This is a nice glass of wine, but sorry, it’s a buck nekkid emperor.
Good provenance. Properly stored. Pop & pour.
Deep crimson to the rim. Secondary aromas are a little muted, with some black and damson plum, and a little hint of red raspberry. The palate is fresh and balanced, with reasonably nice mouth feel, a reprise of the fruits, a tiny and pleasant herbal hint. It is broad, balanced, and shows some maturity. It does not show much intensity or vigor. There is nice lift in the finish. There is refreshing acidity, and thankfully a sense more than flavor of oak. This is a very pleasant, polite bottle. I expected more. Rated 90, I doubt if it will improve.
I attended their summer soiree a few years ago and tried their entire 2013 lineup along with the 2003s, as they do a 10-year look-back. The event was elegantly catered and Pierre was a fantastic host; it probably the best harvest party I’ve ever attended. However, I just couldn’t get into the wine as they were so muted. After reading the reviews by Parker, and knowing the release prices, I remember thinking how underwhelmed I was at first sip. Surprisingly, the 10-year wine wasn’t noticeably different than the new release which clearly identified structure. I can only imagine that in 30-50+ years, these wines might produce a wild fragrant perfume, but when I had tasted them, the complexity and nuance wasn’t fitting with my palate. This is definitely old world style and I highly doubt anyone tasting these blind would pick out Sonoma over Right/Left Bank BDX, as each wine is styled in that fashion.
I had this once a number of years ago and had the same impression. I was…if not underwhelmed, then whelmed. Pleasant, but not a lot of intensity. As the price sky-rocketed, I’ve never been tempted to purchase another.
I served the '02 of this double blind to a group recently and while it got some good marks for being friendly, nobody thought it was particularly great or promising for future development.