Category > first growth

2004 Flying Horse Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Tonight I’m having another bottle of Flying Horse Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville, Napa Valley.  Stag’s Leap District once upon a time was my favourite Napa appellation, but now I’ve moved over to Oakville.  Now I don’t know where these grapes were grown, but I hear the winemaker is none other than Château Latour’s own Denis [...]

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Bad Man Special Cellar Selection iii – Leonetti Merlot 2007 Walla Walla

Pulling from my ever dwindling cellar tonight’s fetch revealed a New World First Growth (according to Bad Man’s (that’s me) classification) from Leonetti Cellars – their Walla Walla Valley 2007 Merlot, 14.3% abv, approx. $80.00 USD.  Good luck finding it – fortunately (as you’d guess) I’m tight with the local merchants so I always tap [...]

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Killer Cabernet Sauvignon tasting (and I do mean KILLER)

Tally-Ho and I (the Bad Man) attended a local wine merchant’s Top-Flight Cabernet Sauvignon tasting the other night.  It was BLIND, but you only got the typical 2 ounce pour, and it was difficult (though I of course was able to pull it off) go back and re-taste, so it wasn’t exactly an ideally thorough [...]

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From the Vaults. Episode VIII – Headline: Great wine choice on Ally McBeal

On the Fox television show Ally McBeal’s May 15th 2000 episode Nell Porter decides to leave the firm.  The plot gets ugly as she manipulates Elaine to steal clients’ portfolios so Nell can lure them away to her new firm.  Although Nell ends up paying $300,000 for her boldness she retains her clients and her [...]

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Bad Man Special Cellar Selection ii – Château Haut-Brion 1999 Pessac-Léognan

Another remarkable Cellar Selection from Bad Man’s very own personal cellar.  I’ve been sitting on this wine for 7 years now, stored at room temperature in three different un-air-conditioned and relatively un-heated apartment/townhouse/houses, but it was tucked away in a bag inside a box in a dark closet so the temperature swings were kept to [...]

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From the Vaults. Episode IV – circa 2000 – Bad Man’s First Growth

The term First Growth is often misused in the wine industry.  Originally coined in 1855 with the economic classification of Bordeaux based on price, that particular rating should be considered of interest only in a historical sense today.  As wineries rise to supremacy and fall to despair one must continually reevaluate their merits and to [...]

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From the Vaults. Episode I – May 14, 2000 – Groth tasting

May 14 2000 I went to the local wine merchant to meet Suzanne Groth.  She was very friendly, knowledgeable, and great fun as she poured through the Groth repertoire.  The Sauvignon Blanc was very affordable at $10.49 and had agreeable lemon, grass, and herbal aromas and flavors.  Very little oak, complimenting the clean crisp style [...]

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I just don’t get it

But maybe you do.  Just read this review:
2005 Romanee Conti, Domaine de la La Tache Grand Cru Pinot Noir 750ml – $2,849.99
Burghound, Jan 2008, 99 points: “There is only one word to do the nose true justice and that is kaleidoscopic as the aromatic breadth here is simply dazzling with red and black cherry, cassis, [...]

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2005 Bordeaux First Growth – you know you want it

Well, good luck with that.  Check out these friggin’ prices.  These are nearly as bad as those bloated Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyard prices, but at least these Château have been around a few hundred years.
2005 Château Haut-Brion Pessac Leognan 750ml – $995/bottle – RP:98, WS:100
Parker: “Another profound effort from Haut-Brion, the 2005 (a 9,000-case blend [...]

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