Allen Meadows - Score: 90 (2013 March)

I have had two very different experiences with this wine as the bottled opened in Burgundy seemed awfully ripe for an '07, indeed it was served blind and the '07 vintage never occurred to me as a reasonable possibility. In the same fashion, the flavors seemed ripe and the finish a bit alcoholic and short. As the description confirms, this was a distinctly strange showing. This bottle merited a quizzical 88?/now rating. By contrast, the Hong Kong bottle was not nearly as ripe and offered nicely perfumed if slightly herbal-tinged aromas of both red and dark berry fruit that is trimmed in whiff of spice and earth. There is fine volume and punch to the medium-bodied flavors that are still compact and not particularly complex. I can't say that I was especially impressed with either bottle and particularly not the first though where this wine is headed isn't obvious, at least not at present.