Sidebar Cellars
Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
Saint-Julien Red Bordeaux Blend 1986
Sidebar Cellars
Russian River Valley Red Field Blend 2014
Date night. Good wine! — 9 years ago
Domaine de l'Ecu (Guy Bossard)
Expression de Granite Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Melon de Bourgogne 2010
Heavier and seeming more evolved than the great 2010 Orthogneiss, instead of the lovely honey notes this shows mature notes, still very good acidity, but seems ready to drink, very good. As a minor sidebar, I had the same experience 3 months ago when I compared the 2009s of each, that is, the “lesser regarded” Orthogneiss outperformed the Granite, not sure why?? — 2 years ago
La Spinetta
Il Rosé di Casanova Prugnolo Gentile - Sangiovese Rosé Blend 2017
Terrifically mineral and just-underripe strawberries. A beauty of a wine with beast on the bottle. Taken down in the sidebar at Covell. Proper wine for cheers-ing to chosen family. — 7 years ago
Sidebar Cellars
Russian River Valley Rosé Blend 2016
Strawberry, cherry, raspberry, lime, slate and watermelon. Good acidity and balance. — 8 years ago
Sidebar Cellars
Ritchie Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2014
Tart apple, grapefruit, lemon curd, slate and hints of stone fruit. Great acidity and balance. — 9 years ago
Sidebar Cellars
Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2019
Tastes like California in the best way. — 4 years ago
Sidebar Cellars
Old Vine Mokelumne River Zinfandel 2017
Juicy, delicious! — 4 years ago
Glinavos
Vlahiko Dry Red Blend 2013
At sidebar. Light to medium body. Good fruit good earth. — 8 years ago
Schweiger Vineyards
Estate Spring Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon 2001
15 years ago today was our biggest Cab day of harvest. I refused to watch TV all day until I could go home, view the images and cry. Tonight we raise a glass in honor of all the firefighters and police who lost their lives, the citizens trapped in buildings and airplanes, the pilots, crew, and passengers, and all those left behind. We shall never forget! (Sidebar: the wine is tasting awesome and can age another 15 years!) — 9 years ago
Doug Powers
Still shows some lovely primary redfruits, cassis, currants, quite tannic as well (characteristic of the 1986s I cellared), long, lingering finish, should show even better after my wife’s grilled lamb and my grilled steak come off the grill. I will say I was nervous when the final 1/8-inch of the cork severed off my old Ah-So cork puller, but not a problem!
Interesting sidebar — I purchased this upon arrival in 1989 at K&L in SF — by that time there were widespread reports of bad corks in Ducru from (at least) 1985 and 1986, so when I visited the shop I explained the situation and committed to purchasing 6 bottles, but only if I knew this batch didn’t have the cork problems — so, I said I’d pay for another bottle and we could open it together in the shop, I’d pay and also buy the other 6 bottles if it was NOT corked, and said if it was corked, then they’d pay for the opened bottle and I wouldn’t take the 6 other bottles — they agreed, we mutually tried the bottle then and there, no cork taint so I paid for 7 bottles total.
Telling the story in part because K&L has always been, IMHO, one of the classiest wine shops in the U.S., and they deserve credit agreeing to my deal (BTW, Wine Advocate had written about the cork taint issue within the preceding 3-6 months, so they were aware of the potential for it) — anyway, they’ve gotten a lot more of my business in the past 35+ years since!! — a year ago