Search results for: 'mostly a one plot'

Winemaker Notes:

Coquelicot Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley - 170 Cases 

PH 3.5 TA 5.4 Alcohol 13% Picked 10-4-2022 Bottled 6-06-2024

Certified CCOF Organic. 100% whole cluster fermentation, native yeast, fermented in a tall steel open top fermenter, foot stomped, free run gravity fed daily, then gravity fed back over the top for a very long slow fermentation over three weeks.

Aged in a large Puncheon on the lees until bottling. This wine is a stunner! Bright fruit, earth and spice.

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97 Points! I have heard gruner veltliner dismissed for supposedly not being elegant, but this is an extremely elegant example! Very complex nose of snow peas, green beans, wild herbs and green pepper. On the medium-bodied palate, this remarkable gruner veltliner has a discreet succulence, but what makes it amazing is the way it glides so gracefully over the palate, then splash lands in a deep pool of wet stone minerality. Underplayed power and concentration! Drinkable now, but best from 2025. - JamesSuckling.com

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91 Points! Readers looking for a delicious, impeccably made Sauvignon Blanc from Napa could do a lot worse than the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc from Amici. This lightly colored white offers textbook notes of white grapefruit, tart lime, and sappy green herbs to go with a medium-bodied, refreshing, yet beautifully balanced style on the palate. Drink bottles over the coming year or two. - Jeb Dunnuck Learn More

94 Points! The 2019 Ried Loibenberg Riesling Smaragd comes from three very different spots of this large cru. The wine opens with a clear and crunchy, ripe, concentrated and fleshy stone fruit aroma intertwined with flinty and herbal (woodruff) notes. Very elegant and refined on the palate, this is a complex, fresh and salty, beautifully vibrant, vital and aromatic Loibenberg Riesling with a firm, structured, finely grippy, bitter, crunchy and salty finish. Excellent! 13% alcohol. Tasted at the domain in June 2021. - Stephan Reinhardt, robertparker.com

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95 Points! Opaque ruby. Bright and energetic on the highly perfumed, finely detailed nose, displaying fresh black and blue fruit, incense and floral scents that pick up olive and exotic spice accents as the wine gains air. In a vibrant, fruit-driven style, offering appealingly sweet cherry-cola, blackberry, mocha, botanical herb and allspice flavors, along with suggestions of licorice and smoky minerals. Finishes extremely long and smooth, with a whisper of fine-grained tannins and an asstertive echo of minerality. - Josh Raynolds, Vinous Media

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94+ Points! The brilliant 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Sycamore Vineyard (another Rutherford site on Bella Oaks Lane) is a blend of 85.4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6.5% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot aged 28 months in barrel. It boasts an opaque purple color, terrific notes of licorice, creme de cassis, charcoal, forest floor, baking spices and earth, as well as a full-bodied mouthfeel with great fruit intensity and purity. This savory, mouthfilling beauty is best drunk over the next 20-25 years. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com

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94 Points! Young and unevolved, the 2018 Chardonnay Estate offers fresh, lively bouquet of honeyed peach and lemon oil-like notes interwoven with plenty of toasted bread, spice, and white flowers. It’s clean, medium-bodied, and elegant on the palate, and it shows the supple, elegant, approachable style of the vintage nicely. It’s going to benefit from a year in bottle and should evolve nicely for 3-5 years. This estate continues to produce a brilliant, high-class Chardonnay well worth seeking out! - Jeb Dunnuck

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95 Points! Last of the Chardonnays, the 2022 Chardonnay John Sebastiano Vineyard comes from a great vineyard on the eastern side of the appellation and was brought up in 28% new French oak. Ripe melon, salted citrus, crushed stone, and white flowers all define the aromatics, and this beauty hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a pure, focused, chiseled mouthfeel, integrated acidity, and a great finish. It’s California's answer to a great Chablis! Drink bottles over the coming 7-8 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

 

#Peake_Ranch

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94 Points! The Mascarello family has recently doubled its vineyard holdings in Perno, Monforte d'Alba. We will see that new fruit on line in 2027. The Giuseppe Mascarello 2020 Barolo Perno Vigna Santo Stefano reveals a delicate and soft entry with generous fruit, sweet cherry and mild tannins. The wine offers a combination of mature fruit tones and spiciness that comes from higher elevations at 300 meters above sea level, where nighttime temperatures are cooler. The wine excels in length and silkiness. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

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98 Points! Based on 80% Grenache and 20% Mourvèdre and aged 12 months in foudres, the 2023 Gigondas Les Souteyrades is possibly the most exotic of the lineup from Saint-Damien. Kirsch liqueur, blackberries, exotic flowers, and sappy, garrigue-like nuances all define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied, has a pure, layered, seamless mouthfeel, an incredible mix of richness and elegance, and a gorgeous finish. It's another absolutely riveting Gigondas from this estate that readers should snatch up! - Jeb Dunnuck

#SAINT-DAMIEN

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94 Points! The 2003 St. Eden comes from an 11-acre rocky knoll on the northern side of the Oakville Crossroad that consists of pure red soils. It is the most evolved and forward of these 2003 Bond wines. Lots of cedar, chocolate, roasted herb, lavender and spice box notes emerge from this complex Pauillac-like effort. Medium to full-bodied and fully mature, it is more evolved than its siblings, revealing sweet tannin as well as a spicy, earthy finish. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com, 2013

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90 Points! The 2020 Saar Riesling Kabinett Ayler Kupp opens with clear and quite intense, elegant fruit intertwined with crushed slate aromas; it's less reductive or stinky on the nose than the Mosel Kabinett siblings from the Himmelreich and Würzgarten. Supple and round, with vibrantly fresh acidity but also palatable residual sugar, this is a charming and pleasing but less exciting or mind-blowing Kabinett with an aromatic and piquant finish. 8% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted from AP 138 21 in November 2021. - Stephan Reinhardt, robertparker.com

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96 Points! A blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, the 1998 Lafite Rothschild is deep garnet with a hint of brick and gorgeous notions of sandalwood, crème de cassis, smoked meats, black pepper and garrigue with touches of chargrill, dried herbs and mincemeat pie. Medium-bodied, soft and plush on the palate, it has tons of mouth-filling savory and plum preserves flavors and a very long, savory finish. Delicious now, it should keep for 15-20 more years. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, robertparker.com, 2018

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91 Points, #49 Wine Spectator's Top 100 2025! A lovely, silky white, with vivid acidity and a subtle streak of chalky sapidity layered with flavors of yellow apple, pear, lemon meringue and chamomile, plus a rich touch of hazelnut. Refreshing hints of quinine and grapefruit pith make a sweep on the finish. - Wine Spectator

91 Points! This creamy, rounded white has aromas and flavors of baked apples, nectarines, butter and mango crumble. It’s full-bodied, ripe and silky with tasty yellow-fruit character. - JamesSuckling.com

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92 Points!  Aromas of rose, peony, red berries and guava preface the NV Brut Rosé, a medium to full-bodied, elegant and vinous Champagne rosé that concludes with a long, ethereal finish enhanced by menthol notes. A blend of 45% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 20% Pinot Meunier, it's based on the 2014 vintage with 46% vins de réserve from nine different vintages and the addition of 6% as a red wine, vinified and matured in stainless steel. Dosage: 4.7 grams per liter. - Yohan Castaing, robertparker.com

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95 Points! Bright and minerally, with white stone fruit character and hints of lemon rind, chamomile, subtle spices and crushed stones. Pure and refined, with a medium body and a seamless, lingering, silky feel. Delicate and focused, with plenty of freshness that shows citrus blossom and white almond undertones. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! A precise and dynamic white, with compelling lemon and apricot flavors highlighted by crushed stone and zesty spice tones that sail on the finish. Drink now through 2027. - Wine Spectator

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Don Fulano Blanco is a bright and colorful expression of highland agave. It’s fresh on the nose and yet profound with a beautiful elegance. There is harmony between a wide spectrum of aromas that only mature hillside agave offers; a myriad of delicate fruit notes is balanced by a light herbaceousness and a butterscotch oiliness. Reminiscent of damp red soil it opens the senses and awakens the appetite, it almost makes you want to chew it. A great aperitif or quintessence of a great cocktail. ?Producer Notes Learn More

98 Points! Possibly the “wine of the vintage,” the 2008 boasts an inky/blue/purple color as well as a glorious perfume of spring flowers, blueberry and blackberry liqueur, camphor, truffles and crushed rocks. With great fruit on the attack and mid-palate, a medium to full-bodied, multidimensional mouthfeel and a skyscraper-like finish, this prodigious effort over-delivers, even for this phenomenal terroir. Give it 5-8 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 40-50 years. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com

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95 Points! This is a fantastic wine from Stefania Barbot that represents a spot-on interpretation of both vintage and territory. The 2016 Taurasi Fren is dark and luscious, boasting impressive depth and persistence. There is extreme purity of fruit with blackberry and blackcurrants interwoven into smoke, tar, ash and exotic spice. To the palate, the wine offers structure and ample fruit weight, resulting in a powerful, steak-worthy performance. Fruit comes from 70-year-old vines planted at 470 meters in altitude. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

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Great value here from the famous Bedrock Vineyard (Shhh....)! From the winery: A punchy, spicy blend of zinfandel (80%), barbera (15%) and Alicante Bouschet (5%). The Zinfandel and Alicante were sourced from the Bedrock Vineyard in Sonoma. The fruit was from adjacent blocks so we picked both on the same day, co-fermenting them together. Traditionally this fruit has always been the base for our red table wine. We then blended in a few barrels of Barbera to level up the acidity and aromatics.

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