2020 Les Horées Mon Poulain - purchased for €50, gamay and pinot noir blend. Very fresh and juicy with some natural wine notes. Slightly prickly acidity but lots of bright red strawberry and lilac. Very easy to drink with a long succulent finish. Worth the purchase price but not “current market” price.
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Tried a white from Olga Raffault for the first time:
Olga Raffault - Champ Chenin - Chinon (Blanc) 2019
Slightly odd mix of aromas - sea spray, lemon, grass and pineapple. Quite austere on the palate at first, very dry and lemony, then softens with tastes of pineapple and butterscotch, a little gooseberry added to the citrus fruit finish. Overall, not bad, a decent midweek bottle, but nothing special. It’s neither/nor: neither the honeyed fruit of a good old-school chenin, nor the electric sappy tension of today’s Young Turks.
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First try with this bottling, the Venise, a Vouvray in all but name. It’s a dense, concentrated and powerful wine; tightly wound but open enough to enjoy. The nose is just beautiful - honey, flowers, mango, and baking spice - and quite literally smells like a perfume. I found the palate to be shocking relative to the aroma, a bit tannic from the oak and aggressively tart. A much more masculine and severe profile than the nose would suggest. It’s not austere, to the contrary, it is packed with lemon, mango, and apple flavors, but with unsugared lemonade tartness. I suspect more bottle age will mellow the wine, but I rather enjoyed its ruffian character.
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2022 Rivers Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. Actually opened on Sunday night. Today with 1/4 left in the bottle it’s till awesome, still wouldn’t know where to find a comparable Sonoma pinot at $35. Medium acid and fruit, not sure what the oak % is (pretty sure 2021 was 0%) but I do get a tiny bit of vanilla.
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A nice lineup last night with @Mike_Evans @bradkaplan @rob_klafter Nice eclectic lineup and All wines showed well. Hard to beat LdH Rosados- always a lot to talk about there. And Vouette, and '98 Roilette…and…good ones, guys. Not pictured, '15 Trimbach Gewirtz VT with Brad’s crazy good torched- creme brulee-topped sweet potatoes.
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Yep, a night when everything is just strutting its own unique stuff. All of the wines also progressed nicely over the course of the evening… the LdH did its thing and continued to weave around in ways only LdH (whites and roses) can do. The Eyrie picked up both weight-wise and aromatics with plenty of air and was a joy. Dang the 98 Roilette was just fantastic.
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Went back to the 98 Roilette today for Day 2 leftovers: flat out beautiful wine. Nose is dark plum, a touch herbal leaning towards eucalyptus, a touch floral leaning towards roses, a bit of graphite. Super harmonious and layered, still vibrant dark cherry fruit but not at all dense or heavy, velvety texture, nice bright cherry acidity on the finish and long lingering pleasant tartness. I think this has years to go still in peak range.
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Glad to hear that it held up overnight. I still have one left so you have a good chance of seeing if your prediction of its future holds.
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Sandlands had fallen out of favor at Schloss Bueker, but this is lovely. It bears more than a passing resemblance to Ramey Fort Ross-Seaview Chardonnay.
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Some nice wines at a new restaurant for me in Bethesda/Rockville called Julii. Very good food. All four wines we brought were superb
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Opened up for apres ski. This was okay, which I suppose is better than oaky. Yeah, it’s been a long day.
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Hey…I didn’t realize that you and Elmo are fans of Cuvee Abigail! It’s always good to get endorsements from Stars! 
And yes, Abigail does benefit from a fairly good amount of air to show her best, despite being a 2008.
Very light even for Envinate, reductive (duh) and light brambles. Bought as a six with the single parcel versions so curious to explore.
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I love that bottling, though haven’t had that vintage.
Well is it time? I’ve been looking at a few bottles of that in my cellar for a long time 
Not yet, tannins still wooly. Damn nice tho! 
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