Freddy R. Troya

9.0

Don Próspero – Tannat 2017
Canelones, Uruguay 🇺🇾

Overview:
Made from Uruguay’s flagship grape, this 100% Tannat hails from the Canelones region, the country’s viticultural heartland. It captures the bold, structured, and unapologetically powerful style that has put Uruguay on the wine map.

Aromas & Flavors:
Dark fruit at its core, black plum, blackberry, and cassis, wrapped in notes of cedar, baking spice, and a touch of earth. After hours in the decanter, it remained tight yet expressive, with hints of licorice and savory herbs peeking through.

Mouthfeel:
Full-bodied with gripping, chewy tannins and firm dryness. The structure dominates, yet there’s depth and intensity that suggests longevity. Still evolving in the glass.

Food Pairings:
Perfect with rich and fatty dishes that tame its tannins, think grilled ribeye, lamb shanks, or slow-braised short ribs. Also works with aged Manchego or blue cheese.

Verdict:
A serious, food-demanding Tannat that showcases Uruguay’s bold personality. Not a casual sipper, but for the right pairing it becomes absolutely delicious. With its muscle and backbone, this vintage still has 5–8 years of cellaring potential ahead. Cheers!

Did You Know?
Uruguay is the only country where Tannat is the national grape, brought over by Basque settlers in the 19th century. Canelones, just north of Montevideo, produces nearly two-thirds of Uruguay’s wine and is known for its Atlantic breezes, which help balance Tannat’s tannic intensity with freshness. — 4 days ago

Ming L

9.1

The ripe black fruit core is lifted by perfumed nose and lively acidity. Silky palate with fine grained tannins, but 15.7% abv does make its present felt on the long finish.
Quite a good value for what is considered the flagship wine by the winery. — 7 months ago

Rubychick

9.0

Golden Honeysuckle flagship Chardonnay. It’s Christmas, so time to drink the wine fridge ❤️ — 2 years ago

with See and Erika

Bob McDonald

9.5

A rich deep Ruby in colour - right to the rim. Notes of creosote/tar together with blackberry and black currant. You wouldn’t pick its age by looking at it in the glass. The old vine origins giving a great intensity to the palate. This is d’Arenberg’s flagship from their McLaren Vale vineyards - from a warm vintage. I’ll try and have the last one in 2 years if I have the willpower. — 3 years ago

Freddy R. Troya

9.2

Caymus Vineyards – Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2013
Napa Valley, California – USA 🇺🇸

Overview
Special Selection is Caymus’ flagship bottling, the only wine to twice earn Wine Spectator’s “Wine of the Year.” The 2013 vintage comes from a benchmark Napa year—warm, consistent, and producing deeply concentrated fruit. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, sourced from prime valley-floor sites, this wine showcases the Caymus hallmark: bold, plush, and fruit-driven Napa opulence.

Aromas & Flavors
Opulent blackberries, cassis, and baked blueberries, wrapped in layers of cocoa, espresso, and toasted vanilla. Secondary notes of licorice, sweet tobacco, and graphite add depth. With time in the glass, hints of cedar and leather start to show, signaling the early stages of graceful evolution.

Mouthfeel
Full-bodied and richly textured, almost velvet-like, with powerful yet polished tannins. The 2013 vintage delivers intensity and weight, but with balance—long, lingering finish loaded with ripe dark fruit and spice.

Winemaking Notes
Meticulous cluster selection, long maceration for depth, and extended aging in new French oak barrels (18+ months). Chuck Wagner’s hallmark style: unapologetically ripe fruit, creamy oak integration, and a seamless, approachable structure even in youth.

Food Pairing
A natural match for grilled ribeye, braised short ribs, or herb-crusted lamb. For a more indulgent pairing, try it with aged Gouda or truffle-infused dishes.

Verdict
A monumental vintage of Caymus Special Selection—ripe, hedonistic, and still showing youthful vigor more than a decade later. Built for aging, yet already a crowd-pleaser. A benchmark expression of Napa Cabernet’s luxurious side.

Personal Pick Highlight
2013 stands out as one of Napa’s greatest modern vintages, and tasting it now is like catching Caymus in its prime sweet spot: power meeting polish. Cheers! — a month ago

Lee Pitofsky

9.7

The Selosse flagship that uses a solera style blend with vintages dating back to 1986. May 2016 disgorgement is just superb, explosively aromatic and infinitely layered with magical depth of Selossien flavors and such a singular texture that you just can’t forget. It wraps around the palate with incredible volume and concentration before giving way to a salty mineral laced finale with stunning length and persistence. — a year ago

Boris Mathiszik

9.3

Having Justin’s flagship wine at Justin’s. 😎 new vintage, same beautiful blend. Delicious. — 2 years ago

Tree Kilpatrick

9.2

The Bonny Doon flagship. Lighter red. Ruby red. Floral nose. Sort of a ripe meadow strawberry meets damsel plum. Flavors are juicy, tart and elegant. Complex. Smoke and good red/black fruit. This is a wine that hits a home run. — 4 months ago

Freddy R. Troya

9.4

The V.2022 Esprit de Tablas is the flagship red blend of 40% Mourvèdre, 28% Grenache, 22% Syrah, 4% Vaccarèse, 3% Cinsaut and 3% Counoise selected from the top 6-estate-grown varieties propagated from budwood cuttings from the Château de Beaucastel Estate in Rhône, France.

An absolute crowd-pleaser in all aspects; the nose welcomes aromatic dark red fruits, black forrest, earthy and spices. As for the palate, it is rich and bold, yet fruit-forward slightly juicy with a hint of licorice, minty and lushy. Great acidity and structure with progressive tannins towards the back-end. Loved the texture and some sweet spices by the very end. — 6 months ago

Vanessa

9.3

This is a stunning Garnatxa blend from Priorat (Catalonia), Spain!!

It’s comprised of mostly Garnatxa (Grenache), along with Syrah, and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon, sourced from three parcels in the sun-soaked village of Gratallops, where Daphne Glorian purchased her first vineyard – Clos Escales – back in 1989 when she founded Clos i Terraces. 🍇

In making this move, she joined equally passionate and pioneering winemakers Álvaro Palacios (L’Ermita) and René Barbier (Clos Mogador) in a rebirth of production practices in the region; as a group (with other similar-minded producers) they altered the trajectory of Priorat’s profile as a source of tip top quality wines rivaling the best on the world stage. 👏🏻

Priorat is one of only two regions carrying the “DOCa” / “DOQ” quality designation (the other is Rioja), subject to various stipulations including regular auditing by a tasting panel. ✅

This particular wine is “Laurel” which is Clos i Terraces’s second wine, next to Clos Erasmus, one of Priorat’s finest and most sought-after wines. Yet it tastes like a flagship wine in and of itself.🫶🏻🫶🏻

It is absolutely beautiful, with a medium ruby hue, medium (+) intensity of ripe and fresh strawberry, red cherry, red plum, violet, black licorice, fennel, clove, baking spice aromas and flavors. It’s dry, with medium(+) acidity, a medium(+) body, high alcohol (14% ABV), and medium tannins that are fine-grained. 😆

This wine vinified and aged in a combination of vessels, including, large oak vats, concrete tanks, second and third fill French oak barrels, and clay amphorae, lending to its texture and complexity.👌🏻👌🏻
— a year ago