Wine Thread

[RhinestoneCowboy 2]

steve, where is clubhouse?

A question in the wine thread I can answer!!!The clubhouse is in the oakbrook mall.http://www.theclubhouse.com/Oakbrook/events.cfm

[Huskers20 0]

Yes Clubhouse is at Oak Brook Mall, right near Lefty's new place, we will have to all get together some Monday soon.Also all CHICAGO wine drinkers, Binny's is having another pretty sweet sale. The advertised stuff is decent, but if you go to the store they had some unbelievable specials, that weren't in the ad.An Italian Wine that Keith did recommend. 2003 Altesino rosso $4 instead of $20And a 2001 La Jota Cab Franc from Napa for $12 instead of $46. (Kurt even you can afford these:)) jkHuskers20

[Suited_Up 2]

Yes Clubhouse is at Oak Brook Mall, right near Lefty's new place, we will have to all get together some Monday soon.Also all CHICAGO wine drinkers, Binny's is having another pretty sweet sale. The advertised stuff is decent, but if you go to the store they had some unbelievable specials, that weren't in the ad.An Italian Wine that Keith did recommend. 2003 Altesino rosso $4 instead of $20And a 2001 La Jota Cab Franc from Napa for $12 instead of $46. (Kurt even you can afford these:)) jkHuskers20

Holy geez!Though I don't like Cab Franc really. But yeah... how long does this go on?

[KDawgCometh 2]

Holy geez!Though I don't like Cab Franc really. But yeah... how long does this go on?

how many cab francs have you tried?the binny's sale lasts until late april.oh yea kurt(and for everyone else) here are the main grapes that are grown in the various french wine regions. I had this all typed up last night and then when I hit enter my internet went out and I retardedly didn't save what I wrote. So here this goes now:Loire White: Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume are almost always sauvignon blanc while vouvray is chenin blanc. The dessert wines that are made are from Chenin blancLoire Red: mostly Cab Franc. There is some Pinot noir made here too, but it mostly sucksRed Burgundy: all pinot noirWhite Burgundy: all chardonnayRed Rhone: In the South, the wines are Grenache heavy and in the north the wines are Syrah heavy. Other grapes that are used are Mouvedre and Cinsault as those are blending grapesRhone White: Viognier, Roussane, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, and there are other rare grapesBordeaux red: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cab Franc, and Petit Verdot. WHen one refers to the left bank, the wines will be Cab Sauvignon heavy and when one refers to the left bank, they will be merlot heavy(with cab franc as the main blending grape)Bordeaux White: Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. These can age and are interestingBordeaux Sweet: Semillon. To make Sauternes, the vineyards have to allow a rot to happen called botrytis. These are insanely long lived wines and can be utterly profoundthose are the main wine regions in france and at least are the ones that have clear grape styles. Provence usually goes with more Rhone varietals and Languedoc also goes a bit more towards syrah. There are small regions in southwest france that have their own individual grapes but those regions aren't all that well represented in that many stores

[Huskers20 0]

Kurt it does go in to deep April, but the Super Sweet deals I was talking about will go quick, today I stopped in at 10, and there were 20 or so cases of the $4 Italian wine I was talking about, I didn't have time to buy every thing then so I stopped back later in the day and they were down to around 10 cases.So yes for the advertised specials they will have it for a while but the others will be hit or miss.

[Loismustdie 0]

Just an FYI, I have not been impressed with BevMo in the least. As a matter of fact I hate it. My wife girlfriends love it, but they are stupid. I had a surprisingly good Merlot the other day, it was made by Barefoot, and won some sort of awards, so I figured, 6 bucks, what the hell. Nice jammy taste and texture, a little peppery/leathery finish that complimented the fruit forward start really well. I was pleasantly surprised, drank the whole bottle myself, then slept like a baby.

[KDawgCometh 2]

again, if you aren't drinking italian wine, you really don't know what you're missing. Just so much value and wines that you just can't get from any other area in teh world:

• 2003 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Barbera d'Alba Scudetto - Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Barbera d'Alba (3/27/2008)nose: very succulent nose of tart cherry, leather, spice, with notes of sage and thymetaste: wonderful full body barbera with a excellent cherry attack that leads into spice tones with sage and thyme along with bits of floral tones and leatheroverall: really nice body and feel with a great mid palate and finish. Nice silky flavors and nose. A wonderfully lush wine (91 pts.)

Posted from CellarTrackerseriously people, even if you have to order online, take advantage and try some barberas

[KDawgCometh 2]

my wine forum had our big chard off saturday, and it was a close one. Cali just edged out Burgundy, but really, we were all winners because of the bevy of awesome wine. Here are my notes from it:JUDGEMENT OF CHICAGO-CHARD STYLE - LFF's place, chicago IL (3/29/2008)the WL chicago crew met up at LargeFormatFever's place to do an amazing chardonnay tasting pitting burgundy in one corner and california in the other. Everyone told LFF what they were bringing, we decanted and brought our wines bagged up to his place where him and mrs LFF rebagged the wines and set them in an order to match up with the 7 course food menu. LFF also provided 3 mystery wines for some intermezzos and we had a kick off St Emillion so that we could have some red wine, and we then decanted the Cos so that it would be ready by the time it all endedkick off wineLFF provided this nice Duffau to start the night off. Its always good to have a bit of red when you're getting ready for all of the whites that were to come

• 1978 Château Beausejour (Duffau Lagarrosse) - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Crunice solid brownish- red colornose: nice well aged nose that is more cab franc heavy with leather, floral tones, bits of blueberry, crushed rocks, and a lot of root vegetablestaste: very silky feel with barnyard tones, root veggies, leather, some floral tones, and bits of cranberryoverall: very beautiful and elegant wine. This wine is in a perfect place right now with the tannins fully integrated and what we have left is a great example of an aged right bank wine (91 pts.)

Blind Flight 1paired up with oysters and various sauces for the oysters

• 2004 Kistler Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Mountainnose: very flinty nose with some sea salt aspects and a lot of smoke tones along with bits of apple core and a lot of rock notestaste: very weighted with petrol/glycerin type aspects along with smoke notes, minerals, and lots of citrus tonesoverall: very complex and oily with really dense tones on both the palate and nose. Real big feel that leads into a very long finish (93 pts.)
• 1992 J.M. Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champ-Canet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Crureal dark golden colornose: real interesting nose with lots of marzipan, smokeyness, and a bit of green apple to ittaste: very weighted feel with a bit of honey, caramel, green apple with some smokeyness and some marzipanoverall: really long finish and good structure to this. Almost tasted Sauternes like and was very interesting in this blind line up (91 pts.)

Blind Flight 2paired with asparagus, morels, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar

• 2002 Vincent Girardin Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Crunose: very light nose with some funk on it along with glycerin, sea breeze, minerals, and some vanilla beanstaste: real light feel on the palate as it just glides with nice lemony tones and round flavors of vanilla and marmeladeoverall: a nice young wine, but this can definitely turn into something special. Real great feel and finish on this (93 pts.)
• 2002 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne En Charlemagne - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Crunose: very steely and mineral driven nose of sea shells and lemon zest with lemon peel added. Nose is very laser like and extremely focusedtaste: big acidity on the palate with lemon, various citrus, and crushed rocks along with some other mineralsoverall: the acidity is very big on this one right now and this one is brutally young. The flavors are nice, but the feel is a bit thin and the finish is very thin. This needs a lot more time to truly evaluate this, but because this was part of a blind tasting, it has to be evaluated as is right now (89 pts.)

Blind Flight 3paired with mushroom risotto, peas, and parmesan

• 2005 Ramey Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Carnerosnose: nice focused nose of vanilla, salt, minerals, oak tones, and mixed nutstaste: really fat feel with vanilla, nuts, oil, salt, and tangerineoverall: very round and elegant with good weight and a nice long finish (92 pts.)
• 2003 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Crunose: real taught nose that wasn't giving much, but did give some nice flavors of lemon, sea breeze, and mineralitytaste: nice and focused with hazelnuts, melon rhines, and sea shellsoverall: very nice and deep, but this is a very young wine. Good feel and nice polish on the finish, this will certainly get better with some extra time (92 pts.)

intermezzo 1this was the first of three mystery wines that LFF brown bagged. It turned out he got this from Trader Joes, and it opened up my eyes for sure. It was a very interesting wine and its fun to have stuff like this involved

• 2006 Beringer Vineyards Chardonnay Founder's Reserve - USA, Californianose: very floral and perfumy nose with a bit of nutmeg to go with ittaste: really wonderful feel of tangerine, floral tones, and nutmeg spicesoverall: a very pretty wine and the floral aspects do it for me a lot. This was a mystery wine and I wasn't sure that this was a chardonnay. Needless to say, eyes were opened when this was revealed from the mystery bag at the end (91 pts.)

Blind Flight 4paired with halibut, peas, carrots, and butter

• 2001 Kongsgaard Chardonnay - USA, California, Napa Valleynose: insanely deep nose of rocks, various nut notes, green apple, loads of lemon, and bits of stone fruittaste: extremely explosive to where you know that you are drinking something very different as when it was just sloshing around in my mouth it was just massive bursts of flavor left and right with petrol, green apple, tons of minerals, and loads of pearsoverall: amazingly complex wine that is just utterly deep and sumptuous. This still feels young and just gives off an insanely lasting finish. I guess this one for a corton-charlemagne because of the petrol flavor. This was my WOTN and it was a toss up between this and the other Kongsgaard for the group WOTN (95 pts.)
• 2004 Kongsgaard Chardonnay - USA, California, Napa Valleynose: real california style nose with marmalade, butter popcorn, vanilla, loads of creamy citrus tones, and cashew flavorstaste: big heavy feel with integrated oak tones, marmelade, butter popcorn, vanilla, and mango tonesoverall: really dense and weighty with good structure, but the finish leaves a bit to be desired (92 pts.)

Blind Flight 5paired with chicken, apple, jicama, terragon, and citrus

• 2004 Château de la Maltroye Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Dent de Chien - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Crunose: amazingly perfumed nose with loads of floral tones, tangerines, nuttyness, soft vanilla flavors, various spices, and a hint of mineralstaste: a bit dissapointing. The nose was just screaming, but this was a bit thin and lacking on the palate. It did bring some nice flavors of mango, lemon, and slate tones, but to compare this to the nose is night and dayoverall: the nose is what made this for me. The feel is light and the finish is a bit thin, but the nose is just amazing. (91 pts.)
• 2005 Sine Qua Non The Petition - USA, Californianose: big heavy nose with oak, marmelade, mango, vanilla, and tangerinestaste: big and bright with marmelade, tangerines, vanilla, oil tones, and a whole bunch of heat. The heat is kind of ruining this oneoverall: it's big and bold like you'd expect from california, but the heat is just too much. It probably needs some down time to calm down the alcohol, but the alcohol is running a bit wild on this one (88 pts.)

intermezzo #2these were the last of the mystery wines and it was very interesting to have the Bonterra. I really thought it was a white CdP

• 2006 Bonterra Vineyards Chardonnay Organically Grown Grapes - USA, California, North Coast, Mendocino Countynose: very nutty nose with some starfruit and tangerinestaste: real interesting oily flavor with hazelnuts and starfruitoverall: real nice feel to it, but the finish is a bit quick. This wine had me fooled hard as I thought this was a white CdP. another mystery wine that was busted out for some intermezzo fun (89 pts.)
• 2005 Terlato Vineyards Chardonnay - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valleynose: light and grassy nose with a bit of light citrus flavorstaste: very easy and light with a bit of lemon and grass. Very little density on the palateoverall: it's a decent wine and nothing that was really bringing all that much, but had enough to merit something (85 pts.)

Blind Flight 6Lamb, tomato, parsley, and black vinegar

• 2003 Peter Michael Chardonnay Belle Côte - USA, California, Sonoma County, Knights Valleynose: deep nose of slate, sea salt, tangerine, and huge amounts of lemontaste: nice fat and focused feel on the palate with tangerines, sea salt, and slateoverall: really nice and focused with a good finish that unfortunetly is a bit quick. It's a tease as you get that nice citrusy finish and then it goes away (92 pts.)
• 2005 Peter Michael Chardonnay Belle Côte - USA, California, Sonoma County, Knights Valleynose: a fairly tight nose with vanilla, slate, marmelade, and some toasted oak tonestaste: big attack of vanilla, toasted oak, marmelade, and a nice amount of mangoes to go with itoverall: nice big feel and very filling flavors on the palate with a real fat finish (91 pts.)

Blind Flight 7this was the cheese course

• 2002 Vincent Dancer Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Romanée - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Crunose: nice clear nose of lemon zest, slate, and sea shellstaste: nice and light feel that dances on the palate with lemon zest, minerals, and some sea salt on teh back endoverall: really good and focused with nice clean acidity. Really nice mineral based finish (91 pts.)
• 2005 Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champ-Canet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Crunose: big fat and round nose that is just insanely deep with hazelnuts, a lot of petrol and glycerin, and a really good backbone of green applestaste: very supple and silky with gorgeous deep flavors of green apple, hazelnuts, and petroloverall: a very beautiful and elegant wine that is just gorgeous young and posseses a long finish. This was my #2 WOTN(and the bottle I brought) and upon seeing it, I want to buy a few more, but am scared with some of the premox problems that Sauzet has had, but it may be worth the risk as there is something special in this bottle (94 pts.)

Dessert flightwe have dessert wines to go with pears in salted caramel, vanilla, berries, spices, and ice cream

• 2001 Château Guiraud - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternesnose: really nice smooth nose of caramel, honey, and melon. very succulent nosetaste: beautiful and silky with honey, caramel, and lots of honeydew melonoverall: succulent and utterly smooth with great viscosity and a really nice long honeydew finish (94 pts.)
• 1997 Château de Suronde Quarts de Chaume - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Quarts de Chaumefairly dark caramel color on thisnose: nice nose of caramel and melon. rather pretty with the flavors working well togethertaste: nice and viscous with lots of caramel and melon tonesoverall: very nice and easy but the finish is a bit quick and the depth isn't all that huge (90 pts.)

End of the night winesthese were for lounging around afterwards and were great night cappers

• 2004 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphenose: very exotic nose of coffee, asian spice, and cranberry with bits of tobbacco leaf mixed in tootaste: really nice weight and feel of earth, tobbacco, cranberry, asian spice, and coffeeoverall: a beautiful young cos. Really great structure with nice silky tannins. This will be a very beautiful wine when it fully comes around, even though it is delicious right now (92 pts.)
• 2004 Cavus Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap Districtnose: really nice and deep nose of dark cherry, cranberry, various dark fruit, and black currants. The fruit is very pure and deep. Just a real pleasure to smelltaste: great balanced fruit with banilla, dark cherry, cranberry, and mocha notesoverall: a very beautiful wine with great pure and balanced fruit with wonderful structure and a nice pure dark cherry finish (93 pts.)

Yet again the chicago crew knocked it out of the ballpark with an amazing tasting. The pedigree of the wines was tremendous and everything flowed very well considering that there were 14 people drinking the wines. In the end California won the night, but in fairness there were only two grand cru burgs and both were fairly young. Now, would this change things if we had more grand crus involved and more age on teh Burgs, who knows as the California chards were tremendous.Doing this sort of thing is very humbling and I certainly had a hard time with some of the wines as I only got the country right on half of them. It was also great to have the Cos and Cavus at the end as great end of the night wines after the dessert wines.This was a tasting second to none and I'm certainly looking forward to the red version of this when we do Cali v Bordeaux. what a great nightPosted from CellarTracker

[El Guapo 8]

The other night I opened a bottle of 2004 Napa Vineyards Cabernet that was a gift from some friends.It was a little tannic, even after having it breathe for about 3 hours. The tannins were overbearing the other flavors for me. It possibly was not stored correctly and that was the problem, maybe at the beginning stages of corking. I would not buy this wine.

[KDawgCometh 2]

The other night I opened a bottle of 2004 Napa Vineyards Cabernet that was a gift from some friends.It was a little tannic, even after having it breathe for about 3 hours. The tannins were overbearing the other flavors for me. It possibly was not stored correctly and that was the problem, maybe at the beginning stages of corking. I would not buy this wine.

if its tannic, it just means that it's very young, not that it was stored improperly and there are no begning stages of corking, it either gets into your hands corked or its not. what it needs is a few years sideways to resolve the tannins

[myenemy 0]

KDawg, you make some mouth watering recos but as a wine novice, where can I pick up some of these gems? Local liquor/wine shops? Im headed to Napa in a few months and want to focus on that region.

[KDawgCometh 2]

KDawg, you make some mouth watering recos but as a wine novice, where can I pick up some of these gems? Local liquor/wine shops? Im headed to Napa in a few months and want to focus on that region.

you living in NYC is perfect. In NYC alone you have some great wine shops in Garnett, Astor, and Crush. Right across the state in Jersey you have Wine Library and several Total Wine stores. I also think that NY is a state that allows retailer shipping, so be sure to check out my store(binny's), K&L, JJ Buckley, and Premier Cruyou should double check on what the shipping laws are for New York as the internet is the perfect tool for trying out new wines. You can't always get everything in one place and not utilizing the internet is silly IMO

[Suited_Up 2]

my wine forum had our big chard off saturday, and it was a close one. Cali just edged out Burgundy, but really, we were all winners because of the bevy of awesome wine. Here are my notes from it:

Cut.Print.Gay.

[Suited_Up 2]

KDawg, you make some mouth watering recos but as a wine novice, where can I pick up some of these gems? Local liquor/wine shops? Im headed to Napa in a few months and want to focus on that region.

No Binny's in NY?I'd look myself but I'm lazy.But you must have some sort of large wine/liquor emporium.

[KDawgCometh 2]

Cut.Print.Gay.

no, it was awesome

No Binny's in NY?I'd look myself but I'm lazy.But you must have some sort of large wine/liquor emporium.

binny's is only based around chicago, plus I already said a bunch of places he could get wine taht are awesome

[Suited_Up 2]

no, it was awesome

lol, it was just the 'we were all winners' part

[KDawgCometh 2]

lol, it was just the 'we were all winners' part

we were, that was a sick line up for a bunch of guys in their late 20s and early 30s for the most part

[KDawgCometh 2]

This afternoon I went to a trade tasting where a whole bunch of bordeauxs were being poured in the $8-30 range. I wanted to go for two reasons: 1) we all know my deep passion for this region so that in of itself was a no brainer and 2) I needed to gain some knowledge on stuff we sell(which unfortunetly didn't happen as the wines my store sells weren't being poured) or wines that we will sell. What came out of this was something fun for me as this was my first trade tasting, so being able to taste through things for free made it a hell of a lot more fun, but it was nice to try out non-classified wines from bordeaux to really see that there is some very interesting stuff being produced so that people can get into this wonderful region without having to kill their wallet for enjoyable french wine. So, onto my notes:TODAY'S BORDEAUX - W Hotel, Chicago IL (4/15/2008)This was my first trade tasting. The theme was bordeaux wines that were between $8-30 to show that you can buy good bordeaux without having to fork out an arm and a leg. While there were a couple of clunkers, this really did shine through, with some really good wines.whites and roses

• 2006 Château de Chantegrive Blanc - France, Bordeaux, Gravesnose: real nice and round nose of melon, lemon zest, pears, and lots of minerals and wet rockstaste: pleasant mineral laced flavors with some lemon and melon behind the mineralsoverall: really nice and crisp with a good mineral based attack and acidity (87 pts.)
• 2004 Château de Cruzeau Blanc - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognannose: nice soft nose with melon and minerals. not a lot of depth to the nose, but nice pleasant aspect to it with a little shyness in theretaste: very smooth feel with melons and pears and slight hints of minerality overall: a solid wine that is easy drinking and has a subtle acitidy to it (85 pts.)
• 2006 Château Bonnet Bordeaux Contrôlée Cuvée Divinus - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Contrôléenose: mineral driven nose with grassy elements and lemon/lime aspectstaste: really nice and full feel with melon rinds, lemon, and mineralsoverall: a great attack and excellent acidity with a nice mineral laced finish. A really good 100% sauvignon blanc with a nice elegance to it (89 pts.)
• 2006 Vieux Château Gaubert Blanc - France, Bordeaux, Gravesnose: wonderfully elegant nose with cinnamon, melon, lime, minerals, and bits of vanilla. there is a lot going on with this nose and there is a lot of class to ittaste: very full and elegant with melons, minerals, lemon bits and some vanilla in there toooverall: the theme with this wine is elegance. It's very classy and just full of subtle flavors that just meld together and bring about a gliding feel on the palate and into a nice mineral and lemon driven finish (91 pts.)
• 2006 Château Bonnet Bordeaux Contrôlée - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Contrôléenose: really nice nose of strawberries, lemon zest, and nice minerality that's kind of hiding underneathtaste: very pretty strawberry tones with bits of lemon zestoverall: a really good rose that is great for sipping and has a nice fresh and easy feel to it with a bit of acidity to give it that extra oomph (86 pts.)

dessert wines

• 2004 Château Haut-Bergeron - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternesnose: really pungent nose of apricot, honeysuckle, melon, and some caramel. Wonderful botyrtis filled nosetaste: great viscous feel on the palate of honeysuckle, apricot, melon, and caramel with some honey bits thrown in toooverall: really nice and balanced with a nice and long finish that is very enjoyable. A really nice sauternes find (91 pts.)
• 2003 Château Lamourette - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternesnose: very light nose of melon and honey with bits of caramel in theretaste: easy and light with melon rhines and honeyoverall: a very nice sauternes, but not that complex and doesn't bring as much depth as I've had in the past (88 pts.)
• 2003 Château de Veyres - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternesnose: good nose of honeydew and apricot with some honey and caramel thrown intaste: nice viscosity with some caramel and honeydew, but the depth is lackingoverall: nice and easy with good density, but there is just a bit missing to make this one a lot of fun (89 pts.)

left bank wines

• 2003 Vieux Château Gaubert - France, Bordeaux, Gravesnose: real classic nose with cedar box and tobbacco leaf while also showing the vintage with having ripe tones of cherry and cranberrytaste: really nice nuanced feel with tobbacco, cedar, black currants, cranberry, and some dark cherry overall: it's the non-existent finish that prevents this from being an excellent wine. Good upfront attack but the mid palate is a bit light and the finish is very thin. This is a very good wine though and demonstrates well the nice nuances that a Graves wine can bring (86 pts.)
• 2005 Château Andron Blanquet - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphenose: wonderfully exotic nose with herbal spices, ground up herbs, root vegetables, raspberries, and anise. a really rich nose that is just tons of fun to smelltaste: the exotics still continue with spice box components, cranberries, raspberries, herbs, bits of anise, and some floral aspectsoverall: a wonderfully lush wine that is extremely interesting. Very filling feel with really good structure and back end tannins that provide a nice spice box and herbal finish (90 pts.)
• 2005 Château Bourbon La Chappelle - France, Bordeaux, Médocnose: fairly reticent nose with dark cherry, black currants, cigar box, and some leather aspectstaste: nice solid weight on the palate with dark cherry, cranberry, cigar box, and tobbacco leaf tones with bits of earth and leather thrown in overall: very firm with a nice up front attack that ends with a decent finish. Mid palate is lacking a bit but this is a very nice wine (87 pts.)
• 2005 Château Le Breuil Renaissance - France, Bordeaux, Médocnose: up front nose of sweet cherries, floral tones, and some spicetaste: firm tannins, but the flavors are a bit thin with cherry, floral tones, and some spiceoverall: a very easy drinker, but there just isn't that much here that excites me and does much for me. The flavors are simple and it doesn't seem like there's a lot hiding underneath that will come out (83 pts.)
• 2003 Château Clarke - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Listrac-Médocnose: big full bodied nose of cranberries, dark cherry, with some earth and tobbaccotaste: a bit stewed on the profile, but it's not over bearing and more reflective of teh vintage with black currants, dark cherry, earth, raspberries, and tobbaccooverall: a very good wine with nice feel and weight. Well relfective of the vintage with bold flavors and firm tannins. A very good value (87 pts.)
• 2004 Château Coquillas - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognannose: nice black fruit driven nose with black currants, dark cherry, and some earth tones with bits of dark berriestaste: firm feel with loads of black fruits and some tobbacco and earthoverall: nice and easy drinking with good back end tannins (86 pts.)
• 2005 Château Ferrande - France, Bordeaux, Gravesnose: interesting chalky nose with cranberry, dark cherry, anise, and spice box notestaste: nice classic flavors of tobbacco, dark cherry, black currant, spice box, and cranberry tonesoverall: Good elegant wine with nice silky texture and tannins. Nice and firm with good backbone and feel (87 pts.)
• 2003 Château La Gravette Lacombe - France, Bordeaux, Médocnose: tight nose with some ripe dark fruit and cassistaste: big tannins with some black currants and dark cherryoverall: solid attack but the flavors are simple and has a very brief finish (84 pts.)
• 2002 Château Guittot Fellonneau - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médocnose: nice full nose of cedar, tobbacco leaf, cassis, herbal spices and floral tones. really interesting nose that has me continually smelling it to see what more I can pick outtaste: real firm feel with cassis, herbal spices, dark cherries, and floral components. A really pretty feel and tasteoverall: a really pretty wine with extremely interesting aromatics and flavors. Nice structure and a good herbal spice finish. It was very interesting to see a 02 performing like this, and I dig it (88 pts.)
• 2004 Château Hortevie - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Juliennose: really nice soft and elegant nose of cherries, crushed rocks, spice box, and mixed berry tones. It really has that St Julien elegance to it and nice classic tonestaste: wonderful feel with chalk tones, crushed rocks, cherries, cranberries, and tobbacco leafoverall: nice and elegant feel with really nice soft fruit flavors. a very pretty and nuanced wine with a subtle attack and nice finish (88 pts.)
• 2005 Château Lacombe Noaillac - France, Bordeaux, Médocnose: nice pungent nose of dark fruit, anise, tobbacco, and earth. A really great nose that just lingerstaste: really bold attack of anise, cranberry, tobbacco, and raspberryoverall: great feel on the palate with a really good attack and nice finish. really well structured wine that should blossom in a few years. A big time QPR (89 pts.)
• 2006 Le Bec en Sabot - France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognannose: silky nose of dark cherry, earth, blueberry, and a bit of mustyness too that deflects from the fruittaste: bits of dark cherry, red fruit, and tobbaccooverall: there isn't much depth in the wine, but it is a nice wine that is easy drinking (84 pts.)
• 2005 Château Liversan - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médocnose: a bit tight on the nose, but with this being a trade tasting these pop n pours are to be expected. Some earth, chalk, raspberry, and cedar tones. There is definitely something there underneath taste: very firm tannins of cranberry, raspberry, earth, tobbacco, and cedar. Very nice profile and firmness on the palateoverall: really good feel with full flavors. Nice body and finish, this one has some room to blossom and with good decanting and a little extra time sideways, this one will be worth waiting on especially for the price (89 pts.)
• 2005 La Patache - France, Bordeaux, Médocnose: tight nose of dark cherry, cranberry, with bits of chalk notestaste: easy feel on the palate with cherry, cranberry, and bits of earthoverall: a really good everyday drinker with a nice and pleasant profile. a nice wine overall that doesn't really bring much depth, but works well (84 pts.)
• 2005 Château Patache d'Aux - France, Bordeaux, Médocnose: real silky nose with ripe cherry, black currants, floral tones, blueberry aspects and bits of earth. Much more deep then the regular La patache which shows off the vines age as these were around 25-30 years I was told as opposed to 10 year old vines on the regular Patachetaste: nice and firm with good amounts of cherry, black currant, tobbacco, and cedar box notesoverall: really good attack and weight with a nice silky feel to compliment the wine. Nice transitions with a pleasant, albeit brief finish. It probably needs a bit more time and is well worth buying (88 pts.)

right bank wines

• 2005 Château La Bourrée - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Côtes de Castillonnose: very pungent and fragrent nose of cherry, asian spice, and floral bitstaste: nice firm attack with cherry, asian spice, cranberry, and bits of raspberryoverall: real good light feel with a good solid attack and mid palate and a nice raspberry finish (87 pts.)
• 2005 Château Boutisse - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilionnose: very silky and deep nose of floral tones, black currants, dark cherry, and earth tonestaste: really nice and sumptuous feel with dark cherry, earth, tobbacco,and blueberriesoverall: very silky and easy drinking. Nice bouquet and feel but the transitions are a bit thin and the finish is almost there. This one needs a bit of time to come together, but has the ability to be a very great buy for the 05 vintage (89 pts.)
• 2005 Christian Moueix Pomerol - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerolnose: very light nose with blueberries, cherry, hi-floral tones, and dark berriestaste: nice and silky with blueberries, mixed berries, and floral tonesoverall: nice feel, but a bit too light. Nice silk and elegance, but one would expect a bit more depth and weight(as this one is really light) for an 05 pomerol. It does bring about a nice mixed berry finish (86 pts.)
• 2003 Château Trimoulet - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Crunose: interesting as the cab franc tones are heavy in this even though a very small % was used with loads of herbs, barnyard tones, cedar planks, and sour cranberrytaste: nice and elegant with cranberry, cedar, tobbacco, and barnyard tonesoverall: really nice feel and weight. THe finish is lacking a bit, but it has a nice attack and good mid palate. A very good Right bank wine from 03 when many chateaus on the right bank had a hard time coping with the heat (88 pts.)
• 2005 Château Vieux Chevrol - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Lalande de Pomerolnose: real nice earth funk to this with some spice, herbs, cranberry, and raspberry tonestaste: wonderful structure with earth, spice tones, and cranberryoverall: an excellent wine with a really good attack and mid palate that leans into a nice earthy and cranberry finish. Nice silky feel that has a bit of weight to it (89 pts.)
• 2005 Château Guiraud-Cheval-Blanc - France, Bordeaux, Côtes de Bourgnose: soft nose of blueberries, raspberries, mixed berries and some cedar taste: very easy on teh palate with cherry, blueberry, black currants, with bits of earth and cedaroverall: nice and easy drinking with a very light feel and weight to it. Not much on the palate after the initial attack and a basically non-existent finish (86 pts.)

general bordeaux wines

• 2004 Château Chabiran - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieurnose: an odd nose with cherries and charred oak tones along with faint hints of blueberry. The charred oak is off putting and is hard to get overtaste: some mustyness with bits of cherry and charcoloverall: not a good wine. The flavor profile does zero for me and you'd think with this kind of stewed profile that this would be an 03, but, it's an 04 which is very odd (77 pts.)
• 2005 Château de Cazenove - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux SupérieurNose: easy nose of ripe cherry and raspberry with some blueberries and floral tonestaste: chalky feel with chocolate and cherries. a bit too new worldy with oak influence and ripe flavorsoverall: nice and easy drinker that is more set in a new world way rather then traditional bordeaux style (82 pts.)
• 2005 Château de cazenove reserve - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieurnose: nice classic nose with cedar, tobbacco, cranberries, and raspberrytaste: really good feel with cherry, cedar, tobbacco, and cigar box tonesoverall: nice classic style of bordeaux with a good upfront attack with a nice cigar box finish (88 pts.)
• 2005 Château Lestrille - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieurnose: pleasant nose of blueberries, floral tones, sour cherry, and bits of brown sugartaste: very brief flavors of blueberries, bits of sour cherry, and some spice tones. its all gone in an instant thoughoverall: a decent wine, but is a bit dissapointing as the nose had some nice flavors, but it was all so brief on the palate (83 pts.)
• 2004 Château Penin Tradition - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieurnose: real soft nose with floral tones, blueberries, spice box, and ripe cherry tonestaste: nice and easy feel on the palate with spice and floral tones dominating while blueberry and cherry hides underneath. Nice classic merlot overall: really good structure with nice and firm tannins that is backed by a nice silky elegance that merlot can bring (87 pts.)
• 2005 Château Recougne - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieurnose: decent nose of dark cherry, floral tones, and earth notestaste: very light and a bit thin of dark cherry and charred oak flavorsoverall: a decent wine, but the feel is just way too light and the charred oak tones take away from what could be good fruit that was shown on the nose (81 pts.)
• 2004 Château Reynier - France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Contrôléenose: good classic tones of cigar box, asian spice, anise, black currants, and sour cranberry tonestaste: nice and firm with cigar box notes, cedar tones and nice cranberry flavorsoverall: a classic profile with a good attack, but leaves a bit to be desired as far as depth goes but a nice everyday bordeaux none the less (85 pts.)

This was a lot of fun to go to. Not all of the wines that were listed in the book were being tasted out, which dissapointed me as my store sells a few of them, but for me this was being a kid in a candy store. Lots of bordeaux all at my will for tasting, you know that I'm there. I could've tasted through more if I wanted, but I was getting kind of tired even though palate fatigue hadn't set in. Overall this was a really fun tasting and it was great to do my first full on trade tastingPosted from CellarTracker

[El Guapo 8]

Good lord Keith, that is soo much too read.I had a Freemark Abby Shiraz 2001 the other night, it was really really sweet, but I liked it.

[KDawgCometh 2]

the question is did you read it and take note of any wines that may intrest you the thing is(for everyone) if you aren't used to tannins, even the bordeauxs at this level will still bring them and it will be a much different experience then you're used to. What you will also get from them is a flavor profile that you also haven't had before, so don't rule out drinking them because of that. IMO these wines bring a lot more depth then many wines from america in the price range and they will be more nuanced and not as flashy

[KDawgCometh 2]

time for more notes peeps. Had a tuscan off line last night where we were checking out Chiantis, Vino Nobiles, and Rosso di Montalcinos between $20-35. It was a smaller group, but I have no doubt that this theme will be done again and again and again as its always fun to drink tuscan wine:SPRING TIME TUSCANS - Coal Fire Pizza (4/22/2008)The WL chicago crew met up for a smaller gathering to check out Coal Fire Pizza. The focus of the event was to check out more of the affordable tuscans as it's relatively easy to find a great brunello, but is it always possible to find a great chianti or Vino Nobile. Well, the answer was a loud yes as all of the wines showed well to go along with the great company

• 2004 Fattoria di Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva - Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classiconose: real nice full cherry nose with some plum tones, earth bits, wood tones, and even bits of floral tonestaste: big lush feel on the palate with cherry, dark plums, and some earth tones overall: very silky chianti that shows off the more new style of chianti. Real good weight and length with a nice polished feel to this (90 pts.)
• 2003 Cennatoio Chianti Classico Riserva O'Leandro - Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classiconose: nice classic chianti nose of earth driven tones with some tobbacco and dark plum aspects. A bit tight and probably needs a few years to fully open uptaste: real great and full tobbacco flavors that are complimented with earth, dark cherry, sour cranberry, and plum tones. nice dark fruit flavors that are showing off the hot vintageoverall: this is an excellent wine that needs a bit of time to develop with really good dark fruit and nice body on the Palate. The finish is a bit brief and it will probably pick up some body in time, so this is one to lay down for 3-5 and see what blossoms (88 pts.)
• 2003 Poliziano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano - Italy, Tuscany, Montepulciano, Vino Nobile di Montepulcianonose:nice lush cherry tones backed up with various herb notes(mostly thyme and sage) along with bits of black pepper flavorstaste: big cherry feel with wood tones, herbs de provence, and plum flavorsoverall: wonderful silky and lush feel on the palate. Nice brunello type feel with good structure and a nice lasting finish (90 pts.)
• 2005 Fattoria di Sant'Angelo (Lisini) Rosso di Montalcino - Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Rosso di Montalcinonose: nice herbal nose with chalk tones and good tart cherry scentstaste: real light and easy drinking with some spice flavors, herbs, soft cherries, and plum tones with bits of floral aspectsoverall: a very nice and easy drinking wine. It's a bit thin on the mid palate but has a good upfront attack and a real nice and easy finish (89 pts.)
• 2004 Canneto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano - Italy, Tuscany, Montepulciano, Vino Nobile di Montepulcianonose: real deep nose of dark cherry, tobbacco flavors, earth tones, plums, with some sage aspects and smoke tonestaste: big lush cherry flavors with some woody tones, earth, dark plum, and whisps of smoke flavors permeate on the palateoverall: wonderful silky feel that is almost a dead ringer for a brunello. It really has some serious elegance to it with a wonderful feel on the palate and very lush finish (91 pts.)
• 2003 Valdipiatta Vino Nobile di Montepulciano - Italy, Tuscany, Montepulciano, Vino Nobile di Montepulcianonose: really shows off the vintage with loads of anise, dark cherry, cranberries, earth, and other dark red fruit tonestaste: a whole load of anise on the attack that leans into nice layered flavors of dark cherry, herbs, and plum tonesoverall: a very full wine with excellent structure and a nice herbal finish. A real top notch wine that is just pure pleasure to drink (91 pts.)

Moreso then the themes for these events, the over riding theme is always a great time was had. It was also nice to see a some new faces that really helped provide some great conversation and greatly added to the enjoyment of the night. A really good tuesday night event, and we have to do this again soonPosted from CellarTracker

[El Guapo 8]

Hey Keith.How long should I be letting wine breathe min/max. The basics.Also, how long is too long? Say I opened a bottle around 4 drank some at dinner around 7 then notice its not finished later that evening. Say 11 or 12, is there going to be an effect on if for being 'open' to long?

[KDawgCometh 2]

Hey Keith.How long should I be letting wine breathe min/max. The basics.Also, how long is too long? Say I opened a bottle around 4 drank some at dinner around 7 then notice its not finished later that evening. Say 11 or 12, is there going to be an effect on if for being 'open' to long?

wine is tough, a ton tougher then most give it credit for. I decant regardless of age and even some 86 bordeauxs that I've had needed a good 1 hour-90 minutes of air to show their full potentialnow it all depends on what you're drinking, but basically if you are drinking most california bordeaux blends or strict cabs, they are ready to go with about an hour of decanting, so figure 90 minutes to 2 hours of bottle airing at least. what is fun to note is how the wine itself changes with air. If you have a wine that has been opened for 7-8 hours and its fallen apart, its crap, there's no other way of saying itreally, I'd need to know what grape your dealing with and what producer as everything will differ IRT the grape and producer as even some top chards needs decanting if drank young

[El Guapo 8]

I had a Viognier that I opened up about 30 min before dinner. Had a glass or two. Had some dessert, got full then later that night I went to grab a glass and it was still fine, but room temp now. I was just curious at what point is too long, like it you have a bunch open from a lunch or something, will it still be fine at night?

[KDawgCometh 2]

again, it depends on the producer. With viognier, I like to give my new world versions a good 60 minutes of bottle air before drinking. the wine should be fine by late at night(again, dependant on the producer, if its Kunin or Miner or such, you should be fine) but I would generally recork the wine if I don't plan on drinking it for a while, or circumstances come up where I have a feeling that the wine won't be kicked in a night