Archives: Product Reviews

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Focus on California’s North Coast (May 2005)

Deep medium ruby. Knockout nose combines black raspberry, blackberry, candied violet, licorice pastille, black pepper and a suggestion of dusty earth. Like a liquid confection in the mouth: thick and sweet yet almost magically shapely and fresh. The longest, most inexorably palate-staining wine of my tour of the North Coast in early March: this lost…

2016 White Burgundy: Excellent, But Complicated (Sep 2018)

(only modest crop losses to frost and mildew here): Tight nose offers scents of mirabelle, grapefruit and anise. This, too, conveys an impression of creaminess, but is more concentrated than the Bourgogne Blanc in spite of the closer-to-normal vine yields here. Finishes with a firm edge that calls for a year or two of patience.

2016 White Burgundy: Excellent, But Complicated (Sep 2018)

(only modest crop losses to frost and mildew here): Tight nose offers scents of mirabelle, grapefruit and anise. This, too, conveys an impression of creaminess, but is more concentrated than the Bourgogne Blanc in spite of the closer-to-normal vine yields here. Finishes with a firm edge that calls for a year or two of patience.

Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1921-2016 (Oct 2017)

Super-ripe black cherry, plum, smoke, licorice make a strong opening statement in the 2008 Pichon Lalande. The late harvest that year yielded a decidedly super-ripe, exotic Pichon Lalande with captivating inner sweetness and gorgeous textural finesse. Naturally, the 2008 is young. Very young. Even so, it is stunning. Readers looking for an under-the-radar vintage to…

Bordeaux ’08: Far Better Than Expected (May 2009)

(63% cabernet sauvignon, 29% merlot, 3% cabernet franc, 5% petit verdot; 13% alcohol; 42 hl/ha; 50% new oak) Opaque ruby-purple. Lovely violety nose offers hints of orange peel, minerals and dried herbs. Somewhat more fleshy and dense than recent vintages, with moderate depth to the raspberry and redcurrant flavors, but turns a little austere on…

The 2008 Clarets (Jul 2011)

Deep red. Lively aromas of cherry, redcurrant, flowers, chocolate and tobacco. Intensely flavored, suave and sweet, with ripe acidity framing the flavors of bitter cherry, licorice and loam. Finishes with broad, building tannins and lingering smoky oak. This vibrant Pichon Lalande is built to age.