Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

Huge and expansive nose. Ripe apricot and peach and very confectionary. Grapefruit, citrus, tangerine, tangelo and so much more. An amalgam of stunning fruit on a mineral background. Hugely expressive minerality and just a stunningly mineral nose. Smells like a rock quarry. Awesome. The nose is so deep. Kaleidoscopic and fractal like. Palate is young and tangy with enormous structure but it’s delicate and a little bit hidden. Not that integrated at all but all the parts are there. Incredible fruit sapidity on the finish. Huge mineral/citrus inner mouth aromas. Juicy and mineral but man is this backwards. The finish is super long and the wine is crazy concentrated but massively backwards. I’ll be back. — 2 years ago

Joao

8.9

Pleasant taste. Goes bad quickly in freezer — 7 years ago

Steve Anderson

9.1

Aka "the Fractal". First impression was ripe and boozy, but calmed down and became very interesting after the second hour in the decanter. — 9 years ago

Ross Fulton

9.7

Is this what Super Mario clouds taste like? — 4 years ago

Son

9.1

Elvin fuckin green iridescent fractal rainbow of green florals on the nose. So youthful for its age. Tastes lean and sharp on palate, maybe too much so — 7 years ago

Michael Terwindt

9.2

Herbaceous and earthy aroma. Spicy with licorice taste. — 9 years ago

Keith Levenberg

9.7

2000. Huge wow here. No-doubter right off the bat. Next to the 2005 Batard, and I liked this better. Big thwack of sulfur and gunpowder on the nose to go along with lemony fruit and a chicken broth type of savoriness. Richly fruited but crunchy and crystalline on the palate. This keeps reminding me of those sticky lemon drop candies with the sugar crytal coating, sweet succulent concentrated fruit but with a crunch to it. Plenty of bass tones and depth though and it just doesn't quit. This is the vintage the grapes were so perfect they printed a cross-section of one on the back label and it looked like a Mandelbrot fractal. It still manages to depict the wine pretty well. — 9 years ago

Chris Shultz

9.4

Such texture on this wine. Killer non-fruit aromas: mysterious, big and engulfing. Very long finish. I find sylvaners have this mouth-filling feeling with a bitterness that’s not tannic, in a way that I love, also savory-sweet, vegetal snap pea, celery bitter and juicy. Mouthwatering fractal mineral acid shapes, makes me want to drink more. An expressionist, black and white tornado going down. — 5 years ago

Rajiv Ayyangar

10

A blend of Obaideh and Merwah from ancient vines with pyrrhic yields (a glassful from each vine). 

In the glass, a supernaturally glowing amber with copper flecks—one friend exclaimed “This color is just ridiculous!"

The initial wave of aroma is intense and complex to the point of being overwhelming. Time stands still, the room becomes quiet. It presents as a blanket of detailed images - toast with honey (like aged Semillon), nutty yellow apple (development), honeyed cashews, bruised candied white flowers, sweet carrot halwa, apple butter, apple-balsamic, clove, almond, and toasted scone. The nose is fractal, in a way. It rewards scrutiny with ever-increasing complexity.

The developed note of carrot, tamari, and honey intensifies over time in the glass, and on the micro-scale, within a single inhalation.

There’s no oxidation or Brett here, despite being as “natural” as a wine can be (no sulfur, no wild yeast, no manipulation except maybe a small quantity of used Nevers oak. 

This has undergone the transformation from a wine of fruit to a wine of wisdom - the fruit has been replaced by a honeyed, savory character, that Bartholomew Broadbent says will intensify with more age.  — 9 years ago

with Gence and Tim