Chateau Bertineau St.-Vincent, Lalande-de-Pomerol 2004 The nose is restrained upon first pouring with a little sense of stewed fruit coming through. When I opened this wine, there was some carmelized remnants of wine that leaked earlier. Thus I don’t know what sort of temperature or other abuse this bottle might have suffered so we’re not [...]

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Chateau Sociando-Mallet, Haut-Medoc 2004 The smells are a mix of earth, cedar, toasty oak and a fitting amount of the barnyard. The mouth if full of plummy fruit with grip. This is definitely leaner and tighter than the ‘05 which is quite seductive already. Give it at least 30 minutes to open up though the [...]

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Gaston Rivière, Pineau des Charentes, Pineau François 1er, White Pineau nv This has the taste and smell of Cognac and grape juice and follows-on from its creation; minimum one year old Cognac is added to the must before fermentation, then this special beverage is aged for at least a year. Gaston Riviere, proprietaire au Domaine [...]

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Chateau Guiraud, Bordeaux Blanc Sec, Le G de Chateau Guiraud 2006
This vintage is pretty hard to love in that the smell is all minerality and solvent notes. There’s viscosity and acidity but flavor? Sourced from vines with an average age of 15 years, planted 70% Sauvignon and the rest Semillon. The wine was barrel fermented [...]

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