Time Place Wine Co.
Time Place Wine Co.
El Jamon Lodi Grenache
Who knew Grenache could be so balanced and fresh. — 6 years ago
Samsara Wine Co.
Santa Barbara County Syrah 2014
Floral and gamey. The 14.2% alc. shows early. Beautiful color and concentration. Improves with air time and also gets more peppery. Identical to a baby deer trying to walk, ya know? — 8 years ago
Cruse Wine Co.
Rancho Chimiles Vineyard Valdiguié 2016
Enjoyed this. First time i had it. Great nose. Very palatable no back end. Nice summer red — 8 years ago
Enfield Wine Co.
Fort Ross-Seaview Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Mid weight, fairly tight but pretty aromatics emerge after some air. Lots of minerality, cherries and black currants, cedar, graphite, tobacco. Classically styled, big time potential. Plan to pick up a few more and check in again in 5-10 years. — 9 years ago
Château La Mission Haut-Brion
Pessac-Léognan Red Bordeaux Blend 1996
A marvelous wine in an absolutely beautiful place. The first sip gave me goose bumps. Just such a classic Bordeaux in the best sense. No decant, slight chill, this is ready to go and fully integrated. Blackcurrant on the nose and palate. Incredible freshness and acid. Completely mouth filling and balanced. Certainly one of the best Bordeaux’s I’ve had in a long time. Amazing with grilled dry aged ribeyes. — 6 years ago
Marcel Lapierre
Morgon Gamay 2017
Fourth time tasting Lapierre in 2017. I've got a bit of a cold so I'm not enjoying this one as the previous ones. The nose is still a cherry bomb and bears a violet stamp. The palate is still very well balanced with a strong acid backbone, lots of ripe cherry all over the place, some grip, some width. The palate is a cherry song that plays for a very long while. 24 hours later it's still singing. Great! — 7 years ago
Château Brane-Cantenac
Grand Cru Classé en 1855 Margaux Red Bordeaux Blend 2005
I have a six-pack of this 05. I thought after 10 years in bottle, it would be interesting to check in on its evolution. While tasty, I’ll wait another 8-10 to open another. Even after 2-3 hours in the decanter, it’s still a very young adolescent. On the nose, slightly sour blackberries & dark cherries, dark currants, baked black plum, haunting blue fruits, anise, whiff of spice, steeped tea, dry stones, dry crushed rocks with dry top soil, caramel, vanilla with fresh & dry red florals. The body is thick & full. Tannins are starting to round out. It’s velvety on the palate. The fruits are; bright, fresh & ripe and really show the greatness of the 05 vintage. Dark currants, blackberries, dark cherries, baked black plum, haunting blue fruits, baked strawberries, cherries, raspberries on the long set, dark spice, clay & loamy dry top soil with crushed rocks, dry stones, cigar with ash, graphite, dry stems, slight herbaceous character, mint, used leather, clove, caramel, vanilla, fresh & dry red florals with violets. The round acidity is about perfect. The structure and length are still strong. The balance is in harmony. As for the long finish, it’s lush, ruby, rich and well polished. Photos of; Chateau Brane Cantenac, large wood vats, Henri Lurton and Estate vines. Producer notes and history...Chateau Brane Cantenac began in the early 17th century. At the time, the estate was known as Domaine Guilhem Hosten. Even that far back, wine was produced from the property. In fact, the wine was so highly regarded it was one of the more expensive wines in Bordeaux. It sold for almost as much money as Brane Mouton. This is interesting because of who went on to buy the vineyard in the 1800’s. The Baron of Brane, also known as “Napoleon of the Vineyards”, purchased the Chateau in 1833. At the time of the sale, the estate was called Chateau Gorce-Guy. To get the funds needed to purchase the Margaux vineyard, the Baron sold what is now called Mouton Rothschild, which was at the time of the sale, known as Chateau Brane-Mouton. Not such a good move with hundreds of years in hindsight! In 1838, the Baron renamed property taking his name and the name of the sector where the vineyards were located and called it Chateau Brane Cantenac. The Chateau later passed to the Roy family, who were well-known in the Margaux appellation in those days, as they owned Chateau d’issan. Moving ahead to 1920, the Societe des Grands Crus de France, a group of merchants and growers that owned several chateaux located in the Medoc including; Chateau Margaux, Chateau Giscours, and Chateau Lagrange in St. Julien, purchased Chateau Brane Cantenac. Five years later, M. Recapet and his son-in-law, François Lurton, took over Brane Cantenac along with Chateau Margaux. Lucien Lurton (the son of François Lurton) inherited Brane Cantenac in 1956. Today, the estate is still in the hands of the Lurton family. Brane Cantenac is owned and run by Henri Lurton. After being given the responsibility of managing Brane Cantenac, it was under the direction of Henri Lurton that large portions of the vineyard were replanted. Vine densities were increased, the drainage systems were improved and the plantings were also, slowly changed. The vineyard of Brane Cantenac is planted to 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 4.5% Cabernet Franc and .5% Carmenere. Carmenere was used for the first time in the 2011 vintage. The only other Chateau I know that still uses Carmenere is Clerc Milon. The 75 hectare Left Bank vineyard of Brane Cantenac is essentially unchanged since it earned Second Growth status in the 1855 Classification. At least that is the case with the 45 hectares used to produce the Grand Vin of Brane Cantenac. Those 45 hectares are planted surrounding the Chateau. Those vines are located just in front of the Cantenac plateau and are the best terroir that Brane Cantenac owns. They have other parcels, which are further inland and much of those grapes are placed into their second wine, Le Baron de Brane. Those additional hectares can be divided into 3 main sections. Behind the Chateau, they have 15 hectares of vines on gravel and sand, 10 hectares across the road with sand, gravel and iron and a 13 hectare parcel with gravel called Notton, which is used for their second wine. The vineyard is planted to a vine density that ranges from 6,666 vines per hectare on the plateau and up to 8,000 vines per hectare for the vines located behind chateau, in their sandier soils. The higher levels of vine density are always found in the newer plantings. The terroir of Brane Cantenac consists of deep gravel, sand and clay soil. Experiments in the vineyards are currently looking at becoming more organic in their vineyard management. Today, more than 25% of Brane Cantenac is farmed using organic farming techniques. It is expected that over time, the amount of hectares farmed with organic methods will be increased. Brane Cantenac has gone through 2 relatively recent modernization’s in 1999, when they added began adding the first of their smaller vats to allow for parcel by parcel vinification and then again in 2015 when they completed a much more complete renovation of their cellars and vat rooms. While Brane Cantenac is a traditional producer, they are no stranger to technology as they were one of the first estates to embrace optical grape sorting machines. In very wet vintages, they can also use reverse osmosis. To produce the wine of Chateau Brane Cantenac, the wine is vinified in a combination of temperature controlled, traditional, 22 oak vats, 18 concrete tanks and 20 stainless steel vats that vary in size from 40 hectoliters all the way up to 200 hectoliters, which allows for parcel by parcel vinification. 40% of the fermentation takes place in the oak vats. The oldest vines are vinified in vats that are selected to allow for separate parcel by parcel vinification. The younger vines are vinified more often together in the same vats. However, the Carmenere is entirely micro-vinified, meaning that those grapes were completely vinified in barrel, using micro-vinification techniques. This can also happen because the amount of grapes produced is so small. Some vats can be co-inoculated, meaning they go through alcoholic fermentation and malolactic fermentation simultaneously. At Chateau Brane Cantenac, malolactic fermentation takes place in a combination of French oak tanks and barrels. The wine of Brane Cantenac is aged in an average of 60% new, French oak barrels for 18 months before bottling. The initial 2 months of aging is done with the wine on its lees, which adds more depth to the wine. There second wine is Le Baron de Brane. Le Baron de Brane is not new. In fact, previously, the second wine went under the name of Chateau Notton, which took its name from one of the main parcels where the grapes were planted. During the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s, having a second wine was important as the estate declassified 3 vintages, due to extremely poor, weather conditions in 1956, 1960 and 1963. Production of Chateau Brane Cantenac is about 11,000 cases per year. — 8 years ago
La Jota Vineyard Co.
Anniversary Release Cabernet Sauvignon 2000
Nose has mashed blackberry, ripe black current, ripe black cherry, wet saddle leather, horse barn, dried mint, fried green herbs, chopped bacon, muddy garden soil, constantly developing...
Palate has mahogany shavings, black cherry 🍒, dried garden soil, day old bacon bacon 🥓, over-ripe black currant, warm dark chocolate, (minor) baking spice with a very long and intense finish. This wine has at least a decade in front of it tonight. Perfect, supple cork on extraction.
Still quite tannic, decanted 4h, needs much more time to reveal it's true self.
My retailer commented this was not a standard CA Cabernet, more Bordeaux-like, and he was fully on point. The stink on the nose really pointed us away from CA right away.
Paired to some expertly grilled, medium-rare Delmonico steaks from my favorite, local farmer in Columbia Co. NY (Kinderhook Farm), well salted (in advance). Finished with Maldon smoked sea salt, best which exists in the world, IMHO. Also roasted beets with goat feta from VT, where I can only image goats listen to Phish and eat Ben & Jerry's ice cream daily, because only a stress free life like that could yield cheese this good.
I'd like to know the blend on this, should anyone know, I can't believe it's 100% Cab based on the stinky nose, which we appreciate. — 6 years ago
Bedrock Wine Co.
Evangelho Vineyard Heritage Zinfandel Blend 2013
This one is labeled “Heritage”, not Zinfandel Blend. Deep burgundy red, highly extracted pigment. Initially, herbal-briar notes in nose with hints of red fruit and funk. Soft, black currant, cherry and raspberry flavors with length, mild seed and skin tannins in finish. Over time, licorice emerges in finish with moderate to heavy skin and seed tannins. Decant at least three hours. Plum flavor emerges if you are patient enough — 7 years ago
Enfield Wine Co.
Pretty Horses California Tempranillo Graciano 2014
I tasted this bottle 1 and 2 years ago and can say this has evolved nicely with life ahead. It is fuller and more palette-coating than I recall. This time I drank it over 1.5 hours open and it kept positively evolving and blossoming. At the end: Large aromas of succulent red fruit, graphite, and a trace of cracked black pepper. Palette is very tannin forward with med acidity and notes of red fruits, mineral, and a little something green. — 8 years ago
Cruse Wine Co.
Charles Heintz Vineyard Syrah 2015
The 2015 Syrah Charles Heintz Vineyard is an outrageously beautiful, vivid wine. A rush of blue and purplish fruit, lavender, licorice and dark spice make a strong opening statement. Today, the tannins are a bit overpowering, but time in bottle will do the trick. The 2015 was fermented in concrete, with 10% whole clusters, and aged in a combination of concrete and oak. Readers who can find the wine should not hesitate. Heintz is one of the top vineyards in California. Getting a glimpse of the site through the lens of Syrah it makes for a deeply fascinating experience. (Antonio Galloni, Vinous, Mar 2017) — 9 years ago
Produttori del Barbaresco
Barbaresco Nebbiolo
Not the best bottle that we've had of this vintage but still excellent. Tar/asaphalt, dried roses, funk & minerals. Very much of its time and place. — 9 years ago
Asahi-Shuzo Sake Brewing Co.
Kubota Manju Junmai Daiginjo
Very elegant, complex aroma, light umaminess(savoryness) with clean body.
Imagine to intaking the pleasant natural water from deep clean place of rainforest.
The pioneer of fragrant Sake, Kubota is highly recognized in Japan and USA for the top premium Artisanal Craft Sake Brewery from Niigata, Japan.
Two different sake rice called "Yamada Nishiki" and "Gohakumangoku" are being used to make this sake. That creates unique pleasant complex taste. — 9 years ago
Kevin Pierce
I had this at a friend’s place. This combo was very well balanced! I would highly recommend it! — 5 years ago