Yves Cuilleron Cote-Rotie "En Bassenon" 2002:

Terrible vintage, but I picked this up last year for super cheap. Cuilleron is a favourite and I couldn't resist. Drank it tonight on Valentines Day at a local restaurant with Rib-Eye steaks.

Decanted for 1 1/2 hours. Spicy nose. White pepper. Fruit is lacking, but i expected that for the vintage. The fruit that did come through was black cherry, blueberry, and blackberry. Nice acidity and mouth feel. Soft/fuzzy tannins. Much lighter than I expected, but still very enjoyable. Finish is short short.

Definitely not up to Cote Rotie standards but enjoyable dinner wine and if it didn't say "Cote Rotie" on the label I would be very happy with it. Obviously not as good as other vintages, but could be a great restaurant wine because of the lack of big, bold fruit you usually find here lends itself to be easily paired with lots of different foods, not just the usual big meats you'd normally throw at this bottle.

chrisV, makes alot sense thanks

kdawg, others with any knowledge of South American wines. Is this worth going to? A few people told me it would be epic but I'm not sure.

http://www.artisanwinedepot.com/Prod...INASIEGELWINES

rj, you should go to it. Looks like a good line up for $20 and more then anything, you'll be able to taste a variety of wines that you otherwise wouldn't get a chance to taste

chile wine has the best price value ratio at $10-$20 range imo, but they all tend to taste similar to me even at higher price.

Hey guys,

I missed that tasting since it was in the middle of the workday. There is one next week that also looks interesting.

These are the wineries being represented:
Chase
Elyse
Robert Biale
Hendry
The Terraces
Titus
Tres Sabores

Any of these reputable? I work at GOOG and we;re having a tasting and these are the wineries that will be represented. Anything I should be particularly interested in checking out?

My 40th birthday (yes.. I know... ancient!) is approaching soon. I have a trip planned and will be out for dinner at a restaurant that I feel pretty sure wouldn't mind if I brought a really special bottle with me.

Dinner is going to be a chef's table with a wine pairing, so I don't want to mess with that.

I was thinking about getting a dessert wine though and have come across some ways to get a 1970 Chateau d' Yquem. Would this be a good idea? Maybe another idea on something from 1970 to go with dinner?

while a d'yquem is amazing, 70 isn't the best vintage for sauternes. However, it is an amazing vintage for Port and there is a lot of quality red bordeaux as well

drinking this while watching UFC:

• 1998 Alain Voge Cornas - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas (2/20/2010)
  nose: classic cornas nose filled with black and white pepper, black cherries, olives, bacon fat, black fruits and some roasted meats. There is a bit of sweetness to the black fruits with real good balance overall
  
  taste: Fuller bodied with good tannins still showing themselves off. Well balanced with real good depth and tones of black pepper, some meaty tones, bacon fat, black cherries, some bits of smoke and an underbrush quality as well and even some hints of lilacs lie underneath
  
  overall: this had been decanted for about 90 minutes. Showing itself off very well and is pure Cornas. Some browning at the rim, this isn't showing off too much age to be honest. This bottle could go a good way and is just entering its window. Looking at the other notes, there does seem to be some serious bottle variation (91 pts.)
  

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i got this off of winebid early last year for like $25. Cornas is in the northern rhone and is 100% syrah and is a real small appellation. Its only 50 hectares in total. Its mostly steep hills and the wines are known for their massive tannins and animalistic tones. This producer is very traditional, so they use massive oak barrels called Foudres and almost no new oak. Its not easy finding aged examples, but man, these wines are fun and very little in the world tastes like this at all

FONTANAFREDDA BAROLO SERRALUNGA D'ALBA 2005


Any idea about this wine ? going for $39 Cdn, @ LCBO. looks like a reasonable price for a bottle of Barolo. I bought a bottle mainly cuz of price, would this bottle give at least what a reasonable quality barolo should taste like? Should I go for $ 70 + better vintages ?

if you haven't had much barolo its a decent place to start. it will be very structured due to it being from serralunga and being young. That is a fairly modern producer, so expect some heavy handed oak.

personally, i would say its worth a go because nebbiolo is oe of the most awesome grapes i the world. Also because its a good learning experience. Actually, what would be best is get another 2 or 3 friends together, pool the money, and buy a range of barolos and other piedmont wines.

@Barolo

I drink a lot of Barolo and I wouldnt go that way. Is definetely not a good producer. With Barolo like Burgundy my advice is always to NOT buy the cheap stuff. You just have to accept that good Barolo/Burgundy is a bit more expensive.

Producer's I would look for who make Barolo wich should cost between 50 and 80 USD are

Corregia "Roero". Not real Barolo, but close enough.
Revello
Allesandria
Pira
Veglio

A well assorted wine shop should have one or more of these producers. They are young and modernistic. Good value for the buck and easy drinking as young. Definetely go for 2005 now. 2004 is generally in a closed period, altho there are obv exceptions. If you find older stuff I find 1998 and 2000 to be really excellent these days. 1999 is still a bit "boney" and 2001 is too young but getting there. 1997 is just plain overrated

I hope any of you experts can help me here.

I have come across a 1996 "Musigny" from Comte de Vogue. Do any of you guys have any idea how its drinking now? I would expect it to be way too young but its tricky with Vogue and his Musigny. I have been told that 1990 and 1995 are still too young and closed, whereas the 1999 should be drinking well...

Anyhoo. I hope someone can help. Links to respected people who tried it recently would be awesome. I tried googling it but didnt find anything good.

oink, that's actually funny timing with the Vogue Moose as I was on ebob yesterday and there was a fair amount of talk about the 95s vs 96s and the Moose was mentioned in both.

A lot of people are starting to feel that the 96s on the whole are starting to open up a bit and shed their pronounced acidity. Back in september I had a couple of Grand Crus from 96, and they were still very much in diapers for me. I've had some 96 GCs that are open, but they aren't from big time producers, and especially are the Vogue Moose.

Personally I'd say hold for another 5-6 years if you can only get 1 or 2 bottles, but if you can get more, then middle of next year would be a good time to open one up so that it fully hits the 15 year old mark

kdawg (or whoever else!)

I have just one bottle (unfortunately) of 2002 Leflaive Les Folatières. When would you drink it, if it were yours? I've heard some mixed opinions.

BK,

Just my opinion, anytime between now and around 2 years from now, 3 tops. It might hold longer than that but there's a fair bit of variation in white burgs and you're MUCH better off drinking it slightly young (with a good decant) than slightly over the hill. Also while this is a good vintage and a decent producer, it is still only a 1er Cru Puligny - it's not like it's a Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne or something that will hold on for ages.

awesome, thanks

I have just one bottle (unfortunately) of 2002 Leflaive Les Folatières. When would you drink it, if it were yours? I've heard some mixed opinions.

Funny business: I just opened the 2000 Folatieres from D´Auvenay tonight. I had been told by the local boss of Burgundy that its supposed to be awesome right now. It was pretty much 10 years to young and I hated it.

Domaine d'Auvenay and Lefalive seems quite similar to me. To the extend that is correct your LeFlaive 02 Folatiere needs plenty of years. But, and this is key, I havent tried the Folatiere from LeFlaive.

Awesome thanks! I phoned the importer of Vogue in Denmark and he pretty much said what you did.

By the way I could only get 1 bottle. Hence the urgency regarding the timing

bk, if there wasn't a premox problem with white burgundies, I'd say hold it for another 5 years and let it really shine. On the whole leflaive hasn't seemed to have any poxing issues, and looking at the oxidised burgs wiki space, the 02 vintage looks so far to be fine for leflaive. What I would say is this, if you have more then 2 bottles, open one up, decant it and have it with some halibut or tuna. If you have 2 or less, I'd say wait til late 2012 or early 2013 and do some praying

http://www.news.com.au/business/brea...-1225836992594

Anyone know what varietal they were using? Am curious.

they were cutting it with wine from the languedoc, so they were probably using a field blend on it along with the pinot

Wouldn't taste much like pinot imo, but to be fair the wine they were making out of actual Pinot Noir probably didn't taste much like pinot either.

since when does syrah-pumped up pinot not taste like pinot. YOU TAKE THAT BACK. Haha, a lot of california pinot jokes are coming into my head right now

it was a $6 bottle at various supermarkets. what else do people really expect, especially when its gallo being involved as well. The words cheap and pinot should never be together, and when they are, well, you probably know its a steaming pile of **** for the most part

in more fun news, cellartracker launched the beta of their new site this past saturday. The new site is registered to grapestories.com right now. Its definitely different from the old site, and I'm slowly playing with things on teh site to get a feel for it. Not a fan of all of the stuff, but, its a beta. Hopefully the name gets changed back to cellartracker


here is a wine that I had on saturday night. This is the 06 of it, but the 07 should be available pretty readily for under $15:

• 2006 Les Vignerons d'Estézargues Côtes du Rhône Domaine d'Andézon - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône (3/2/2010)
  nose: dark red fruits, dark cherries, some bits of spice and herbs with a touch of pepper
  
  taste: real good medium/full feel with tones of dark red cherries, bits of spices, pepper,and dark red fruits
  
  overall: Excellent feel with good medium acidity. Good body with excellent tones, this is real good and does ask for some food when drinking it (88 pts.)

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