Archives: Product Reviews

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2006 and 2005 Rhone Valley Wines (Jan 2008)

Opaque ruby. Sexy, hugely fragrant bouquet evokes raspberry, blackberry and kirsch, with a suave floral quality adding complexity. Very sweet flavors of red and dark fruit liqueur lead to silky tannins and a long, sappy finish. This is awfully seductive right now.

2006 and 2005 White Burgundies (Sep 2007)

Pungent stone fruits, cold steel, marzipan and charred oak on the nose. Large-scaled, tactile and quite powerful, with captivating, utterly pure flavors of pineapple, wet stone and minerals. Wonderfully sweet and smooth on the back end, with a lovely light touch, but the dusty, tactile aftertaste is stony and uncompromising. I’d forget about this extremely…

Cellar Favorite: 1978 & 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Dec 2019)

The 1990 Châteauneuf-du-Pape has a compelling bouquet of plump red fruit, oxtail, leather and morels, all well defined and full of chutzpah. The palate is smooth in texture and, at 29 years old, has certainly mellowed. There is a core of sweet fruit here, but it has softened with age and delivers a smorgasbord of…

Mouton Rothschild: 2003-2015 (May 2016)

The 2006 Mouton Rothschild is dark, powerful and intense, with firm tannins that need time to soften. This is an especially dark, somber Mouton. Dark black fruit, smoke, menthol gravel and cured meats are some of the signatures. Slight vegetal notes underpin the fruit. I am not sure the 2006 has enough freshness to be…

The Top Clarets of 2006 (May 2009)

Bright ruby-red. Vibrant aromas of cassis, blueberry, cedar and graphite. Wonderfully pure and silky in the mouth, with great subtle, slow-building intensity and superb energy and thrust. A real essence of cabernet sauvignon and Mouton terroir This one really rattled my brain-in the gentlest way. As silky as it is, it possesses bottomless depths. Finishes…

Focus on South Africa (Mar 2011)

Deep, full orange-gold. Knockout nose offers orange, apricot, cherry, raspberry, mace, nutmeg, honey and flowers. Thick, very sweet and hugely concentrated; like liquid velvet in the mouth but with outstanding energy to its palate-staining orange and apricot fruit. Utterly seamless wine with a palate-staining, lightly saline aftertaste hinting at red berries.