Orbit
Cayuse Vineyards
Bionic Frog Walla Walla Valley Syrah 2023
This wine is in a different orbit. I can safely say I have never tasted a wine this smooth, this balanced, this subtle… this uplifting. Fine polished tannins take this juicy, vibrant fruit infused with black olive and lifted with earthy notes from the stones of the Rocks District to a finish that stays with you for minutes and can only make you think of one thing: I want another sip…. but I I want this wine to last for ever ….good problem to have 😁. Like Nicholas Joly said. A good wine makes you feel something deeply inside and you can ‘feel’ the wine. This one sure did. — 5 months ago
Enderle & Moll
Buntsandstein Ida Pinot Noir 2016
At dinner and Sky & Sea in La Jolla were we saw a Falcon 9 rocket blast into orbit. Limited formal notes - Raspberry driven with some herbs. — 2 years ago
Jessup Cellars
Table For Four Napa Valley Red Blend 2013
And Yes! There she was, where have you been hiding??? Always great to run in a near perfect wine. That is what we live for, searching every day (actually every other day, try not to drink wine every day 😊). Bold dark fruit framed by angular tannins and a robust backbone, all in an extreme intense harmony, taking over your senses and putting you in a hypnotic trance. We set the palette with a few different hard cheeses, an aged Gouda cheese, a Harvarti and P’tit Basque (all at Costco!) which lifted the wine to outer orbit. I am writing this the next day and still haven’t quite returned to earth. — 4 years ago
Bryant Family Vineyard
Proprietor Grown Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
2005 vintage. Tasted after being open for approx two hours. Emperor's semi-new clothes. I get that people dig this fruit bomb style but the lack of tannins/acidity leave it rather one-dimensional. The single dimension is really nice, yet not enuff to overcome needed Napa Cab balance. Ditching structure and attempting to reinvent the wheel has obviously pulled plenty of people into this producer's orbit. To each their own-orbit. 12.27.24. — a year ago
Jack Winery
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
Wow. Best wine of the year 😁! An elixer to lift you into outer orbit! Everything is intense. Fine grained tannins soaked in oak spice carried this dark, dark dry concentrated, dense juice on an exhilarating journey from the first touch to the long lasting finish final. Evolving complexity that started with varying layers fresh pipe tobacco and dark chocolate evolving to cigar box, earthy lead pencil minerals, and worn leather. Why is it that these mind blowing wines never have quite 750 ml in their bottles 🤔 — 3 years ago
Domaine de la Roseraie
Grands Vins de Bourgogne Châteauneuf-du-Pape Red Rhone Blend 1947
Poured blind. Nose of cabernet sauvignon. Estate was located in Grignan, ie current CdR orbit (but post-war labeling hilarity / historical reference to classical Kingdom of Burgundy with capital at Arles?). Fascinating, dazzling, unexplainable. Color guesses ran ‘70s (totally clear rim, some super thin hint of browning, but still very pure dark core running almost to the edge before). Great length, but again blind we all called cabernet nose for the minty, cedary character. Body maybe suggested some cinsault, but we were all way off mark served blind. Buy at auction if ever spotted! — 4 years ago
Jan de Weerd
Well this was the shock of the year for me. We had this exact same wine back in October 2023 with our friends overlooking the Fumina valley in the Tooronga Mnts of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. I rated a 10!!! Top of the top. Couldn’t be better. This wines launched me into orbit and it took days for me to come down. So, with such great anticipation we thought to close out a phenomenal year with another bottle. It was intense, it was super grippy, layered… but the fruit had gone and to me it was totally unbalanced. How is that possible??!! Is it me, is it the wine, what could it be? Oh well. So many more wines to explore. Happy New Year everyone!! — 5 months ago