2018 and 2019 side by side. Okay and tannic, but less so than the stern and bitter 2018, this 2019 has broader shoulders but has little fruit expansion to offer. Check back in ten years in hopes the…
2018 and 2019 side by side. The 2018 is all wood chips and bitter tannins. "Leave these alone," is the best advice I can give here. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit concerned about the direction…
A beautiful wine that seems to need a bit more time to unravel. Black cherry and earth dominate at the moment, with lurking complexity that beckons for a few more years in bottle before it comes to…
Primary black cherry fruit, slightly chewy, with subtle spice, rolling beautifully to an undulating finish.initially. The length is short lived, as its compactness closes it down on the back end with…
Slight poblano chili on nose with obvious funk. Ever so slight mushroom notes peeking out, but not so overpowering it becomes off-putting. Same flavors on the palate, with leather and green…
Funk on nose. No funk on palate, with a rounded mouthfeel and lighter fruit notes. Silky on the front end, but much shorter finish (compared to the 2014 served next to it). Soft and caressing…
Black cherry red and black licorice, Christmas spice and cedar provide a nicely medium-bodied richness; this had been open for 2 hours, which seems to be about right in terms of proper service.…
My second go at the 2016 Quintvs, this time at home under a more controlled setting. A little fruity on the initial pull of the cork earlier in the day. I then went with a slow O2 in the bottle over…
Smooth and silky, with a fully amalgamated profile that allows beautiful black cherry, currant, earth, and subtle spice notes to flow along the palate with Sinatra-esque light baritone crooning…
I've written a few times over the years on this wine and it has progressively become better and better. Now a decade from vintage, the Stardust Heaven is in a wonderful drinking window. Black and…
In a predominantly French folly of bottles at the table, the Immortal was clearly the Yankee gym rat trying to push its way through the patiently waiting line at the local Parisian jazz club. Huge,…
Smooth and slightly round on first entry, with the contours of the 2012 vintage showing a suave plane of velvety and flowing red and black fruit flavors. With blackberry, black cherry, saturated…
A perfect wine, and perhaps the best wine of the weekend. Black fruit profile (my favorite!), with dark spice, and black rock, black soil, black roses?!, black-black whatevers, bitter black…
This was a blind bottle of some sort of Cabernet Sauvignon-type or Cab-blend, presented by sfwinelover1. The profile was a bit funky and brambly, and certainly not immediately steering me toward…
A biiiiiiig daddy, the M7 is the most powerful and bicep-driven of all the 40+ wines served up over the course of three days. Having come off a tasting where the 2016 M7 was the belle of the ball in…
Rich without being rich, day one of this wine was fairly plush, pumping full throttled black fruit and chocolate notes out like a firehose. A baby Vice Versa M7, the Lail was unsurprisingly showing…
Restrained blackberry seed, dried thyme, black cherry, and river rocks, the Lore shares characteristics similar to a 2016 Shafer HSS served beside it, but for the profile of the Lore being more…
Tannic and drying, the chest on this thing is bumping and thumping with push, thrust, grip and clutch, but the fruit has a difficult time elbowing past the bro-code bullishness of the frame. Black…
The roots (literally) and history of this wine are indeed an interesting lineage to follow insofar as the To Kalon fruit and the MacDonald connection. For that, I am forever appreciative to have…
Saturating, juicy, delectable, and all the superlatives you can conjure up to describe what is indeed the most giving of the bunch. Heightened complexity is temporarily on hold during the initial…
Speaking of proper service, having this wine a couple of weeks ago and having it again now just shows how important knowing (or attempting to target) a wine's sweet spot in terms of air, temperature,…
Though the oak here is perceptible, it does not show as aggressively as Harlan on the initial pull of the cork. Earth, eucalyptus (or is it bay leaf?... or is it mint??), grippy unripe blackberry and…
At the onset, this bottle of Voleuse was like a little Sweetheats candy. "Be Mine. Cutie Pie. Hug Me. XOXO." I was always partial to, "For Shizzle My Nizzle." (Maybe that was a different candy -…
This was not part of the blind tasting of 2016 Napa Cabs, but of course, and you know how these things go, due to the continuing graciousness of our hosts, this 2019 MacDonald found its way into the…
Black earth, soil, black cherry, blackberry, and a slight vanillin chocolate note, this was the most succulent and deep wine in the lineup. It shows cascading opulence without being overdone. The…
