Consensus

Vine Hill Ranch

Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

David T
9.5

Bruce Phillips and his wife were pouring their 2021. Talked w/ him at length. Very nice couple.

The 2021 showed well young with room for improving with 10-25 years in bottle and beyond. It showed some evolution, wasn’t all primary. Elegant, very well balanced with excellent structure and finish. Drink 2033-45 properly stored.

The general Napa consensus on 2022 vintage will be a story of did you pick before or after the 6 days of extreme heat during the harvest window. One producer told me his would add 5% of 2023 to some of his 2022’s, which is allowed. He mentioned that he was going to add 15%. But, I think he just misspoke? Get ready for an amazing 2023 vintage from Napa. It was a cooler, not hot-hot, which was a near perfect growing season for long slow even ripening. Some say a vintage of a lifetime and others would only say exceptional.

The Saturday-Sunday Pavilion tasting at Pebble Beach Food & Wine is an excellent four hours to taste a lot wine, taste curated dishes from chefs from all over the country and meet the people behind the bottle. These short ribs were one of the top two or three things I tasted at the Pavilion Saturday.
— 2 months ago

Shay, Ceccherini and 12 others liked this

Château La Vieille Cure

Fronsac Red Bordeaux Blend 2017

This was firing on all cylinders tonight. Big and spicy. Earth and graphite but loads of wild, dark red fruit. I preferred this over the 2016 Fleur des Rouzes Pomerol, though that wasn’t consensus. — 2 years ago

Severn and Andrew liked this
ESF

ESF

Fronsac is such a great value & underrated
Austin Hohnke

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@ESF agreed! Impressive.

Viña Real (CVNE)

Reserva Especial Rioja Tempranillo Blend 1964

Tasted blind. Dark tawny with good fruit, mocha, black cherry. Tannins fully resolved. This is clearly old and a CMF wine (Chateau Mind F***). The consensus thinking is this is really old, really good and something we’ve not had before. I guess 78 Guigal La La. Other guesses were equally all over the board. Great to try out an old/aged Spanish wine… one of our group is exploring more of these old Spanish wines, given the rise in cost of everything else around it. Thanks for sharing Steve! — 3 years ago

Severn, Tom and 15 others liked this

Ridge Vineyards

Pagani Ranch Sonoma Valley Zinfandel Blend 2021

6 zin tasting lots of first place votes consensus number one took a little to open up with air but jammy blackberry, lovely red cherry, pepper notes, and dark chocolate — 3 months ago

Ray, Joe and 4 others liked this

Château Pagnac

Château Pagnac Saint-Emilion Red Bordeaux Blend 2018

Delectable consensus is wayyy off. This is stupendous tremendous. — a year ago

I Pentri

Flora Beneventano Falanghina 2010

We tasted seven white wines from Campania and Sicily, all single grape varietals, 2009-2012. Clear standout of the group, our consensus #1! — 3 years ago

Aravind, Neil and 19 others liked this

Bergström Wines

Sigrid Chardonnay 2019

Drank 3/9/23 with grilled salmon, more lush and less acidity than the typical Willamette chardonnay. No consensus on this, but leaning toward old school Napa. — a year ago

Domaine de la Côte

La Côte Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir 2020

Paul K
9.4

@delectable this is DDLC estate Pinot.
Lovely evening with friends trying Pinots. This was wonderful. Tarragon was the consensus. 😄
— a year ago

James K
with James
James, Paul and 24 others liked this

Blind Creek Collective

Consensus RED BLEND 2016

wow wow wow, picked this up after a tasting @ Road 13....was worth every penny! — 3 years ago

Talisker

Talisker Storm Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Enjoyed this, though it does comes off a little harsh, which can perhaps be attributed to its youth. A NAS, but as I understand, the blend is at least as old as the standard 10 year old. It definitely has a pretty similar profile - pepper, brine, peat smoke, and citrus. Would be good to taste them side-by-side given the general consensus that the Storm's essentially the 10 taken up a notch. There's a really "sweet" inner core that pushes through to peaty, somewhat-medicinal finish. Medium length. Really liking this profile (particularly the saline character) so I'm definitely going to be checking out the rest of the range. — 3 years ago

Ceccherini, Keith and 6 others liked this
Aaron Tan

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@Severn Goodwin Haha. I can see that. The older bottlings not worth the premium?
Severn Goodwin

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@Aaron Tan They certainly are, but this particular bottle (Storm) does showcase their style with much greater affordability.
Aaron Tan

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@Severn Goodwin Great to know. Very keen to try more bottlings and when possible, aged examples... Particular the precursor to the 10.