Alfert has been my spirit animal and I have followed him to Levet, Gonon, Sociando, BAMA and a few others.
I buy a lot of board darlings from Myriad and Rhys to Musar, Gonon and others. I’ve been guided in my riesling purchases by many, same for burgundy. There’s a little hive mind going on and it’s hard to recall exactly the influences that brought me to a certain collectible wine at a certain time.
But I blame Alfert for my credit card bill and so does my wife. 
Just woke up but not yet ‘woke’ about BAMA, which is what?
A wine, not my son’s college. More like a lithe fencer than a football player.
Chateau Bel-Air Marquis d’Aligre, Margaux, a/k/a BAMA.
A handful of us having been gushing about this wine for a while, with notes scattered here on there on the Boards, like 95, 96, and 2000. And then Sir William Kelley and Jason Cohen recently start dropping 59, 61 and 82 bombs on us!
Here is a nice article on this quiet, old world Chateau, by Neal Martin:
HAHA, my Yak palate prevails!
I’m still trying to figure Musar out. Everything about it is something that I should love, and yet often, I don’t. And then I have one bottle, like a recent 1999, that was jaw-dropping.
I have not tried Rhys yet, but Kenny H just sent me a 2010 Rhys syrah that I need to pop soon.
So everyone in my house is asleep, except me. Even the dogs. Was a long night at a pretty wild wedding. So I’m nerding out - trying to avoid the inevitable going into the office this morning thing - and am curious what wine I have mentioned the most on this Board. Not surprisingly, Sociando, 498 times, but then closely followed by Gonon, 495 times. I may need to shut up, lol.
Glen Gold introduced me to quite a few, but the two that come to mind right now are Detert and Bernabeleva. Thanks Glen.
Andrew what is Detert?
Is Tua their winemaker? I thought I read somewhere that how the 2020 ends up depends on whether Tua comes back?
He makes a fantastic Tagovailoa Rouge. Crimson red in color, packs a huge punch, quite traditional in styling.
A Cab & Cab Franc producer in Napa, mostly/entirely (or was) old vines.
Between this board and following fellow members on Instagram, everything for me to be honest. Sounds corny but I can’t think of something I found on my own.
Cool. How would you describe the style?
They are the cousins to another board darling, MacDonald. Their property is next door for the most part. Some of their cab franc offerings are from old vine To Kalon fruit. I’ve got a visit lined up there in 4 weeks, so I’m excited to learn more. I’ve had their cab franc, and their East Block cab franc, only 2-3 times each and they are beautiful wines. Not the overly ripe cab francs that a lot of Napa producers are doing these days, but certainly not old world green in style either. Age worthy with beautiful structure.
Most I don’t remember who discussed them, but these are certainly owed to the board:
Sandlands
Bedrock
Rhys
Walter Scott
DiCostanza
And the one MacDonald that I have gotten to drink–did not get in on that one early enough–is to fellow WB’er, here in Bloomington, John Davis, to whom I continue to be grateful (as well as for some other nice bottles).
A fair amount of Burgundy and Bordeaux knowledge I have come by here, but that is harder to sift out from what has elsewhere been acquired and matters like which vintages are sleepers and so on. Love to learn and I know no place that rivals WB for range of knowledge and experience. So really thanks to all!
I was going to say I can’t think of any from this board, although certainly from friends elsewhere.
Then I realized I had my first Halcon at the home of my friend Brian Tuite. Brilliant wine. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I bought the inaugural vintage, and just took delivery of 2017. A nice run!
Who first posted about it, Alan or Brian? Both guys have great palates!
Bedrock and Goodfellow. that on its own ended up filling 1/4 of my wine fridge now.
Chave (that was a while ago, can’t remember who introduced me to it)
Gonon St. Joseph (Kim Caldwell, I recall, was a huge cheerleader of this wine, particularly during Crush’s great initial pricing of it)
Allemand (Charlie, but unfortunately so expensive)
Dehlinger (Phil Franks/T-bone)
As Gonon and Levet have been mentioned several times in this thread, I thought I’d ask, what is the consensus for drinking windows? Obviously vintage specific I’m sure, and all my stuff is quite young. I have lots of 15 Gonon as well as 14 and 16 Levet. CT tells me to wait at least 3-5 years it seems. I’ve actually never had either producer, but like Northern Rhone - some of my best experiences over the past 12 months were with Jamet and Voge.
Exception for bruiser years like 2010, and maybe even 2013, Gonon always seems to drink well, IMHO, whether it be young, middle-aged or more mature. Such a gorgeous wine. The Gonon , they need 15+. I had a 2006 VV this past year that was exceptional, but ideally, I would have given it a few more years. Levet truly demands more time. Perhaps 2014 will be fine in a few years, but the bigger years, just lay them away, especially the La Chav cuvee. Les Journaries seems to show a bit better when young.
Try the Gonon Iles Feray and the Levet Amethyste cuvees for earlier drinking.