Vanessa

9.5

Let’s talk about SAVENNIÈRES!!!! 📣📣

Savennières is a small but mighty appellation (AOC), located in the Anjou subregion of the Loire Valley, France and specializes in still, dry Chenin Blanc wines. 🇫🇷

Its growing environment is apt for producing concentrated and ripe fruit, translating into wines with strong aromatic and flavor intensity and higher alcohol potential. 💪🏻 It’s no wonder this appellation is all about Chenin Blanc; Chenin has naturally higher acidity, which can help lend structure and balance to the final wine. ⚖️ 🙌🏻🙌🏻

The combination of these factors sets the stage for winemakers to produce some truly powerful and age-worthy whites that can improve, gaining complexity (and softening) with some time in the bottle. 🤔 🧐 Savennières has a reputation as a more serious, cerebral wine that is meant to be savored, especially when paired with a creamy seafood dish like Coquilles Saint-Jacques! 😋 🥘

🌿This particular wine is the Nicolas Joly, Clos de la Coulée de Serrant AOC (2019) hailing from the prized enclave of Coulée de Serrant AOC (within Savennières AOC), owned exclusively and farmed biodynamically by the renowned Nicolas Joly.

This wine is surely capable of aging for decades but tonight we opted to sip this golden wine during the golden hour with unseasonably warm, summery temperatures here in Minnesota.

🐝 🍯 In the glass, we found concentrated, layered notes of honey, beeswax, yellow apple, ripe apricot, quince, chamomile, dried & crushed white rose petals, toasted almond, hazelnut, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, acrylic paint, wet stones, salted caramel, & butterscotch.

It has texture (and finish) for days and a coating mouthfeel.

🫣 Its alcohol by volume clocks in at 15%!!! But it’s well-integrated and balanced by a crisp acidity and robust aromas and flavors. 👌 — 6 days ago

with Deked1

Ira Schwartz

9.5

I have not had many DP Rose’s. On the nose, extremely expressive scents of red fruits & flowers. One of the most powerful champagnes I have tasted. I felt like my taste buds were being held hostage by various red fruit and acid. An unapologetic finish that handcuffed my mouth.. — 2 months ago

Jack Krawczyk

9.5

delightful honeydew — 4 months ago

Ron Siegel

9.4

I have always enjoyed this wine & decided to open one of my last few btls out of an owc. This had a perfumed nose of red & black fruits, mocha, graphite, menthol & tobacco notes. One of the wines of the vintage. — 5 months ago

Smf

9.5

Went well with prawns — 6 months ago

Vino Joe

9.8

Wow. Wow and wow. This was amazing! It’s definitely still early on. I let this decant for 2.5 hours before the first sip. It was revved and ready by then and was stellar by hour 4+. Rich and deep but silky smooth. Currants and an earthy/smokey quality. Loved this! — 8 months ago

Ray Vanderhoff

9.4

Excellent follow up to the classic 2016 Vintage. Blend of Mourvèdre (30%), Grenache (30%), Syrah (15%), Counoise (10%) and the balance (15%) made up of other approved CDP varietals led by Vaccarese’. Aromas of red and black fruit, garrigue, leather and earth. Flavors of black raspberries, currants and cherries, Asian spices, smoked meat and truffles. Long and lingering (slightly spicy) finish and beautiful balance. Full bodied and dense, but not overpowering. Fine grained tannins and amazing complexity. Great now, but there is another decade (or so) of aging potential. Just incredible. — 7 days ago

Daniel M

9.0

R. Lopez de Heredia, Viña Cubillo, Rioja Crianza 2017
This is one of the many bottles we brought back in the trunk of our car from Spain and France after our summer stay over there. The nose shows dark berries, prune, meat juice, autumn forest soil after rain, oak. This is rather complex and layered. The palate is very well made and defined. There is a good acid drive, some nice dark berries and dark cherry notes all along, some width, some spices, a good tannic wall in the rear, disturbing ever so slighlty the mouthfeel by leaving a grippy, drying layer over a long, fruity, spicy finish which goes on for quite a while. The meat juice note that was showing in the nose makes a come back in the very end, adding a savoury, umami touch which is pretty nice, I must say. It's not at the level of the viña tondonia 2011 I tasted a while ago (and it costs only a fraction of the price) but it's very good Rioja Crianza in its own right. Not in-your-face, fresh and balanced winemaking style. Great effort !
90 out of 100 — a month ago

KA

9.2

Ceiba Orlando — 12 days ago

Alvaro Bustillos

9.4

Billy shanon lalo barbara @ asador bastian — 3 months ago

Stefan Dolhain

9.2

2019 vintage. Still young. As usual, very reliable. — 5 months ago

David Miska

9.2

Wonderful — 5 months ago

"Odedi"

9.3

#AgedWineTuesday

Very pretty color of peach with a salmon hue.

Strong nose of apples, citrus, peaches, yeast, light bread and minerals.

Medium plus in body with medium acidity and tiny bubbles.

Dry on the palate with raspberries, over ripen strawberries, apples, limes, yeast, sea salt, brioche, spices, minerals, light earth and cardamom.

Long spicy finish with limes and grapefruits.

This 14 year old Rosé Champagne is drinking beautifully already, and will continue to age nicely in the next 10 years. Elegant, spicy and rich. Fruity and nicely balanced, complex and engaging.

Wine Spectator 96 points. Wine Advocate 95 points.

Good right out of the bottle, and better when not too cold.

A great sipping wine that paired beautifully with my Tuna Avocado Tartare.

A blend of 67% Pinot Noir and 33% Chardonnay, with 5% red wine. Disgorged in 2020.

12% alcohol by volume.

93 points.

$200. — 6 months ago

Pierre Gourinchas

9.3

Really delicious — 9 days ago

"Odedi"

9.3

#AgedWineTuesday

Dark ruby in color with a wide reddish/ brick rim.

Medium plus in body with medium acidity.

Dry on the palate with a beautiful nose.

Showing black plums, black currants, cedar, dried figs, licorice, dark chocolates, earth, rhubarb, tobacco leaf, light black tea and black pepper.

Long finish with soft tannins and tangy cherries.

This 32 year old Pauillac is still drinking beautifully, but a bit past its prime. Rich and elegant. Very complex and spicy.

This Second Growth Bordeaux needed 5 hours to open up properly, and was not that special right out of the bottle.

Nicely balanced with a nice mouthfeel, and still showing enough fruits to balance the earth notes.

Robert Parker 91 points.

Good by itself as a sipping wine, and with food.

A blend of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 8% Petit Verdot.

12.5% alcohol by volume.

93 points.

$200. — a month ago

Yoly Sardinas

9.1

2019, 2018, 2017 - we enjoy them all. At the Chateau Pichon Baron facility. Incredible tour . — a month ago

Daniel M

9.2

We are celebrating my daughter's entering teenage years (tomorrow) and this Château Pape Clément 2012 is a year older than she is. I bought 2 bottles of it at a foire aux vins in 2014 back in Paris, have kept it since then, it went through a bunch of moves, including one from Paris to Warsaw and it came back in the trunk of our car this summer for the occasion. The carbon imprint of this (very heavy, on top of it) bottle is not great...
It was served along 2 massive beef tomahawk steaks cooked to medium-rare perfection by my dad.
Cassis, tar, tobacco, cedar, oak, a touch of red bell pepper which turned into menthol and black pepper as the wine warmed up in the glass (I had it chilled to 16°c and opened to shoulders).
The palate is full bodied, broad, layered, with cassis, black cherry, tar and oaky notes all along. It rolls on the tongue. The mouthfeel is soft and delicate but mutes into a grainy, gravely tannic wall that disrupts the finish and creates an additional layer of complexity. The finish is long, complex, evolving a tiny bitter note in the very end. The vintage is what it is and it can be felt in the way the wine is broad without being the broadest and in the mouthfeel which is a bit soft and lacking a tad of thickness. It's nevertheless a great wine which went super well with the steak. Happy Birthday Amelia! — 2 months ago

"Odedi"

9.2

Dark ruby in color with a wide reddish rim.

Red fruits on the nose and medium plus in body with medium acidity.

Dry on the palate with nice complexity and mouthfeel.

Long finish with round tannins and tangy cherries.

This young Mourvedre from Bandol is starting to drink beautifully now. Already showing nice complexity and good balance, and will continue to age nicely in the next 10 to 15 years.

Soft and elegant. Complex and interesting. Easy drinking and good by itself or with food.

A blend of 90% Mourvedre and 10% Grenache. Aged in used French oak barrels for 18 months.

14.5% alcohol by volume.

92 points.

$60. — 6 months ago

Ming L

8.9

The nose shows fresh apple and pear, with a subtle, fleeting hint of brioche. The palate is defined by a crisp, direct attack that yields to a somewhat firm, fruit-driven structure. Fine lively bubbles.

Not my favorite entry level NV Champagne, but it’s quite pleasant. — 7 months ago

Thomas Hillskog

9.1

Peak maturity now better than 2 and 4 years ago. Still fruity but with more complexity an soft tannins. — 8 months ago