Stephen Giroux

Roasted bird, savory and decadent nose at the start, seems at its best in the hour after opening. I wouldn’t wait too long, it seems ready to go for decant/serve. It’s delicious, fleshy, dried cherries, pruny and umami. Medium finish, doesn’t seem to find that higher gear to go all the way to the back palate, but it is thoroughly delicious, and I don’t take that lightly. I don’t think I would expect it to transform into a different species over the next decade, but I also don’t think i have enough experience watching Barolo evolve to say that confidently. Really good bottle of wine, I’d put it squarely at a 9.1 if I were to give numbers for shit like that. — a year ago

Stephen Giroux

Changes over a period of a couple hours are exciting and intriguing. There’re stones, little zesty flowers, something like clotted cream, slices of cucumber and hunks of cantaloupe. There is a rosey quality and a green, stemmy whiff that might be that cucumber but I think must be cut flowers. This vtg is really nice, with mouthwatering acidity, crunchy gravel road sound, picnic happy, girlfriend pretty, gin with a twist, cool weather white, deserving of its appeal. — 2 years ago

Stephen Giroux

Surreal wine. Wine as surreal painting. Smells a little bit like everything. Flowers, brats with good mustard, little sweet oranges, burnt sugar, jasmine green tea, girlfriend’s hair two days after shampoo, peeking into windows at 11:16 when mom’s asleep and dad’s watching the night news with the lights out and a box of All Sorts, listening to a portable radio with scratchy pots, eating crackers and cheap cheese in the middle of the night under the oven light, miner’s locker room, human hands. I don’t know where to begin with Ostertag, but every time I taste his wines I am thrown into the void that looks back. That’s how much I like it. — 3 years ago

Stephen Giroux

Not a transformative wine by any means, but classic and perfectly developed. The price is higher than this particular version of maturity calls for, perhaps, although I do love Montenidoli quite a bit, and library releases are always a pleasure. Classic, elegant in style. Nothing that will haunt my dreams, not yet anyway! — a year ago

Stephen Giroux

this is the 2016 WHITE not the RED.
100% SB
Smells a bit like opening a pack of sultana raisins, specifically, a little waxed paper box of them in your school lunch. Something like cedar or a little, varnished wood toy, definitely dried fruit, bruised or dried Jonagold apple. The fruit on the front of the palate is almost totally gone, but you are reminded of fruit when you exhale. It’s a kind of strange wine, and seems perhaps past its peak, but it didn’t cost too much and I have definitely not drunk a whole lot of Bdx Blanc lately. I would not expect my life to be changed by drinking this in any context, but I do not expect that of very much. It really tasted good with the black bass sushi bowl I improvised tonight, I think owing to its lower alcohol, soft texture and quiet elegance. — a year ago

Stephen Giroux

I remain a big fan. This 2013 is in a very nice part of its life. It started as chamomile tea and honey, and is finishing as calvados and potpourri. Getting more oxidative as the hours tick by, but it’s time to have the last sip and thank u for ur service. — 3 years ago

Stephen Giroux

Pretty, soft and light as a feather. Dried cranberries with lite sugar to balance the acidity. Lingering finish, it’s definitely begging for a couple years hanging in the cellar, but it is stunning. — a year ago

Stephen Giroux

Bang on Chinon Jr. Blueberries and blackberries, pencil sharpener, parsnip, petrichor and violet candies on the nose, feels like cooled-off black tea on the palette. Finish is bright, leafy, again like black tea, and then the sensation of having drunk something made from the earth remains. What a terrific bottle of wine for a good price. Who wouldn’t love this? — a year ago

Stephen Giroux

Smells like a dozen roses and lemon zest and honeysuckle and slices of really super crisp pink lady apple. Stunning palate, biting the freshest, juiciest apple you’ve ever tasted, even with the snap of the skin and the crunch of the pulp and the tannin-like acidic structure. Life-affirming, death-defying. More things on earth should taste like this. For those of us who find something in a wine that is beautiful and worth seeking out. I like getting to find reasons to live in a stupid glass of stupid wine. This is a moment like that. It’s worth it. — 3 years ago

Stephen Giroux

Pigato white not the red listed here.
R. says this is probably the only pigato YM will make, as it’s from a leased vyd that was a bit of a hassle. Wine occurred by some accident or magic, press broke just before or during press, so wine was fermented on skin as an experiment. Lemons to lemonade. Drinks like a really good pigato. Weird to see this grape in france, Corbieres to be specific, with all the hallmarks of the pigatos i’ve had or a lower-acid malvasia: nose is green and slightly vegetal/stalk/floral, could be mistaken for some types of malvasia or kiwi sauvignon blanc, but palate is silk like the grape’s relation to vermentino would imply. Broad, full-bodied, white peach, nectarines, nasturtium (peppery and floral simultaneously), parsley or tarragon or something herbal that isn’t overpowering. This is a really cool wine. — 3 years ago