Carl Steefel

8.8

This went from backwards to over the hill in the space of about 4 years. This has list its spice and mist if its power, this really showed best when young. 2001 — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.3

Beautiful expression of Trocken Riesling, an almost impossible nose that is a combination of lemin curd, petrol. And more distant orchard fruit. This shows its sweeter side with air, but there is good volume here, and goid length. — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.4

1996 Ducru Beaucailou: Very dark ruby red, I guess this still would benefit from another 5-10 years (especially when comparing to something like the 10 year older Cheval Blanc). Still, an impressive cascade of exuberant dark cassis and menthol on the nose and surprising richness on the palate, this really is a 30 year wine. The tannins were maybe 90% resolved, but one had the impression of the wine still holding a little bit back. — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.3

Elegant, accessible classy Burg, great QPR. Airy, refined Gevrey nose, with a suggestion of sauvage underbrush dominated by red fruit. 2013. — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.0

Felsina CCR tonight, much more open and Chianti like, round and maybe a bit blunt, but makes me think I am back in Florence. On the nose, this is classic Chianti Sangiovese. Completely different from the Rancia. 2010 — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.5

Class, class, class here. After 20 minutes, I realized this had some substantial tannins, but these are playing second fiddle to the dark aristocratic fruit. Very assertive and powerful mid-palate attack that transforms to inner mouth perfume. This will be even better, which is saying a lot. — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.8

Informal gathering to drink some Bordeaux varietal bottles with steak.

1986 Cheval Blanc: This one showed suspect ullage, to the point where it had been hard to flip it. And in the end, it did turn out to be a controversial wine--was the orgasm 40 days, or was it 36 days? Hard to say... An extraordinary wine, classic in its own way, with fragrant dark flower and black cassis aromas wafting from the glass, and maybe more importantly for us, exploding in the mouth. Some of the more ordinary adjectives, like "smooth" and "balanced", are accurate enough, but obviously don't do this one justice. One could do a fluid dynamical description of the time evolution of this wine in the mouth, a broad attack that gave way in about 3 seconds to a sensation of acceleration and flaring across the entire breadth of the palate as the wine detonated, an oenological version of a jet... And then a persistent finish where the inner mouth perfume resonates as it fades slowly (or simply moved off to some parallel universe). — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

8.8

Hmmm, mostly over the hill despite perfect storage. This is lacking in energy, although I am pretty sure I would have guessed Grenache. Spicy red fruit is fading away, should have sampled 4-5 years ago. — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.1

Blue fruited Syrah, but with better delineation than many a Central Coast Syrah. Fragrant blueberry, blackberry nose. — 10 years ago

Carl Steefel

9.4

1997 Masseto: We had a 1998 Masseto a few months back and that one struck several of us as showing quite a bit of slightly drying tannin, a big, massive, mostly inpenetrable wine that probably needed another 10 years. The 1997 showed a quite different profile, good dense black fruit that only initially hinted at the Merlot character, but which gradually opened up in the glass to show a riper character with just a suggestion of red fruit. At least one taster thought the alcohol might have been a bit high, but mostly I just picked up the ripeness, framed by lively acids that energized the wine in the mouth. — 10 years ago