2/3/2024 - blanquito wrote:

Having a glass of the 09 Bosconia tonight, really good. I had had maybe a 1/5 of the bottle a while back and froze it the rest for a few months. I wasn't too crazy about about the first glass, but these thawed 4/5s tonight so much better. While there's still a touch of that sour-acetic Rioja thing (which I’m not wild about), the beautiful red cherry fruit has really come to the fore now. Well-nigh perfect texture, with beautiful acids too, almost Italian levels of brightness. Still some tannin lingering on the finish.

Seeing as how freezing and thawing a wine is like a very extended decant, I think this isn’t quite ready as is, but it’s close. Either wait 5 years or give it plenty of time in an open decanter.

11/16/2023 - blanquito wrote:

This is truly wonderful. Lifted, exotic, ethereal, and spicy on the heady bouquet, with a layered, garrigue sweetness on the palate. The texture is silky and whatever structure it had in its youth is fully resolved, but it is otherwise just ascending to the peak of its powers. This is a clean, stable, flaw-free Musar, but with enough VA and complexity to still taste like the real McCoy. Easily the best Musar I’ve had, which covers the 97-05 vintages.

10/28/2023 - sdr Likes this wine:

Still quite firm and tannic with an iron core common for the vintage but not usually for Château Margaux. But eventually with a lot of air it begins to relax and it becomes apparent there is a core of very concentrated Cabernet/Merlot fruit. The more time went on the more I enjoyed it yet I wish I could wait 5-10 years to catch it in full bloom. This could end up as the longest lived Margaux ever and a real masterpiece.

10/10/2023 - blanquito wrote:

Going strong, still a pale, light yellow color. Gorgeous bouquet, perfectly poised between richness and freshness. The palate still shows young, all lime and chalk. Outstanding (again).

11/19/2017 - blanquito wrote:

Really clean, bright and long. Shows a touch of yeasty brioche but mostly comes across like a steely dry Chablis. With some air, gently fruitier notes emerge adding a nice nuance, but this is really about cool balance, lime juice and salinity. Almost needs food to show best now. This is a ridiculous value and that’s just for right now. If more complexity and/or bottle sweetness develop, this would become a world class QPR.

7/1/2023 - blanquito wrote:

Another terrific bottle of this (my last). Pretty classic profile of scorched earth, loam and wood smoke. Fully mature but still shows good vigor and more oomph than the lovely 1978 Lafleur Petrus served along side it. Not a hair out of place, so seamless, but perhaps showing the earliest signs of 'going soft' like old Cali cabs can (retaining good fruit but with no structure left behind to give it ballast). Still, excellent and just what I want in a mature Graves. 93-94 pts.

4/10/2021 - blanquito wrote:

Trying hard to like/understand this, but not loving the results so far. This is lean enough to seem dilute and it has some green notes, which I guess is a surprise given the heat of the vintage overall. It does improve with air, becoming more interesting and a touch deeper with a spicy, saison sour cherry and medicinal notes emerging. In many respects, this hardly tastes like wine and comes across more like a umami tea. Ready to drink structurally at this point, but unless you know you like this style, I would hold and hope.

5/25/2020 - blanquito wrote:

Nice nose of lime, slate and honey, but the action is all on the palate where this shows terrific lime and Granny Smith apple acids and wave after wave of layered fruit and dry extract. The is very concentrated yet the brightness keeps it from overwhelming the taste buds. Long, racy finish. This is very good and even reminds me of a 2001 in a way with its creamy acids.

12/2/2019 - blanquito wrote:

Man, this is good and still drinking well right now. Sexy levels of inky, blackberry fruit but well balanced with rhubarb, pomegranate juiciness and a compelling greener note of mint and wintergreen. Rounded and smooth, but without that spit-polished, tannin-managed vibe uber modern bordeaux have. Tangy, juicy finish, helping sweep up all the inky, iodine-infused fruit and glycerin. Might have to find more. 92+

2/22/2018 - blanquito wrote:

Ripe nose, iodine, licorice, incipient pepper, loads black cherries, great attack, quite dry despite the color and nose, bright with a bit of tannin in end, medium bodied but with good dry extract and a long finish, shows just a touch of stem. Young, but already so engaging, a substantial step up from prior vintages but still true to the house style. Truly sensational QPR. Bought a case after this bottle. 92-93 pts.

9/13/2016 - blanquito wrote:

My first go with this vintage. This showed very 1990 in profile, with a distinctive roasted signature to the fruit. With enough air, the fruit even showed stewed. There is a sexy, fruity quality to the nose -- including black cherry reduction, creosote, and rocks-- but this lacks the structure and gravitas on the palate to attain a higher level. Shows a little flabby even. Drink now or soon. 88-89 pts.

11/26/2015 - blanquito wrote:

Opened for turkey day. Pure, beautiful bouquet of lime, rock candy, basil, and a whiff of slate. The palate is delicious, quite smooth with fine acids on the attack. The finish is really sweet, maybe gooseberries laden with honey. This is borderline cloying unless you are looking for a lovely, real, sweet white wine. Long, lingering finish. Good match with spicy food. I might let my others sleep to see if they eat their sugar with more age.

6/10/2016 - blanquito wrote:

This is really killer on a hot, summer night and a great pairing with grilled salmon. The profile is at first lemony, but with more richness on the backend with a touch of vanilla. Some chaulky texture. Smooth, classy, long, tangy, lovely. Stylistically this is Californian first but with some French sensibilities and a mercifully restrained oak treatment. All it lacks is complexity. 91-92 pts.

2/17/2016 - blanquito wrote:

Anise, loganberries, a little spicy. Nice spicy attack, good round core of fruit, some brightness, a little bit drying on finish. A little vanilla, but no excessive new oak. A little simple, one note. Decent, pleasant, might soften some more, but doubtful there's much upside from here.

7/28/2015 - blanquito wrote:

Another beautiful, classy chardonnay from WG. Subtle, restrained, ideally balanced for my tastes, this is a real Chablis look-alike, with perhaps a touch more fruit. Clear colored with minerals, ethereally framed with lots of lemon, this could get lost in a big tasting, but it beguiles if followed over a full evening. Grows deeper with air. So drinkable now, probably can improve for a few years.

6/17/2015 - blanquito wrote:

Heard this way drinking better, so I tried a half-bottle... This has opened up a lot since I last tried it. Classic Chianti, with smells of vitamins and cherries. But this is still a bit too shrill right now for my preferences, a little tart and plenty of dry tannins. Good potential though. Not too far off from prime time, but I'll wait another 3-5 years before my next bottle.

2/25/2014 - blanquito wrote:

My first Baudry... There's a beautiful, expressive, delicate, complex bouquet here. Really captivating, foremost with smoked pasilla peppers and ash (but not ashtray), followed by purple flowers, cassis, bayleaf, grape juice, umami, black olives. Really has some hallmarks of an old school St. Emilion. The palate however is light bodied and verging on dilute. I gave it a few hours and it improved a bit, with some chewiness and stemmy-cranberry fruit developing suggesting there some background depth. I can see the appeal, but I'm let down. Really nice bouquet, overall somewhat of a disappointment. 85-86

9/19/2013 - blanquito wrote:

From half bottle... Another lousy bottle of this wine, and getting worse. The bouquet is decent, with some dusty black cherry and a slight floral note, but it is merely inoffensive. The palate is pretty much shot, hollowed out, thin and now dominated by shrill and sour acidity. Whatever fruit this wine once had seems gone. There are some gritty tannins still. Not really drinkable for those with options.

I know this position is debated, but this is yet another solid-to-mid-range 2000 Bordeaux (along with chateau like Cantemerle, Bernadotte, Fontenil, Charmail, Fombrauge, and Fougas Maldoror) that was at least better a few years ago and at worst is drying out. Very discouraging for the vintage of the millennium and a worrisome indication of how modern winemaking may have changed the aging curve of Bordeaux.