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(the estate's vines in the lieu-dit Les Champs Traversins lost about 35% of their fruit to the frost): Healthy medium-deep red. Darker on the nose than usual for the Dujac Echézeaux, offering musky scents of black raspberry and licorice. Rich, thick, seamless wine with lovely sweetness and a savory complexity; strong in extract but not particularly clenched in the early going. Finishes with ripe, dusty, chocolatey tannins, a slightly roasted fruit element and excellent length. This will need time in bottle to harmonize.

-- Stephen Tanzer (91-94) Stephen Tanzer Not Available Jan 2018

Bright, dark red. Perfumed but reticent aromas of raspberry and rose petal. Very pure but tightly wound, showing more red fruit lift than the Clos de la Roche but less showy today. A darker note of medicinal black cherry contributes to this young wine's serious mien. Less thick than the Clos de la Roche but still very 2015 in character. Finishes very long and floral, with firm but suave tannins. This wine calls for patience but I would not be surprised if it gave pleasure earlier than the Clos de la Roche.

-- Stephen Tanzer 94 Stephen Tanzer $396.00 Jan 2018

Bright medium red. Complex, terroir-driven scents of raspberry, crushed rock, flint and smoke. Concentrated and fairly full, conveying a hint of superripeness to its flavors of berry fruit, minerals and wild herbs. My first sample displayed good energy but a slight dryness on the back end but my second was sweeter and more vibrant, finishing with firm tannins and excellent saline length. My score is for the better bottle.

-- Stephen Tanzer 92 Stephen Tanzer 2023 - 2032 $260.00 Mar 2017

The 2012 Bonnes Mares presents an intriguing push and pull between some of the more delicate notes that appear initially and its underlying, restrained power. This is another wine where so much is implied rather than overt. As always, the Mugnier Bonnes Mares is above all else a wine of restraint, although in this vintage, there is plenty of depth as well.

-- Antonio Galloni 93 Antonio Galloni 2022 - 2042 $455.00 Apr 2015

The 2003 Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port improved each time I raised it to my nose or mouth. It displays a black color and a salty, graphite-laced nose packed with sweet black fruits that is reminiscent of a stellar vintage of Chateau Latour. With air, notes of molasses, burnt sugar, spices, and jammy plums emanate from the glass. Full-bodied, hugely dense, immensely rich, as well as thick, this behemoth is also amazingly balanced and harmonious. Raisins, molasses, licorice, black cherries, plums, and a distinctive note of violets are found in its complex, seamless character. Its interminable finish reveals additional notes of chocolate, kirsch, red as well as black currants, dark cherries, and rose blossoms. Armed with exceptional power, depth, and purity, this Taylor will proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with the finest ever crafted by the Fladgate Partnership. Projected maturity: 2035-2060. Score: 98+

Rating

97

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2016 - 2040

Reviewed by

Neal Martin

Issue Date

30th Dec 2016

Source

228, The Wine Advocate

The 1986 Chateau Margaux is one of the dark horses of the vintage. It has an exquisite bouquet that is now fully mature, with a mixture of red and black fruit, violets, pastilles and hints of cold stone. It blossoms in the glass, gaining intensity all the time. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, a more robust Margaux as you would expect given the vintage, clearly with firm backbone, more straight-laced than the 1985 or 1989. Yet there is wonderful delineation and focus here. If you seek strictness and classicism in a wine, then this is the place to come, plus there is superb mineralité and tension on the ferrous finish. Perhaps a little overlooked in recent years, the 1986 Margaux comes highly recommended for those who love the property. This is a wine finally coming of age. Tasted July 2016.

Lenny Kravitz Dom Pérignon Vintage 2008 IN ESSENCE

Dom Pérignon vintages set their own release dates, and Vintage 2008 required more patience than Dom Pérignon Vintage 2009, which was presented earlier – an unprecedented event in Dom Pérignon’s history.

Further than a collaboration, the partnership with Lenny Kravitz is the shaping of a creative vision. It expresses their respective taste for audacity, the aura of two powers of inspiration united, the resonance of a myth in the process of being written in the most contemporary format.

The Dom Pérignon bottle itself is a design of untouchable perfection. Lenny Kravitz elevates the iconic label by borrowing from the craft of goldsmiths to work hammered metal on the surface of the shield, creating a patina that lends the metal an inalterable contemporary vibe.

The artist’s vision creates the atmosphere, the singular quality of the act, seeking no other pretext than the occasion of life itself. The collaboration with Dom Pérignon proposes a new reason to enjoy the bonds forged by a friendship in a pure celebration.

Rating

96

Drink Date

2019 - 2028

Reviewed by

 Luis Gutiérrez

Issue Date

30th Aug 2019

Source

Issue 244 End of August 2019, The Wine Advocate

There is a jump in quality in the 2018 Aconcagua Costa "Las Pizarras" Pinot Noir, from what was a cold year in Aconcagua Costa, slightly drier and slightly cooler than 2016. So, I'm not surprised this cool-climate variety behaved quite well. The wine has great purity and transparency and is very clean and expressive, with good complexity and aromas of blood orange and sour cherries, a note of iron and a touch of cinnamon. They used some full clusters in the fermentation, which seems to have added some grip, and the wine matured mostly in 300- and 500-liter oak barrels. It has abundant, fine-grained tannins, good weight and juicy fruit and comes through as nicely textured, balanced and elegant, but not heavy or ripe. The wine is a lot more elegant, and I think it's the best vintage so far of a wine that can now be the benchmark for the variety in Chile. 

James Suckling - 99/100 

Domaine Fourrier
2008
Gevrey-Chambertin "Clos St. Jacques"  ♥
1er Cru Red 750 ml
Score: 92
Tasted: Jan 01, 2011
Drink: 2015+
Issue: 41
Outstanding
Note: from .89 ha parcel planted in 1910
Producer note: The always candid Jean-Marie Fourrier told me that 2009 was a "generous vintage but that doesn't really explain things the way it often does. The reason is that there was a huge percentage of shot berries. I have a sorting screen of only 6 mm and there were plenty of berries that were able to pass through. In some vineyards as much as 50% of the crop was in the form of shot berries. This explains why the '09s seem to be much more concentrated than the yields would otherwise suggest. I began picking on the 17th of September and brought in a very clean crop that ranged in potential alcohols from 12.5 to 13%. The primary fermentation proceeded relatively quickly and the malos were finished early as well, which is to say by April. As to the wines, they are already delicious and deceptively accessible, which means that too many of them are going to be drunk too young. The '09s are going to surprise people in terms of how well they age." I will repeat that Fourrier deliberately bottles with high CO2 levels as a partial defense against oxidation and thus if you elect to try an example or two young, be sure to decant for 20 to 30 minutes first. (Rosenthal Wine Merchant, www.madrose.com, Shekomeko, NY; there are many sources in the UK including John Armit Wines, www.armit.co.uk, UK, Goedhuis & Co., www.goedhuis.com, UK, Howard Ripley, www.howardripley.com, UK, Ballantynes of Cowbridge, www.ballantynes.co.uk, UK, Uncorked Ltd, www.uncorked.co.uk, UK and Seckford Wines, www.seckfordwines.co.uk, UK).
Tasting note: A beautiful panoply of floral and herbal suffused red and blue pinot fruit liberally laced with ample minerality that also defines the textured and ultra pure middle weight flavors that possess excellent precision and verve on the driving and wonderfully long and linear finish.