Sarah Stierch

Food & Wine Editor Sonoma Valley Sun

9.4

Happy birthday to me...from dad's cellar. Held up well! Thankfully not a dark moody Cab. Just what you would expect of an Opus of this age. We lost only 1 ounce to sediment. Didn't decant. — 11 years ago

Thomas Hughes

9.5

I was disappointed with my last Caymus Special Selection vintage, but this beauty brought me back to a bottle that won Wine Spectator's #1 Wine of the Year ... Twice!! Incredible fruit and balance. This can be cellared and enjoyed for years to come. Cheers!! — 11 years ago

The Savory

10

Oh my gawd dawg! I tried this at the California Wine Festival and loved it so much that I took it away from the crowd and had a quiet moment and a wee whisper with it. It's really wonderful when you drink some average to decent wines and suddenly throw an absolute stoater in there for perspective.

I can't really do it justice with my ham-fisted tasting notes, but believe me when I say that this is a delightful wine that reminds you how wonderful Napa can be. - Ross Gardiner — 12 years ago

Mike Blom

9.0

Deep reddish/purple color which has me on guard relative to Pinot. Worried that darker than lighter raspberry red has had Mega Red or other manipulation but this Pinot just has concentrated character. Varietal rose petal and cherry notes in aromas. You can see the broad influence from the 3 appellations that comprise the wine. Weighty on the palate without being too over bearing for the varietal. Great accompaniment to the saffron broth salmon this evening. — 11 years ago

Nicole McLendon

9.5

A little throw back Charleston Wine Festival circa 2014 with my bestie Brooke! — 11 years ago

Alberto Lorenzi

9.2

Classic Champagne, great vintage, drank in 2008 vs Puro bianco for graduation celebration. Traditionalists enjoyed Champagne the most. Me, Puro since I'm an innovator ! — 13 years ago

Nataly Gamboa

9.7

This makes me a happy girl! One of my best friends. — 14 years ago

Alexander Vadas

9.2

Good structure and body - nose a little too ripe for me — 11 years ago

with Michael and Stephen

Jeroen Koenen

9.5

Vintage 03
Surprisingly (to me), this has sufficient freshness and clarity! Wonderful. — 11 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.8

Informal gathering to drink some Bordeaux varietal bottles with steak.

1986 Cheval Blanc: This one showed suspect ullage, to the point where it had been hard to flip it. And in the end, it did turn out to be a controversial wine--was the orgasm 40 days, or was it 36 days? Hard to say... An extraordinary wine, classic in its own way, with fragrant dark flower and black cassis aromas wafting from the glass, and maybe more importantly for us, exploding in the mouth. Some of the more ordinary adjectives, like "smooth" and "balanced", are accurate enough, but obviously don't do this one justice. One could do a fluid dynamical description of the time evolution of this wine in the mouth, a broad attack that gave way in about 3 seconds to a sensation of acceleration and flaring across the entire breadth of the palate as the wine detonated, an oenological version of a jet... And then a persistent finish where the inner mouth perfume resonates as it fades slowly (or simply moved off to some parallel universe). — 11 years ago