2019 Dom. Rion Chambolle-Musigny Les Cras
Very good, so smooth and elegant. Raspberries, good acidity, fresh and cool feel. Should improve with age but how to resist?
2019 Louis Jadot Clos Vougeot Grand Cru
Fresh and vibrant. Very nice acidity and some darker fruits on display. Well behaved tannins, superb length! Very young at this stage but good portents for its future.
Glad it was a good one! I’ve had some good experiences over the years but so many bad ones that I gave up, especially since the prices have risen. Hopefully the Quié family will sell it eventually because it really could be so much better.
First time with BAMA. Nice soft tannins. Dark berry fruit, notes of moss and old potting shed. A little thin on the palate at first but put on weight after a bit of slow ox. I paired with filet mignon and sautéed mushrooms which maybe overpowered this wine a bit. Still nice wine maybe starting it’s decline.
1998 Ch. Canon-La-Gaffelière, Saint Emilion
With Sunday dinner, 1st of a 3-bottle at-release purchase.
Splash decanted back into bottle 30 minutes before 1st pour. This right-bank Bordeaux was in a great drinking stage.
Saint Pierre 2016, Saint Julien, Bordeaux, France
The wine owns full completeness and enters its drinking window! Better than another bottle I opened months ago. Red and black fruit. More black like blackberries, black currants. A special sweet & sour fruit aroma…fig? Huge loads of wet mud at first, then turned into desirable quantity of dry dust after an hour of airing. Bitter coffee. A little Tobacco. The previous bottle had leather smell, but this one didn’t.
Also brilliant in mouse. Not exceptional but complete. Well-polished and round medium tannins made a refined and delicate Saint Julien. Full bodied, good concentration, optimal acidity made it no burden to chew the already refined tannins. Juicy with a dry finish though.
It wasn’t a grand chateau or palace in my brain. Instead, it was a magnificently decorated two-store classica villa.
I’m having a Guigal Gigondas while we wait for trick-or-treaters to appear. I’ve never had a Gigondas before (and I have little experience with Northern Rhône), so I thought that Guigal would be a good baseline to start with.
Gigondas is Southern Rhone. More like a CdR on steroids.
I stand corrected. For some reason I had it in my head that it was north. Clearly I still have a lot to learn!
Last night, one of the worst wines I’ve been unlucky enough to taste (the first place of shame remains the Betsileo Rouge from Madagascar).
Maison Gilliard Assemblage Rouge Porte de Novembre
A friend brought this over before we went trick or treating with the kids. As soon as I got a whiff of this I asked: “Is this mulled wine”? It reminded me of a vin de Noël I was served once which could be drank (turned out it actually couldn’t) hot or cold. I thought it was the same kind of sweet mulled wine in a bottle. The friend looked at me like I had lost my mind and told me that it was a red wine from the Valais. I should have looked at the bottle more closely. It did say: off-dry red blend.
Ugh. Sweet cloying christmas spices, sweet syrupy berries and vanilla extract. I didn’t finish my glass, saved by the kids who wanted to start their Halloween run.
The website says it pairs well with antipasti, grilled meat, spicy food and chocolate.
Bought a 1961 of this hoping vintage strength could trump producer weakness. Producer beat vintage handily, barely any life in it.
Hopefully your friend isn’t a secret beserker and see your review ha
I’m willing to take that chance to issue my PSA 
!
Opened an Epoch Estate 14’ Authenticy around 2PM yesterday and poured it into a decanter. Finally got around to this after the kids went to bed trick or treating, 7 hours later. I dropped off the Epoch list probably not long after buying this bottle and I will say that was a mistake because this wine was drop dead grogeous. 89% syrah, 11 % mourvedre. This is one of those bottles where you savor every sip and wish you had more bottles.
I’ve loved every Epoch I’ve had other than a Zin that was past its prime (but still fine). It has been surprisingly easy to find 7-10 year old bottles of theirs at reasonable prices. I think a shop near me must have stumbled onto someone with a big collection to unload.
