Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.3

Merry Christmas 2025! 🎅🎄🎁 🍷 ❄️ ⛄️

23 yrs since birth and 21 yrs in bottle and the evolution is beautiful. Perfect w/the ribroast.

Fruits still holding with excellent integration. Blackberries, black plum to pudding, strawberries, raspberries, black cherries, sandalwood, soft, dark spices with gentle heat, mocha powder, some milk chocolate, caramel notes, understated graphite, anise to some black licorice, gravel, dry stone, used tobacco & leather, mid berry cola presence, dry twig, moist clays, red, dark florals with a violet frame, excellent acidity, well; made, balanced, tensioned, structured with an elegant finish that lasts nearly two- minutes and falls of soft earthiness & soft spice. — 5 months ago

Brenda Terzich-Garland

9.3

Dark crimson with purple hues in color. Very aromatic nose giving the wine it’s beautiful scents of black-red fruit, perfume, milk chocolate and toasted marshmallow with subtle notes of mint and cigar. Taste is smooth and elegant with a luscious feel. Red fruit/dark plum , spice and mocha flavors are dominant with secondary notes of gravel, tobacco and leather adding to its dry medium plus finish. A treat for sure on this lovely Saturday night. — 3 years ago

with Leslie, Karin and 1 other

Lee Pitofsky

9.4

The first couple times I tried 08 I was definitely too quick to judge. It needs a ton of air, and it’s different from the rich, oxidative, nutty house style of the past, particularly the warm and ultra forward 2006, the previous release. 2008 is indeed young, tightly wound with a pulsating core of energy.

The first glass offers very little. Subdued, austere and youthfully reserved. But ensuing pours eventually unleash its core of powerful clean orchard fruit, coffee bean and grilled nuts. On the palate it continues to become so much more textural with crazy gains in weight, depth and fruit intensity as the night goes on. It really fills the mouth, saturating the palate with a satin-like texture, ripping citrusy acids and saline laced minerals that follow deep into its finish. Enjoyable now with enough air (needs 2 hours), but no doubt one to hold. To live forever. — 3 years ago

Lee Pitofsky

9.8

Disg. 2/14 (07 base)…Always my favorite of the Lieux-Dits and without question one of the very best Blanc de Blancs Champagnes on the planet, it’s particularly special to have with some bottle age. It’s absolutely as stunning as hoped—rich and powerful with crazy depth to its layers with a deep, complex core of caramelized orchard fruit, roasted nuts, old rum barrels and candied white flowers, all with seamless integration. The palate is generous and detailed, with racy acids, waves of saline laced, chalky Le Mesnil minerals and a finish that just stays with you. A BdB benchmark, legendary bubbles. — 8 months ago

Eric Urbani

9.0

4 months on skins in clay amorphae — 3 years ago

Sébastien F

9.2

Beau savagnin de maceration. — 4 years ago

Steven Gullo

9.0

Vibrant red fruit, bold tannins, peppery. — 8 months ago

James Burge

9.2

crazy wine - real musk and olives all over the nose and palette. awesome stuff from cote rotie — 9 months ago

Matthew Cohen

9.2

Lovely balanced nose. Crazy spice panapoly as it opens. Cinnamon. Nutmeg.

Palate is dark cherry fruit. Spice. Very fresh.

Fass selections. — 3 years ago

Steven Richardson

9.2

Very Soft apple cider. Maple wood, the “milk” in milk chocolate, not the “lavender” in lavender, but the “milk” of lavender? Whatever it is, there is like a floral or herbal substance or spirit animating the flavour that’s carried by the “milk chocolate”. Some kind of cucumberism?

Lots of complexities to this despite being a red blend. I guess, maybe that explains the encompassing or hard-to-nail flavours. It’s an archetype or an ensemble rather than something singular. That said it’s got plenty of personality. — 4 years ago