This has lost a little steam since I last had it in 2016. Still "fine," but not as attention-grabbing as in the past. I like it. I don't love it. A Tuesday night throw-down with pizza kind of wine…
Finished the bottle. Previous note applies. This wine manages to pull off unctuous concentration and intensity while also maintaining a notable balance and texturally smooth delivery from beginning…
Red currant, cedar, underbrush, and some thin black cherry notes. A pedestrian front end attack, with a simple mid-palate and overly lithe finish. Not even that much acid or grip to cut the beautiful…
Barely a Viognier, with little-to-no characteristics of the actual varietal. At best, this came across like a weak, overly lithe and watery Chardonnay, with barely any distinguishable flavors beyond…
Coravin pour. An extraordinarily dark, concentrated wine, with black core fruit flavors of black currant, blackberry, black rock, dark bitter chocolate chunk, espresso, tar, black licorice, clove,…
Previous notes from a few months ago still apply. Needed a decent decant (2+ hours) before it really started to come alive and lose some of that firm grip it was exhibiting on PnP. Still good advice…
Similar to previous notes. Ripe red and black cherry and red raspberry core, with some strawberry, orange rind, wood, and spice. Drinking fine now. A tad heavy on the fruit, but the flavor push is…
PnP with a viscous and glycol-wrapped delivery on the front end; yellow citrus, Meyer lemon marmalade, lamp oil, vanilla-liqueur, and olive oil. A lot of booze on the back end, washing over the…
Dark black cherry, forest floor, pepper, earth, and spice. The darkest profile of the Pinots tasted. Medium bodied, with some booze on the back end that pulls you away from the core fruit just a bit.…
Ripe yellow core fruit, with a wonderful citrus marmalade flavor that really shaped the profile of this wine. Some olive oil, lemon curd, lemon zest, and tropical fruit notes emerged as well.
A mild mannered, easy going Chardonnay that appears ready for immediate consumption. Yellow citrus core fruit, with some slight spice and minerality. A bit more of a straightforward profile when…
Similar to my notes on this wine from almost two years ago. This particular specimen was from Magnum. With some swirling in the glass, this delivered some nice earthy black cherry, purple plum,…
Served alongside a 2012 Fleury BDX, also from Howell Mountain, which was a little more structure driven and less giving in the dark core fruit flavor department when compared to the more…
Served alongside a 2012 Tor Cimarossa, also from Howell Mountain, which was a little more giving in the dark core fruit flavor department when compared to the Fleury. The Cimarossa was rounder and…
The most flavor-driven of the Pinots served, the Velvet Sisters was kicking out ripe and sweet red cherry, red raspberry, orange rind, and evergreen notes. The alcohol lingered in the finish. The…
An intriguing Pinot Noir, medium in weight, with a "light on its feet" delivery, but with a beguiling complexity of flavors that really elevated it to the next level. Normally I prefer a little more…
This was served as a PnP directly out of the refrigerator, so my first impression was a little lost on the otherwise muted flavors. My initial sips showed some chalky rock and pithy yellow/white…
As others have noted, this is a big, adulterous, slap-yo-mama and run from the po-lice kind of Chardonnay. The frontal attack isn't "just" like a blustering vocal purging of the liquid incarnation of…
Try as I might, I just can't bring myself to find enjoyment in these Zinfandels. It's like a Pinot Noir and a jug of Welch's grape juice birthed an Ocean Spray Cran-Grape baby and then fed it Vodka…
All I can really say is that a side-by-side with a 1998 Domaine / Maison Vincent Girardin Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses made this Cirq taste like licking Courtney Love's oxycodone-ridden…
This BBS was a beautifully crafted, brooding but sultry beast, strikingly indicative of the best of what can come out of the alluring 2012 vintage and the Stagecoach site. Sexy black core fruit,…
Cocked, locked, and spitting black nails the size of broadswords right through the back of the mouth on initial entry. Decanted for a total of three+ hours, and it could've used even more air time.…
A year since I last had this wine. It should still be another year before I revisit it again. Previous notes apply otherwise, as this is overall a well crafted bottle of juice.
