Archives: Product Reviews

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2001 and 2000 Rhone Valley Wines (Jan 2003)

Dark red. Inviting aromas of currant, leather, smoke, pepper and earth. Sweet, elegant and showy, with lovely juicy currant and pepper flavors. Has a distinctly claret-like weight and plummy character. Finishes suave and long. Showing a lot of personality today but this will evolve fairly rapidly. The 2001, which featured a stricter selection of fruit,…

2010 and 2009 Northern Rhone Wines (Mar 2012)

Opaque purple. Complex, highly fragrant aromas of candied dark fruits, cola, incense and violet, with bright mineral and spice nuances adding lift and energy. Stains the palate with deep blackberry and boysenberry flavors that expand and gain sweetness with aeration. Refuses to let up on the finish, which leaves peppery spice and floral pastille notes…

2006 and 2005 Rhone Valley Wines (Jan 2008)

Inky purple. Spicy dark berry and violet aromas build and expand with air, picking up suave mineral and sassafras character. Fleshy dark berry preserve flavors are complemented by zesty graphite and succulent herbs, finishing with superb depth and sweetness. Great material here, and I’ll bet that this will please drinkers not long after its release,…

1998 and 1997 Rhone Valley Wines (Jan 2000)

Ruby-red. Port-like aromas of black cherry, roasted currant and smoky oak. Extraordinarily silky and seamless in the mouth, with uncanny texture and great suavity. Extremely long on the finish, with the tannins buried in fruit. A remarkably lush, accessible La Chapelle whose sheer density of material should enable it to develop in bottle for 15…

Northern Rhône: Solid ’14 Reds and Outstanding ’15 Whites (Jul 2017)

Dark purple. An explosively perfumed bouquet evokes ripe dark berries, cola, incense and smoky minerals, and a suave floral topnote builds in the glass. Stains the palate with deeply concentrated black and blue fruit, violet pastille and spicecake flavors; juicy acidity provides back-end cut and lift. Espresso, licorice and dark fruit liqueur notes cling on…

Champagne: 2021 New Releases (Nov 2021)

The 2003 Dom Pérignon is in a gorgeous place right now. To be sure, it is a powerful Champagne that reflects the personality of a year marked by frost, that took out 70% of the Chardonnay, and then record heat and drought over the summer. The 2003 is just starting to head into its first…