Delectable Wine

Follow to learn about our favorite wines & people.

9.6

Rich, powerful and enveloping, the 2015 Lafite-Rothschild is endowed with serious volume and textural resonance. Super-ripe plum, smoke and spice notes emerge in the glass, but only with great reluctance. Although the aromatics aren't giving much at this point, the palate is much more expressive. The wine's sheer power and authoritative tone result in an unusually dramatic Lafite. The 2015 is 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot that spent 20 months in oak, which is a bit more than the norm. (Antonio Galloni, Vinous, February 2018) — 7 years ago

Delectable Wine

Follow to learn about our favorite wines & people.

9.6

The 1983 Cristal is fabulous. Rich, ample and generous, the 1983 is incredibly inviting, with tons of class and personality. A wine of real volume and textural breadth, the 1983 has enough pedigree to drink well for many years. None of the elements stand out in the 1983, the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. “Nineteen eighty-three is a different animal from some of the other wines of the decade,” Lécaillon explains. “It was a heavy crop, with a lot of fruit. There was so much wine in the cellar that the team could not get to everything in a timely fashion, and so there were some lots that started to oxidize a bit, and that, naturally, made the wine bigger.” In tasting, though, there are no off aromas or mushroomy flavors that suggest the wine is fading. If anything, the 1983 is spectacularly beautiful right now, even in the presence of other wines from more highly reputed vintages. (Antonio Galloni, Vinous, December 2018) — 7 years ago

Adam Jesberger

9.8

Fantastic, more towards a peak age than i thought it would be. This is drinking spectacularly right now, tasting like a vinous bordeaux. Extremely lengthy finish. — 10 years ago

Sarah O'Kelley

9.1

Vinous champ at its best! Cranberries and dry earth and I agree with that orange zest description! 😋 — 7 years ago

Delectable Wine

Follow to learn about our favorite wines & people.

9.7

Pichon-Lalande is the single hottest property in the Médoc right now. Although the Chateau has a long and esteemed history, a Second Growth in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, no less, it is the winemaking today that is taking the property to new heights. If you are looking to treat yourself with a wine that is truly world class in every sense, then look no further. The wonderfully nuanced, finessed 2014 Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande exudes pedigree. Crème de cassis, licorice, lavender and sweet spices are front and center, while beams of supporting tannins and acidity give the wine its energy and overall tension. All of the elements are simply in the right place. Powerful and also remarkably delicate, the 2014 Pichon Comtesse might very well be the wine of the vintage on the Left Bank. Don't miss it! (Antonio Galloni, Vinous, Feb 2017) — 8 years ago

Ludovic Anacleto

9.7

'96 vintage. Perhaps the best Dom Perignon I have had in a while. Absolutely perfect DP, tight, crisp, vinous and complex. Nose of honey, chalk and touch of spices. It's Champagne at a very high level. The acidity is spectacular here and the final goes for minutes. What a wine! — 10 years ago

with Bernardo

Delectable Wine

Follow to learn about our favorite wines & people.

9.3

Good medium red; not particularly saturated but with a healthy rim. Alluringly scented, wild-yet-somehow-refined aromas of musky raspberry, strawberry, rose petal, brown spices, cedar, underbrush and coffee; this smells sweet! Silky, stylish and weightless, showing lovely stemmy definition and lift to its flavors of wild red berries, mocha and dried flowers. Not a particularly dense or fleshy style but an alluring, vibrant drink that's perfect right now. In fact, in spite of its intense fruit component this wine may only thin out from here. This subtle, elegant Clos des Lambrays finishes with a firm dusting of tannins and a light touch. (13.7% alcohol; 3.59 pH; 3.5 g/l acidity) (Stephen Tanzer, Vinous, April 2019) — 7 years ago

Delectable Wine

Follow to learn about our favorite wines & people.

9.5

The 2014 Léoville Las-Cases has a (typically) more introverted, tertiary, austere bouquet compared to the Léoville Barton. Despite coaxing it does not possess much lift – sullen, a wine with a "Closed" sign dangling on the front door. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, solid with a sweet core, nicely proportion but just not quite conveying the same joie-de-vivre and energy as its peers. "Perhaps it is saving everything for later?" are the words I penned before this wine's identity is revealed...well, I should have known. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting. (Neal Martin, Vinous, March 2018) — 8 years ago

Naoki Kondo

9.2

Happy holidays! My first vintage champagne. Nutty, berry, apricot, touch of yeast. Complex Koku. Fine delicate bubbles. Today I used a new good champagne glass and I realized that a grass matters. — 9 years ago

Michelle Matthews

9.0

This Tasmanian winery make four different Rieslings based on different residual sugar levels. — 11 years ago