The 07 Campogiovanni was not acidic and not thin. Neither was it a "fruit bomb" but it was rich. But I'm sure it would receive fire from the traditionalist side of the line. I had a 97 or 98 Castelgiocondo. It was pretty good but no better than a fine CCR - which is not to damn with faint ...

Isn't one of those wine-fraud dudes from Singapore? Or was it Indonesia? Shadowy investors, indeed.

"[Q]uite leafy with hints of leaf". I nominate that for BWE TN of the year.

^ Never having had a 1-year old barrel sample that I can recall, yet I also don't understand how one can expect to "understand" (whatever that means) these wines or extrapolate much about their future at that point. FWIW I guess if you compared his comments about other vintages tasted at t...

No problem. There are way too many Ch. Bellevues in Bordeaux.

But it looks like this is "de Bellevue." For a second I thought this had something to do with the consolidation of St. Emilion properties around the Magdelaine/"Bellevue" (i.e. Belair) area.

Not impressed so far with 05 Ch. de Fieuzal. Low acid to the point of flat, flabby and dull. Maybe it will wake up someday, or maybe I got a bad or damaged lot. Nice to hear the 09 is a good wine.

Agree on the 08, though with the caveat that it seemed rather unformed, which shouldn't surprise.

Well, this certainly isn't a bad wine. This is very accessible now, has substantial sweetness, has a firm yet pliant structure with fine, tingly tannin suppressed beneath the glycerous, oily mouthfeel. Overall, tastes like something a conclave of cardinals would drink at an off-site. I'd guess this ...

The nice thing about cocktail time is it arrives just when you are ready. Amazing. This did show a little more heat and drying tannin in the end of the bottle. Probably it's at least "pretty good indeed" overall. I get up at 4 am half the time to get a good head start on the dawn. Somewher...

This has a good bit of very ripe figgy/fruitcake-yness as far as the flavor profile goes. But it is not overburdened with a heavy mouthfeel. So quite ripe yet not cloying. On the contrary this is dry, nicely weighted and is showing some nice, firm tannin.

This is pretty impressive. Expressive, ripe aromatics that show just a nice cedary overlay. A controlled, almost restrained (for the vintage) entry that is pretty dry. Good volume and it builds potently towards the finish which is just treading near the line of alcoholic warmth. Slightly drying in t...

Funny how everything goes through the dumb phase except the color.

Just thought I'd say so. Most of you will be in bed by the time I have sufficient data to report. I'm interested to try this sometimes-maybe-not-a-second-second-wine of Leo P.

Happy Thanksgiving. We're having ours tomorrow due to what the airlines might call "weather-related problems" per another thread, i.e. the unavailability of a certain person today. But I'm making an onolicious turkey and having some friends who are also visiting the island over for dinner ...

Made a non-surgical strike over the Ko'olau to the Leeward side to visit the quarantined pup and make a Costco run. This is not a Costco with a great "fine wine" selection (although they did have a BdM and also Tiganello (iirc) and as evidence there was but one Bordeaux, this 2009 that I t...

Thank you all, kindly. Just returned from a recon of the beach. Very informative. 1. I have two of the larger dogs. Ankle biters very popular here. 2. As I thought, this is Obama country. Literally. His Xmas compound is just a 10-minute walk south. I'm going to invite him and Madam First Lady to Hal...

Greetings everyone from the fabulously blue-green island of Oahu. Deplaned last night ex-Colorado from "BWE 2" with three dogs and five more cases of wine and managed to chug down a 2006 Meursault-Blagny La Genelotte 1er Cru Comtesse Bernard de Cherisey with some takeout garlic Mahi before...

Very good. I'm only planning to bring over a couple of cases of bottles of interest for dropins. This is a daunting task. Not to mention leaving behind my little ones who may be all grown up by the time I return. As for my "everyday" consumption I plan on getting by with young "cheap&...

Not quite. I'm in my cellar in Salida. I'm going to wall off most of my stash instead of offload it to friends.

We're going to Oahu on the 24th to see what our housing prospects are. Then we return and depart for good around October 15th. We like running things close like this.

How high is too high? Certainly six OWCs is not too heavy for the bottom case?

Also, assuming bottles are secured at the row ends, do you see any problems stacking my free-ranging bottles atop each other in several rows?

Mahalo!