| Best Reds |
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2003 Chateau Latour Pauillac
Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux; | $699.99 | |
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"Deep ruby-red. Knockout nose combines currant, raspberry, kirsch, graphite, minerals, cigar box, tar and musky prune. Huge, sweet and lush, with a truly three-dimensional texture. Like a mouthful of liquid minerals, but the fruit has near-confectionery sweetness. Finishes with exploding, inexorable length. The wine's extravagant mid-palate richness calls to mind a chocolate cake." -- Steve Tanzer (96 points)
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2000 Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron Pauillac
Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux; | $199.99 | |
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" Good full red-ruby. Complex nose combines plum, mocha, minerals, tobacco and burnished oak. A bit tight on entry, then expands and explodes toward the back, showing dense, insinuating flavors of black fruits and licorice. Chewy, sharply delineated Pichon-Baron with excellent underlying backbone and broad, palate-coating tannins. An outstanding vintage for this estate." -- Steve Tanzer (94 points)
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1998 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild Pauillac
Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux; | $499.99 | |
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"Saturated bright ruby. Noble aromas of blackcurrant, cedar, lead pencil, licorice and nutty oak. Very intensely flavored and penetrating, with great class and grip. Impressively concentrated and juicy, but still rather imploded in the middle palate. This showed terrific subtle sweetness as it opened in the glass. Offers quintessential Lafite elegance as well as the strong backbone to support long aging." -- Steve Tanzer (94 points)
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2003 Chateau Margaux Margaux
Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux; | $499.99 | |
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"Medium red-ruby. Coffee, mocha, exotic woodsmoke and brown spices on the nose. Fat, full and rich, with intriguing curry and cardamom notes. Opulent and voluptuous wine, with a huge middle palate. But surprisingly tight-grained in the mouth considering the evolution of the wine's aromas. Finishes extremely long, with sandy tannins." -- Steve Tanzer (94 points)
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2000 Chateau Leoville Barton Saint Julien
Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux; | $199.99 | |
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" 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)
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2002 Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac
Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux; | $299.99 | |
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"($130-$180) Good saturated ruby-red. Tight nose hints at currant and smoky oak. Highly concentrated, densely packed and built to age. As young as it is, it also shows a lovely velvety texture rare for this vintage. Finishes with terrific breadth, subtle minerality and noble tannins. I've been a fan of this wine since the outset." -- Steve Tanzer (94 points)
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2004 Chateau Latour Pauillac
Bordeaux Blend; Bordeaux; | $399.99 | |
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"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)
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| Best Whites |
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1995 Moet et Chandon Dom Perignon Rose
Champagne Blend; Champagne; | $329.99 | |
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" Pale watermelon-orange color. Nose dominated by red berry notes of strawberry and raspberry, with hints of earth and minerals; seemed to go into a shell in the glass. Penetrating-verging-on-painful if not yet as complex as some past vintages of this wine, with delicate red berry flavors framed and intensified by the brisk acids of the vintage. Utterly primary, precise rose, with a very long, stony finish." -- Steve Tanzer (93 points)
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