Enjoyed at an Antinori portfolio tasting and it showed wonderfully. Prominent, well-defined oak integration and aroma on the nose melding with distinct florals. Sour reds, and impeccable structure make this a quintessential Brunello that would be an absolute gift of a wine in a blind tasting format. Wonderful balance. 94+.

Finding a Slovenian wine is hard enough, but when you have a friend bring you a top-tier Slovenian refosco wine, you’ve hit the scarcity jackpot. Before even jumping into specifics, I was rather floored at the density, concentration, and potence of this high-end offering; it’s like some kind of mixture of Brunello, Barbera, and Monastrell…in all the good ways. The nose sears with a balsamic tree sap core rounded out with spiced dates, pine cone & maple touches, and leafy herbal notes mingling with rich dark fruits. The dates grow tart on the palate but mix with curried black raspberries. The oak contact offers very well integrated toasted maple syrup qualities, mulled wine spices pop in and out, and dried florals in the form of scented leaves and sharp dark-flower potpourri sing along while the continual balsamic current glides underneath. It’s ridiculously young for being 8 years old and is a structural monster though it retains an exotic refinement. Rojac offers a more baseline Refosk which is rather lovely as well, but this is a serious powerhouse if you can find it. 94+ pts.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Mike and Lori DeLoach of Hook & Ladder Winery recently for a portfolio tasting. Really enjoyed the profiles across the board (the Station Ten red blend and the Gewurztraminer being two of my favorites) although, after chatting a bit, learned that their personal favorite drinker wasn’t currently in the lineup we’d had. So an incredibly nice gift arrived for me yesterday: the Third Alarm Reserve 2012 Chardonnay.

Echoing the style from the two whites I’d previously tasted of theirs, the lean and acid-friendly texture continues here. Bright saltines, buttered toast, caramel apples, along with whiffs of guava and artichoke mix on the nose with a lovely subtle beachstone minerality. Meanwhile, a fresh bouquet of white flowers persists throughout. This is a refined and coy wine on the palate; the complexities lie in the subtleties. Underripe pineapple, red apples, and buttered popcorn form the core of the medley. There’s a wonderful tension here; the mid palate lifts while an underlying sheen of viscosity hugs the tongue making for a wonderful transition mid-sip that showcases its weight while still being light on its feet. Very pretty and long finish of nut-dusted citrus. The acidity is really what brings the whole thing together here, and then it’s helped along by its willingness to find comfort more in nuance rather than showiness. Lovely. 91 pts.

Had fondly remembered the Schild 2010 Shiraz bottling and swung through to give this Australian Rhone-styled blend a go. Tasted both on day 1 and 2, and initially it offered a decent whiff of funk. this ended up blowing off mostly by the second day, allowing the fruit to shine better, though. The nose, at that point, finally popped with baked boysenberries, and blueberries and sour red cherries spiced up with black peppercorns and tarragon.The palate shows an interesting mix of pressed blueberries and meat-rub spices. The juiciness showed more attractively when the funk had subsided although the heat on the wine stayed slightly imbalanced and heavy. There’s an appeal here, but it seemed stuck a bit. 87+ pts.

I feel a bit ashamed that it took me this long to get to such a classic producer from such a classic region. My first whiff of this massive offering was an uppercut of stout new oak. I had a lovely conversation with a few fellow Muga fans over Twitter tonight and Paco de Lucia came up as a musical parallel of melodic potence to what I was getting from this wine and, after thinking about it later, the nose completely takes my brain to what I would envision a brand new Spanish guitar smelling like. Cigar box and smoked dark red fruit round out the powerful bouquet. Hefty tannins, and big sinewy black cherry and charred strawberry remind you this is still something of a baby. Dill and burnt brown sugar notes flesh out the wine. Wine is often an experience-driven liquid and perhaps the good company and good conversation I had while tasting this biased me into the positive, but get a bottle of this and play Paco de Lucia’s ‘Entre Dos Aguas’ (you can find it on YouTube) while drinking it and see if you don’t get transported to a different world. 93+ pts.

A cross between a roaring logfire and an unbridled young stallion. Plumes of smoke (swinging from exotic to rustic) rose from the glass the longer it stayed opening up. The smoke element mixed with dill early on, alongside cured boar meat, peppered black cherry, balsamic-soaked red plums, blackberries, and moist red soil. Incredibly ripe and powerful crash on the palate; stemmed clusters of rich, charred black cherry and black raspberry intermingle with burnt nutmeg. A savory and balsamic vinegar touch tingles throughout while slight dark floral notes and worn leather round out the experience. Massive. It completely depends on your preferences when drinking, but I felt like I wanted to visit this even another 5-10 years down the line. There’s just so much potency in the fruit it’s almost overwhelming, but the complexity, character, and structure are outstanding. It honors being a child of Vega Sicilia. 95 pts.

Decided to honor the late Serge Hochar (proprietor of Chateau Musar) by opening a bottle of the 2011 Musar Jeune during a dinner party last night, and it didn’t disappoint. There’s both a seriousness to the wine and a decadent verve that could make it appealing across many palates. Rich red plum and sweet (almost curried) spices on the nose with a very nice wave of graphite. The palate is a bit linear, but offers clean, bright fruit hovering mostly in the red plum and black cherry camps while incorporating touches of dried dark flowers. Holds itself together with a very nice structure and vibrant acidity. 90+ pts.

This was an fantastic surprise when I’d just planned on finding a simple yet solid 375ml Burgundy. Beautiful aromatic burst of a spring flower bouquet hits first (red, white, and dark flowers all popping), followed by fresh strawberry, ripe pomegranate, and just a hint of stalk. The 100% new oak here actually balances very well, adding a pixieish perfume of delicately dusted cinnamon and maple. A soft wisp of soft mossy earth finishes off the nose. Lush yet still tart and lively on the palate along with soft tannins to boot; strawberry, light cherry, and pomegranate notes meld with an elegant wave of candied pecans dusted over top, and that slightly nutty element lingers along for a lengthy finish. There’s fantastic structure on this wine and it’s a great to see a year’s worth of new oak not completely drowning out the varietal class underneath, which is ripe enough to handle the usage. It’s more flashy, perhaps, than a more rustically-inclined Bourgogne, but this is classy and lovely juice (I went back and bought the remaining half-bottles; sorry folks!). 92+ pts.

Classic notes and easily approachable. Lively notes of lychee and starfruit are stirred amidst pebbly, sea-shelly minerality with a soft touch of gently dusted light spices. Lovely fuller texture on the palate seeing the starfruit get a light glaze of honey while being mixed with ripe green apples and pears. Hints of apple cobbler poke through as a light graham cracker crust element swings through the mid palate before the wine end with a soft, stony finish. It seems like precisely what a tasting wine ought to be: showing the typical characteristics it should while being friendly and affable. 88 pts.

This really shows off the lighter/refined side of what Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon can be (which is not at all to say I don’t love the heady, brooding ones!). Complex nose offers toasted cinnamon-spiced black figs, blackcurrant, black raspberries, and jammed black cherries with dusty, herbaceous, meat-rubbing spices mixed with boldo and mint leaf whiffs. Round on the palate, but in a very clean, svelte profile. Ripe medley of clean-pressed fruit juice expressing black fig, black raspberry and blackberry prominence with a rush of bitter chocolate. It manages to maintain an elegant style while still retaining good punching power, and has a lively freshness and attractively lengthy finish. 90 pts.