Wine (6L)

This was the breakthrough vintage for this fabulous terroir that had been under-exploited for so many years. A collaboration between Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt this medium to full-bodied pure blend of 80% Merlot... Read More

Deep garnet colored the 2009 Cheval Blanc offers up profound notions of baked blueberries blackberry compote and crème de cassis with suggestions of chocolate mint new leather and cloves plus a waft of candied violets. Medium... Read More

Though having tasted the Haut-Brion 1982 on numerous occasions it is still a divine Pessac-Léognan to cherish. Here at The Glasshouse restaurant it has that lovely warm gravel on a summer's day bouquet brown autumn leaves... Read More

This continues to be one of the immortal wines and one of the greatest young Bordeaux wines of the last half-century. Consistently prodigious and almost a sure bet to top the scoring card of any blind tasting of this vintage as... Read More

It is fun to go back and forth between the 1995 and 1996 two superb vintages for Haut-Brion. The 1995 seems to have sweeter tannin and a bit more fat and seamlessness when compared to the more structured and muscular 1996. Certainly... Read More

A monumental wine this historic La Mission-Haut-Brion was the last vintage made by the descendants of the Woltner family who had owned this estate for decades prior to selling it to their neighbors the Dillon family (the American... Read More

Always somewhat atypical (which I suspect will be the case with the more modern day 2003) the 1982 Latour has been the most opulent flamboyant and precocious of the northern Medocs especially the St.-Juliens Pauillacs and St.-Estephes.... Read More

A blend of 91.3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8.7% Merlot with just under 14% natural alcohol the 2009 Latour is basically a clone of the super 2003 only more structured and potentially more massive and long lived. An elixir of momentous... Read More

I have had perfect bottles of this cuvee but perplexingly the bottles from my cellar tend to be broodingly backward and require plenty of coaxing. This huge wine is in many ways just as massive as Leoville Barton but it possesses... Read More

After stumbling over some wines I thought were high class Bordeaux I nailed this wine in one of the blind tastings for this article. In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets the Bordeaux comes... Read More

Gerard Perse’s 2000 Pavie Decesse a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc from a vineyard situated above Pavie on the steep limestone hillsides outside the walled town of St.-Emilion is a fabulous effort (all the Perse... Read More

Whilst I enjoyed several bona fide perfect examples of the 1982 Château Pichon Lalande in the late nineties my most recent encounters imply that these years were its peak. Nevertheless it remains a brilliant benchmark wine that... Read More

This is rather dramatic with lush layered blackberry puree and mocha notes that just keep going and going picking up juicy black licorice and Black Forest cake flavors along the way. This has the spine to pull it off but is really... Read More

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Gravelly Meadow is a blend of 78.5% Cabernet Sauvignon 8.4% Merlot 8% Malbec and 5.1% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color it slips effortlessly from the glass singing of ripe black cherries black... Read More

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Rock Terrace is a blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon 13% Merlot 4.5% Malbec and 4.5% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple it comes bounding out of the glass with exuberant notes of cassis plum preserves... Read More

The main reason the 2009 Lafite Rothschild did not receive a perfect score is because the wine has closed down slightly but it is unquestionably another profound Lafite their greatest wine since the amazing 2003. Among the most... Read More

This wine is more tightly knit more tannic but every bit the blockbuster concentrated effort that its younger sibling the 1990 is. It seems to need more coaxing from the glass but the color is virtually identical a dense ruby/purple... Read More

Deep garnet-purple in color the 2017 Petrus comes galloping out of the glass with bold expressive notions of Black Forest cake blueberry preserves and Christmas pudding with nuances of molten chocolate Chinese five spice candied... Read More