M. Christopher Roebuck

9.2

No risk-taking tonight.

Starts with forest floor and red berry nose. Some licorice--but I always say that, and greenery/pine. Running a little hot, she's still young and needs to mature, a little. Low acidity, medium purple color, medium plus body, medium tannins. Super solid, not sensational.

92+ points — 6 years ago

Christopher Fowler

9.0

Opened this a few days ago. It was entirely too fancy too guzzle on a school night after a difficult work day, but I saw it and I wanted it and I make no apologies. Elegant. Enough tannin to keep me on my toes. Pairs well with hamburgers and running out of fucks to give. #laterwine — 7 years ago

with Michael

Cara Bentrup

9.7

Wow. This wine is amazing. Not pairing it with what the bottle says, but I am running out of choices in our basement. 😉🍷 — 7 years ago

with Gary

Eric Egan

9.1

Lovely aged St Julien nose of tobacco and cedar, mixed with plumbs, autumnal mulch, cider vinegar, and raspberries. Quite mature colour but still darkish rusty redbrick throughout; tannins resolved and a lively streak of unfiltered lightly sour cider running through it. Drinking beautifully well right now! — 8 years ago

Michael Flynn

9.0

Christmas dinner with fine tri- tip, rare. Bulls, Bachelors Zaldanas — 8 years ago

Eric Hwang

9.0

Nutty tropical fruits with a ripe lushness running throughout. — 9 years ago

Justin Smith

9.0

Really nice acid notes, lemon and lime peel. Nice little gravel, schist qualify running through. Rock with a touch of classical. — 9 years ago

Fabien Lainé

Blogger VinDeling.com

9.2

Chateau Maugey - Le Jean Marc - 2004 Accorded myself a souvenir #winelover a treat, I remember it amazing wine for about 10euros a the time, I still have a few bottles of several vintages - near Libourne it was this "stubborn" and self educated winemaker, Jean Marc Maugey, a golden fingers #winemaker, running a small family estate with nature rules, he crafts wines like the Old and Legendaries #Bordeaux wines in the 19th and 20th century - Noble, originals, authentic and of character - focusing on Merlot and Malbec with small yields ! An inspiring free artist ! 😊 and a man full of passion and stories 😉 — 10 years ago

Ian Blodgett

9.5

Lemon and citrus. Oaky and smooth. — 11 years ago

Mike Lee

10

Great $10 wine — 11 years ago

Nick Ferrall

8.9

Dark fruit and brooding licorice with a lively dose of acid and funk running through it. — 6 years ago

Angel Lewis

8.9

One of the best Australian Tempranillo — 7 years ago

Austin Beeman

9.2

Damn sexy! Running wild and bright with fruit and aromas. Delicious quaffable goodness. $15 retail — 7 years ago

Ron Siegel

9.4

This was drained very quickly. Tart red fruits, spicy and floral, with a strong mineral note running through the palette , rich & full bodied but light on its feet expressing its GC pedigree. — 8 years ago

Benjamin Hickey

9.0

Very fresh with lots of acid running the whole way through. Bright fruit, minimalist winemaking. — 8 years ago

Melody Han

9.5

This is a review for the Jordan Stellenbosch Chameleon Dry Rosé. Fruity but dry rose with aromas of summer berries - like running through a field in the sunshine! — 8 years ago

Charles Baker

9.0

This is quite a good bottle of wine. It is great with food. A touch of bottle nose and tart cherry on the nose with smooth French oak on the palate and an appealing acid finish key to food friendliness. — 9 years ago

Ryan Wofford

8.9

Light bodies and fruity with a touch of minerals running thru a briar patch. 11.9%abv, Perfectly interesting BBQ wine! — 9 years ago

David Kline

8.9

This wine is dense licorice and black cherry magic. Black currants too. With a thick woodsy profile and wet black muds running over evergreen. So cab-like in many ways, but reined in by the Winemaker's judicious use of oak.Somehow bright despite its depth, like a night on a still lake. — 10 years ago

Mo Allen

9.7

Dry white with a crisp taste. — 11 years ago

Sean Lowry

9.3

2016v. Very pale gold. On the nose, it smells yellow apple and grape juice. On the palette, there is an intense, deep grape flavor from the clairette, a little bit of body and back of the mouth waxiness from the roussane, and clean acidity. A lovely wine on its own. I drank it with some firm cheeses. A little bit delicate, so dont be too bold with food pairings. Bought from the domaine in CDP after running around the cellar with the wine's attendant, Ms. Helène Bleuzen, who is destined to be a famous future name in winemaking. 13.5% ABV. — 6 years ago

Richard Adams

9.7

In the running for favorite Napa cab of this yr. '09 is hitting its stride with huge black and blue fruit and a monster finish. Super smooth, still a way to go but hard to see it getting better. Great balance, freshness, and zip. Better than '07 Revana. — 7 years ago

Chris M

9.0

A bit sweet but very drinkable. — 7 years ago

Ted

9.3

Pops wine collection is running low. This isn't bad. Spicy on the nose and decent fruit with soft tannins. — 8 years ago

Justin Gilman CSW, CSS

9.2

Superb #Champagne. Refreshing and pleasing.

Very focused with an amazing golden color. Flowers and citrus come off the wine with a little honey. Breaded.

Dry fruit of apricot on the palate with minerals running parallel. Fine bubbles and soft honey, cream.

Opened 2/17/16 — 8 years ago

Alicia Cypress

9.1

There's a streak of something lively running up the front of the fruity palate. Candied strawberries mixed with pepper, too. — 9 years ago

Steve Stumpf

9.0

At Sotto with Michael barker who r recommended the wine. Lighter acidic from Campagna. Bulls eye. $36 on list. — 9 years ago

George Bato

9.1

Running with the big boys. Rich, full, structured. Good fruit, balance. Could use a little more time in bottle. — 10 years ago

Tim Herrmann

9.0

Chosen somewhat randomly from my local wine store, this was pleasantly and somewhat surprisingly an actually confounding Bordeaux; medium finish...wet stones, dark fruit, wild herbs, velvety tannins. Drinkable now, and I want to see what it does in a few years. Running with scissors = winning, at least for this bottle of wine... — 10 years ago

Joe Carroll

Owner/Wine Director Spuyten Duyvil, Fette Sau, St. Anselm & Gotham Artisanal Provisions

9.5

Jean Van Roy's amazing story of Zwanze 2013. When we started renovation works in the cellars of the brewery two years ago, much to our surprise we came upon the remains of some very old walls. In agreement with the medievalists of the city of Brussels, the works were stopped in order to allow archaeological excavations to take place.

Shortly thereafter we were astonished to find out that Cantillon brewery had in fact been built on the ruins of the very ancient Abbey of Cureghem! According to the medievalists, this religious community was well-known during the middle ages for its fowl fed on draff and, more specifically, for its dish of stuffed Cureghem capon, which was served with a beer brewed at the abbey and apparently drew pilgrims from all over Europe.

Yet it was truly a heavenly surprise when the excavations uncovered the cell of the abbot, Father Faro. In the small room the archaeologists found quite a few old reference books, one of which contained the original recipes for the beers brewed at the abbey several hundred years ago. We didn’t hesitate for a second and decided on the spot to recreate one of these mythical beers.

This beer, which will be our Zwanze for 2013, therefore bears the name of its illustrious place of origin, Abbaye de Cureghem (Cureghem Abbey). Cureghem was formerly a village established many centuries ago on the banks of the Senne, the river running through present-day Brussels. The area was very heavily industrialised during the 19th century and, among other things, became home to many breweries. Today, it is part of the municipality of Anderlecht.

Since beers commonly referred to as “abbey beers” are not, or not any longer, products of spontaneous fermentation, we decided to brew a top fermentation beer, from a technical point of view in any case. The yeasts were selected in collaboration with Institut Meurice, a post-secondary college in Brussels specialising in biotechnology. Brewed in March 2012, our “Cureghem” beer fermented four weeks in stainless steel tanks before being blended with 10% lambic and pumped into 400-litre barrels of various origins. After maturing for six months, the beers were blended and put into casks or bottles to undergo re-fermentation and reach 7.2% ABV (Alcohol by Volume).

Inevitably, a top fermentation beer brewed in a spontaneous fermentation environment will be affected by the wild yeasts in the air, and this is certainly what happened in our case. For our Cureghem, the cultured yeasts were clearly the main factor behind primary fermentation and I think that the wild yeasts in the beer will instead play an increasingly important role as the product ages. However, despite the addition of the lambic to give it a little “extra something” in terms of character and ageing characteristics, this Zwanze cannot in any case be considered a spontaneous fermentation beer.

The long fermentation period coupled with the presence of wild yeasts lends this beer a solid character with a dry finish that lingers on the palate, while the combined use of fresh and aged hops yields both freshness and bitterness. Moreover, the different malts used give this year’s Zwanze a coppery colour along with a touch of caramel and candied fruit that provide body. Clearly, this is not your standard “abbey” beer but, perhaps, it is representative of what these beers were one or two hundred years ago — 11 years ago