1990 vintage. Excellent fill and halfway saturated cork. Used a Durand but surmise a regular waiter's friend, wielded carefully, could have done the trick with the cork. Decanted and tasted after 30 mins, one hour and two hours. Some obvious sed but not troublesome or overtly noticeable. Original owner-château direct on original release. Super cold cellar because this was lagging noticeably behind other '90's and LB's. Bigger tannic structure (for a generally feminine-styled house) than anything save a Latour, Mouton, Ducru Left Bank property. Even more guts than Lynch-Bages or Pichon-Baron '90's currently stored above 55 or so degrees. Surprising but made sense. Light-medium body. Appropriate color. 3-4 years left in this stage unless larger format in play. Slight, fleeting burst of richness in the frontal palate and a tad brickish and then it just flowed on, without speed bumps. A little cocoa powder and cedar/tobacco. Suspect 750ml specimens not stored as cold/religiously will be showing more in the 9.0-9.1 range and farther down the backside of the bell curve. 10.26.24. — 5 months ago
02.15.25
Yum. Friends for life. — a month ago
Balanced wine. Bought at Enoteca for ¥7,800. — 5 months ago
What a delicious 16 year old Bordeaux from Saint Julien.
Dark ruby in color with a wide brick rim.
Full-bodied with medium acidity.
Dry on the palate with nice complexity.
Showing black fruits with cedar, licorice, coffee, light earth, herbs, spices, tobacco leaf and dark chocolates.
Elegant and easy drinking once it opens up. Needs 3 hours.
This second wine is drinking very nicely now, although not from a great vintage.
Good by itself as a sipping wine. Would also pair nicely with game meats or lamb dishes.
13% alcohol by volume.
92 points
$80. — 7 months ago
Popped and poured; enjoyed over the course of several hours. The 2003 pours a deep garnet color with a near opaque core; medium+ viscosity with moderate staining of the tears and some signs of fine sediment. On the nose, the wine is vinous with powerful notes of ripe and slightly desiccated black and red fruits: cassis, mixed brambles, dark cherry, pipe tobacco, purple flowers, leather, graphite, some earth and soft baking spices. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium+ tannin and medium acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is long and slightly savory. This is/was a rather unique vintage through Europe and yet, this is showing extremely well. Drink now with a brief decant and through 2038. — 2 months ago
Just beautiful old, left bank BDX... But drink now — 3 months ago
Black fruit and plummy Bordeaux. From the left bank but drinks like right. Incredibly soft tannins, drinking quite well now. — 8 months ago
Andy Stabile
Damn good bottle of wine..
Edit… came back as I couldn’t stop thinking about this bottle all night.
California wines were my ‘gateway drug’. I moved away from these wines as I learned about and tried the many many varietals around the world. Ultimately, I fell in love with the quality and, frankly, accessibility of Italian wines. Over the last 5 or 10 years i’ve tried many Italians, travelled to and gotten to know the regions reasonably well. Italy vino is my thing.
But French wine… it eludes me. I know there are great wines — maybe the best. But the country is so large, the regions and varieties so diverse, the price, sometimes too discouraging, that I simply haven’t learned enough about the wines to know my way around the offerings or how to find the wines I love.
But… I know they are there. I’ve had my share. And just how “every now and then a squirrel finds a nut”, so to do I, from time to time find my way to a great French bottle to remind me I’ve leveled up.
This bottle, for me, was one of those reminders. I actually opened it by accident. While bummed it had no age, I was so happy to drink it. I’ll probably buy a few more to cellar… and, yeah, will probably now spend a little more time and money brushing up on my French…
— 4 days ago