A Wine Journey: 1990 Gruaud-Larose

The 1990 Gruaud-Larose was the most recent conquest in my quest to "run the table" on Master Sommelier Andrew McNamara's Wines of the Decade.

Chateau Gruaud-Larose, a Medoc second growth (1855 classification), can trace its roots back to its creation in 1725 by the knight Joseph Stanislas Gruaud.  The estate, initially called Forbedeau, passed to his only heir, Jean-Sebastian Larose, upon the founder's death.  The chateau was purchased by Bordeaux merchants Balguerie, Sargent and Co., whereupon the name Gruaud-Larose was assigned.  The estate was split between two families shortly after the sale with two Gruaud-Larose wines (Sarget and Bethman) being produced and sold as a result.  The original estate was reconstituted when Desire Cordier, an east France wine merchant, bought the Sarget estate in 1917 and the Bethman estate in 1935.


The current-day Gruaud-Larose occupies 150 hectares in the St. Julien appellation, positioned directly between fellow Medoc properties Branaire-Ducru and Lagrange.  Of the 150 hectares, 82 hectares are planted to vines which are, on average, 45 years old.  The distribution of varietals on the estate is 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, and 2% Malbec.  The soil under the vineyard is deep Quaternary gravel.

The Gruaud-Larose winemaking process requires that fruit be hand-picked after which it is sorted and cold-soaked.  Fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled wooden and concrete vats with the juice pumped over the must twice per day.  Upon completion of fermentation, one-third of the vintage is subjected to malolactic fermentation in oak barrels.  The entire vintage is aged in up to 50% new oak for 18 months after which it is fined and filtered and then bottled as Gruaud-Larose (25,000 cases) or Sarget de Gruaud-Larose (16,000 cases).


The Wine Quest Premier Dining Experience, an event benefiting a local charity, was being held at the JW Marriott on Saturday evening, The event schedule called for a 7:00 pm champagne reception followed by dinner at 8:00.  In order to have an even fuller evening, four of us decided to take some wine and hang out in the hotel lobby from about 5:30 pm and to then join the Wine Dinner when it began. I took a bottle of the 1990 Gruaud-Larose and a 1990 d'Yquem (for use with our dessert course) and Adam took a 2004 Chaves Hermitage Blanc. 

We started with the Chaves which had a pale gold color and was thick and weighty in the glass.  This wine needed decanting.  It was powerful, unctuous, weighty on the palate and with a long finish.  It actually needs more time in bottle so that it can resolve its issues.


We next turned to the Gruaud-Larose.  We did not have a wine key so we asked our server to open the bottle for us.  We were engaged in conversation but she did appear to be taking a long time to begin pouring.  we understood why when she asked us if we could help with getting the cork out.  The cork may have had some issues but the server had succeeded in punching a hole deep into the cork and expelling most of the material on which the corkscrew would grab.  We took the bottle and attempted to penetrate at the interface between the cork and the glass but to no avail.  There was not enough material.  We dispatched her to get a decanter and a sieve in the event that we had to punch the cork down but I panicked when she returned with the decanter and a flavor-stripping coffee filter (I never use those for filtering wine after I had the experience of a 1991 Dominus being brought to its knees after being poured into a decanter through one of those filters.).  By this time the anticipation had waned and it was now a rescue operation.  I took the bottle to the bar and had one of the bartenders work on it for well nigh 20 minutes before he was able to successfully extract the cork with no residue migrating through to the wine.


We decanted the wine and then poured it into the glasses.  Garnet color with bricking at the edges.  Good viscosity.  Vegetality on the nose.  Good acidity. On the palate leather and a mintiness.  Did not have a full, round mouthfeel and the finish less-than-long.  I was disappointed in this wine but I will have to retaste it.  The cork might have been an indication of prior battery to the wine and the circumstances under which it was tasted were not exactly  memorable in a positive way.  The company was great though.

A Wine Journey: 1982 Pichon-Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande

The author is engaged in a quest, a journey in the footsteps of the Master (Sommelier) Andrew McNamara who, as it has been told, in days of yore, slew 115 bottles of very good wine -- the so-called Wines of the Decade.  Today's tale relates the pursuit, capture, and tasting of that vibrant beauty, the 1982 Comtesse de Lalande.

The story of Chateau Pichon-Longueville, Comtesse de Lalande, stretches back to 1689 when the Rauzan family bought plots in Pauillac.  The core Pichon vineyard was established after some plot exchanges with it s famous neighbor, Chateau Latour.  The new Napoleonic wine laws were responsible for the Pichon Vineyard being broken up into the Baron and the Comtesse, as it could not be passed on to a single heir while other possible heirs were alive.  The Lalande family retained ownership of its portion of the Pichon Vineyard until a sale to a consortium led by Louis and Eduoard Mailhe.  After a few twists and turns, the estate eventually cane under the control of Eduoard's youngest daughter, May-Eliane, and she quickly upped her stake from 55% to 84% by buying up the shares of other consortium members.  The Chateau was sold to the Rouzaud family (owners of Louis Roederer) in 2006.

The chateau owns 75 hectares of vines (up from 40 hectares at the beginning of May-Eliane's tenure), 64 hectares of which are in the Pauillac commune and the remainder in St. Julien.  The soil is gravel over clay and some deeper limestone and sandstone.  The vineyard is planted to 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Petit Verdot.  The grapes are hand-harvested and then fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks.   The juice is allocated between the flagship and the chateau's second wine (Reserve de la Comtesse) after which the flagship wine is placed in 50% new French oak for 18 months.

The 1982 vintage has received widespread acclaim.  The winery refers to it as an exceptional vintage.  Robert Parker (November 1998) said "This has been the most sumptuous, delicious, and profound 1982 to drink over the last 5-6 years."  James Suckling  of Wine Spectator said "This has always been a great wine. I marvel at it each time I taste it."

This wine was bought online.  This is not a great time to be shipping wine into Florida so I had it shipped in next day air. I did not get into the office for a few days so it was languishing in the hallway outside my office.  I was very concerned.  I picked it up at the office on Friday and headed directly to our Antonio's tasting event.  They were going to be tasting this blind.

When I arrived at the venue, only HlyTerrroir and Keith M. had arrived.  I had not brought a bag with which to cover the wine so HlyTerroir lent me one (He is always prepared.).  I opened the wine without decanting and placed it on the table.  The top of the cork was covered in a greeninsh moss and the cork came out in four separate pieces.  I was concerned.  The locale filled up very quickly as this was going to be another farewell to Robert and Allison. 

The wine was a stunner from the word go.  There was very little evidence of bricking; the lighter-red  color was consistent throughout (I can see why the word claret was used in the early days by the British to describe Bordeaux wines.) .  It had a great nose.  The fruit had receded into the overall framework and the secondary characteristics were on full display.  Saddle leather. Cigarbox. Cardamom . Cedar.  On the palate the wine was very well balanced, exhibiting a full, round mouthfeel and good integration of all the elements.  It was like a Fred Couples golf swing: smooth, elegant, with a long finish and complete balance throughout.  "This is an epiphany wine."  "This is why I do this."  "This wine is begging for a roast tenderloin or a rabbit."  Those were some of the comments issuing from an awed round table.

This is, without a doubt, the best wine I have tasted in the series to date.

A Wine Journey: 1987 Dominus

Robert S., and Allison, members of faculty and administrative management, respectively, of a local university, and, in the case of Robert, a member in good standing of the Antonio's Tasting Group, are moving to another state in furtherance of Allison's career.  As a part of our send-off activities, a few of us got together with them for dinner at the home of Fred W., and Laurie L.

This was an occasion that merited a Wine of the Decade: a few showed up, including the 1987 Dominus, the 2001 Dominus (again), and the 1990 Dom Perignon (white, 750 ml).  This post covers the tasting of the 1987 Dominus.

Details of the Dominus Estate pedigree and winemaking philosophy and process have been covered in a previous post but a look at the label of the 1987 vintage provides new factual details.  The 1987 was the fifth vintage produced by the John Daniel Society, the name of the partnership between Christain Mouiex, Robin Lail, and Marcia Smith.  Second, the vintage has the pre-Bordeaux-style label with a non-dominant portrait of Moueix done by the Israeli artist Avigdor Arikha.

The tasting of the Dominus followed a wonderful "six-course" meal comprised of a jambalaya as a starter, followed by a gazpacho-style, apple-citrus soup, salad, planked salmon, grilled steak and a sherbert for dessert.  Many bottles of wine were consumed prior to, during, and after the dinner.  The 1987 was one of the post-dinner bottles.

The bottle was decanted by "I-need-a-light-source" HlyTerroir. Upon visual inspection, the wine had excellent color with hints of orange at the edges.  The legs were thin and evenly spaced and flowed relatively quickly back to the surface of the wine.  A perusal of the label for information on alcohol content is unrewarded but a  quick search online reveals that it is 12.9%; almost a teetotaler by the standards of today's Napa Cabernets.  That same online search also revealed that the wine is a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Merlot and that said blend spent 14 months in French oak of which 25% was new.

On the nose the wine presents cigarbox, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla, mocha, espresso, spearmint, and eucalyptus.  On the palate there is a muted green note, cassis and a pleasant old cigar.  The late-arriving wood tannins are well integrated into this smooth and very-well-balanced wine.

Robert and Allison, you will be missed but you are permanently seared into our memories, and our senses, through this capstone dinner and the meritorious performance of the 1987 Dominus as a wine of the decade.

A Wine Journey: 2001 Dominus

Our random walk -- a wine journey -- through Andrew McNamara's Wines of the Decade continues with the 2001 Dominus from Dominus Estate.

Dominus Estate is owned by Christian Mouiex who, in addition to his Dominus responsibilities, manages his family's properties in Pomerol and St. Emilion,  properties that include the likes of Chateau Petrus and Chateau Trotanoy.  Moueix, whose scholastic accomplishments include a Masters in Enology from UC Davis, was, upon his return to France, given responsibility for the family holdings.  While in California, he had developed a love for Napa Valley and enlisted the late Robert Mondavi to assist him in finding a property that would allow him to produce high-quality wine in Napa.  Robert introduced Christian to Robin Lail and Marcia Smith, daughters of the legendary John Daniels and current owners of Napanook vineyard (Napanook was the former Inglenook Estate and, under John Daniels, had become famous for its Inglenook Cask Selection.).  Grapes from this site were highly sought after for the production of high-quality Napa Cabernets.  Moueix entered into partnership with the two vineyard owners in 1982 to create an entity called Dominus Estate which would focus on producing a Cabernet-based wine.  Moueix eventually bought out the sisters and took full ownership of the property in 1995.

Napanook, located in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains, has a history that goes back to 1836 when George Yount, who gave his name to Yountville, planted the first vines in the valley there.  The farm is 124  acres -- 108 of which planted to vines -- with volcanic, heavy clay, and loam soil types.

Chrtistian believes that the best wine is made from the best grapes and, to that end, the company expends enormous amounts of energy in the vineyard -- crop thinning, canopy management, separating clusters, leaf plucking, and rinsing, for example -- to ensure that the best possible grapes are produced.

The estate produces 6,000 - 8,000 cases of wine annually with one half of the production meeting the stringent requirements for Dominus and the remainder either being bottled as the estate's second label -- Napanook -- or sold off in bulk.  Dominus, in the Bordeaux tradition, is a blend.  Early vintages were 75% - 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and the remainder Merlot.  Cabernet Franc was added to the blend in1986 and Petit Verdot in 1989.  The first 13 Dominus vintages were crushed and aged at Rombauer Vineyards but, in 1996, production was shifted to a 50,000 sq. ft., Dominus-owned winery which was designed and built by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

According to Dominus Estate, the 2001 vintage is truly a classic and will benefit from years of aging.  This vintage was characterized by an early bloom and long growing season that yielded grapes of exceptional maturity.  This wine has the unique ability to be rich and complex while possessing a smooth and silky texture.  The blend for the 7,000 case production was 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot, and 4% Merlot.  The fermented wine was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels, 40% of which were new.

Tasting the 2001 Dominus was an exercise in perseverance.  I had this wine in my cellar but, inexplicably, bought a bottle from an online retailer for the purpose of the tasting.  I took the bottle to our regular Friday tasting at Antonio's and was disappointed to see that only four of the regulars had shown up for this, my thought, blockbuster event.  It turned out to not matter.  The bottle was not good.  One member of the team thought it might be corked while another thought it was funk that would blow off.  We set the bottle aside and came back to it half an hour later.  The "corkiness" had disappeared somewhat but there was still an unidentified smell that should not have been there.  On the palate, the wine was disaggregated and phenolic with high alcohol.  A chalky residue persisted on the tongue.  This group has had extensive experience tasting both the 1991 (one of our favorite wines) and 1997 Dominus so there was a flavor profile that we were looking for and it was not showing up. Needless to say I was very disappointed and platitudes like "It's not your fault" and "better luck next time" did nothing to pick my chin up off the floor.

I had been invited by Keith M. and his wife Nancy to have dinner with them on the following night as my wife was going to be out of town.  I saw this as an opportunity to re-taste the 2001 Dominus and took a bottle out of my cellar for this purpose (I also took another bottle which I will discuss at a later date.).  So I show up at Keith and Nancy's at 6:30 pm sharp, walk into the kitchen, and begin opening my bag of goodies.  I begin telling Keith that we were going to revisit the scene of the crime, as I pull the 2001 Dominus out of the carrying case, when he points out that he already has a bottle (same wine, same vintage) in the decanter on the kitchen counter.  He had seen how disappointed I was the day before so he was giving me a piece of candy to make me feel better. Oh well.  By the way, he prepared the meal and a wonderful one it was:  Osso Bucco, butternut squash risotto, and roasted asparagus.

Keith had opened his bottle at 1:30 pm and placed it back in his cellar at 57 degrees until 6:30 pm.  We began tasting it at around 8:00 pm. Black fruit and black olives were dominant along with muted hints of graphite.  On the palate there was a distinct creaminess and a hint of coconut.  The wine was smooth and had a very long finish.

This wine is a baby and needs another 5 - 10 years to begin to reveal itself fully.

A Wine Journey: 1987 Mondavi Reserve

The Wine Journey is a quest to taste all of the wines identified as wines of the decade (http://andrewmcnamara.blogspot.com/2009/12/wines-of-decade.html) by Master Sommelier  Andrew McNamara.  I opted for the 1987 Mondavi Reserve as the next wine in the series.

Robert Mondavi Winery, located in the heart of Napa Valley, was founded in 1966 by Robert G. Mondavi to "... create wines in California that belong in the company of the world's finest."  Ably led by Robert G. Mondavi, a worldwide missionary for California wines while he was alive, the winery played a key role in the development of today's US wine business.

Most of the fruit for the Mondavi Reserve is sourced from the 550-acre To-Kalon vineyard which is located in the benchland region of the Oakville AVA.  The location of the AVA (edge of the Mayacamas Mountains), its micro climate (appropriate amount of morning fog followed by day long sun), and its soil profile (bale clay loam alluvial soils) all contribute to the growth of complex, world-class Cabernet Sauvignon grapes which, in turn, power many of Napa Valley's high-profile reds.

The 1987 Napa Valley Growing season was almost perfect.  It was characterized by very mild early spring weather with the mildness extending through the summer.  The extended growing season allowed for slow and even fruit ripening, resulting in good acid levels and a desirous concentration of fruit characteristics.

Now to the wine.  I did not have a bottle of this vintage in my cellar so I purchased a bottle online from Sokolin.  The wine arrived two days after purchase and was pristine in appearance, attesting to, I hoped, good provenance.  I was scheduled to meet Adam Chilvers (wineontheway.com) for lunch at Houston's (a Winter Park restaurant) so I decided to take the bottle along for the ride.

When I arrived at the restaurant Adam was in the company of a Chateau St. Michelle winery representative and Heather Shapiro of Southern Wine and Spirits and they were tasting samples.  The Chateau ST. Michelle rep left prior to the beginning of our tasting session.  Adam's  1996 Leoville Las Cases (brought for the occasion) needed more time in the decanter so we turned to the Mondavi Reserve.  It was opened and decanted at 2:25 pm and the cork came out fully and evenly.  There was some residue on the base of the cork and moisture stains about one-third up the cork.  The color was uneven and there was a muting of the red tones away from the center of the glass.  When swirled in the glass, the wine exhibited excellent viscosity.

On the nose there were notes of cinnamon, blackberry, bell pepper, cedar box, cinnamon, nutmeg, sandalwood, cigarbox, and sweet tobacco.  On the palate the wine showed good structure with an excellent integration of tannin, acid and fruit.  I was very surprised at the retained acid levels in this, a California Cab, after 23 years.  The wine exhibited a peppery spiciness and notes of pine on the back of the palate and had a nice, long finish.

This was an extremely well-balanced wine and tasting it was truly a treat.

A Wine Journey: 1994 Vega Sicilia Unico

The Wine Journey is centered around tasting the wines identifed as Wines of the Decade by Master Sommelier Andrew McNamara.  The first wine tasted was the 1989 Beaucastel CDP.  The second step in the journey occured on Tuesday and was both a scintillating and exhilirating tasting experience.

I decided that the 1994 Vega Sicilia (http://www.thewineacademy.es/web/eng/cata.php?id=207) would be the second wine tasted and decided to enlist the assistance of the Wine Barn team because of their vast knowledge of, and experience with, Spanish wines (Remember the Clash of the Spanish Titans?).  So I grabbed a bottle of the 1994 Vega Sicilia from the cellar, hopped into my car, and drove to The Wine Barn.

When I got to the Wine Barn, the entire team was there along with (a pleasant, and pertinent, surprise) Juan Carlos "JC" Marin, the manager of the Jorge Ordonez portfolio for Stacole Fine Wines.  No one refused to participate in the tasting.

The bottle number (a Vega Sicilia practice) was 056115 and Andrew noted that this particular vintage was made by Mariano Garcia, the winemaker at Vega Sicilia from 1968 to 1998.  The bottle was opened and decanted at 5:00 pm and I began pouring wine into the glasses at 5:15 pm.  In the glass, the wine had an oily texture and a dark cherry color.  Both Andrew and JC remarked as to the brilliance of the meniscus and lack of "bricking," an indication that the wine still had many years of life in it.

We spent approximately 15 minutes in nasal worship, contemplating the majesty of the wine as manifested in the complexity and promise of the bouquet.  The tasters observed scents of saddle leather, baking spice, sandalwood, wet stone, morcilla, bacon fat, toast, buttered raspberry, and sweet tobacco with brandy.  At the initial taste, the wine did not live up to the promise provided to the nose.  In addition, there was a strong sense of iron and the wine was both highly tannic and acidic.  It exhibited a lot of power but the finish was not as long or as deep as one would have expected.  Vegetal elements were apparent towards the back of the tongue.  We set the wine aside to see if the various elements would resolve themselves with time.  The wine delivered.  It smoothed out considerably as the elements began to integrate properly and the promise on the nose began to show up on the palate at about 5:50 pm.  The vegetal characteristic noted previously resolved into a soft chalkiness and hints of Penfolds Grange began to show through.

All in all a wonderful and memorable experience (by this time we had been joined by Jerry Spoto, a fine wine rep from Transatlantic) for all of us.

A Wine Journey: Wine Profile of a Master Sommelier

The exercise of attempting to taste all of the wines listed as Wines of the Decade (http://andrewmcnamara.blogspot.com/2009/12/wines-of-decade.html) by Andrew McNamara, a Master Sommelier, is a journey into/along the palate of a Master.  Aggregating the data underlying the list allows us to look into the mind of the Master and, in so doing, build his "wine profile."  In this, and subsequent posts, we will analyze the data underlying the Wines of the Decade list in order to build such a wine profile for Andrew McNamara.

The Wines of the Decade list stretches from the 1940s to the 2000s, with each intervening decade represented.  The decades with the highest representation are the 1980s (31% of all wines) and the 1990s (39% of all wines).  French wines are by far the most doiminant, comprising a full 62% of the list.  The next nearest country is the US with 15% of the listed wines.  French wines comprised 66% of the wines from the 1980s and 62% of the wines from the 1990s.  Based on the foregoing, we can surmise that Andrew has a preference for French wines that are vintage 1980s and 1990s.

In future posts we will examine regional preferences, wine styles, and varietal styles, as revealed by the list.

In Pursuit of McNamara's Wines of the Decade: 1989 Beaucastel CDP

A journey begins with but a single step.  A small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.  Those were some of the over-the-top thoughts that were reverberating through my mind yesterday as I made my first foray in pursuit of McNamarra's Wines of the Decade (http://mowse.blogspot.com/2010/03/wine-journey-in-pursuit-of-wines-of.html).  The journey began at approximately 12:30 pm when I went to my computer and launched my wine cellar management program (The Uncorked Cellar) in order to locate the 1989 Beaucastel CDP in my cellar.  The program showed two bottles of the '89 resting comfortably beneath three bottles of the '90 in the Argentinian section of the cellar (don't ask).  I deleted the lower of the two bottles from the graphical representation of the cellar then stepped into the actual cellar to retrieve the wine.  There it was.  I carefully extracted it from the slot and took it out of the cellar to prepare it for its final act.

My plan was to take the bottle to our weekly Antonio's tasting in order to begin this journey with the right amount of ceremony.  I wanted to decant the bottle prior to going to the site in order to remove any sediment.  The cork broke just below the midpoint during extraction but I was able to remove the offending portion without any difficulty.  The wine was decanted at 12:45 pm and rebottled at 2:15 pm.  Let us take a look back at the 1989 Beaucastel CDP.

The 1989 Beaucastel CDP was named Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year in 1991 and had received a 98 rating at that time.  Chateau de Beaucastel, a Southern Rhone winery, is one of only three wineries in the region to plant and vinify all of the appellation-permitted varietals.  The Perrin brothers run a winery which consistently produces some of the best wine in the appellation. The varietals are harvested and vinified separately with the Syrah being the only one exposed to new oak.  The wine is blended in the spring following the harvest.  The varietal distribution in the 1989 vintage is as follows:  Mourvedre (30%), Grenache (30%), Miscellaneous (15%), Syrah (10%), Vaccarese (5%), Cinsault (5%), and Muscardin (5%).

In a re-tasting of the wine in 2007, James Molesworth, senior editor for Wine Spectator, raved "Gorgeous truffle, bacon fat, cedar, shaved vanilla bean and saucisson notes, but the fruit is still fresh, with currant, date and fig flavors followed by a long clove- and sandalwood-infused finish."  He upped the rating of the wine to 98 at that time.

We began to taste the wine at 3:10 pm.   It was a blind tasting and Hlyterroir and Dr. Jeff id'd it as a Southern Rhone.  Hlyterroir said that it had the softness of a Grenache or Pinot Noir but not their lightness.  Keith M. thought that it had a short finish and was light.  On the palate, the acidity and fruit were strongly in evidence with that initial tasting.  From the opening onwards, the wine continued to evolve in the glass.  After about 10 minutes, we began to identify graphite (lower intensity than the 1991 Dominus), pomegranate, and red apple.  Fine-grained tannins were apparent on the mid-tongue.

This was a well-balanced wine which, unlike many of today's wines, is very well suited to accompanying a meal.  It was refined, submissive and understated, qualities which were re-inforced with the passage of time.  Not an aha! wine for any of the group (see some members of the kill team, with trophy in hand, below) but we recognized that we were in the presence of a very good wine.

A Wine Journey: In Pursuit of The Wines of the Decade

Andrew McNamara has compiled a list of Wines of the Decade, a list of "my wines of the last 10 years in no particular order ..."  No criteria is given for how the list was devised but I suspect that it is a listing of the standout wines that he has tasted over the past 10 years.  Who is this guy who has the audacity to compile a list of the decade, you ask?  And why should I buy into his list? Check out Andrew's bio at http://www.mastersommeliers.org/Pages.aspx/Andrew-McNamara.  So, now you know. 

Source: http://www.mastersommeliers.org/

Peruse the list at http://andrewmcnamara.blogspot.com/2009/12/wines-of-decade.html.

My journey entails taking a random tasting walk through this list of 116 stellar wines and to report on the acquisition story (how the wine was acquired), the circumstances surrounding the tasting of the wine(s), and impressions regarding the wine(s).  Each story will be accompanied by a picture of the vanquished bottle(s), along with any other warriors who participated in the slaying of said bottle.  I have tasted, and/or have in my cellar, 14 of these wines but will revisit them to ensure completeness of the process. 

I ask that you join me in this endeavor by submitting similar information for bottles on the list that you might taste before I get to them.  The more submittals, the quicker the journey.