My favorite of the 2014 Janzen wines, notably besting its BTK and MH siblings, especially on the initial attack and with its mid-palate depth. A tremendous amount of drive and concentration, pushing…
Barrel sample. Blasts of dark and jammy black core fruit, spice, and earth. Chewy tannins, with a boozy, jammy attack that washes over the palate like a Mavericks crashing wave of wild, soil-driven…
An easy-going Cab that delivers some notable dark red and black core fruit flavors. Some dark spice (clove) and cedar elements provided a little extra lift. Medium-bodied overall, but a nice…
A bit too fruity and plumy for my taste. A fun red meat pasta at Olive Garden type of wine, but that's about it. A red cherry note competed with an alcohol-covered spice flavor that thinned out the…
Classic meets modern. Tight and coiled-up, like a snake ready to strike. Pretty massive overall, but also displaying an intriguing sophistication that draws one back for another sip. Needs air! Lots…
Wild blackberry, plum, asphalt, wood, charcuterie, and some garrigue. Some quasi-interesting flavors trying to self-identify, but overall lacking much-needed complexity and finesse. Powerful and…
Specific notes of dark candied black raspberry, black and red cherry, cassis, blackberry, fresh vanilla bean, dark chocolate, and some subtle grey river rock (adding a bit of cut through the…
The first pour of this wine was flawed, but the staff was nice enough to serve a freshly popped bottle for comparison. The new bottle was not flawed, but it was pretty disjointed and lacking any sort…
Bam! Pow! Clench! Grip! Acid! Fruit! Rock! Spice! ...Like a Wham! Blam! comic strip page getting torn out of a magazine, crumpled up, and thrown in your face. The initial delivery of this wine was…
Massive but sophisticated in its overall deliver of flavor...and I mean FLAVOR. Black and dark, dark red core fruit, with blackberry, black raspberry, bitter chocolate, clove, allspice, anise,…
An enormous, gushing cascade of dark core fruit encompassed by sweet vanilla bean and oak components. Blackberry, black raspberry, blueberry, dark and milk chocolate, fresh vanilla bean, oak char,…
Enchantingly backward and spring-loaded with massively concentrated flavors of blackberry, black raspberry, black and red licorice, Baker's chocolate, pastille, cassis, and some earthy stone. There…
Black and red currant, black cherry, cedar, dust, and some spice. A hair better than the AO Proprietary Red, but pretty similar in most ways. The mid-palate was a little fuller, but still fairly…
Previous notes apply, however I did feel like this was displaying in a way that was less concentrated and unctuous than how I had previously experienced this wine (by Purlieu BTK standards at least).…
Much like the 2014 version of this wine, the 2015 Teucer explodes with dark, rich berry fruit and earth flavors. A full-frontal, velvet glove type of attack, with blackberry, black raspberry, red and…
A rush of acidity, followed by notes of black cherry, currant, and alcohol. Pretty disjointed, teetering back and forth between some higher-toned, bitter fruit flavors, and a thin boozy rush on the…
Previous notes from December still apply. A beautiful display of dark fruit flavors, if not lacking just a bit on the concentration side of things. Veers toward a more simple delivery of flavors, but…
Barrel sample. Red and black core berry fruit, with a healthy dosage of spice. Higher acid provided a significant amount of tension and verve. A little wound up at the moment, but seemingly just…
Previous notes apply. This wine is certainly higher registering on the acid and structure spectrums, but has enough flavor (though somewhat restrained and classical in its delivery) to hold interest.…
Barrel sample. The most low-toned wine in the '16 AO line-up, with dark, black core fruit, fresh black soil, espresso, bitter chocolate, char, clove, fresh vanilla bean, and obsidian. The dark spice…
Barrel sample. Red and black core fruit, with some soil and spice. Medium-bodied and a little simple, the Thomas was much more subtle and reserved than I had anticipated. I did not get any of the…
Barrel sample. Black core fruit, with some soil, dust, and spice to add interest. Delivery on this wine was a little flat and Simple Jack, but it still managed to offer pleasure by way of its…
