Fine Wine > Still > 95-99 Pts > France

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"With its distinctive antique bottle and gold etched label dominated by a sheep, this is definitely a move away from classic Bordeaux bottling. It is good that the wine can support the presentation. The fruit is so ripe, it almost tastes of raisins, but that sweetness is finely balanced by the dry..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"The 2005 Chambertin Clos de Beze offers alluring aromas of licorice, mint, vanilla, plum paste, cherry preserves and rose petals, and seduces the palate with silky, incredibly refined texture and several octaves of fruit, herbal, floral and mineral notes, leading to a reverberative finish in which..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"A blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and 19% Merlot, this wine represents only 34% of Lafite's total harvest. In a less than perfect Medoc vintage, it has been spectacular since birth, putting on more weight and flesh over the last year. This opaque purple-colored 1998 is close to perfection. The..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"A myriad of spices and anise-spiked pears are found in the highly expressive nose of the 2001 Corton-Charlemagne. Medium to full-bodied, with levels of dry extract that would tip the scales, and a supple, fleshy character of intense width and power, this wine is amazing. Magnificently supple, yet..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"This is undisputably the wine of the vintage, a year that was clearly over-exposed and over-rated, largely because it was better than the four vintages that preceded it ... The 1975 La Mission-Haut-Brion, which consistently received perfect scores in its first thirty years of life, remains a..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"The 2009 is one of the greatest Leoville Las Cases I have ever tasted, which is saying something given the many compelling wines that have been made at this estate. A final blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 9% Cabernet Franc has resulted in a wine that appears to be a hypothetical..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"... kaleidoscopic and dazzling with its array of red and black cherry, cassis, plum and subtle earth notes replete with beguiling Asian spice cabinet aromas and essence of rose petals. The intense, powerful and breathtakingly concentrated flavors possess a taut muscularity before culminating in a..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"The 1959 is unquestionably the greatest Lafite-Rothschild that has approached full maturity ... The super-aromatic bouquet of flowers, black truffles, cedar, lead pencil, and red fruits is followed by one of the most powerful and concentrated Lafites I have tasted. Medium to full-bodied,..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
"... it has now hit full stride. It is a profound Petrus, and certainly one of the great Petrus’ of the last half century. The wine has a huge nose of cedar, caramel, vanilla, tobacco, fruitcake, and licorice-infused black cherry jam. It is unctuously textured and very full-bodied, with..

Cellar/Tasting Notes
Interestingly, a bottle of 1990 Lafite Rothschild I pulled from my cellar for a video blog on my web site was still buttoned down, tight, and even with extended decanting was not showing as much as I would have hoped. However, a bottle tasted, of all places, in Seoul, Korea in February, was only a..