David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.7

I forgot to shoot the Moonracer bottle and borrowed some of these images from their site.

This is one of my favorite wines from Realm. Very kind of Leslie to open for us. The 2021 was outstanding and have it at 97-98. Showed very well at well pop and pour.

The nose on the 2021 Moonracer was quite feminine which has great appeal to me. Dark perfume florals, ripe, lush currants but more cassis with beautiful, soft baking spices.

The palate was fresh and shows round, ruby, lush fruits of; blackberries, black raspberries, black plum, plum, dark cherries. It is feminine & elegant in its style. Powdered, limestone, rocks & sandstone, soft, dark spice with gentle heat as it sets, sweet forest floor, black licorice, mixed berry cola, some soft, fresh tobacco, expensive, plush leather, softly stated baking spices-nutmeg, clove cinnamon & vanillin, melted dark chocolate, a mix of fresh, red, blue florals framed in violets & some lavender, perfect acidity, elegant, round, extremely well balanced, layered, structured long finish that is two-minutes.

One thing of note, there will be no 2022 The Absurd. The Absurd fruit will go into The Bard and a couple of their others wines. Reason, the six days of brutal heat during the potential harvest window.

Stunning pano view of Pritchard Hill from their estate. If we had been there the day before, fog and clouds would have made this photo impossible. Brand plate on their stainless steel tanks, believe a shot of their Moonracer vineyard and sitting area in their tasting room. — a year ago

Ted Holland

9.2

Brand New 2017 Boheme English Hill Chardonnay! Beautiful, delicious, well balanced wine. Enjoy!! — 4 years ago

Severn Goodwin

9.2

Wine 7/12 (White Field Blend)

Nose has straw bales, honey candy, salt toffee, dried lemon peel, minor cider vinegar and quite wilted daffodils.

Palate has salted lemon slice, grapefruit pith, honey, tart yellow apple, sea salt and oh the astonishing acidity with a long finish. Amazing, alive!

Been waiting to get my hands on anything from the Brand bros. for quite some time, would love the rosé, but this German take on Gemischter Satz is also right in my lane! Funk welcomed.

Once again it is notable that I have made one full trip around the Sun earlier this week. We had our small, social bubble team to the house for celebrating my getting older and somewhat less flexible in advancing age...Whatever will be done when I creast 50? Well, at least it's several years until needing manage that concern.

We enjoyed well-salted Ribeyes (Kinderhook Farm - Valatie, NY, prepared 48h in advance), turning to a beautiful medium-rare after a mere 12m of grill time and smashed, small red potatoes with capers (yeah try it, don't judge me yet). None of the bottles were particularly planned as 'steak wines'; we didn't care as it really was a wine nerd-fest of grapes/regions, from Burgenland, Austria to Brittany, France. Wine and food were on individual plateaux today. This was the vom Boden Spring Experience case, expertly curated by Stephen Bitterolf, and well received by our tasting crew. — 4 years ago

Peter van den Besselaar

8.9

Vintage 2015 | Right bank Bordeaux, brand of a large Belgium retailer. The back label does not give information about grapes, but says it should be drunk in 2 to 3 years. I kept it 8 years 🫣 and now it has a brown tuilé colour, beautiful tertiary tones in smell like autumn leaves, tobacco, leather. Supple taste of course. I like aged wines and I like this Blaye. More now than when I drank it in 2017 😏. Be contrary sometimes pays ☺️. Paired with ravioli filled with goatscheese and citruszeste, served with sage butter and grated Parmesan. — 2 years ago

Gary Grose

9.0

Had this for NYE celebration. This was a brand that we really enjoyed at its early stages and then it seemed to lose its way. Not with this one. Sharply clean. But with the right sugar levels - it’s a beautiful champagne in the $25-$35 range depending on where you buy it. Pears and yeast and yummy — 4 years ago

Brent Clayton

9.1

Beautiful ripe fruit. White flowers, mineral, bees wax. Great stuff. — 4 years ago

Emma Copeland

9.0

The wax topper was beautiful and difficult to remove - once the wine was open it was an easy pairing with a full Italian meal. Delicious steak-y flavor, made me look up flights to California to visit. — 5 years ago

Ely Cohn

9.3

Cubillo is a beautiful anomaly in a sea of $25 wines.

It’s the youngest of the lot, but the signature stamp is there, so obviously LDH Tempranillo.

Velvet milk chocolate, ripe black cherries, brand new leather boots. Rich and loaded with cocoa and coffee and raisiny red berries.

It looks like motor oil. Heck it has almost a decade in bottle. Plenty of acid to smooth out over time.

We should be stock piling this - quality and price don’t intersect so well very often. — 3 years ago

Peg Hanssen

9.7

If you shy away from Chardonnays because you have only tried the buttery/oaky offerings from other regions, you need to try a South African Chardonnay. Because they are not aged in oak barrels like French and Californian Chards, there is no mouth coating, buttery, vanilla feel and taste. Tucana Unwooded Chardonnay is a perfect representation what South Africa brings to the table- the color is a beautiful pale gold, with a medium body and notes of ginger, citrus and earth. The mouthfeel is smooth and there are notes of green apple and florals in the finish. This wine is a brand new way to experience Chardonnay and pairs perfectly with Asian fare, fattier meats and hard cheeses. — 4 years ago

Aaron Tan

9.0

Firstly, merry Christmas to all!

Noticing that label variations exist for the Singleton 12, I became curious for why this is the case. Turns out Singleton is a brand (bottler?) that represents multiple distilleries. This is from Glen Ord at the edge of Black Isle peninsula in the Scottish Highlands.

To be frank, I've never been one to bat an eye when approached with Singleton - always seems to be the choice pour at bars in every corner of the world. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by this offering - orange, honey, and caramel on the nose. The palate is wood and spice driven with a subtle minerally and gingery finish. I liked it. Smooth and easy to drink. — 5 years ago