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Staff Favorites - Alexandre Tweedie
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Reviews
Jean-Jacques Lamoureux "Les Amoureux" Pinot Blanc Champagne
Review Date: 01-16-2025
The hidden gem of a Secret Champagne Grape, the sheer lack of produce to fill a press-load each vintage, the absolute purity of minerality and lift - Jean Jacque Lamoureaux's "Le Amoureux" ticks every box for a Special Bottle of Bubbles, and it's finally back in stock after five long years of low-yielding vintages! Sun-dried white flowers dance from the glass, leading to an electric display of green apple purity, touches of bakery warmth and *gentle* toast compliment layers and layers of uplifted marine minerality, lounging between silky and oceanic. A rare treat, a special grape, a delicious bottle!
Price:
$49.99
2012 Billecart-Salmon "Cuvée Louis" Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne
Review Date: 11-15-2024
If Billecart Salmon has one mission in the creation of their champagne it is this: Preserve Freshness. Good lord, this champagne is pure freshness captured from the spring of life itself. A bakery that just turned its lights off for the night, a salted tortilla with just-cut garden fresh Pico, the smell of brine on the beach of a well deserved vacation, mussels in white wine butter, a coral reef.....Cuvee Louis is a sheer master class on how to capture the pure essence a season, with cascading flavors of which none are identical, and complexity is inherent. Once in a while I am shown a bottle like this 2012 Cuvee Louis, take notes, and suddenly my writing on this one wine is a page and a half long list of flavors, adjectives, ideas, even concepts - most of them all: freshness.
2023 Union Sacré Monterey County Pinot Noir
Review Date: 11-12-2024
Tasting Union Sacre's '23 Monterey Pinot here in November has brought me some deep joy through the early winter rains and sudden chill weather, because oh *man* this pinot is just pure summer fun and freshness in a bottle! Pure and pristine cherry drops, splashes of squeezed watermelon juice, with bright pops of wild strawberries and pomegranate zest. If you're reading this under the gloom of Northern-California winter, do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle of Union Sacre's '23 Pinot - at less than $25 for a bottle it's definitely cheaper than a flight to Sunny San Diego, but almost just as fresh and vibrant - a total joy of a wine for when winter wears you down!
2018 Gramercy Walla Walla Valley Syrah
Review Date: 09-12-2024
Stack a pile of red masonry bricks in your backyard under the sun and let them bake in the solar intensity for a few decades - take a bundle of bok choy, toss it with sesame oil and slap it on a screaming hot charcoal grill - find a slab of mountain sandstone and gently crush it into tiny bits with 2,000lbs of goose feathers - this Syrah is a downright delight, a true feast of Pure Washington aromatics and savor. Deeply crunchy red fruits run up and down the glass, with intense mountain cherries dusted with smoked paprika, blackberries rinsed in violet eau de vie, and a surprisingly lifted tone of brûléed lemon. An incredibly well crafted cool climate Syrah, with a hyper-complex nose that offers new, confoundingly conceptual notes each time you visit, and a silken palate that feels luxurious yet wild at the same time. HUGE fan!
2021 Buehler "Estate" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Review Date: 08-02-2024
Rich & dark, filled with layers of blackberry tartlet, floral tinged compote and a stony mineral structure to blanket the abundant black fruit - Buhler's 2021 Cabernet is a classically made and styled Napa wine with a bright, punchy lift that just begs for a big dinner. If you're in the mood for Big & Bold, Buhler balances opulent depth with substantial spice and tannin, fashioning one absolutely classic bottle of Big Napa.
2016 Siaurac, Lalande de Pomerol
Review Date: 07-15-2024
Whole lot of wine, for not a lot of money! Spice box aromatics bound from the glass, with herbal edges that cut through the Big Dark Fruit at the heart of this wine. Sage, tarragon, a sprig of rosemary and a dash of Five Spice - savory, chewy tannins wrap up the whole bundle. Drink or save a few for a couple of extra years!
Launois "Cuvée Réservée" Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne
Review Date: 06-02-2024
Quick facts: 100% grand cru estate chardonnay, 100% old vine massal selection, 110% fantastic - the Launois Cuvee Reserve. An opening nose of absolutely classic Mesnil chalk and green apple, padded with expressions of citrus pith, with a delicate kiss of crisp orchard fruit. There are 18 reviews below mine here, and all will echo my thoughts all the way back to 2009 - $34.99 for a bottle of pure grand cru champagne is near lunacy in todays soaring sparkling market. Simply astonishing, complexly rewarding.
Price:
$39.99
Petiau "Cuvée Prestige" Brut Champagne
Review Date: 06-02-2024
Six years on the lees for $49.99 is *not* a common sight here in the U.S., but one that Petiau views as absolutely key to their identity and their champagne. Deeply layered lime crema with fresh & leesy dough on the nose, Petiau has yet again shown the wonders that greatly extended lee contact will have on their wines. Rich and filling, yet dexterous and full of motion, extremely fresh fruit still surrounds the warmth of the bakery hidden within this bottle. Cheers to Petiau, and cheers to the beautiful chardonnay of Reim's White Pearl!
Price:
$49.99
Bardstown Bourbon Company 6 Year Old "Origin Series #1" Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Review Date: 06-05-2023
For me, good whisky opens on the nose with nostalgia - Sure Bardstown's first self-made 6yr statement has greatly direct notes of snappy sweetcorn powder and apricot marmalade, but for me, this whisky has the scent of a Summer camp in the dry heat of a Northwoods afternoon, like the dust of a gravel road settling at sunset, a backyard barbeque in the dog days of September, or even the feeling you get after mowing the lawn on the most humid day of the year - this whisky smells and tastes like places I've been and things I've experienced growing up in the Midwest, in a way that's rather hard to explain other than through sense-memory. I could list more direct flavor notes because boy this whisky has them, but Bardstown has truly set an entirely unique sense of place and time in their first "true" statement, and it's one that I hope shines through all of their following Origin releases. Try a bottle and see where Bardstown Originated, maybe you also share the same memories they're so good at bottling.
Price:
$39.99
Damien Hugot "Hommage 1921" Extra Brut Champagne
Review Date: 12-05-2022
Out of the glass, "Hommage 1921" leads with a bright & salted lemon timbre at the core of its nose, without coming off as austere or overtly sharp. Reduced bosc pear tones on the palate lead to gentle notes of holiday nuts by the fire and early mornings in a sleepy bakery - gentle brioche and warm croissants, this blanc de blanc is crisp, yet open enough to dive into further - a fantastic champagne for holiday cheers and summer sips!
Price:
$49.99
Wiston Estate Brut Blanc de Blancs West Sussex England
Review Date: 11-01-2022
Flint, slate, chalk - these notes of minerality confidently lead this English sparkling out of the glass, paving the way for tart shamrock apples and a driven acidity. Made from 100% chardonnay in the classic Blanc de Blanc fashion, this statement stands tall across the English Channel, gazing into the distance at its French cousins - a distinctive take on sparkling, Winston brightly shines a light into the oft-forgotten world of English wine, inviting you to shift the way you think of sparkling, and broaden your horizons into new territories.
Lagavulin 8 Year Old Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Review Date: 10-17-2022
Joyous, irresponsible, youthful, naïve - this 8 year statement from Lagavulin eschews their normal concentrations on balance and complexity, and instead opts for objective heat and energy. With the hue of sun-scorched straw, this whisky makes no attempt to hide behind convolution - up front and very assertive on the nose, like lemon peels being dredged through kerosene (in the most praise worthy way possible), an engaging tone of oiled leathers being lost to a house fire, all along side a massive wash of Hebridean salt air. With no exaggeration, this to me is my favorite scotch of all time; it is deeply honest with zero intention to fool you or hide behind any secondary notes, saying what many scotch's never want to hear "I am young, and I am damn proud of it".