98-99 Point Wines

wines

Along with the 2015, the 2005 Château Clos de Sarpe is, I suspect, one of the finest wines ever made at this address. Still vivid purple-hued, with awesome notes of crème de cassis, jammy blackberries, toasted spices, unsmoked tobacco, and crushed rock-like minerality, this beauty is full-bodied, uber-concentrated, and powerful, yet stays seamless and elegant on the palate. This incredible wine is in the top tier of wines in the vintage. I love it today, yet it will evolve for another 30-40 years.Jeb Dunnuck | 98 JDDeep garnet-brick in color, the 2005 Clos de Sarpe has an absolute blockbuster nose of liquid licorice, violets, Chinese five spice and chocolate box with nuances of smoked meats, cigar box, cast iron pan and Marmite toast—really incredible intensity! The palate is full-bodied and rich yet with the most incredible freshness, giving very fine, velvety tannins and an incredibly long, very layered finish. Wow!Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97 RPFull, bright ruby. Brooding aromas of kirsch, black licorice and minerals. Sharply delineated and very tightly wound, but with superb intensity of black fruit, chocolate, earth and mineral flavors and excellent inner-palate energy. This mounts very slowly on the back, finishing with a youthfully sappy quality, firm tannins and impressive length. This wine from a chalky hillside on the Cotes east of the town of St. Emilion is typically high in acidity (the pH of the 2005 is 3.55), austere and downright unsexy in its youth, but this especially juicy 2005 boasts richer fruit than any recent vintage. Still, it will require at least 10 to 15 years of bottle aging.Vinous Media | 89-92 VM

Massive, concentrated and powerful, this offers lush, heady flavors of dark plum, blackberry and cherry tart, with touches of anise. Shows plenty of grip as well, with a long, rich finish of dark chocolate, toffee and cream. Best from 2040 through 2060. 2,190 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 98 WSA powerful, spicy wine, luscious in its peppered berry fruits and sweet tannins. The structure is dramatic, offering a smooth texture as well as a drier core. With its weight, density and dark, final character, this is a wine for serious aging.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEBright, saturated dark ruby. Spectacularly multifaceted nose combines high-pitched medicinal cherry, briary black raspberry, pungent menthol, dried herbs, incense, Indian spices and a whiff of passion fruit. Boasts great creamy depth and vinosity to its black raspberry and licorice flavors, with huge sweetness buffered by spicy minerality. The note of passion fruit carries through on the palate. Really reverberates on the back end, finishing with powerful tannins and a rising whiplash of flavor. This got better and better with extended aeration, with the tannins making it obvious that it will be extremely long-lived.Vinous Media | 96+ VMVery grapy and leafy with hints of spices on the nose. Full body, medium sweet with fine, chewy tannins. Powerful, long finish with nuts and shaved chocolate. This young Fonseca has grip. 6,000 cases produced of this foot-trodden wine. Try in 2022.James Suckling | 95 JS David Guimaraens blends this wine from three vineyards, the style focused on Cima Corgo suppleness from fruit at Panascal in the Távora Valley, along with Cruziero and Santo António in the Pinhão Valley. The 2011 is hugely powerful, presenting a solid wall of schist tannins with the gentleness of perfect ripeness. The wine shows no seams, just a vast, dynamic blackness, a meaty, tarry, berry fruit drama that will play out for decades.Wine & Spirits | 95 W&SThe 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Port is an unfiltered field blend that comes with a bar top cork. It comes in at 108 grams per liter of residual sugar and was bottled in 2016, according to the label. Rather gorgeous, this fresh, tight and powerful Fonseca is perfectly focused, extracted and tightly-wound, finishing with intensity of flavor laced with some herbs and a hint of garrigue. Yet, everything is always in a very controlled fashion brilliantly supported by its structure. This is a beauty, another super 2011 LBV.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92 RP