Category Archives: Tasting Notes

Chateau Leoville-Poyferre 1998

Ratings By Robert Parker 88 Tasting Notes This opaque purple-colored, muscular, full-bodied, classically made St.-Julien displays impressive concentration, chewy, highly-extracted flavors of black fruits, iron, earth, and spicy wood, and a powerful mouth-feel. A pure, uncompromising, traditionally-styled wine, it is to be admired for its authenticity, class, and quality. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2035. Readers seeking classic,… Read More »

Chateau d’Issan 2000

Ratings By Robert Parker 93 Tasting Notes Fully mature, the 2000 D??Issan is a quintessentially elegant, yet concentrated, aristocratic Margaux that defines the appellation. The wine has a dark ruby/purple color just beginning to lighten at the edge. Notes of charcoal, acacia flowers, black raspberries, and blue fruits are followed by a medium to full-bodied… Read More »

Chateau Malescot St. Exupery 2008

Ratings By Robert Parker 93 Tasting Notes An amazing success in this vintage, the dark ruby/purple-hued 2008 reveals its noble terroir in its complex aromatics of spring flowers and burning embers/charcoal. A medium to full-bodied mouthfeel displaying no hard edges and a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, alcohol and wood result in an approachable, already… Read More »

Chateau Saint-Pierre 1996

Ratings By Robert Parker 88+ Tasting Notes Just emerging from a relatively disjointed, awkward stage, this dark ruby/purple-colored wine offers up notes of new saddle leather, a hint of chocolate, black currants, and earth. The wine is medium-bodied, relatively tannic, yet has good underlying sweetness. It still seems a bit disjointed and potentially too austere,… Read More »

Chateau Duhart-Milon 2004

Ratings By Robert Parker 91 Tasting Notes Another sleeper of the vintage for this property that has been doing impressive work over recent vintages, the 2004 (a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot) displays a dark ruby/purple color along with classic aromas of cedar, creme de cassis, earth, spice, and wood. Medium to… Read More »

Chateau Pontet-Canet 1998

Ratings By Robert Parker86 Tasting Notes A pleasant, dark ruby-colored, elegant Pauillac, the 1998 displays hollowness on the mid-palate along with notes of red and black currants, tobacco, dried herbs, and earth. Although solidly-made, there is not much depth. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2012. (Wine Advocate #134Apr 2001) By Robert Parker

Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2006

Ratings by Robert Parker 92 Tasting Notes While not at the level of the phenomenal 2005, Grand-Puy-Lacoste has produced another classic wine with the creme de cassis fruit that I often find in both Mouton Rothschild and Pontet-Canet, yet both of those vineyards are closer to the Gironde River. This wine has a pure personality,… Read More »

Chateau du Tertre 2000

Ratings By Robert Parker 91 Tasting Notes A dense purple color is followed by layers of concentrated blackberry fruit intertwined with damp earth, mushroom, and sweet, toasty barrique smells. With ripe tannin, medium to full body, a layered texture, and a concentrated, impressively endowed finish, this is the finest Du Tertre since their 1979. This… Read More »