Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.8

Transcendence. No one does Cote de Beaune like Brisset. Mid season cherry that is so vivid I feel like I am hallucinating actual cherries. Super stoney and so so complex. Just insane. My god this man doesn’t miss. Palate is an orb of stunning perfection. All silk and sweetness. My god. The fruit clarity is just beyond anything the tannins are so clear, so delicate yet so Pommard. The back end is so clear and a bit truncated now but air will do this justice. The finish lingers. And lingers. And lingers. The fruit is so clear I can’t stop typing it. The finish just is so perfectly crafted. What a wine. Nose now has a hint of reduction that will blow off, some stoniness, some umami and just wow. 9.8 nose. 9.8 palate. This is the true delicate monster if there ever was one. So Pommard and yet so Brisset. The acid is just perfect as is the texture. Needs air. 9.7 for now. Will go up. What a wine now that it’s gotten some air. The nose is just amazing. Some milk chocolate now. Now it’s filling out and the texture is more velvet and the acid is vibrant and piquant. That sweetness is judged so perfectly. We are at 9.8 now. Wow the delineation is nuts here as is the liberality. The tannins are picking up steam but this is so so classy. Insane inner mouth aromas. Not touching for two hours. Now the finesse is in effect after an hour and it’s so juicy. Huge concentration and depth. So Pommard and yet to Brisset. Genius. — 15 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Stunning nose. Vanilla extract, slate, wild mint, cantaloupe, green apple and just so Mosel. Stunning peach and tangerine as well. Brilliant nose. Perfect balance of fruit and mineral. Palate is voluptuous, chiseled and concentrated with outrageous peach and melon fruit. Round yet incisive. Really complex and wide open. Sapid and dense. Such fleshy stone fruit and unreal purity. Gorgeous. The precision, nimbleness and clarity are top notch in this. — 3 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.8

The new Riserva from La Psigula. Stunning nose of deep cherry fruit. Mid season all the way, tar, leather, tobacco, and wow the leather. Like a horseback saddle. Palate is a real level up from the regular. Gorgeous tannins and unreal purity. Finish is forever. The mouthfeel and inner mouth aromas are top notch. Huge concentration and huge tannins but man are they ripe and silky. Now with air the mint on the nose is remarkable. It’s got that deep, feral Nebbiolo character. Just so dense and so wild. But also refined despite the sauvage. The spice and leather are so detailed. The palate does so many things at once that don’t seem possible. It’s supple, yet also has huge acid (21), It’s super silky and elegant yet has massive tannins that are so ripe. It’s a big wine but it’s also super nimble. My GOD, the leather horse saddle on the nose is incredible. Unreal palate saturation and this wine does two things at the same time. It’s enormous and nimble at the same time. It’s genius. The nose is just incomprehensible after 15 minutes open. A maelstrom of spice, leather, cherry and whatever else it decides it wants to be. Wow this is like an elite Barolo from 1985 or something. Insane!!!! The finish on this wine is ridiculous. Minutes. Sickness. Tannins are magic as is length of pure fruit. 9.8 now. Even better today. Nose has oolong tea aspects and incomprehensible depth. Palate is like the best Barolo you’ve never had. Juicy like nothing else. Literally insane. — 5 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.7

What’s a hot summer day without Delectable eating one of my better notes? I think this app was last updated during the Ford administration. The top cuvée at Spater-Veit and this is my first time sitting with it. Stunning wine of remarkable beauty. Best Mosel Pinot I have ever had. Nose is Vosne Romanee. Spice galore, a hint of citrus peel, stunning deep cherry fruit of the mid to late season kind. Slate, earth and gorgeous minerals. It’s so clear I am stunned. The detail on the aromas is remarkable. What. A. Palate. The tannins are remarkable. Sweet and ripe. The purity is just crazy. The balance is perfect. This is a 9.7. I cannot believe it. The finesse, the length, the sheer class of this wine is a new benchmark for Mosel and maybe all of German Pinot for me. I am floored. The mint, fresh spruce and desiccated leaves on the nose are remarkable in their clarity. The fruit is insane on the palate. The way it’s integrated with the tannins is just amazing. 9.7 for now and maybe 9.8? The elegance and fineness of this is remarkable. Just a benchmark. Tangy as well with superb inner mouth aromas. Really hasn’t budged in 25 hours. Super sweet and silky with preposterous length and those fine and ripe tannins. — 5 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.7

The great Monopole from Buffet. In some years this is neck and neck with Clos des Chenes and Taillpieds. Gorgeous nose of dried and wet leaves, deep cherry, some oolong tea, Really compelling fruit on the nose. Such clear cherry, cherry bubblegum which is so typical of Rougeotte and stunning florals. Nose is so layered and complex. Gorgeous. What a palate. That classic chord progression again if sour/mid-season and late season cherry along with unreal sweetness. The sour-sweet cherry combo in 23 is the Buffet signature. Really well worked velvety tannins and exceptional freshness and acidity. Terrific inner mouth aromas and such purity. Extremely complex already and such suave texture despite there being girth and structure as is par for the course of Rougeotte. This needs to open but I think once it does it will be equal to or surpass the Champans. Let’s see. The nose now is more feral, but sweet feral. Big cherry but the chord effect and a bit of a maceration effect. Then that Rougeotte Hubba Bubba thing. Wow this is so good. So shockingly intense like you stuck a fork in an outlet. This is better than the Champans. This has gotten so suave and explosive now. Unreal texture and sweetness plus the finish and attack just explode onto onto the palate. — 15 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

The nose is psycho. Lime zest, butter, actually brown butter, an airy ethereal quality, maybe some white peach, some citrus and unreal discreetly framed oak that has just made me shake my head how well integrated it is. Like insane. 9.8 nose. All the wet stones one can imagine. Florent is a completely different winemaker than when I started with him. This is super elite. The palate is a masterclass in controlled detonating So opulent yet so nimble. The texture, my goodness the texture. Silk. The finest silk. Extraordinary concentration and so nimble, so sappy and so pure. Unreal density and finesse and ultra concentrated. But so nimble it’s like a breeze on your palate. Acid is on point as is the structure which is architectural. More Gehry than Hadid. It’s got tannin and acid plus extraordinary length. There is real heft and density here but it retains this laser like delineation. Icing on a cake like texture now after some air and silly length. Stunning. With air this got crazy crazy elegant. Brilliant. — 3 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.8

One barrel every year. Over 100+ year vines. Is the nose a 10.0? I think so. Mint, dark cherry, stones on stones on stones. So much fruit. A hint of bramble. More on the nose soon because I needed to sip it and wow. Stunning depth, detail and vinous architecture. So brute but also so elegant. The contradiction at the heart of great Rugiens. Nose has so many different types of ripe cherry layered it could become its own aroma spectrum wheel. The most elegant, sweetest and wildest expression of forest floor ever. Just so Burgundian. Ok, the power, depth and concentration are next level but it’s all held together by a spider silk bow. What a wine. The Rugiens late breaking tannins are here in spades and they are so ripe, so velvety and so sweet. The balance is just PERFECT. Wow this is insane. As good a Buffet Rugiens as I have ever had. Let’s see what air does but I am at a 9.8 now. And now that air has done its thing the elegance is just next level. The finish is palate staining with the most intense old vine, tiny berry fruit intensity. Unreal inner mouth aromas. Just insane. I see this getting to a 9.9. As this has aired the fruit is sweeter and more aristocratic. The nose is all stones currently. This is so silky and refined but also the tannins are so Rugiens. Nothing like it. — 5 days ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.6

Champans is always, to me, the most friendly and “win over people” type of Volnay 1er Cru. Nose is superb with clear mid season cherry, some sour cherry, some earth, some mineral and some licorice. Gorgeous wild mint and such a bombastic perfume. So so floral. Just so pretty. That palate is classic 23 Buffet with the sour/mid -season and late season cherry like a chord progression. Stunning internal aromas. Amazingly sweet fruit accented by sour cherry and wonderful, velvety and sweet tannins. It’s just so friendly yet super serious as well. Unreal finish that keeps pumping the sweetness. Superb acidity and freshness and the grip and structure is legit but my goodness the sweetness and general puppy dog friendliness of Champans is shining through here. Brilliant. Really well balanced and just a gorgeous, velvety and silken texture. Excited to see where air takes this. After 45 minutes the nose is crazy complex and so airy with all the cherry chords and mint and even some sweet herbs. 9.7 nose now. Wow the sweetness and high pitch are bananas. — 15 hours ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Lyle had this 2 days ago

with Zach

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.8

Wow. This is one hell of a Taillepieds. Nose is deep, dark black cherry fruit with twizzler, mid season cherry with pitch perfect clarity. Taillepieds always brings the drama and this goes to 11. Dark roses, Dried and fresh. So complex and so darn dramatic, Gorgeous roundness to the nose. Just insane. 9.8 nose. Some wood spice, but more like shavings from 7th grade woodshop. Wow. That palate is just insane. It’s got the cherry fruit, sour, dark, mid season, dark red all on a chord progression and all at the same time. Cherry fruit, everything, everywhere, all at once. Unreal internal aromatic and it has a decadence but outlined by this tart cherry fruit that circles opulent black cherry fruit. Just stunning. More open than the Clos des Chenes. A genius wine. Equal to CDC in 2023. Wow this nose goes hard as air gets into it. My god this is hedonistic but also fresh and energetic like 2008 or 1996 but with the fruit of 2019. This is absolutely a showstopper. Gorgeous tannins. So well crafted. The purity is the star here as is the transparency. The nose goes hard after an hour. It’s hard to describe as it’s got a lot of “non wine” aroma. 9.8 nose. Heavenly. Super sweet and silky now. Gorgeous fruit and opulence. What a finish. Unreal blackberry and black cherry inner mouth aromas an hour in. So structured and young but just incredible. After a day this is just stunning. Deep, dramatic and juicy. Wonderful structure and sexy black cherry fruit. Silky as silky can be. — 5 days ago