Joe Santiago

9.0

Cherries and tannins and berries, oh my! — 5 years ago

Neil Valenzuela

9.0

Medium purple color. Floral aromas, raspberries, candied cherry and baking spices. Delicious, baked red fruit and spice box finish. Merry Christmas 🎄🎁

🥇 95 points - Wine Advocate — 5 years ago

"Odedi"

9.7

Cheers to my 6,000th review on Vivino. A Big milestone deserves a big wine. This was on my wishlist for a while now. Go big or go home!

Deep inky in color with a short brick rim. Unbelievable. Not showing age at all.

Fruity nose of blackberries, blueberries, black currants, chocolates, tobacco, mocha, leather, earth, Mediterranean spices, beef jerky, peppercorn, cedar, leather, vanilla and licorice.

Full bodied, bold, smooth and elegant, with medium acidity and long legs.

Dry and fruity on the palate with blackberries, black currants, sweet plums, vanilla, cedar, light vegetables, spices, smoke, tobacco, chocolates, coffee, cola, pencil lead and peppercorn.

Long finish with firm tannins and tangy cherries.

This is a wonderful Cabernet Sauvignon based, Bordeaux blend from Napa Valley. Showing great complexity and a great mouthfeel. Big with bold tannins. Delicious and yummy.

This 19 year old is drinking very nicely now, and really shows like a young wine. Has at least 15 years in it.

After 3 hours of airtime, forest floor notes come in on the nose. Tasting like an aged left bank Bordeaux.

Wine Advocate 100 points.

This is a Fabulous wine to share with good friends. Very enjoyable by itself or with food. I paired it with BBQ ribs.

Thank you John, for sharing this phenomenal wine with me.

A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

14.5% alcohol by volume.

97 points.

$1,200. — 5 years ago

Billy L.

9.4

PNP > I liked it more in its youth 2008/09
Timeframe for my Fruit Forward pallet. Dr. Jay Miller -Wine Advocate Staffer rated 98 points
in 2007. Cheers 🍇🍷 Dr. Jay Miller Review:
“Any aspiring collectors should add a case of this to their stash. The 2004 Numanthia comes from a different terroir with a different clone of Tinta de Toro. The vines for this cuvee range from 70-100 years of age with tiny yields of 1 ton of fruit per acre. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrel followed by 19 months in new French oak before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. The wine is a glass-coating opaque purple with a killer nose of mineral, pencil lead, wild blueberry, and blackberry liqueur that roars from the glass. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, dense, and already beginning to show complexity within its layers of spicy black fruits. There is immense power, well-concealed ripe tannin, and the well-delineated finish lasts for over one minute. This is a sensational effort which in a perfect world should be cellared for a decade and enjoyed over the following 25+ years. However, the elderly among us should not feel guilty about opening a bottle now. (JM) (2/2007)” — 6 years ago

Billy L.

9.5

PNP
Tastes Great! All P/N should be this deep &
concentrated! No green stem or weak fruit profile here. Big time wine from Gary Pisoni’s
Santa Lucia Highlands Vineyard. If California had Grand Cru designations, the Pisoni Vineyard would be tagged! This 2011 Roar Pisoni is still a Baby 👶; with a long finish and great depth. Color “Cherry Cola” Nose intense!
If you haven’t had a Pisoni P/N, time to start!
“Bob Jr.” -Jeb Dunnuck Review here from his Wine Advocate stint: Cheers 🍇🍷👍🏻👏🏻
“The most sweetly fruited and approachable, the 2011 Pinot Noir Pisoni Vineyard has sweet strawberry, kirsch, underbrush, spice box and licorice aromas and flavors all soaring from the glass.” (JD) (8/2013) — 7 years ago

Aaron Tan

9.5

Exceptional balance. Rich, but so fresh. Pears, orange, flowers, lemon curd, cream, brioche, nut. Long, powerful palate, underlined by a driving acidity.

Some thoughts: In my eyes, RMs tend to fall into "extreme" categories e.g. Laherte - austere, Egly - rich (lees), Agrapart - rich (oak), Selosse - oxidative; but this wine doesn't fit here. NM-like, but not (I think of Chartogne-Taillet when I say this). Compare to Krug's Grand Cuvee, the Grands Vintages is definitely richer and broader (fair comparison, given how both wines are constructed).

From Chain Bridge Cellars:
As the name suggests, Eric Rodez’s Grand Vintages is a rich, powerful and very much “grand” wine in the tradition of Krug (where Eric learned his craft). This year's release is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay from seven great vintages going back to vintage 2000. Eric ages all of these base wines in used oak and blocks malolactic fermentation to maximize freshness and vibrancy. Then the carefully crafted blend spends 8 full years on the lees before being disgorged this October. The dosage is ultra-low - 2 or 3 g/l - so this could be labeled "Extra Brut," but there's so much richness and depth here that "Brut" seems more appropriate to Eric.

Past releases have earned plenty of critical praise, including 17.5/20 points from Jancis Robinson, 93 from Vinous, and 92 from Wine Advocate. This year’s release is explosive on the nose and palate, pumping out big notes of lemon curd, caramel, toasted nuts, baking bread, crushed chalk, and more. The flavors just balloon out to fill your entire palate and finish with layer upon layer of mouthwatering pie crust, lemon curd, hazelnut, crushed stone and salty caramel flavor. Try holding some for even more richness! — 8 years ago

Jason and Jennie

9.4

Impressive scores: Advocate 96, Jeb 95, spectator 94, enthusiast 94. This comes off as very finessed, extremely fresh, and with good minerality. — 5 years ago

Greg Gratson

9.4

Firstleaf, another good wine. — 5 years ago

Peter Falk

9.1

95 p i Wine Advocate för 179,-
91 p i min bok. Kul med Bobal — 5 years ago

with Annika Lindh

Billy L.

10

Fabulous! TRB kills it! Enjoy if you’ve got em’! Cheers 🍇🍷👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
#socialdistancing #californiastayhome
#enjoyyourwinecellar
Robert Parker’s Review:
100 points The Wine Advocate
“The flagship, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Materium, represents 560 cases and achieved 14.8% alcohol after aging in 90% new Taransaud and Darnajou casks. Remarkably, the wine matches the perfect 2013, with extraordinary fragrance of blueberry, blackberry, forest floor, truffle, spring flowers and background barbecue smoke followed by a thick, unctuously textured, juicy, but incredibly well-balanced, intense wine. This is built like a skyscraper with enormous quantities of blueberry, blackberry and cassis fruit, well-integrated acidity and sweet, gentle tannins. This is an extraordinary effort from Maybach that can be drunk now or cellared for up to 30 or more years. (RP) (10/2016)” — 6 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.3

Another Torbreck brought to the Toowoomba Wine Show Judges Dinner at the Downs Club by winemaker Greg McGill. Earthy perfume - a solid full bodied palate 15% ABV. Given 100 points by Joe Czerwinski of Wine Advocate. Never seen the value in Run Rig for the plus $200 price tag. A certain mystique here and one of the Barossa icons but don’t get the hype to be honest. — 6 years ago

Joe Gillies

9.5

Dense dark fruit aromas. Plum, black currant, boysenberry, and baking spices on the palate.
This really has lived up to the hype of the 96pt rating by wine advocate. Great value at $35. And shows tremendous potential with some aging. — 7 years ago

Michael B

9.2

Serendipity is located on the Naramata bench in BC, producing several high quality lines. This one is no exception, absolutely delicious! Dark burgundy colour, almost black. Medium bodied. Tasteful dark fruit, plums, and cassis. Well blended and structured as you would expect. — 8 years ago

Lucia Campos

9.4

90 pts The Wine Advocate — 8 years ago

Paul T HB

9.6

Football & Steak 🥩 wine. Didn’t realize this winery goes back almost 100 years. I see some 1937 out there still.
Parker 96.
Even at 20 years old it needs a 2nd day 3 hour decant.
Parkers review,

189, The Wine Advocate

Readers who require immediate gratification will dislike this wine, which is one of the most concentrated behemoths and tannic blockbusters of the vintage. This is very much in keeping with the proprietor’s intention to make wines such as they made in the 19th century, and ones that can last 50+ years. Still young, with plenty of noticeable new oak, this 2000 tastes like a 3 to 4-year old St.-Emilion. Plenty of barbecue smoke, graphite, blackberry, and plum characteristics are present in both the aromatics and flavors of this broodingly backward, massive monster. While fascinating, it is not for everybody. I originally gauged its maturity to be around 2010, but I would push that back to 2015-2040+. — 5 years ago

Winston Brown

8.9

Very smooth with oak and dark fruit notes. Went great with my ribeye. — 5 years ago

Ely Cohn

9.1

Manni is THE advocate for Kerner - an under the radar variety that I’d describe as Riesling with a figure. His clocks in at 13.5%, so you’d expect some richness but it comes out a clean translucent silvery green skin. It looks mute but sings. Grapefruit and lychee and white flowers and white pepper too. — 6 years ago

Paul T HB

9.3

Trying out all the highly rated $10.00-$20.00 whites to guzzle during the summer heat & Beach bike rides. This is a wine advocate 91 for $15.00
1. Novellum,ridiculous for $10.00
2. Substance
3. This one
4. Matias Santa Lucia Highlands
But basically splitting hairs on all of them,
Matias is the most complex. — 6 years ago

kim gottas

10

Rich, full bodied, similar to Decoy with a stronger finish. — 7 years ago

Matt Trader

9.3

40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 10% Petit Verdot. Drinks incredibly similar to Smith Haut Laffite.. toasty cedar and rock dust followed by baked plums, vanilla, and mocha. Pallet with well integrated tannins, Pauillac in feel, exhibiting notes of casis, bell pepper, dark dried cherries, mocha, and a delicious lingering finish. This is seriously over performing for $60. 94 points Wine Advocate - 2500 cases production winery between all of their wines, which is pretty small and totally worth it. — 8 years ago