Wines (48 View)

Dark-colored, with beautiful aromas of chocolate, spices and violets. Full-bodied, with superfine tannins and a long, long finish. Fresh and refined. A beauty. This is such a pleasure to taste. - WS(92-94)

This estate has finally changed hands so hopefully the new owners will be able to build more charm into this ruggedly constructed, rustic Margaux that rarely lives up to its potential. The dark ruby/purple-tinged 2005 is an angular, hard effort possessing serious weight, but also a boatload of tannin. I doubt if any finesse will ever emerge from this monolithic wine. Give it 5-6 years of cellaring, keep your fingers crossed, and drink it over the following 15 years. - WA(87-88)

This Bordeaux blanc is definitely past its prime but wine drinkers with an interest and enthusiasm for whites with age may find it enjoyable. The wine has turned golden in color and has a mild nose of burnt caramel. The palate coats and is textural with nuttiness and more caramel. It finishes like a dry sherry. It might be good with aged Gouda. With this forewarning we will only sell the bottle on a no return basis.

Clos Puy Arnaud is nearly always a seriously made as well as potentially long-lived offering, as evidenced by the 2005. This blend of 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Carmenere boasts a saturated blue/purple color in addition to a sweet nose of black raspberries, cranberries, crushed rocks, and background wood. Displaying terrific old vine intensity, it hits the palate with a rush of fruit, glycerin, and tannin. With good structure, purity, and potential, it will require 2-3 years to settle down, and should last for 15 or more years. - WA(90-92)

93 points Wine Enthusiast
Barrel sample. A big, firm and hard wine, with solid fruits, layers of dry tannin and great power. There's an intensity to this wine with acidity adding to the complexity and structure.

Delivers lots of botrytis spice, with lemon tart and cooked apple. Full-bodied, with loads of cream and vanilla and an intense tropical fruit and honey aftertaste. Long and viscous, with a layered and beautiful spicy finish. Hard not to drink it now. - WS97

#4 on The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2018!

95 pts Wine Spectator
Cedar and sandalwood aromas give way to flavors of tea, tobacco, dried cherry, forest floor and orange peel in this expressive red. Round on the palate, supported by muscular tannins and juicy acidity. Big but graceful, mature yet lively, in the traditional style. Drink now through 2030. 4,753 cases made.

98 pts James Suckling
The aromas to this are stunning with dried strawberry, stone and fresh mushroom. Full body and very tight with incredible depth and structure. It goes on for minutes. One of the greatest ever? The new 1964?

94 pts Wine Advocate
Here the Tempranillo is complemented by 3% Graciano and 2% Mazuelo, fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in 199 oak barrels for six years with ten rackings. It's a very balanced and polished classical Rioja with moderate alcohol (13.5%) and good acidity (6.1 grams of tartaric); it also has a silky texture, resolved tannins and a very pleasant mouthfeel. It has complexity but is a little closed, and it feels a little evolved, at times even a little tired. The fruit feels quite ripe, with some liquor notes. The palate is polished, with fully resolved tannins and fine acidity. It was bottled unfiltered in March 2012. 57,036 bottles and 1,312 magnums were produced. 2001, 2004 and 2005 are the only 890s in the decade. The next one will be the 2010.

94 points Decanter
Classically 'old-fashioned' Rioja that has stuck to its 1877 roots. Fine natural warmth and smooth, slightly nutty flavours, lots of controlled energy and a firm finish. A really lovely wine. (12/2018)

94 points Vinous
Vibrant, spice-tinged red currant and cherry aromas are complemented by suggestions of pipe tobacco, vanilla and incense, and a spicy nuance gains volume with air. Sweet and seamless on the palate, offering energetic red fruit and spicecake flavors that pick up a hint of smokiness on the back half. Concentrated yet lively, showing impressive delineation and a sexy floral quality on the extremely long, seamless finish. While this wine is quite seductive right now, I've little doubt that it will cruise along nicely for at least another decade or more, and probably quite a bit longer. (2/2019)

100% Single Vineyard Tempranillo; 21 months in barrel & 24 months in bottle

"Very deep colour; clean and bright. Intense cherry and purple glints. Very complex and elegant nose, red and black ripe fruits (cherry, mulberry) between complex tertiary aging aromas like liquorice, coffee, vanilla, roasted, leather and tobacco, with a characteristic mineral touch. Very elegant and velvety. With the same aromas founded in nose, complex. Ripe fruit, coffee, liquorice, leather, wood and roasted." Winemaker Notes

The 2005 is bottled and made in a rich yet elegant style, with loamy currant, spice and dried berry with a touch of cedary oak and a hint of graphite. It?????s very tight and young now, but well-balanced and fairly typical of the 2005 vintage for Napa Cabernet. - WS

93 points John Gilman
The 2005 les Picasses from Olga Raffault is really a beautiful and classic example of this vintage, which in some cellars can be a bit on the heady side. But, the Raffault ?€?05 Picasses is a cool thirteen percent alcohol and absolutely lovely, offering up a deep and primary nose of dark berries, cassis, cigar smoke, gravelly soil tones, a touch of tree bark, fresh herbs and incipient notes of the spit-roasted game to come. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a fine core of fruit, beautiful focus and balance and a very long, modestly tannic and tangy finish. There is probably a touch of brett here for those who cannot tolerate any in their wines, but it is very minimal and to my palate, simply provides another layer of complexity for down the road. While the ?€?05 Raffault Picasses is certainly approachable now, I would opt for giving it a few more years in the cellar to allow all of its secondary layers of complexity to emerge. A lovely wine. (Drink between 2012-2035)