tea, coffee, tobacco, heavy cola and peppercorn.

Medium plus in finish with firm, bold tannins and spices.

This is a good quality Cabernet Sauvignon, Single Vineyard, from Mt. Veeder in Napa Valley.

Still young, and wouldn't open up even after 3 hours. Needs a few more years in the bottle.
Not fully balanced yet, but complex and definitely drinkable.

I wish the nose would give out some, but the palate was pleasant. Better with food right now, but I'm sure that in a few years, this would be a great sipping wine.

I Paired it with filet mignon and roasted potatoes.

Grapes are grown in Mount Vedder, on gravely soil, and are hand harvested.

14.5 % alcohol by volume. — 10 years ago

Matt Austin

Owner/Winemaker, Grosgrain Vineyards, Walla Walla, WA

9.4

This is the version with an "N" on the back label, which indicates that no sulfur was added. Wish I had a bottle of the other version on hand to compare. In any event, this is fantastic and shows that in the right hands the "natural wine" thing can be done pretty well. Brighter fruit than I recall from the other bottling. Would be curious to see if this can age. — 10 years ago

Bill Bender

9.0

2013. It worked in my left hand while I schooled my Dad at bocce with my right. This rose' and I are undefeated. — 10 years ago

Rachel B

9.2

Love this wine! We buy cases often to have on hand for a quick hostess gift. An easy favorite and for around $12 a bottle the price is right. — 11 years ago

Velma Cooper

9.2

Velma had this 11 years ago

Shana Wall

9.4

#2005 #LaGeynale #Cornas #RobertMichel My favorite grape, #Syrah from my favorite region, #NorthernRhone ❤️ The Deep, dark purple/red color seduces you before your lips even touch the glass. "You had me at Hello..." (is what I may have said out loud actually) 😊. This wine is like a tall, sexy, brooding man with all the right moves😗😘. Once you taste it there's really no turning back... Savory, lightly spicy, rustic yet refined at the same time... This is a very unique and gorgeous bottle of wine. Unlike any other Cornas I have tried. Touch of funk dancing gracefully with the big tannins and perfectly round dark fruit... Such a smooth ride. I feel sorry for any other wine trying to win you over on the same night as him... & he will only get better with age👌😉 #Betony restaurant #ThirstyThursday #HappyGirl #Cheers 🍴🍷 — 11 years ago

Grant Wood

9.4

Delicious. Fantastic apricot and manjool date. Very drinkable right now with fabulous color.
— 11 years ago

Peter C

9.6

I am floored! Fass man was absolutely right. Amazing stuff/qpr. Huge difference from 2010 by leaps and bounds. — 12 years ago

with Lyle

Kim Stanbro

9.1

Excellent for price. Helped stir the creative juices with planning our next Baltimore Rock Opera Society fundraiser. Cheers to our favorite local wine store for offering to donate! — 9 years ago

Alan

8.9

Citrus notes, more lemon flowers man woman. Some minerality underneath it, not a great deal of acid. Citrus goes right to the roof of your mouth. Search cooler to keep the lemon under control and allow the minerality to come out. — 10 years ago

Jonathan Wall

9.3

Wow. So happy to find this in Hong Kong. Within 10 minutes of opening I called and ordered more. So well balanced, smooth, deep, savoury... And so well made. Not heavy, not light... Just right. Momma Bear wine. Happy Mother's Day. — 10 years ago

Keith Levenberg

9.2

This bottling has never excited me as much as the other reds in the lineup. This one is solid, actually pretty impressive considering the vintage, though not really in the realm of exciting. It starts out very claret-like, red-fruited and a bit boxy, but got more distinctive and more in line with the expected Loire cabernet franc personality with air. The effect was like if someone had, metaphorically, kneaded and hand-stretched the wine like a sheet of noodles, so that it got more tensile and transparent as it came into form. The fruit is crimson hued, not primary tasting but not mature tasting either. It really benefits from picking up that extra snap, which has just the right amount of pleasant bitterness without crossing the line into pyrazine or other greenness. — 10 years ago

Lewis Chester

9.2

2003 vintage. From Jay. Very nice. Much better than expected. Goes down all together way too easily when you're surrounded by snow! Deep ruby core washing out towards the edges. No bricking...yet. Nose is a preponderance of dark fruits together with blueberries and ripe cassis with slight under tones of cloves and a hint of graphite. This is a very fruity affair- takes me back to Christmas. The wine expresses on the palate as it does on the nose. Layers of rich fruit with traces of brown spice. There's a lovely sweetness here that makes the wine a pleasure to drink despite the relatively modest acidity. The tannins are soft and lush. The finish is good with a continued preponderance of fruit right to the very end although it is moderate in length. This is a very quaff able wine...could be at this all night with pleasure just sit me down in front of an open fire and hand me a Montecristo! 92+/100. Drink now to 2028. NB - no need to decant. This wine can happily be poured from bottle post opening and allowed to open in the glass. — 10 years ago

Dave Wood

9.2

Is that Trey on the bottle? Nothing wrong here.... Really hitting right now. Dark, balanced and full of awesome. — 11 years ago

Geoff Troup

Sales Eder Brothers, Cellar Fine Wines

9.2

Great cab. Not too heavy but great layers of flavor. Don't decant! This guy is ready to go right out of the bottle. — 11 years ago

Gary Westby

Champagne & Sherry buyer K&L Wines

9.5

A man needs a refreshing brew in his hand when he is commanding the grill. This crisp, characterful Munchen beer is perfect for backyard cooking. — 11 years ago

Greg Giere

9.0

Oh man- this wine is in a nice place right now. Super elegant, lengthy finish. Good job Tim! — 12 years ago

Peter Sultan

8.9

Surprise surprise balanced Syrah from Cali — 12 years ago

with Owen

Andrew Lampasone

Owner Wine Watch Selections

9.0

2000 nice evolution fresh earth red currants and cassis very complex bouquet cigar box. Very smooth and balanced but still has a good hand of tannins red currant exotic spice sand a long layered finish 50+ most excellent 2006 very forward and fruity bouquet light smoke cigar box and fresh earth smooth and evolved on the palate very smooth drinking nicely right now. Finish 45+ excellent + 2010 first certification year lovely complexity toasty oak spice dark currant and coffee fresh earth very well endowed tannins are a bit hard but lots of everything and a long finish 50+ killer — 13 years ago

Joe Loughran

9.3

If I could drink Sandlands chenin every day I'd be a happy man. This just hits all the right spots and at only 12% abv! #winning — 9 years ago

Kyle Harvey

8.9

Warming up the palette for the trip to the motherland this week...more fruit than savory but man, without the shipping costs, the price is right #qprpiemonte — 10 years ago

Meg

9.7

Friday 5pm. Take off the heels, take on the wine! I had the pleasure of catching up with Jeff Shifflett this week, on the heels 😜 of sending one of my customers to see him. (He actually has wine for sale right now for those interested) Love this guy. If you are visiting Napa and you want the ultimate personal experience, he is your man. Passionate about his process -- from the soil to the bottle -- he is basically a one man show and does it so well. So talented, but yet completely down to earth. All of his wines are ridiculous. People are catching on -- he has a Merlot JV with Nickel & Nickel launching soon. #shifflett #winedown #heelsyes — 10 years ago

Cory Fierro

9.1

2009 vintage on the second day being open. This is delicious. Open and fruity with just the right amount of vegetal notes of sweet bell peppers and mushroom. There's a tiny hint of bitter chocolate on the nose but that fruit is just dominate. There's a balance on the palate between the acidity and tannin and mouthfeel that is just... pleasing. Man, this has really opened my eyes to what Sbragia can do. — 10 years ago

with Liz

boyd

9.4

If you have this wine, I would drink it now. It may get better in bottle but man its so so good right now. Simply delicious. — 11 years ago

A. R.

9.3

Definitely drank too young, but man, it's darn good right now. The nose is funk and herbs, with some dry leather thrown in, the tannins hit hard right away, but aren't astringent or bitter. The mid palate holds well and the herby/funky classic CNdP carries through. There is a slight sweetness from the alcohol that is a bit more than what I want, but it's a great classic CNdP. — 11 years ago

Alexandra Huth

8.9

Nice red with a blackberry note and slight spicy after taste not to heavy beautiful wine — 11 years ago

Marilynn Davis

9.3

My absolute fav Pinot Grigio! Low in alcohol 13.3 but high on flavor. It's perfect as an aperitif, with fish or fowl. Grapefruit overtones, with mineral bass notes. It lingers in the palate in just the right way. I like keeping this Pinot on hand. — 11 years ago

Laissez Fare

9.0

Els Jelipins 2009 (a very kind gift from, and shared with, @J_A_A). Made by Gloria and Berta Garriga in the hills Penedès. Based around the Sumoll grape, with a slightly different blend each year (depending on which rows of vineyards they decide to take fruit from). The fruit is hand-picked over a number of sessions — always early in the morning and in small cases. It ferments with the natural yeasts, without temperature control, fining, or filtration and only a touch of sulfur added right before bottling. Open-top barrel fermentation and some wax-lined oval amphorae are used, along with lengthy aging in big barrels. Each bottle is painted by hand – the design is different each year, but always includes the symbolic heart.
This has to be one of the most distinctive, intriguing and confounding red wines I've ever tasted. The first thing you notice is the cloudy ruby color. A mysterious scent leads to strong flavors of green herbs (almost medicinal) on the palate: is it tarragon or dill, or both? Elderflower perhaps? Maybe fresh olive too. Underlying this is an ever-changing red fruit core (cranberry, tart cherry), with the odd streak of wet rocks and a zippy freshness. Totally raw and wild. Impossible to pin down and paradoxical.
Ultimately, this wine was indomitable. We paired it with a full-flavored Iranian stew (ghormeh-sabzi), then with vegetarian Indian curry. The wine went remarkably well with both, though I wouldn't say it 'paired' well. You could always taste the distinct flavors of the wine, and it didn't interfere with the food, but they didn't really enhance each other either. Essentially, even robust food flavors could not tame this cloudy, 'little-looking' red wine.
After all of this, I will not say that I am gagging to try this wine again, as I'm not really sure I love the flavor profile overall … but it did grow on me over the four days we had it open. And the wine was possibly even better on Day 4 than it was on Day 1. I would definitely be happy to try it again, though, as there is no doubt it would challenge palates, ideologies and spark conversation. This is a 'real' wine, with no pretense and oodles of individuality. — 11 years ago

RD Bundschuh

9.5

This wine was excellent right when opened. 5% Petit Verdot. Tobacco leaf, blueberries, vanilla, coffee bean. — 13 years ago