Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.3

2019 vintage. Decanted and tasted after 30 minutes and one hour. Rocking and close to the top of the bell curve. Maybe holds in this fashion for another 5-6 years? Pretty delicious now. Thank you Neil and Vanessa! 8.8.26. — 12 days ago

Rrpurdy

9.2

Partly aged in oak gives it a subtle flavor, though the bouquet is unimpressive # — 7 months ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.6

1990 vintage. Wow. Whatta nose! Haven't had this since the mid-90's when it was a mere baby and tight as nails. Could smell this all night long. Oodles of impressively dark color and still medium-bodied. Nose prefaced the previous life of this wine as a total, in your face, tannic bad-ass, tattooed love boy. Flavor profile revealed a more delicate, plummy and slightly plushy finish. Smoother and fatter than expected on the back end. One of the best wines this estate has ever made and no rush to crush. This wine will outlive you and your retirement funds. — 4 years ago

Kelli

8.9

Tall grass. Nice spice but smooth. Not too sweet. Medium body. Easy to drink. Would buy again. — 7 years ago

Delectable Wine

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9.7

The 1990 Cristal is remarkable. Polished, nuanced and light on its feet, the 1990 is all class. Citrus, orchard fruit and floral notes are wonderfully lifted throughout. A slight reductive note adds character on the finely knit finish. I can’t think of a better way to start this tasting. Simply put, the 1990 is a total rock star. Moreover, it is much more delicate than most wines from this ripe vintage. Amazingly, the 1990 tastes like it is still not ready! “Nineteen ninety was my second vintage here,” says Chef de Caves Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon. “It was ideal. The fruit was just perfect. We blocked the malolactic fermentation completely and only fermented 6-7% of our lots in oak, as opposed to the more typical 20%, in order to preserve as much freshness as possible. The wine was made by my predecessor, Michel Pansu, but I was learning. This was the first year I started working with oxygen by reducing sulfites in vinification to pre-oxidize the Chardonnay musts, as I do know, which allows me to get rid of all the unstable, oxidative compounds. With Pinot, on the other hand, you need a little bit of sulfur at crush or you lose the brilliant fruit. (Antonio Galloni, Vinous, December 2018) — 8 years ago

Dani

9.0

Lightly sweet white blend with notes of stone fruit, pear, and a slight citrus-acidic undertones. Excellent summer wine. — 9 years ago

Rick Phillips

9.5

The Old Man could make one hell of a wine! So glad we were privileged to spend time with him. — 6 days ago

with Letha

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.3

1995 vintage. Great fill, foil and label. Perfect cork. From a top-notch cellar. Decanted and tasted over the course of two hours. Volcanic ash-styled sed vs chunky-style. Big funk on the nose that resolved after 7-8 minutes. Wine was showing decently (in the 69-72 degree range) but lacking any tannic structure. Placed the decanter atop an ice bucket bath to drop the temp down to 60 degrees or so. Took about 20 minutes but the tannins kicked in the door to say hello. Fruit components stayed constant. Pauillac tendencies were all there. As is the case often with older BDX, the decaying matter/leaves at the onset transitioned to graphite/lead pencil and espresso flavors. This was a superior bottle in great shape. Top of this wine’s specific bell curve. Comparable bottles would look to be drinking this well for the next 5-7 years without dropoff. Out of larger format…could possibly push this into 9.4 status. 2.5.24. — 2 years ago

Michael Everett

9.0

Really like this — 6 years ago

K. Kasper

9.1

If there is better rosé from Sonoma County, I haven’t had it! — 7 years ago

Rick Phillips

9.4

As I decanted this bottle I was overwhelmed by the sudden burst of wonderful fruit flavors. Still strong but smooth after 4 hours. — 8 years ago

with Letha

Mary H

9.0

Pleasantly surprised how yummy this was! Quite jammy, low tannins, more like blueberries than red berries. — 8 years ago

John T

9.4

Excellent Cab. You want to impress your friend at a somewhat reasonable cost. Love it — 9 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.3

1988 vintage. Feminine-styled. Ran into some resistance back in the day with the (re-) emergence of this Château and the massive 85/86 and 89/90 efforts. Eff all that. The 1989 AND 1990 vintages probs the best this Château has ever realized. The 1988 slid in then and performed delicate magick. That cocoa powder and blueberry combo still coming forth with undeniable impressions. Whereas those four “bigger” vintages rocked harder, all four have had more noticeable drop off. This 1988 just doing its best La Mission Haut-Brion/Haut-Brion impression and pulling it off. No rush to crush. 5.13.26. — 3 months ago

Steve Reiss

9.0

A wonderful GSM Blend — 3 years ago

Catherine Gmoser

9.2

Full bodied, fruity — 4 years ago

with Liz

Jeff Murray

9.0

Excellent blend of Grenache, Mourvèdre and Tempranillo instead of Syrah. Works very well. I saw this described as “dusty fruits” which I take to mean earthy, and just slightly subdued. Relatively smooth and opens up nicely with air time. Will keep the other bottles for a while to see how the evolve. Another good effort from ONX wines out of Pasa Robles. Cheers — 6 years ago

Dan Cruz

10

Great evening relaxing wine. — 7 years ago

Ezra

9.0

Light and fun. Local too — 8 years ago

Dave

9.0

Definitely buy again — 9 years ago