Brent Young

9.2

Served with the Vinloq System from a 375ml after CNY dinner

Day 1
👃Apricots and honey🍯. Also peaches, and with time: pineapple and some light florality.
👅Peaches, tropical fruit, acetone. Hints of vanilla/oak especially on the finish.
Proper acidity and med sweetness
Alcohol not exposed. Nice 👍

Preserved in fridge under preservation gas. Sauternes resists oxidation well for multiple days or longer without preservation. However, I didn’t return to this bottle for over 4 weeks

Day 29
A new perfume note this time that I didn’t be notice on Day 1
A little more soft and rounded in character now but the same score
Still drinking nicely — 3 years ago

Martinez

9.1

VOS (very old Sherry), 100% Palominofrom the estate’s vineyards in Pago de Miraflores in Sanlúcar (just 3km. from the Atlantic Ocean) and Balbaína in El Puerto de Santa María, also exposed to the Poniente winds from the Atlantic. Due to this Atlantic influence, wines from these Pagos tend to be lighter, more delicate than those further inland, and this is a great example. Delicate, elegant nose with aromas of orange peel, raisins and a hint of spices. Slightly salty (clealy Sanlúcar). Persistent, hazelnuts — 3 years ago

Mason Powell

9.0

Decanted 30 minutes before serving with beef roast. Melts in your mouth at first, having surprising suppleness and fruit for 15.2 alcohol. As it warms and is exposed to oxygen it heats up without losing finesse. The best Zinfandel I’ve tried, and this is a blend from 29 vineyards. I need to climb my way up the Turley ladder and I don’t think I’ll come back down. — 4 years ago

Chris Zitzman

9.2

Violets bloom on the nose, and as it opens it works it’s way onto the palate with a TON of grace and fine-yet-lovely tannins. The mid-palate of this Tempranillo is one of the most accessible and expressive wines that I’ve ever had at its price.
And here I thought the secret of great, affordable Spanish wines had been exposed. The Obalo is a stand-out. — 4 years ago

with Beth

Everett Waltrip

9.6

2012 vintage, opens with roasted peppers and dark fruit, dark earthy tones and briary tones. After some air it reveals more dark fruit, plums and black cherry, tannins are quite gripping, all natural tannins not wood tannins from oak. After a few hours the fruit has more presence, still shows a bell pepper tone on the nose followed by gobs of dark fruit and sun exposed earth. Some herbaceous notes intermingled with forest floor. Could age longer or drink now, all up to the drinker I suppose. I like the balance of fruit, earth, herbaceous tones followed by the grit of the tannins. No sediment when I got to the bottom of the bottle. It was a crowd pleaser and in a blind tasting people were stumped when it was revealed. They all thought it could have been an Italian Cabernet from a cooler climate region. Would definitely recommend, great quality and beats out almost anything in the same price bracket from other producers, foreign or domestic. — 3 years ago

Carlos Gonzalez

9.2

If this was a picture it was perfectly exposed. — 3 years ago

Jan de Weerd

9.3

Hells Canyon makes one of the best, no let me correct, it makes the best Cab Sauv in Idaho from Idaho grown grapes on its estate vineyard. I have search, tried, compared now for nearly 20 years, there is truly no other Idaho winery who can make such consistently complex, well structured Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Idaho grapes. Hells Canyon winery has a prefect southern exposed vineyard looking down on the Snake River. I am guessing but the grapes much be about 35 year old now and the same winemaker all those years. The 2016 is full bodied with strong under notes of vanilla. More new country style with the strong dark fruit integrated with bold tannins . We had a third of a bottle left-over for the next day and it had settled down in a balanced, expressive, complex wine. This convinced me to cellar it away and try it in 10 years. It might become the the best ever! Before this one we tried the 1997, 20 years older. It was exquisite. — 4 years ago

with Tammy and Chris

Shay A

9.5

This was opened for my good friend, and winemaker for Montagu & Silver Ghost, Weston’s birthday. Our local group has long had many opinions on if Kongsgaard’s Judge is worth the up-charge due to expected lifespan. With Kongsgaard’s “death and resurrection” winemaking style, we’ve come across more overly oxidized bottles of Judge within 10yrs than we’d expect. And the regular Chardonnay bottling at less than half the price drinks just as good, if not better, at all stages. That being said, when the Judge is in that magical spot, it is simply spectacular.

My hopes here were fairly low in terms of vibrancy, but at first pour, I knew I was in for something special. Had that green tinge I come across ever so often (which normally leads to young wine and/or wine not exposed to oxygen…neither of those apply here). Steely and tart initially before turning quickly to a more powdered lemon bar, exotic tropical ripe fruits like nutmeg dusted white peach and juicy stone fruit (a bit Peter Michael Point Rouge like on the nose). Salted honey roasted cashews, pineapple, rich honeycomb and a lanolin type twang on the mid palate. Finish here is astoundingly lengthy. While this was likely profound 2-3yrs ago, it’s fantastic today (assuming you don’t experience bottle variation)! Drink up! — 3 years ago

Sipping Fine Wine

8.9

Belle Pente (bell-pont') means "beautiful slope" - for their 70 acre hillside vineyard & winery site in Willamette Valley. Ruby with aromas of red berry fruits, herb spices and hints of floral notes. On the palate strawberry and cherry flavors, sweet undertones, herb notes and smooth tannins. Well balanced on a long finish ending with mineral herb notes. Major flaw, THEY NOW LEAVE CORK EXPOSED!! Pass on this one! — 4 years ago

Vinoland.com

9.6

Barbaresco of a beautiful vintage, 2008, coming from a, we can say it, grand cru of Barbaresco, the Montestefano, completely exposed to the South, good component of blue marl in the subsoil.
The wine after two hours of opening is expressed with intense balsamic sensations of gentian, liquorice, dark chocolate and dark tones such as underbrush, musk and mushrooms and hints of ripe fruit.
Tannin still tense and alive, significant that would still be able to age very well.

Great Barbaresco with a complex and rich sip, fully representative of the territory.

Very little sulphur and intervention both in the vineyard and in the cellar.

Highly recommended — 4 years ago