Archives: Product Reviews

Red-ruby. Black cherry on the moderately ripe nose. Not particularly concentrated, but supple, round and fleshy, with a chocolatey ripeness. A rather gently styled wine with good depth and length. In a small group tasting of Graves wines, this was quite appealing, while a number of other wines, a few of which normally perform well…

Dark, ruby-tinged red. Perfumed scents of cassis, crushed raspberry, bay leaf, tobacco leaf and curry powder. Boasts excellent intensity and thrust but still youthfully dumb and clenched in the mid-palate. But this wine boasts terrific depth to its flavors of dark berries, flowers and spices. With a firm spine of ripe tannins, this wine has…

Finally, a 2014 Coleraine from Te Mata in New Zealand, still very young but sporting fresh, pure red fruit on the nose and primal, sappy redcurrant and strawberry on the palate that obviously needs another two or three years.

Medium red-ruby. Black raspberry and roast coffee on the sexy nose. Sweet, pliant and generous, with a burst of fruit and nicely integrated oakiness. Juicy for a wine this rich. Finishes with fine tannins and very good length.

The 1996 Château Margaux stands as one of the pinnacles during Paul Pontallier’s illustrious tenure. I remember it dazzling out of barrel, perhaps my first memory of tasting wine at that prenatal stage. It has retained the fabulous tension and freshness on the nose, every atom infused with mineralité, subtle pressed flower/violet scents unfurling with…

Bright full ruby. Pure, perfumed aromas of cassis and violet. Dense and tactile in the mouth; a huge, chewy wine with major extract but also considerable refinement. Almost painfully backward today, and a bit less perfumed than it was in the year or so after the bottling, but the huge tannins show no hardness. Another…