Clemente Barbaresco 1978: it is strange, I have never been able to find any other wines from this producer, or in fact any other information on him. Had this last week, and it is very impressive. Old fashioned earthy, with a lovely core of fruit. 94
Margaux 1996 A small sip at the Zachys auction on Thursday was the best wine there, laid back dark fruit, serious but finely structured + a nice edging of oak and tremendous length. 98
Giacosa Falletto 1995 From a seriously underrated vintage that is just beginning to drink well now. This was a very pretty wine, that had plenty of licorice, fresh dark fruit, as well as a plum element. Bright and lovely on the palate. No need to hurry to drink but a nice way to begin your maturity. 93
Zind Humbrecht Heicourg Gewurtz 1989 Just gorgeous; big thick, quite sweet. Very complex with telltale grapefruit and white pepper flavors along with some apricot. Unctuous. 98
Etude Pinot 2003 a very likeable fruity wine. Plenty of Pinot fruit. Not too complex and no great challenge, but a nice gluggable bottle. 88 points
BR Cohn 1985 As this is Helen Turley’s second wine commercially available, I thought it would be interesting to see how it had aged after twenty five + years. As previous samples have shown, it has softened, and lost a little bit of the great fruit it had in its youth, but there was no extra compensatory complexity. . What I did not expect was how quickly the wine collapsed in the decanter. Within an hour it was showing signs of serious oxidation. 89 points at its best.
Dujac Clos St. Denis 1996 Two notes from two different sources drank within 48 hours of each other. First bottle lovely fragrant with plenty of fruit and a beautiful complex sous bois character beginning to emerge. 94
The second bottle a truly marvelous version with a easygoing ,even more complex complex with great fruit and an easy finish. I love this wine but it was interesting that it seemed so much more mature than the older Damoy. 95 points
Damoy Chambertin Clos de Beze 1993: this just sang from the bottle. Has he ever made a wine close to being as good as this? Wonderful, nose of dark fruit, earth, lavender and woodsmoke. That floral character came through even more strongly on the palate. Still not fully mature, the wine bunched up in the mid palate, so currently not showing quite the length of the Dujac, but impressive enough anyway, and I think will begin to unfurl a few years down the line. Very impressive. 95 points.