Lyle Fass

Founder Fass Selections

9.5

The best estate in Cornas no one is talking about.What a wine. Nose is beguiling and mysterious with smoke, white pepper, spice, blackberry, clay, creosote and more. So complex and lovely. Gorgeous granitic depth. Palate is rich, silky and so energetic. Wow what freshness and acids all derived from the grantic power punch. So deep and juicy with such great accessibility as 20 is so stunning right now. Rich and fresh and just such wonderful energy. Haven’t had this much energy in Cornas in so so long. Wow. Crushed rocks abound now on the nose with blueberry and blackberry flesh and skins. What silken texture and sweet powdery tannins. Will be back as it opens. After an hour, wow! Nose is so well integrated and has a Burgundian complexity. Just insane aromas. Palate is now more juicy and the fruit is more present as is the silken structure. A beauty. — 6 months ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.2

2016 vintage. Dark and dense with blackberry, lavender and cassis in the flavor profile. Mysterious, come-hither nose. Medium body. Silky tannins on a slightly earthy finish that just casually skates past at first but then looks back with a smile. Unimpressive at first but starts to gain your trust by the third sip. — 2 years ago

Big Wave Dave

9.6

Spectacular. Earthy. The nose gives it all away - deep dark and mysterious, aged balsamic with dominant high end bordeaux notes. Perfect balance: sweet opulent fruit shrouded in regal tannins, with black pepper, loads of funk, and plums. Still lots of life. Close to perfect wine with red meat. On MD celeb night at DB bistro. — 3 years ago

with Racquel

Tom Elliot

Founder Northwest Wines

9.1

Not Ambrosan. A big boy that’s now lived it’s full life. Dark, earthy, and mysterious. — 8 months ago

Sally Wilde

10

Smooth and soft, deep, interesting, mysterious — 2 years ago

JKT

9.3

Simply delicious Burg! Light colored. Intriguing and attractive nose of forest floor red berries and an interesting mysterious note of woodsy perfume of some kind carrying through to a liveliness and dancing texture. More pure pleasure than the complexity and depth folks chase after. Excellent finish to cap it off. Hard to find. Hopefully another bottle left. Yum. What a GL 29 buy back then! A traditionally made wine, 50 barrels with no sulfur. Gardener than farmer as DR says! — 3 years ago

Ely Cohn

9.2

Last week, I sat for three hours with Manni Nossing in his home and tasted through Kerners, Sylvaners, Gruners, and Muller Thurgous dating back to 2014 and through to the 2018s (set to bottle the next day). Manni has a style. Always crisp and green and even when fruit peeks through, it’s usually lean sour grapefruit and firm apricots. He is a mumbling jolly gentle giant with a great sense of humor. This 2014 Kerner was my favorite we tasted and he let me take the bottle for dinner that night. It has mysterious green herbal notes and high acid. Silver green lining, thyme, and lime. — 5 years ago

John Tan

8.9

Wildcard. Prob my fav cuvée from Julien. Tasted aged even tho it’s a 21. Flowery quality to it, like roses, potpourri.

[2019 Vintage:] “A captivating, translucent ruby red hue. Even on the nose alone, there is already a suggestion of ripeness, yet it is utterly enveloped by fragrance: white flowers, grapefruit, cherry, even stony minerals. Really classy and effusive, replete with sapid pinot-esque flavours of enviable concentration. The vintage is quite magical here: all pure, palate-staining but also inexplicably airy in the mouth. The mouthfeel is silky, culminating in a persistent, gentle and thoroughly sweet-fruited long finish held together by an invisible frame. Like the ethereal cuvée Auguste, trails of crushed flower petals replicate and repeat on the lingering finish.” AC
“Guillot brings a unique perspective to gamay—not quite Burgundy, not yet Beaujolais—not only in his Mâcon Rouge and Mâcon-Cruzille, but the mysterious, radiant, field-blended Cuvée 910.” Jon Bonné — a year ago

Jeroen Koenen

9.5

Look at that colour: glorious and mysterious!
Fantastic palet of nuances and aromas: apricot and strawberry, yeast and hazelnuts, the sweetness and salinity of salmon, shriimps and clams.
The best NV Rosé champagne I know, Only topped by Selosse’s. — 3 years ago

Josh Morgenthau

9.6

Pure magic. The first impression is a field of lavender and wild herbs. Then, black currants, flowers, iron, musk and wet earth waft from the glass. A delicate sweetness balances the impression of freshly squeezed blackberries on the palate, and each sip ends with a brush of tannins and more lingering, echoing fruit. Elegant, mysterious, and achingly pretty. I was reluctant to open this so young but it’s already so exhilarating. The back label says “enjoy for its complex fruit character in the first five years, or from 7 to 25 years for its depth and complexity.” I intend to! — 3 years ago