Steve Tanzer's Best

Best Reds
	2000 Chateau Leoville Barton Saint Julien Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux;	$199.99
	" Full medium ruby. Knockout superripe nose combines black cherry, licorice and exotic spices. Compellingly sweet, lush and complete, with harmonious acids giving the wine lovely vinosity and extending the flavors. Finishes with lush, dusty tannins and superb persistence. A great vintage for Leoville-Barton." -- Steve Tanzer (94 points)
	2004 Chateau Latour Pauillac Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux;	$399.99
	"Ruby-red. Highly complex aromas of dark berries, graphite, licorice, minerals and cola. Lush, dense and sweet, with a wonderfully creamy, opulent mouth feel for the vintage but no impression of excess weight. This boasts superb fruit and palate coverage. Finishes with very suave, spreading tannins and outstanding persistence. An aristocratic expression of ripe cabernet sauvignon." -- Steve Tanzer (93 points)
	2001 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild Pauillac Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux;	$599.99
	" Bright red-ruby. Sexy aromas of raspberry, cedar, coconut, minerals, lead pencil, chocolate and tobacco leaf. Juicy, lively and penetrating, with sharply delineated flavors of blackberry, raspberry and rose petal. Boasts the classic inner-mouth energy of this great first growth, but also grew increasingly silky with extended aeration. Finishes with tongue-coating tannins and superb lift." -- Steve Tanzer (93 points)
	2000 Bruno Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano Nebbiolo; Piedmont;	$109.99
	" Good full red. Captivating aromas of red berries, flowers, minerals, menthol and white truffle; seems quite cool for the year. The wine's penetrating, sappy, sharply delineated red fruit flavors offer uncanny sweetness but retain great freshness and verve. Finishes extremely long, with powerful structure and grip. Very classy Barbaresco, and still an infant." -- Steve Tanzer (93 points)
	NV Chambers Rosewood Winery Grand Muscat Rutherglen (half bottle) Muscat; Victoria;	$59.99
	" Medium brown. Exotic, high-toned aromas of orange peel, clove, currant and maple syrup; showing more fruit than the muscadelle. Then silky and pliant in the mid-palate, with compelling sweetness and perfect balancing acidity. This is downright elegant. The Muscadelle suggests a higher percentage of older material, but this is even smoother." -- Steve Tanzer (93 points)
Best Whites
	1990 Krug Brut Vintage Champagne Blend; Champagne;	$349.99
	" Full copper-gold color. Initially restrained, brooding nose exploded with aeration, showing apple, orange, apricot, honey, iodine, smoke, hazelnut, macadamia and a suggestion of dry oloroso sherry. Dense, full, chewy and rich; an extraordinarily solid Champagne with an intriguing suggestion of Calvados. Broadens toward the back and goes on and on on the echoing aftertaste, with rich, mellow notes of toffee, brown butter and marrow." -- Steve Tanzer (97 points)
	NV Chambers Rosewood Winery Rare Muscat Rutherglen (half bottle) Muscat; Victoria;	$199.99
	" Green-edged medium brown. Exotic orange peel, maple syrup and marzipan aromas; as with the last pair, this is fruitier than the Rare Muscadelle. Wonderfully thick but perfectly framed by electric acidity. Boasts incredible fleshiness of texture and concentration. Like a solid on the back half, building inexorably and saturating the entire palate." -- Steve Tanzer (96 points)
	NV Krug Grande Cuvee Brut Chardonnay; Champagne;	$139.99
	" Explosive but fine mousse Complex, yeasty aromas of lemon, honeysuckle, wet stone, toffee, hazelnut and caramel. Subtle and creamy on entry, then dense, powerful and youthfully brisk, with flavors of minerals, nutmeg and mace framed by strong lemony acidity. Solid, vibrant, dry and rather backward. Not quite as large-scaled or harmonious as last year's release and a bit more youthfully unevolved." -- Steve Tanzer (93 points)