Tom Casagrande

9.0

Nose is fresh and bright, with tart(-ish) red berry fruit and clean stony minerals. I’m kind of surprised that a wine from a historically hot growing season is so fresh tasting. Not any great depth; it has sort of a horizontal feel, but very nice. — a month ago

Paul T HB

9.5

Not the team’s I wanted to see, so I’ll just stick to the basics. Went well with some A5 coffee crusted New York Strip, the steak 🥩 is so rich you don’t want to waste it on a fruity wine

The 2010 is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petit Verdot. The vineyard is situated on deep gravel deposits in the Macau and Ludon villages of the appellation and has 9,600 vines per hectare.

Vinious 93 The 2010 Cantemerle is vigorous and open on the nose, a mixture of red and black fruit with cedar and humidor scents. I admire the focus and detail. The palate is rounded in texture on the entry. This is a plumper, richer, more fruit-driven 2010 with a lush finish on the context of the growing season. You could broach this now, although I would prefer to leave it another three or four years. This is another excellent wine and candidate for most over-performing cru this vintage. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal. — 2 years ago

Lee Pitofsky

9.5

2009 Allemand Horizontal. I absolutely love Allemand’s wines. Always a seamless combination of both elegance and power. Both the Chaillot and Reynard showed perfectly, with the Reynard a bit more concentrated and deep than the Chaillot. Both wines had superb intensity, focus and a wonderful texture with the signature liquid rock, violets, herbs and cassis of Allemand Cornas. Fantastic duo. — 4 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.5

2019 vintage. The excellent 2018 version carried slightly more weight and finished with an intriguing honeycomb flourish. The 2019 effort is no less delicious but much more nimble, flashing plenty of apricot, nectarine, pear and peach flavors. A tad more acidity and just enough unctuous/oily character gives the 2019 the nod-barely-over the 2018. Can think of worse things than a Condrieu vertical/horizontal tho. — a year ago

Mike Saviage

9.7

Tasted blind, although we are now told that all of the reds tonight are 61's so our tasting becomes a single blind horizontal exercise. This wine is brownish tawny, translucent and very old-looking. Perfumed nose with notes of cola, rhubarb, cherry and earth. Has a light structure with faded fruit at first. We're told this bottle was a leaker with the lowest fill of all of tonight's bottles. Guesses are all over the map including Italian and very old red burg (me). We've had spectacular 61 Palmers before and in the first part of the evening, this bottle was missing it. BUT, late in the evening (and 9 hours after opening) this caught its sea legs and grew in volume, complexity and delivery. My rating was crossed out three times as I upgraded this while we all marvelled at the improvement... and in the end, this 61 Palmer showed it's pedigree and overall power. Glad we waited it out! (M's 60th bday 5th of 14) — 3 years ago

Delectable Wine

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9.7

The 2010 Léoville-Poyferré has a very intense bouquet with blackberry, briary cedar and light estuarine/seaweed aromas that are very well defined. Pure class. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, layers of pure black fruit laced with pencil lead and a pinch of white pepper. It fans out wonderfully towards the finish, a Saint-Julien demonstrating wonderful density and precision. What an outstanding wine, perhaps less flamboyant than other vintages, one that will last decades. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal. (Neal Martin, Vinous, April 2020)
— 4 years ago

John Tan

9.0

Gorgeous, flinty nose with hint of barnyard. Grippy tannins. Hint of coffee and soy sauce after 3 hours. Almost Valentini Cerasuolo-ish. Imperial Treasure Teochew Ion with Andrew Dutton.

Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. There I was suggesting that Maume's Mazis-Chambertin 2011 was clearly not the pick from the domaine this vintage and lo and behold, it trumps all in a blind tasting. It has quite an earthy note on the nose with mint-tinged red fruit and black plum unfurling at its own leisurely pace in the glass. Later, this is joined by fennel and rosemary scents, creating an intriguing aromatics profile. The palate is medium-bodied, a touch foursquare on the entry, but with good substance, the texture grainy and quite peppery toward the finish. There is a lot going on in this grand cru and it will be fascinating to see how it develops and if it maintains this stellar quality. RP95, 2011, issued Nov 2014
— a year ago

Lee Pitofsky

9.7

2009 Allemand Horizontal. I absolutely love Allemand’s wines. Always a seamless combination of both elegance and power. Both the Chaillot and Reynard showed perfectly, with the Reynard a bit more concentrated and deep than the Chaillot. Both wines had superb intensity, focus and a wonderful texture with the signature liquid rock, violets, herbs and cassis of Allemand Cornas. Fantastic duo. — 4 years ago

Hanibal

9.1

I decided to revisit a bottle that was the winner of our horizontal tasting of MSD 2016 village (10 producers tasted blind by 10 participants). And once again this is a hit for a village. Lots of complexity, licorice, spices and red fruits... more than satisfactory length for this level of appellation. — 4 years ago

Delectable Wine

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9.8

The 2010 Lafleur is showing a lot of Cabernet Franc on the nose. It is supremely well defined with incredibly clarity and terroir expression. You could almost mistake it for a Left Bank. Figeac? The palate is precise and detailed, touches of burnt toast and white pepper sprinkled over the persistent and structured finish that does not miss a step. Brilliant. Tasted blind at Farr Vintners 10-Year On Bordeaux horizontal. (Neal Martin, Vinous, April 2020)
— 4 years ago