ESF

9.2

Well made, generous Bordeaux blend — balanced and harmonious w/tons of fruit but lots of earth driven elements on nose & palate. Smooth, sturdy tannins and impressive length on finish. You can tell there is pedigree to the fruit their sourcing — a month ago

Ludwig

8.9

Barbera. Tasty. Sometimes a square peg finds a square hole. — 2 years ago

Scott@Mister A’s-San Diego

9.3

2015 vintage. Some definite swings with this wine. Tasting for the third time in three months. Deep, funky leather earth nose. Medium body (and slightly less than the usual Malescot bod). Oak definitely there but more complimentary vs aggressive. Soft/silky tannins. Plums + herbs. If this were a blind tasting, I'd hafta peg this as a 2014-2018 Malartic Lagravières. Def tastes more Graves than Margaux. Best bottle of the three tasted. Scoring a 92.5 but rounding up with the elegance factor. With so much bottle variation (purchased separately 3x), who knows? This one is lighter for Malescot but delicious. — 2 years ago

Will Stanley

9.5

Just rock-solid Châteauneuf, this is exemplary and for me personally my exact sweet-spot in terms of the varied styles from this region. The nose takes a little coaxing, but has a great yin / yang profile of pure, fresh blue fruit, liquorice, violets, and garrigue, versus seared meat, iron and loamy earth. This all puts it square in the middle of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ schools, broadly speaking, and it’s a wine that has the best of both worlds as a result.

The palate is huge, an iron fist in a glove of velvet and so much more, but in no way imbalanced or over-extracted - not overtly alcoholic, at a modest 14%. It spreads out in waves across the palate, ripples which are felt long after the finish. This is clearly a baby now, but it drinks well and will see its 20th birthday in damn fine fettle. Excited to have a case in the cellar.

Decanting not required nor recommended. — a year ago

West G. Phifer

9.0

Two words come to mind when tasting this standout of a bottle: “apricots” and “finish.” Tasting notes may be subjective, to say the least, but this deep red beauty brings to mind the brighter stonefuits like apricots and nectarines. Don’t let the full body and enticing nose fool you, this wine has a bit of punchiness to it, and trust me you’re gonna love it. The longer finish you’ll find with Freakshow is exactly as desired, this wine gently sticks square on the top of the tongue. To whom would I recommend Freakshow’s Cabernet of damn near any vintage? Well, frankly, everyone. But if you’re looking to impress that date and the only thing you know about their wine preference is simply the word “red,” then do both of you a favor and grab this bottle. — 2 years ago

Nesim Bekalti

9.0

Reminds me of Hendrick's without the gin botanicals. — 3 years ago

aisforalan

9.1

delicious. violets. nice and dry. leather. cherries. buy again. from union square wines. — a year ago

Greg Koslosky

9.3

Out of 375ml a brooding monster of a wine dense and alcoholic some overripe notes on the nose prune and dried plums . Four square a little soil signature. Lots of power coats the taste buds not refined in the least but the shear density and material is impressive . Reminds me of the 1990 beausejour Duffau the way it’s built . Going to have it with a steak and give it more air maybe some magic will happen ! — a year ago

Eric Kememes

9.0

Reductive nose touch of some candy i can’t peg, touch extra skin gives it more complexity than typical citrus soaked Soave very fun ride — 3 years ago

Chris A

9.0

A stunningly great Pacific NorthWest Pinot Noir! Incredible on the nose with a hearty, earthy presentation that flows into a full bodied but light on the palette tart red fruit forward sipper. Time to grab more of this!! — 3 years ago