Wines

97 Points! Transparent and minerally, showing dark-cherry and forest-floor aromas with some ink and blood undertones. Medium-bodied with beautiful integration and excellent length that goes on for minutes. Firm tannins. Vivid. From ungrafted vines planted in the 1970s. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! This wine is expressive and bright, a part of the 00's assemblage series, crafted from different sites in the Willamette Valley. Aromas of woodland berries and pine boughs offer a fresh contrast to the forest floor and red cherries. Ripe red strawberries, and mint leaf on the forepalate, finishing with layered darker fruits, rich forest floor and salty ocean minerality. - Decanter Magazine

94 Points! Pouring a deeper ruby red color, the 2023 Pinot Noir Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epenots is a lovely wine with a ripe feel, featuring notes of black raspberries, fresh violets, and a darker, earthy, and floral bouquet. The palate is rounded and supple, with ripe tannins and a fruity character, although gentle earthy notes are also present. It’s a pretty style for this site to drink over the coming 15 or more years. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

93 Points! Pure seduction from the first tilt of the glass, the 2023 Pommard Clos des Epenots 1er Cru mixes crushed violet and lavender with dried black cherries, nuances of stone dust and allspice. It's surprisingly juicy, blending tart raspberry with autumnal spices and crunchy mineral tones, all offset by a core of tantalizing acidity. A youthfully nervous feel is balanced by lasting freshness as rosy inner florals linger through the long, classically dry finish. -Eric Guido, Vinous Media

95 Points! The 2021 Pinot Noir Radius is a gorgeous wine from a favorable growing season. Velvety berry fruit and elegant structure are the orders of the day. Supple and focused, it is supremely clear and precise, with beautiful curves. Tea leaves, blood orange, and sweet black cherry flesh out, expanding like a peacock's tail on the epically long finish. What a beautiful wine. - Billy Norris, Vinous

96 Points! Blueberries, violets and shaved graphite with flint, black mushroom and gunmetal undertones. Hints of cedar and bark. Medium- to full-bodied with chewy tannins, yet they are spread out and frame the fruit beautifully. Selection of the best old vines with most over 100 years old. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

Pack contains: 2 Bottles 2016 Cos d’Estournel + 1 Bottle 2016 Pagodes de Cos

100 Points | James Suckling
Reviewed February 2019

This is muscular yet so well defined and toned. Full-bodied with deep and dense fruit on the palate, yet powerful and rich at the same time. So much sandalwood and blackberry character. Chewy and rich at the finish. This is a warm and generous wine, but the alcohol is just over 13 degrees. Not that high. Love the finish. Extravagant. Magical. Try from 2025.

100 Points | Wine Advocate
Reviewed November 2018

Bottled in July 2018, it is deep garnet-purple colored and starts off a little closed and reticent, opening out slowly and seductively to reveal beautiful lilacs, rose hip tea, crushed stones and camphor nuances over a core of crème de cassis, kirsch, wild blueberries and mocha plus wafts of incense and wood smoke. The palate is simply electric, charged with an energy and depth of flavors that seem to defy the elegance and ethereal nature of its medium-bodied weight, featuring super ripe, densely pixelated tannins that firmly frame the myriad of fruit and floral sparks, finishing with epic length. Just. Magic. (LPB)

100 Points | Vinous
Reviewed August 2020

In my last sighted review of the 2016 Cos d’Estournel, I wrote: “I suspect it will close down for a period in its youth.” Perhaps it is already beginning to shut down, because though this wine was deeply impressive, it fell just a notch short of ethereal previous bottles, despite its “pixelated black fruit” on the nose and “sublime balance” on the palate. I tasted the wine twice thereafter, though this time with a 4-6 hour decant, and this revealed the Cos d’Estournel that has amazed since I first tasted it out of barrel. (NM)

100 Points | Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

If the color does not let you know you're in for a treat, the nose is going to knock you over with its floral, smoke, cigar wrapper, black cherry and cassis notes. The purity of fruit here is off the charts. The wine is all about its silk and velvet textures from that point forward. The finish is so expansive, it feels like it keeps on going, moving across an array of flavors long after you've put the wine where it was supposed to go. This is the best wine yet produced by Jean-Guillaume Prats and his team. Bravo!

99 Points | Jeb Dunnuck
Reviewed February 2019

One of the more seamless, pure, elegant versions of this cuvée out there, it boasts a saturated purple color as well as a monster nose of pure crème de cassis, gravelly, rocky minerality, tobacco leaf, crushed violets, and lead pencil shavings. One of those “iron fists in a velvet glove” wines, with full-bodied richness and beautiful structure that’s covered by thrilling levels of fruit and texture, it stays tight, compact, and incredibly focused on the palate. It’s already brilliant given its purity of fruit and balance, but it deserves a decade of bottle age and will keep for 4-5 decades.

95 Points! Slightly more expensive, the single vineyard 2018 Pinot Noir Platt Vineyard spent 17 months in 20% new barrels. It's a bigger wine, with a touch more mid-palate density and depth, yet it still has plenty of underlying structure and tannic grip, offering up lots of redcurrant and darker cherry fruit as well as curing spices, smoke, and foresty, earthy notes. Give this rocking effort 2-4 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following decade or more. This beauty strikes a good balance between Old World and New World. - Jeb Dunnuck

93 Points! A medium red color, the 2019 Pinot Noir Platt Vineyard is spicy and classic on the nose, with notes of dried cherries, baking spices, anise, and dried alpine herbs. Well-balanced and complex on the palate, this medium-bodied red takes on a good deal of character, with a core of ripe concentration and a long-lasting finish. As this was held back for release, it’s already in a good place for drinking now or over the coming 6-8 years. - Audrey Frick, jebdunuck.com

94 Points! Moving to the Pinot Noirs, the base appellation 2018 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast was 60% destemmed and spent 11 months in 20% new French oak. This gorgeous Pinot Noir displays lots of red and black raspberry fruits, notes of forest floor, smoked earth, and a touch of graphite. With medium-bodied richness, a solid spine of acidity, building tannins, and straight-up beautiful balance, it's going to benefit from another year or two of bottle age and keep for a decade. It's beautifully done. - Jeb Dunnuck

96 Points! The 2023 Grenache Whole Cluster is explosively floral, rushing from the glass with a potpourri of blossoms and a veritable perfume shop of aromas. Expansive and saturating, it soaks into the palate with absolute grace. The 2023 wears its whole-cluster character elegantly, gaining lift and energy without any vegetal tones. Incense, sandalwood and delicate hints of citrus peel add nuance. Sourced from Shake Ridge, Michaud and Vie Caprice, the 2023 is greater than the sum of its parts. - BIlly Norris, Vinous

92 Points! A good value, the 2023 Keola Red offers juicy darker fruits, peppery herbs, and sappy, floral notes. Based on 45% Petite Sirah, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% Syrah aged 18 months in 25% new French oak, it's medium to full-bodied, ripe, round, and supple, with no hard edges. This is a pleasure-bent, impeccably made red to drink over the coming 5-6 years. ..As always, Aaron Jackson makes a ripe, powerful style of wine that brings ample fruit and texture while staying nicely balanced. - Jeb Dunnuck

Sourcing:

Petite Sirah - Dusi Vineyards (Templeton Gap District), St Peter of Alcantara (Willow Creek District next door to Pesenti Vineyard)
Syrah - Maison Mason (Willow Creek District next to notable vineyards like Terry Hoage, Paderewski). And Caelesta Vineyard (Templeton Gap)
Cabernet - Old Bailey Vineyard (Adelaida District, oldest vine Cab on the westside, own rooted in 1969 and right next door to HMR Vineyard and planted around the same time).

94 Points! The 2021 Petite Sirah checks in as 85% Petite Sirah and 15% Syrah, aged the normal 22 months in 60% new 300-liter barrels. It's a gorgeous expression of the variety with loads of jammy blue fruits, flowery incense, spice, and underbrush notes as well as a full-bodied, deep, richly textured, layered style on the palate. I’d be thrilled to drink a bottle any time over the coming decade. - Jeb Dunnuck

93 Points! The 2021 Trespasser is more focused and inward, with darker fruits, graphite, candied violets, and chocolaty, subtle leafy herb-like nuances. It's a rich, full-bodied, concentrated red based on 38% Petite Sirah, 37% Syrah, and 25% Mourvèdre that spent 22 months in 50% new 300- and 400-liter puncheons. It will shine for 5-7 years, if not a decade. - Jeb Dunnuck

93 Points! 2020 was a cooler year with more rain, following the path of years like 2016 and 2018. The 2020 Selección Especial, produced with 70% Tempranillo, 14% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Syrah, 4% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, is harmonious and moderately ripe at 14% alcohol, with nice balancing freshness. It matured for 12 months in French and American oak (35%) barrels, one-third of them new. They harvested it before it rained, and the wine has more herbal aromas and feels a little more Bordelais, balsamic, even minty. The oak is neatly integrated and folded into the fruit. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! Grilled herbs, hedgerow undergrowth and dark cherries on the nose follow through to a medium- to full-bodied palate with lots of dusty tannins. Juicy and flavorful finish. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

Real Barolo from a great vintage under $30? Yeah, we got that...