First bottle of honeymoon wine at the Mark Hopkins InterContinental In San Francisco! It smells like the best piece of baked brioche bread, the crust specifically. Surprisingly light on the bubbles, almost a pet-nat level of effervescence, but the flavor is straight acidic red fruits, with strawberry and some lemon citrus, and a delicious dry finish. The finish is also mouth drying, but all mineral driven. Very enjoyable pre-dinner sparkling! — 8 days ago
Surprisingly good AFTER a lot of aeration. After 30 months in barrel and years on my rack I thought this would be in a good drinkable place from the cork, which was not unpleasant by the way. The predominant notes of Merlot and PV shown through in all stages, but the big take away was the breath and complexity increased with a couple days of air. (Vac’d plug of course) juicy, harvest fresh berries combined with just enough structure and herbal intrigue to make this delightful with artisan sausage pizza and our house smoky bacon bean soup. I had a chance to get a second bottle but it will be fun for someone else to taste a touch of North Carolina’s better half.  — a month ago
Andrew Holod
National Sales Grapes of Spain
Brewery Bhavana 'Bloom' dry cardamom triple
Raleigh NC. 8.1%
Label story is that brewer spent time in Kerala India.
Medium plus gold. Pale head that disipates rapidly. Green resinous cardamom aromas combine with tropical/banana and Candi sugar in the nose. Palate plays the banana note again, along with ginger, cardamom and a vaguely tropical custard flavor (soursop/cherimoya?). On a second taste the in mouth aroma is more of a baked banana bread with cinnamon. Quite complex and very well balanced, ending with a warming alcoholic exhale. — 19 hours ago