Tenuta Friggiali

Brunello di Montalcino Sangiovese 2015

9.3

@Jan de Weerd recently reviewed a bottle that sounded like it might be advancing quickly, so I decided to pull my last bottle of this. Luckily, it’s drinking beautifully. Gorgeous nose shows all sorts of complexity. Earth, roasted root vegetables, macerated dried cherry, warm gravel. Rich and soft in the mouth. Totally resolved. I can’t imagine this getting any more pleasurable than the state it’s in. There’s still some significant but soft tannin, but it’s so good now I wouldn’t wait any more than a year or two to enjoy. — 8 months ago

Ron, Jan and 20 others liked this

Jan de Weerd

Wonderful, Tom! Yeah, so many factors playing a role how you experience it. Cheers!

Under the Wire

Sparkling Alder Springs Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017

Shengli Hu

9.4

Salmon color, milk bread toasted just right, yeast! yeast! yeast! tangerine, fresh, strawberry, peach, wet stone, elevated acidity, long finish. 3 years on lees, 2 years in bottle, disgorged in Jan 2020. — 2 years ago

Aravind and Shay liked this

Merryvale Vineyards

Jan Vineyard Zinfandel 2009

Steve Somermeyer

9.4

This Zin is at it’s peak. From a fellow ZAP volunteer photographer’s vineyard Barry grew great grapes. — 3 years ago

Vignerons des Dentelles

Gigondas

Ronan Palmer

2020 €28.95 O’Briens Douglas 231231
Drank weekend of 26 Jan 2024 — a year ago

Vouette et Sorbée

Fidéle Extra Brut Blanc de Noirs Champagne Pinot Noir

Shay A

9.2

I’m between 92-93 here. I bought this at the same time as the Marguet Shaman 17 I opened two weeks ago and wanted to try them fairly close together for comparison sake (both are grower, zero dosage), and the V&S wins (more body/richness).

Jan’21 disgorgement. Gold in the glass. I’m not a fan of decanting champagne, but I do love drinking champagne from wider bowl glasses to air them out gently, which this benefitted from. Doesn’t have that really brisk Carmex aromatic I get with many lean grower champagnes. It sports a gently oxidative flair with golden pear, red apple, and honey roasted cashews. The palate has a distinct bakers yeast note along with classical chalky limestone too. It was a match made in Heaven with lobster corndogs! Will purchase again. — 2 years ago

Jan, Ted and 30 others liked this