Daniele Cuzin

9.2

Had the 2008 vintage for Christmas 2025. Matured perfectly and a great pleasure to drink. Paired with duck leg confit. — 6 months ago

Kirsten Spalding

9.4

Tart, dried blackberry fruit leather, earthy breeze smell on the nose (I don’t know what that means either, but that’s the first words to come to mind). Blackberry bramble, silk, and pepper. Some iron, but it’s soften over the years. This is a Belgian Sheepdog wine. Dark, bold, elegant, eager to please any Syrah fan. I want to go for a long hike through the woods, picking wild blackberries with this dog. Then we go home and share leg of lamb, rub the dogs silky ears, and drink this (just me. Don’t give alcohol to dogs). — 3 years ago

Byron Hewett

9.1

Solid, but not great. This was missing the next gear. — 5 years ago

Daniel M

9.3

Cocoa, strawberry, currant, vanilla, tar, cedar, wet forest soil, a lot of things happen. It's showing a bit of age but certainly not as much as the label shows. The palate is showing a strong acid backbone and this is quite striking here. It must be because of the vintage though. Nice strawberry, currant fruit all along, good width with a thin matter which lays a layer of silk all over the mouth. In mid palate come some rather well integrated tannins, bringing in some energy by disrupting slightly that very silky mouthfeel with a dusty touch. The finish is very long with fruit, vanilla, cocoa and maybe even mocha. Perhaps not the best Pichon Lalande but a very good take on a tough vintage which is still relevant and delivering to this day.
29 years old and kicking! We served it along with a slow cooked lamb leg and beans (traditional Easter meal in my region) and this was a perfect match. Celebrating wifey's birthday in style! — 5 years ago

Mike R

9.2

2012 - drink if you got them - not improving from a year ago - big and bold but missing one gear from being a sports car I want it to be - still smiling at the lake with @R Bowers on his anniversary and not social distancing very well — 6 years ago

with R

Adam Kincaid

9.2

If this bottle was single I’d be the desperate guy at the bar trying to take her home. Man, what a surprise! You think girl next door normal but one day you get suddenly blind sided and don’t know what you’ve been missing this whole time.

I normally hate garnacha but my god, this is a complex, moody, dark and difficult wine. Plays hard to get, if you know what I mean. Tobacco, earth, but lots of fruit and floral notes. This bottle is driving me wild. — 8 years ago

Tyler Felous

9.2

First time with this wine. PnP and probably could have used a decant. Great weight. Lots of black olive, herbs. Good but missing something (touch of acidity?) to make it great — 2 years ago

Pooneet K

9.3

Just fantastic tonight. Truly singing and such a wonderful example of classic Bordeaux from a producer we love and have had the good fortune to visit. Paired with a grilled leg of lamb on a beautiful early fall evening. Classic nose, seamless on the palate, great acid. Finish is slightly thin but still really a great wine. So fun. Opened 5 hours before drinking, no decant. — 4 years ago

Per-Olof Ekstrand

9.1

Very nice and smooth 1985, carefully stored for a long time. The age has given it a unique smootnes, maybe close to best before date as the cork was on the last leg.
A special experience for sure. — 4 years ago

Keith Crump

9.0

Nothing missing a great Central Otago Pinot — 5 years ago

Andrew Holod

National Sales Grapes of Spain

9.2

One of the more compelling and complex WA reds I've had. Still deeply colored, intense nose of chocolate covered cherries, but with a reserved character, rather than over-the-top confected. Very well balanced and missing the sometimes, too fleshy/higher Ph I find disturbing in WA reds. — 5 years ago

Ian Hamel

9.2

2020/5/5 with grilled lamb leg heart from a Lulu Peyraud / Richard Olney recipe and grilled zucchini. This certainly had the inimitable Northern Rhone bottle bouquet going, though it’s also quite lithe and red fruited, as opposed to deep and dark, with prominent acidity. It reminds you of the diversity in Northern Rhone terroirs - and that (if I recall) the Chance estate St. Jospeh is from relatively young vines — 6 years ago

Janell

9.2

welcome to captiva 🌴 island! surprisingly good random pick on the way to the “villa” ... the only thing missing was the corkscrew...relieved that housekeeping brought one up!! — 7 years ago

Tom Heckert

9.2

Berries and cherries, with some earthy notes. Very nice finish, tannins soft and lingering. . Paired with duck breast and lamb leg. — 2 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.3

2019 vintage. Huge Chambord and kirschy aromas and flavors. Medium body. More acidity than tannins currently but that could flip in 5-7 years. Drinking closer to Russian River Valley Pinot Noir instead of CDP currently. On the “artsy” CDP side as it were right here right now. Definitely missing the late 80’s-early 90’s cigar/tobacco/smoke counter-argument from this particular producer, place and offering. 4.17.23. — 3 years ago

Linda H

9.1

Good leg and length. Deep medium bodied, dark cherry and earthy aroma.
Surprisingly very good for a red blend. — 5 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.7

Tasted blind, although we are now told that all of the reds tonight are 61's so our tasting becomes a single blind horizontal exercise. This wine is brownish tawny, translucent and very old-looking. Perfumed nose with notes of cola, rhubarb, cherry and earth. Has a light structure with faded fruit at first. We're told this bottle was a leaker with the lowest fill of all of tonight's bottles. Guesses are all over the map including Italian and very old red burg (me). We've had spectacular 61 Palmers before and in the first part of the evening, this bottle was missing it. BUT, late in the evening (and 9 hours after opening) this caught its sea legs and grew in volume, complexity and delivery. My rating was crossed out three times as I upgraded this while we all marvelled at the improvement... and in the end, this 61 Palmer showed it's pedigree and overall power. Glad we waited it out! (M's 60th bday 5th of 14) — 5 years ago

Mike Saviage

9.3

Dark tawny. Burgundian nose. Notes of raspberries, earth, black cherries, smoked meats, some spice. Smooth and silky in the mouth. Tannins resolved. Good wine, missing the weight of a bigger vintage. — 6 years ago

Ed Chin

9.0

Missing the richness you’d expect. — 7 years ago

Aaron Tan

9.4

Popped, poured, and blinded this wine. It didn't take long for the notes to lead me towards Hermitage (so intense!), but I didn't think it was Chave's because it was lacking the meaty notes that I associate with his wines. I am, however, not an authority on Chave - I can count the number of times I've drank his Hermitage with my hands. Regardless, the 2014 Hermitage was certainly impressive and my WOTN. Full-bodied, dark fruits, quite ripe, but in no way jammy, spice - anise, juniper, and bay leaf, licorice, deep minerals, sexy supple texture. As the night progressed - seriously stony, air has brought out the meatiness (bacon), along with some gamey and musky tones. The fruit adamantly refuses to subside on the palate. A real masterpiece, especially for the vintage.

Here's another case of infanticide on my end, but at least in the name of research, I can attest to the excellence of this wine. Personally, though, I was missing some floral and crushed pepper characters which I love in Syrah. Just nit-picking.  — 7 years ago