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The Best New Wines from Spain, Part 1 (Jul 2007)

Deep ruby. Complex, heady bouquet of kirsch, candied plum, cured tobacco, licorice, dried rose and cedar. Pungent herbal notes build with aeration and repeat on the palate, adding complexity to the deep, ripe cherry and dark berry liqueur flavors. Remarkably elegant wine with precise cherry/berry flavors and a slow-mounting mocha quality on the long, sappy…

Vinous Lockdown Special (Oct 2020)

The 2007 Vin de Pays du Bouche du Rhône Rouge is a wine of pure and total pleasure. Ripe, racy and exotic, the 2007 possesses tremendous richness from the very first taste. But there is more to the 2007 than just flamboyance. It remains a very young wine, mostly built on fruit, with not a…

2014 Gigondas Charms While 2015 Stuns (Sep 2017)

Brilliant ruby. Explosive dark berry preserve, incense and lavender scents, along with hints of allspice and dusty minerals. Sweet and focused on the palate, offering concentrated boysenberry, spicecake and floral pastille flavors that smoothly blend depth and vivacity. Closes on a gently tannic note, showing strong persistence, excellent clarity and a lingering floral quality.

Focus on Barolo and Barbaresco (Nov 2004)

(bottled in 2002) Full medium red. Reticent but highly nuanced nose combines hints of superripe red berries, minerals, truffle, mocha and tar. Rich, thick and velvety, with superb ripeness supported by underlying minerality. Wonderfully dense Barolo, at once round and solid. Very long, slow-mounting finish features big, broad, horizontal tannins. Giacomo told me that this…

2014 Barolo: Late Releases (Nov 2018)

The 2013 Barolo Ciabot Berton 1961 offers good depth, but the searing tannins make me wonder if there is enough fruit for the long haul. Dried cherry, tobacco, mint and leather begin to emerge over time, but only with considerable reluctance.

Purple Reign: La Conseillante 1966-2015 (May 2018)

The 2012 Duo de Conseillante is much better than the 2011: lively, vivacious red cherry and crushed strawberry fruit, a touch of sous-bois and cigar humidor. I like the delineation here. The palate is medium-bodied with a gentle grip on the entry. Certainly this Duo is not short of substance with a gentle tannic grip…