Bob McDonald

9.3

Dusty stalky stemmy notes which with aeration gave more Red berry perfume but still showing whole bunch. On the palate, Restrained - more Burgundian than new world. The fruit is dialled back in favour of vegetal savouriness and some red berry fruit. A class act. Tasted again 77 weeks later with consistent notes. A nice sweetness to the palate amongst the stalky gingery characters. On 20th November 2018. — 7 years ago

Sam Coturri

Winery Sixteen 600, Enterprise Vineyards and the Moon Mountain District

9.5

Beautiful opening act to a special night at Torc. — 7 years ago

Sean Trapani

Founder/Educator Wine Fluent, Consultant ABC Fine Wines & Spirits

8.9

Graphite, cocoa, roasted citrus peel, and red fruits. Pleasant for its price point. Quick finish. One act. — 8 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.5

Usually have the best wine of the week at Sunday lunch. The 86 Latour is this weeks wine of the week. Hi Tannic year in Bordeaux and many experts think that Latour lost the plot in 86 with most thinking that Mouton was the wine of the vintage. This wine had lots of leather savouriness with no fruit character but still a class act. A good wine but not at the usual superlative Latour standard. — 9 years ago

Kondo Yoshifumi

9.0

Australia 旨い白だ！ — 9 years ago

Pavle Milić

9.5

Ravenau went out on a date with Kermit Lynch and had this baby...helluva value for all the wine you get. Elegant, delicate, nuanced and transparent. Great balancing act between creamy and zippy texture. Right on! — 9 years ago

Benjamin Hickey

9.0

Very citrusy and slightly sweet on the noise. Riesling with some Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gri added in, 10g residual sugar. Citrus, rose petal and a tiny touch of spice. — 9 years ago

Shawn R

9.6

Nothing short of exceptional! Class act on all fronts. Clean and pure in flavor. Pineapples, pear and quince hint of lime. Toasted accents on the finish that goes on like a marathon. — 7 years ago

Lisa McCosker

9.0

Really beautiful, light but full of flavour — 7 years ago

James Carter

9.3

Class act. Reflects all the qualities of a great Côte-Rôtie. Does have length, stays with its taste through the mouth. Very good balance. — 8 years ago

LM Segal

9.5

An ode to 2 amazing women who look and act far younger than this '66 BV with whom they share a birthday. Still fresh and gaining weight in the glass for an hour, the nose was classic Napa. It showed neither bricking or shading of the cassis and black cherry fruit, with acidity and tannins on the downside but fading gracefully. What a pleasant surprise - thanks to @benchmark and sommelier Brian @farm at carneros inn, who cracked a cork I would've destroyed! — 9 years ago

with Melissa

Bernard Rethore

Owner, Fion Wines

9.2

Typical Realm style which I quite like. At one point I got a hint of bacon and buttered popcorn. 🍷 how come there is no bacon or popcorn emoji with the new Apple iOS update? Mr fish would use it all the time as it goes with everything. Drink this wine up it is in the last act of the play, and worthy of your applause. — 9 years ago

with Susan

John Skupny - Lang & Reed Wine Company

9.2

Always a class act - brushy - great fruit impact - lovely svelte lengthy - an under appreciated Napa first growth. — 9 years ago

with Jamie

James Alford

9.3

Just. So. Good.
Immense generosity. Opulent black fruit. And yet fragile balance. Like a high wire act that manages to narrowly avoid unfettered indulgence. — 10 years ago

Eman Domboski

9.2

Lovingly soft up front. Full and clean. A bit dry and bitter to finish but well worth the journey. — 7 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.4

From a warmer year, a little closed for aromatics but more voluminous than normal on the palate. Trade off of fragrance for body one could say. Always a class act from Clonakilla. Next in a year or two. — 7 years ago

Alan Doughty

9.0

Noticable coconut aromas along with balsamic notes.. Ripe blackberry and currant fruit wuth initial new oak notes that subside to more skightly charred savory notes and spicy black cherry flavors. — 7 years ago

Gae Saccoccio - NdC

9.6

Really complicated on these so suspect days, expose themselves with concepts such as: tradition, terroir, identity without falling into the most sinister rhetoric if not sounds just trite and hypocritical as the counterfeit currency with which even large-scale industries - supported by marketing - pays back its inattentive mass audience riding the wave of the country of origin or protected typicality. A diabolical mechanism this one for which even the most noble ideas probably the right practices and good experiences completed in the scale of centuries to human measure and not on massive industrial scale, are trivialized by sleazy slogan, emptied of meaning to be more or less surreptitious thanks to barbaric persuasion techniques and brain-washing propaganda.
Yet with the Valentini's Trebbiano you may not groped to summarize in words if not by drawing on terms so appropriate to express it. Now concerning this iconic label we've got behind it a local grape variety, a real family and a great wine that collect in a bottle the past and present story of a side of Abruzzo who claims to defeats victories and sacrifices to dominate the abuses (on and of) nature, miseries and splendours of agricultural seasons. Places, people, vision, wines such as Valentini are here to remind us how each bottle stay so proudly standing as non-reproducible beauty and fermented goodness expressing all its artisanal uniqueness and authenticity which are just that suspect to industrial wine production in manufacturing chains on standardized quantities; wines that are all equal to themselves even though wine itself is not much left at the end of the day/cycle. Trebbiano d'Abruzzo Valentini 1998 is what we have to rate right now: rusticity with class; style, purity and glory of a local grape recognized by many admirers from all over the world: act local think global this is another slogan-cliché which in this specific Valentini's wine exemple could sounds a little less false and more effective. — 8 years ago

with Alberto and Giovanni

Lyle Coffield

Sommelier Kokkari, Evvia Estatorios

9.2

Under the radar California class act. But BEWARE!!! She's a bug'un! Like a female bodybuilder muscle and grace. — 9 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.5

Notes of blueberries and touch of camphor developing savoury flavours. Could easily be Left Bank Bordeaux. Good wine but a hard act to follow after their brilliant 1997 which awakened me to how good Napa Cabernet could be. 18- — 9 years ago