Hayley Lalchand

9.4

totally perfect amount of dryness, rich, spicy, delectable (note to self ryan loves this one) — a month ago

Bob McDonald

9.4

Winner of the James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge from 680 entries in 2014. See previous Delectable note. Those modern leesy, flinty, struck match and smoky notes have come together nicely at 11 years of age together with nectarine. Delicious - sadly my last bottle - wish I had a few more. Yet another great producer of top quality Chardonnay from Margaret River. — 2 months ago

romo

9.4

Rises above the cloud layer to match dripping rib-eyes. 🥩 Constant interplay between savory and brambly concentrated fruit. Wow. — 8 months ago

Robert Stackowiak

9.1

Fruit still present with smoke and earthy on the palate. At 9+ years old, drink now as it at its peak. February 2024. — 10 months ago

Conrad Green

9.5

Amazing bright fruit. Stuck match, vivacious lemon and steel. Great texture and dazzling acidity. Delicious — a month ago

with Lindsay

Ivor

9.1

Well developed and plateauing now. Lacks fruit density to carry tertiary development. Great match with veal cheeks, wild mushrooms and risotto. — 2 months ago

Bob McDonald

9.7

At my 2015 Chardonnay Challenge the Giaconda was a consensus 3rd. Easily the most smoky, sulphidic, struck match of the 6 wines. I loved it. On the palate a powerful wine. Opulent. This wine is becoming difficult to source and sells out in a flash upon release. — 4 months ago

Doug Powers

9.3

[Half bottle] This lovely 17-year-old Banyuls has finally knitted together into a very fine example of Dr. Parce Banyuls (old vine Grenache made in the same way as Port), earlier bottles were terribly disjointed and lacking balance and sweetness). Served with Viennese Sacher Torte my wife made for dessert!

Our first Dr. Parce was the 1967 “Vielles Vignes” which was fantastic and is still my reference point. We had that in 1987 at Pierre Gagnaire’s restaurant in St. Etienne, before he moved on to Paris, his staff was kind enough to comp us a bottle — blind — while my brother and I embarrassed ourselves trying to identify the wine!! That bottle was tried with Pierre’s famous “chocolate soup” dessert, the recipe for which was in Patricia Wells’ “Food and Wine Lovers of France” book from the mid-1980s — memorable combination!!! — a month ago

with Jim

Conrad Green

9.5

A punchy nose with struck match, honeyed lime. Stone and flint. Rick and great acidity subtly laced throughout. Excellent — 4 months ago

with BOT, Jean-Francois and 2 others

Pinotman /// Andreas

9.8

Tried side by side. Tasting these since 2009. These are now classic wines. The vineyards are very close to the tree line of the western slope of the black forest in Baden. Who knows what these clones are? May be the Cluny Monks brought them up from France. These are world class Grand Cru level Pinots and are stupid underpriced. With age they turn into incredible beauties which easily match GranCru Burghs. Will be a 10 in 5 years from now. The Muschelkalk is always lighter in color ethereal and elegant. Black forest thyme, touch crushed marble, wild sour raspberry, hint of black forest morello cherries, cranberry, Mexican lime, green moos. This needs to uncoil over night to really get the potential of this. Quite acidic. 12.5%. A stellar vintage. And sleeping beauty. I would say not approachable for a novice at this point. Lucky for me my neighbors get it. Revisit in 2031. — 10 months ago