Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.1

2021 vintage. 5.20.26. — a month ago

Cathy Levy

9.3

Lovely, deep, rich Syrah. Plums, Raisins and blackberries. — 5 months ago

Yosuke Sato

9.2

シアトルで飲んだカベルネ
タンニンしっかり — 8 months ago

Pinotman /// Andreas

9.1

Trader Joe’s. Long gone! For 15$ quite good! This is the 2019 - one of the best vintages in Piedmont. So - in this case even lousy cheapo wineries made great wine. Tastes like 40$. Roses, super astringent, violets. Hint Eucalyptus. A little rough: Bought a case most gone should have bought 2 - will age the last 3 bottles just out of curiosity - could go another 5-10 years. Thanks Scott for this find!!! — 2 years ago

Keith Ward

9.2

Still standing tall! Amazing Bordeaux blend from one of Australia’s preeminent wineries! Very balanced, great forward fruit and a super-long finish! Had with aged beef - to die for!! — 6 years ago

Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.2

Smokey and floral. Roses. Berry fruit. Ripe and juicy with terrific energy and density. Concentrated and super pure. Long. 3 wineries make wine from the grape. Grape is 100% Enantio. — 6 years ago

A. R.

9.0

Really nice Cassis... purchased in Cassis on a rainy day for 16€ (when all the wineries were closed for the holiday...) Melon and lemon curd on the nose, bright and salty in the mouth. Long finish. — 7 years ago

Brian S

8.9

Big alcohol wine. — 3 months ago

Doug Adams

9.3

2018. Decanted for about an hour and improved with more time. — 5 months ago

Janice in Livermore

9.0

2022. At Locanda Wine Dinner with sea bass tartare — a year ago

Adam Kincaid

9.0

Really intense dark reddish purple hues with equally powerful aromatics of plums, black currant, and lots of baking spice. Some cherry tang too, if that’s a thing. Aromatic pipe tobacco notes. Stony and dusty. Yum! Huge body and mouthfeel to match. Long and satisfying finish. 14.5% alcohol!

Really unique wine making style in that some of it is aged in tuff “tanks” carved into the ground. Kocabağ is the only one of the three commercial wineries in Cappadocia to use such tanks, and they may very easily be the only winery in the world to do so. — 3 years ago

with Jillian

Michael Sotiriou

9.2

Full bodied velvety tannins. Black fruits on the nose and almost chocolatey balanced finish. Paired with Beef Wellington. — 5 years ago

with Angelique

Amanda Newcomb

9.5

Lingering mouthfeel, creamy, subtle fruit notes. — 7 years ago

with Scott

Michael Seely

9.3

2008. Great super Tuscan blend from Long Shadows. Big plum, easy tannins — 7 years ago

with Jeff and Joe

Somm David T

Independent Sommelier/Wine Educator

9.2

Most of the wines I open tell me a story w/ each sip. Most tied to my late wife Sofia. My memories of this producer precedes her.

This is a producer that flashed early in my wine journey. Generally, one you have moved on from today. That’s until, their 2013 is offered at $39 recently. A grand vintage. For me, I wanted to see the wineries progression and experience earlier memories that flood back w/ each sip. It has done that.

I have a Napa history infatuation. This one is kinda of a pleasure-pain thing. While I enjoyed this producer many years ago, the 2020 Glass Fires destroyed 90% of their vineyards, almost all their structures & their 19 & 20 vintages. I can’t express enough what a gut punch that is for its owners & staff. It is an insurance nightmare and let’s not forget that after all the time it takes to re-plant vines, it takes at least 7 years before you get useable fruit to make wine. So…a ten yr plus setback w/ nearly no revenue stream.

The wine tonight w/o a ribeye, showed excellent fruits that the 13 growing season brought. But what followed was a lean mid plate and finish. With the steak, not so.

The palate shows M+ velvety, dry tannins. Ripe, rich, lush, ruby fruits of: blackberries, black plum, baked plum, dark cherries, black raspberries, raspberries, poached & fresh strawberries & an understated array of purple fruits. Moist, grey, volcanic clays, moist tobacco w/ ash, used leather, graphite, dry, crushed rocks/limestone-sandstone, dry brush, dark cola, black licorice to anise, dry herbs-bay leaf, sage, dark, mid spice with some palate heat, sweet tarriness, dark, fresh, candied & withering red roses, lavender & dry violets, excellent acidity with a well balanced-knitted, nicely structured & tensioned, elegant finish that lasts minutes and long sets on dry earth & spice.

This is nice on its own but so much better with a ribeye. 92 on its own with a hour decant. 92-93+ with an hour decant plus a juicy, well seasoned MR ribeye. — 4 months ago

Sipping Fine Wine

9.3

1 of CA's oldest wineries, Far Niente, founded 1885 by John Benson. Winery flourished until Prohibition, when it was abandoned & fell into complete disrepair. Stately stone shell of a winery purchased in 1979 by Gil Nickel. A big wine! Tropical and stone fruit aromas with complex spice and oak notes. On the palate apple, peach and citrus flavors, creamy, with buttery toasty oak, fig/honey tones. Long finish ending with vibrant acidity & mineral character. Consistent. — a year ago

Gregg Siegal

9.0

Darker and richer in flavor than most merlots. Great finish. Nice acidic backbone, very nice. — 5 years ago

Kevin Seybert

9.1

excellent for the price! $30 at restaurant affiliated with brewery in Seattle (nine hats pizzeria). Cranberry/blackberry, dark chocolate, cedar. Easy drinker — 6 years ago

Kellie Dolan

8.9

Cherry, raspberry and cassis with smokey oak notes. Smooth finish with a good balance of tannins and acidity. — 7 years ago

Isaac Pirolo

9.4

With friends in town during Thanksgiving, I hit up some wineries that I’ve been curious about. Super cool experience at Aonair. Grant Long, Jr has created something special there, and with David Yorgensen at the helm with the wines, it feels all dialed in. Their Grenache was a surprise to me. From El Dorado and there’s some initial funk, but it blows off and what’s left is a balanced, mineral driven, but kirsch laden, and yet still, a bright style wine that’s quite reminiscent of something from Chateauneuf du Pape. — 8 years ago