Ruben Cirugeda

9.0

Dry red.
Has depth… I enjoyed. — 3 days ago

Ron Siegel

9.4

Another great btl of this vintage consistent with my prior notes showing clean & pure aromas of dark cherry, raspberry, smoked meat, bacon fat with savory spice, graphite, pepper, olive & violet — 20 days ago

Shay A

9.5

Opened as part of a 2-day tasting with Alex Macdonald while he was in town. Day two was a small group of us with killer wines (2010 Chave Hermitage, mag of ‘02 Krug, Selosse Substance, 1996 Latour, 2003 Mouton, 1992 Dominus).

Quick one hour double decant to prep this beauty. While La Mouline is my favorite, La Turque still incorporates the co-ferment with Viognier. 93 Syrah/7 Viognier.

Beautiful translucent ruby in the glass. As I get with certain Cote Rotie wines (especially Guigal), barbecue and bacon fat can be overwhelming when young, but this has channeled a really balanced profile. Aromatic notes of smoked meat, cherry liqueur, and espresso. Beautifully rich yet elegant on the palate. Great nerve of acidity with a finish sporting plenty of tannin to carry this a while. Black peppered raspberries, black fruit on the palate with a little bacon and a hint of sweet/tangy barbecue sauce note (delicious). Enjoy now with a short decant or hold another 5yrs. — 3 months ago

David Kline

9.8

Graphite and raisin, fig and marinated porcini, smoky dried cherries, black pepper on grilled beef fat, toasted sesame, dried black and red currants, all within an aura of damson and violet and honeyed rose petal. Palate leaps with damson and dried and fresh bing cherry, dried spiced plum, cedar and dried lavender, black olive, moist tobacco, and perfectly toned tannins which come off as a separate, undefinable taste of fruit skin extraction with stunning depth; tea leaves meet dried blackberry in a redwood stand. Soft date and creamy fig follow to a tart raspberry end.




#châteauchevalblanc #chevalblanc #1ergrandcruclassé #1995 #stemiliongrandcru #saintemiliongrandcru #grandcruclassé #grandcru #appellationsaintemiliongrandcrucontrolée #misenbouteilleauchateau #stcivileduchevalblanc #gironde #bordeaux #rightbank #bordeauxrouge — 8 months ago

with Courtney

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.4

2016 vintage. From Coravin. Medium body. Phenomenal smoky, mineral nose. Almost all traces of the baby fat gone. Transitioning from the teen years into young adulthood but still visiting the parents to do laundry on occasion. Tannins picking up and slowly becoming more pronounced. Need to taste this again in a year of two. Very promising. 5.9.24. — 7 days ago

Shay A

9.6

A bottle I contributed during a trip to Napa’s Premiere Napa Valley week. This was opened at Torc, alongside a ‘97 Leflaive Les Pucelles, ‘11 Leroy Blagny, ‘89 La Chappelle and two young Napa cabs from Simon Estate. La Mouline is always my favorite due to the amount of co-ferment with Viognier.

Deserving of a 1-2hr decant, this got about an hour open in bottle by the time we got to it. I opened the ‘04 La Turque just a few weeks prior, so I had a reference point to work with. Heady aromatics, as expected…dark potpurri, spice, mesquite and mocha. On the palate, the youthful bacon-fat of Cote Rotie was gone and had channeled the classical tangy barbecue profile alongside black olive, peppered red and black berry fruit, and smoked meat at the finish. Whereas the LaTurque was almost Burgundian in profile (elegant, light), this was somewhere in-between the “bigger” LaLandonne and LaTurque…big, but balanced, likely due to vintage. Aromatics and finish here were standouts. Open now with a quick decant or hold another few years. — 3 months ago

John Schlechter

9.6

Amazing wine especially with food cuts right through any fat, sexy, tannins long finish bright fruit, light and traditional not bad for 48 years old at the drinking time  — 7 months ago

Lee Pitofsky

9.4

Love these wines. Rare to find with some age! 2011 is superb tonight, complexly aromatic wafting layers of dark fruit, olive tapenade, camphor, bacon fat and black truffle. The palate shows excellent density and concentration with balanced acids, melting tannins and a stunningly long finish. Beautiful wine. — 11 days ago

Tom Garland

9.5

+1 hour decant. A marvelous dark garnet color. On the nose: expressive notes of red and dark berries, smoked meat, some Cayuse funk(luv it), woody, dusty minerals. Taste: soft, silky, intense, layered wine with red berries, roasted plum, gamey, saline, bacon fat, and a metallic/iron/mineral medium plus finish. YUM!! — 19 days ago

Jay Kline

9.3

I’ve often struggled to appreciate Beaucastel, particularly when young. However, the more often I drink older Beaucastel, I find myself slowly starting to understand why these wines are so important.

Opened about two hours prior. The 2001 Beaucastel pours a pale, slightly hazy garnet with a watery rim. Medium+ viscosity with signs of fine sediment. On the nose, the wine is vinous. Strawberry preserves, leather, bacon fat, and some chicory. On the palate, medium tannin, medium+ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is long. Is this the most powerful expression of Chateauneuf du Pape? No. But it’s balanced, complex and it makes me think and I like that.

As a sort of epilogue, I was able to enjoy this bottle with someone who drinks old Beaucastel more regularly than I do. He described this bottle as being one that is in-between plentitudes; which makes sense as some of the tertiary characteristics are beginning to show themselves. Subsequently, you can drink now but this will likely enter a new dimension in the next few years. — 5 months ago