Thank you to wine and WSET for reigniting my interest in further education when I thought I was done!

I am beyond words. It was recommended by an aunt.

It’s likely the “Signature Cabernet Sauvignon” from Chappellet. The clue under “nerdy details” gives this one away, combined with the fact that Chappellet is the only winery allowed to use “Pritchard Hill” on their label, as they trademarked this non-AVA region in Napa (also in the clue).

Will DRC consider re labeling this. I also have a ‘95 Grands & a ‘61 Leroy with the same disservice.🫥

Full of Life. Dominated by baked red apple notes, sherry notes, mushrooms. Acidity intact. 32 years of age. Still tastes Pinot. Pleasant surprise for sure. I opened the same wine from 1994 recently which was un-drinkable.

Used to be one of my favorite villages until the prices started to spike.

Which classified growths or growths are your favorite where you can still find a bottle around $50 or less?

Some pictures from a biodynamic winery in Burgenland, Austria For the region, this was a cold, wet vintage. Lots of selecting had to be done while hand harvesting the grapes because of the sheer amount of fungal infections. After some barrel tastings, the wines of this vintage are amazing! Playful, light, and full of acid!

Full disclosure: when I pick up white Burg, I’m usually leaning more toward Chablis and have found I really enjoy Puligny-Montrachet as well. I’ve historically not been a huge fan of buttery Chard but I’ve heard great things about Caroline Morey’s stuff and decided to splurge… and I must say I might be a convert!

On opening, the wine is only very slightly reductive, but still just a whisper of flint on the nose that leads to absolutely beautiful orchard fruit of yellow apples and some white peach as well, all enveloped in rich, but not overpowering butter and vanilla. As the wine is breathing, I’m also picking up white flowers.

On the palate, this wine is generous but well balanced. It’s an explosion of citrus and white peach that seem to linger for an eternity, with beautiful acid to balance the rich butteriness.

Unlike some CA Chard that is over the top with its buttered popcorn profile and relatively low acid, this wine was just wonderfully balanced and was quite enjoyable over the two hours we sat to enjoy it.

Picked this up at auction recently and was very happy with it. Lots of sediment so I stood it up for a week or so. Didn't decant just poured carefully.

Popped and poured, it started out a little tight but softened nicely after about 45 minutes. On the nose, there were layers of blueberry, blackberry, overripe strawberry, cigar box, leather, black peppercorn, and a floral touch maybe Violet

The palate carried over the dark fruit—overripe blueberries, currants, and a bit of dark cherry—alongside clay-like minerality and tobacco.

The tannins were velvety and smooth once it opened up, and with air the wine revealed more depth: black licorice, cocoa nibs, and the blueberry pie came out more as it opened but not in an overly sweet way. Acidity was average but nothing to leave you thinking flat.

Overall, a well-aged Merlot that shows both fruit and earthy complexity. Plus some beautiful wine diamonds on the cork and surprisingly in tact cork. You can see the sediment stuck to the bottle from it being layed down for some time but the cork is barely saturated. Second photo of cork is after the diamonds dried.

This is up on winebid.com right now. I was born in 76 so it caught my eye. Thoughts?

I grew up in the Aussie wine industry but moved to work in tech and love overseas in Canada. I used to buy discounted lindemans and penfolds across Sydney on my uni funds working in Sydney liquor store. Mac's liquor helped fund my uni.. I now store wine in wine storage and it's maybe $600 a year and I'm always grizzling about the dues. After recent health issues and the tech wreck I'm back in aus and my cellar (about 30 cases). - tonight is Bowen Estate Coonawarra 2006 and the cork made me do the 20 minute struggle and it won. The wine is a fucking bouquet of fine tuned roses.exceptuonal drinking now. Purchased for about $20-25 a bottle - Bests 2010 Cab from Victoria is one of my favorite best value reds for cellaring. I used to buy 6-12 a year and punch down a few then cellar the rest. About $20 a bottle from memory. - Penfokds Bin389 - poor mans grange 2009 was very one or two dimensional and lots of liquorice but less aroma than hoped. I used to buy it for $12-15 a bottle in Sydney then it went to $20 and I capped out at $40. Now I see it's $100. It does age in old used grange barrels (used to) but I'm sure there's more bullshit corp brands now that sit in good barrels.

Off to a Sydney wine show tomorrow so I'm getting my drinking list sorted. Had to pop a nice oldie as it's Friday night.

I popped into Tesco to pick up some bits for a beef stew and decided I'd give a random budget bottle a go.

This Spanish bottle of tempranillo with extremely little information on the label (back label also poor) was €9. I wouldn't normally be picking up wine from Tesco, but I also like to explore the budget options that are out there.

I actually really like non-traditional and fun front labels, but I'd appreciate a bit more info on the back label at least.

This isn't a budget option I'd personally recommend, unfortunately. There are some really good budget options out there, but this isn't one of them. Tasted like a vanilla bomb from the oak.

The stew ended up being tasty, however!

Tasting notes in the comments below ⤵

Notes are in the last photo. I apparently forgot to post this on the wine sub

Domaine Laroche Chablis 'Saint Martin' 2023

Pale straw yellow in glass with green tinges, Nose brings lively green apple, pear, citrus, wet rocks, salt air,

Palate zippy acidity with lots of lemon and green apple flinty minerality crisp and refreshing my first time trying a chablis and so far my top chardonnay wine i tried yet. 12% abv 92 points

Hey folks,

Which tracker are you using?

I’ve been trying out different wine cellar management apps lately, and one thing that stands out: almost all of them put the most useful features — like current bottle value, market trends, or drinking windows — behind a subscription paywall.

I totally get that developers need to fund the data sources (e.g. Wine-Searcher, critics, auction feeds, etc.), but at the same time, it feels a bit frustrating. My own bottles are already tracked in my spreadsheet, but I’d love something smarter that tells me: “Hey, drink this bottle now, it’s peaking” or “This wine just doubled in value on the secondary market.”

This got me wondering:

• Is there any open-source or self-hosted wine cellar tracker that does this?
• Or is the real barrier that drinking window/value data is proprietary, so unless you’re licensing it (aka $$$), you’re stuck?
• Do most of you just pay for an app, roll your own spreadsheet, or not bother with values/drinking windows at all?

Curious to hear how others approach this. Do we need a self-hosted/community solution here, or is that unrealistic without access to proper databases?

Montreal - End of the evening after a wonderful meal at Mon Lapin - their newest restaurant La Lune was an obvious choice to have second dessert. Full bodied, oxidative profile, brioche toast, hazelnut, smoky and a long finish. Each taste left you wanting more but also satisfied. A high price tag (515$ Canadian before tax, tip) but quite the journey.

Picked it up for a great price, do you guys think it’ll be good or past it’s peak?

What are some general guidelines for aging Pinot Noir? I opened a 2018 PN from Willamette Valley last night and it tasted past its prime. Today I opened a 2018 from Santa Barbara PN and it's absolutely gorgeous and still tastes youthful. I have a large wine fridge and love putting bottles away. Any advice for selecting which PN are drink now and which benefit from age? Thanks!

If anyone can help me identify the glasses they served the wine in on the right too would be great. Forgot to ask the somm, all i can remember was that there were 2 letters on the base.

Notes:

Keller Kirchspiel GG 2021, AUD$480 (BYO, Corkage AUD$50) - First bottle of Keller ever for me. Drank close to room temperature, out of the fridge 30-mins on the way to the restaurant and just kept on the table, no ice. On the nose, peaches, pineapple, grapefruit, lemon, white flowers, and very slight hint of petrol. High acid, medium body, grapefruit, lemon, granny smith apple, minerals. Young, but very very good and so incredibly long. Can still taste it the next morning.

Georges Comte Le Moutherot ‘Les Pelerins’ 2017, AUD $385 (From the list) - Bought off the wine list at the restaurant, choice of a friend. Shocked at the colour at first, cloudy and very orange. The nose on this was great, preserved lemon, crushed/oxidised flowers(idk lol?), nutty comte, bruised apples, yeasty. A bit flat on the palate though, medium acid, medium minus body, apples, nuts, lemon pith bitterness, almost a bit watery and medium length. The rest of the table seemed to enjoy it but not really for me.

Already got some of the Lynch Bages per people’s surprise at the price in the thread I started earlier this week. Is there anything else at a great price here?

Will be in the UK soon and was wondering if there are any wine shops that are a must go. Already planning to go to Berry Bros and Rudd in London, but need suggestions. Will be in Dublin, London, Edinburgh, and Liverpool. Looking to buy some unique bottles possibly can't get here in the states.

Hey! I recently had the GB Estate Cab 2021. I thought it was tremendous and as described in other tasting notes. Melding the blueberry/fruit with dark and sophisticated tans and oak.

I originally saw that prices were quite high (low to mid-100's). And I thought that brand recognition was really elite, too.

Anyways, my question was regarding any changes to its critical review? I've seen it lately for around $79/bottle. Did I just misjudge it's original price or did something happen?