Freddy R. Troya

9.0

Terre del Casone – Vermentino – 2024
Toscana IGT, Italy 🇮🇹

Overview
Building on the charm of the 2023 vintage, the 2024 Vermentino adds an extra layer of character and intensity. Still crafted by the Castellani family, it reflects a slightly warmer growing season that enhanced texture, aromatics, and persistence, without sacrificing freshness.

Aromas & Flavors
Vivid lemon blossom, green melon, and nectarine unfold into richer notes of pear, lime peel, and crushed seashell. There’s a subtle herbal undertone of thyme and fennel that nods to its coastal terroir.

Mouthfeel
More pronounced and textural than 2023, rounder mid-palate, but still crisp and focused. Excellent balance between fruit concentration and saline minerality.

Food Pairings
A brilliant match for shrimp scampi, seafood risotto, grilled calamari, or even soft cheeses like burrata with basil oil.

Verdict
The 2024 takes everything great about its predecessor and turns up the definition. Slightly deeper, slightly more assertive, yet just as refreshing. A step forward in complexity for this coastal gem. Cheers!

🍷 Personal Pick Highlight
Currently sipping this vintage, it’s impressive how this humble Vermentino evolves with each year. The 2024 brings personality and poise in perfect harmony. — 8 months ago

Jeff Applebaum

8.9

Awesome wine on a sat night! — 4 years ago

Donald Williams

9.0

First rate wine from a first rate winery. Suffered slightly by comparison to its predecessor on the table, but still really nice. — 4 years ago

with Bonnie

Tom Garland

9.2

Predecessor to today's Turnbull Winery..think around $30 bucks back in its time.

Double decant (decent chunky sediment) and pour. A sterling tawny ruby red color with good bricking. On the nose: A surprisingly expressive nose!......sweet aged cab perfume, cherries, Eucalyptus, cedar, green veggies, smoked meats. Taste: elegant, smooth, nice mouthfeel, medium body wine with dried black fruit, dried herbs, pepper, and a currant & leather medium finish with just a little tannic kick after all these years. A gift from a friend, and a TREAT to drink this Saturday night!!!!! — 6 years ago

with Brenda

Tim L

9.3

2016 vintage...excellent, like its predecessor years... — 7 years ago

Delectable Wine

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9.7

The 1990 Cristal is remarkable. Polished, nuanced and light on its feet, the 1990 is all class. Citrus, orchard fruit and floral notes are wonderfully lifted throughout. A slight reductive note adds character on the finely knit finish. I can’t think of a better way to start this tasting. Simply put, the 1990 is a total rock star. Moreover, it is much more delicate than most wines from this ripe vintage. Amazingly, the 1990 tastes like it is still not ready! “Nineteen ninety was my second vintage here,” says Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon. “It was ideal. The fruit was just perfect. We blocked the malolactic fermentation completely and only fermented 6-7% of our lots in oak, as opposed to the more typical 20%, in order to preserve as much freshness as possible. The wine was made by my predecessor, Michel Pansu, but I was learning. This was the first year I started working with oxygen by reducing sulfites in vinification to pre-oxidize the Chardonnay musts, as I do know, which allows me to get rid of all the unstable, oxidative compounds. With Pinot, on the other hand, you need a little bit of sulfur at crush or you lose the brilliant fruit. (Antonio Galloni, Vinous, December 2018) — 8 years ago

Chris Zitzman

9.0

We did both the '07 and the '08, temperature and humidity-controlled storage since their releases. Was a Barren Ridge red night with some choice ribeyes. Yea. Buddy.
After a modest decant, this puppy comes to life. It's far more than just 'holding up'- it's in what I believe is its prime. Big, ripe, juicy and even a little bit tight. Blue & boysenberry highlight the nose which is silky and just a smidge reserved. To my nose; it's acting like a kid in his adolescence in that it's shy to show you what it can really do. On the PALATE- it's potential-realized. Vibrant and beautifully balanced, the '08 'Meritage' out-paces it's beautiful '07 predecessor. — 10 years ago

with Beth

Freddy R. Troya

9.3

Five Stones Vineyards – Nobility 215a White Blend 2024
Judean Hills – Israel 🇮🇱

Overview
A tribute wine named after Sergeant Maj. Yitzhak Tamir, Nobility 215a is composed of 95% Chardonnay and 5% Sauvignon Blanc, aged in French oak. The 2024 vintage shows a fresher, more youthful expression compared to the richer 2021, with vibrant fruit and a refined oak touch.

Aromas & Flavors
Fresh orchard fruit leads: pear, green apple, and lemon zest, layered with melon and subtle tropical hints. Lighter toast and vanilla than the 2021, letting citrus, white flowers, and a gentle saline edge shine through.

Mouthfeel
Medium-bodied, crisp, and polished. Oak brings a subtle creamy texture, but the 2024 leans brighter and more linear, with lively acidity carrying a long, elegant finish.

Food Pairings
Pairs beautifully with grilled sea bass, lemon-roast chicken, or creamy seafood risotto. Also complements Mediterranean cheeses and lighter pasta dishes.

Verdict
The 2024 Nobility 215a is fresher, sleeker, and more fruit-driven than its 2021 predecessor, while still carrying the oak-aged elegance that defines the cuvée. A polished white blend that balances tribute, terroir, and modern winemaking. 🍷cheers!

Did You Know?
“Nobility 215a” honors Sgt. Maj. Yitzhak Tamir — 215a was his radio code during the Yom Kippur War. — 9 months ago

Erik Longabardi

9.4

JJ Morels predecessor. — 4 years ago

Paul T, Missing My Beautiful Wife 24/7

9.5

Off the truck again, nice Chardonnay considering I didn’t give it a proper hold. Next bottle will be held in storage.

Winemaker’s Notes

The old vines at Lorenzo Vineyard produce one of our most distinctive wines each vintage - a bottling of deep concentration and completely transparent style that simply cannot be replicated elsewhere – terroir in action! These deep-rooted, low-yielding old vines offer such an astonishing level of dense fruit extract and botanical, savory complexity, that winemaking technique fades into the background as the vineyard expression holds sway. Very few vineyards are this dynamic.

For the 2019 bottling, there’s slightly less acidity than its 2018 predecessor, so this vintage has an opulence and viscosity that amplifies the texture of the wine, creating a sense of oily richness that is simply magical.

Piercing aromas of grapefruit and pear with thyme blossom, fresh mint, lemongrass, and lilac. The palate is immediately tangy and electric, precise and dynamic, before the wine’s deep texture and oily viscosity absorbs this vibrancy. Notes of sweet sage and fragrant botanicals dart in and out. The flavors are long, intense, and drawn out, pulsating to a long finish that features white pepper, grapefruit zest and flint. Serve at 58F – not too cool – and drink between 2022 and 2032. — 5 years ago

Will Stanley

9.3

What a beauty. Worlds apart from the 2009 (both wines brilliant in their own right) but this 2010 Seleccion Especial is a much more elegant wine, showing more characteristics of age and less of the aggression shown by its predecessor. I think if anything the 2009 should be longer lived - this is brilliant now and no doubt will be for years to come but it doesn’t have the youthful exuberance of the ‘09. Still, a beautiful Rioja that will provide many years of enjoyment. — 7 years ago

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9.0

Smoky struck flint wreaths, white peach, fig and lime on the nose. The palate impression is glossy and lusciously-fruited, with a bittersweet, crunchy hint of cassis berries adding to its appeal. The residual sugar is supportive, yet not perceived as outright sweetness. Hints of smoke persist intriguingly in a lingering finish. This lovely example of “hidden sweetness” in Riesling – coincidentally harboring the same 17 grams of residual sugar as its vintage 2016 predecessor – weighs in at slightly higher alcohol (exactly 12%) but preserves a nice sense of lift to accompany its animating juiciness. The source this year is half from Hexamer’s Schlossböckelheimer In den Felsen and half from a nearly adjacent portion of Schlossböckelheimer Mühlberg owned by a semi-retired grower whom Hexamer says farms conscientiously and is proud of the grapes he sells. (David Schildknecht, Vinous, April 2019) — 7 years ago

Shawn R

9.6

@Martin G Rivard thank you so much for sharing this gem with Jennifer and I. What a fantastic way to end an evening after a mag of Clos De Tart at the Breakers in West Palm Beach. My first experience with this produce and it won’t be the last. A extremely limited production cuvée that shows sweet jammy black currants, campfire with great depth. Super approachable now. Thank you again Martin! — 8 years ago

with Martin

Jusden Aumand

9.2

This producer can lay down some Givry! 2013 has slightly tarter, more red cherry fruits and a little less barnyard than its predecessor, but what a complete intricate wine. — 11 years ago

Wulf Losee

9.0

2020 opened March 2024. I previously reviewed the 2018 — which was a fantastic wine which I gave a 9.8! Unfortunately the 2020 is not nearly as interesting. After decanting, it opened up quickly and faded. Still, it’s not a bad wine. It’s just not as great as its predecessor was. Mint and licorice on the nose. Candied cherries and sage on the front of the pallet. It has a medium body, but the tannic structure is kind of wooly — Feels like I’m tasting a cotton ball. But it has a long finish with strong mineral notes that remind me of volcanics soils. There’s a faint, creosote aftertaste on the finish , though. don’t get me wrong, it’s very drinkable — but it would need a big rare juicy steak to cover up that annoying creosote finish, and I don’t have one available at the moment. — 2 years ago

Jay Kline

9.4

Cascina Ornato is located in the southern portion of Serralunga d’Alba, right along the ridge. The elevation is higher here and the Ornato MGA falls to the west and south from there. Ornato is nearly a monopole for Pio Cesare would it not be for a couple of parcels that are controlled by Palladino. This bottle of the 1982 was generously provided from the cellar of a good friend; it was opened and enjoyed over two days. On Day 1, half the bottle was poured into a decanter and served immediately. The color was a slightly hazy garnet with an orange rim. On the nose and the palate, the wine came across rather tired. It wasn’t dead…and it definitely wasn’t vinegar, it just was...a bit dull. Since there were other wines open that were showing very well, we let it sit. At the end of the night, we poured what was left back into the bottle and I elected to take it home; hoping that it might wake up overnight. On Day 2, the wine had transformed. The color had deepened and everything had brightened up! The nose is loaded with tar, desiccated red fruits, sweet pipe tobacco accompanied by porchini, forest floor and dried, cracked leather ball glove…like after pitching 6 innings of baseball in the middle of July (IYKYK). On the palate, the wine is dry with surprisingly vigorous structure! The tannins are more pronounced than they were the day before and there’s also great acid to give everything a buoyant lift and some youthful energy. The fruit and non-fruit notes from the nose are confirmed with an added element of red rope licorice. Somehow, this is younger today than it was yesterday. At forty years old, this bottle clearly needed time to stretch its legs. Drink now with several hours of air but remarkably well-cellared examples could last for many more years. An illuminating experience in so many ways!

Something worth noting: Pio Cesare did not begin bottling single-cru Barolo “Oranato” until 1985. Curiously, this bottle was labeled “Vino da Tavola del Piemonte”. I reached out to Pio Cesare in hopes of getting some additional information and they were very kind to share some helpful detail. It turns out this bottling was an idea from their former importer, Terlato, with grapes for this wine sourced by Cascina Ornato. It was a traditional blend of Nebbiolo and Barbera! A long time ago they had a small amount of Barbera planted there. Now, Ornato is more or less 100% Nebbiolo. The “Vino da Tavola del Piemonte” was a sort of predecessor to the “Langhe Rosso” designation since there were not many appellations back in those days. The more you know!
— 3 years ago

Jordan Wardlaw

9.1

Quite a different personality from its predecessor in 2016. This one is hyper floral with scents of geranium and damp rose petals, followed by what I can only describe as a candied maraschino cherry quality on the nose. The palate developed a more defined profile with a full day of aeration, showing crunchy cranberry, fresh thyme and hints of underbrush. Decidedly more delicate than the previous two vintages, but with striking character and nuance. Excellent with seared salmon. — 7 years ago

Jordan Wardlaw

9.3

Serious potential, if not as balanced or pretty as the 2014. Certainly more dense, inky and tannic than its predecessor. Showing vibrant sour cherry, raspberry, fresh cut purple flowers, spice cake, Asian spice and licorice. Tremendous mineral tension. Feels a bit extracted now but sure to be a winner. — 7 years ago

Jordan Wardlaw

8.9

Perhaps not as exciting as the 2015, but always a fine effort. Simpler, unoaked and much more affordable Barbaresco than the official cru wines at this price is always a no-brainer for me. The typical flowery, tart red berry and mint profile but with a bit less density and primary fruit than its predecessor. Great value as always. — 8 years ago

Paul Weil

9.0

I am uncertain what "reserve" means for this Bordeaux style blend - but like its unreserved predecessor, it is full bodied, redolent with dark plum and Cherry flavors, and a smooth, slightly tannic mocha currant finish. Keep wearing the "gang" colors, Scott and Matt! 😸 — 10 years ago