Critics Average score from professional wine critics and publications.
88
/100
Reviews
14
professional
Vintages
1
2003
Other
88/100
Pinot Noir
NV
Community Reviews
2525
Reviews
88.1
Avg Score
92
Highest
Taster #1655
· Dec 11, 2016
My first flawed bottle from Benchmark. Completely undrinkable.
2003 vintage
Taster #4261
· Nov 23, 2014
92/100
Enticing herbs and sweet fruit, with plenty of acidity, through to a satisfyingly lingering finish. Plenty of stuffing for its age.
2003 vintage
Taster #2825
· Nov 18, 2011
91/100
Last bottle. Thought it was delicious. A bit of age on it but very smooth with good fruit flavors.
2003 vintage
Taster #8238
· Dec 21, 2010
Powerful nose. There's a hint of vegetal (eggplant like) with a lot of ripe red fruits with a touch of plum. Grapey as well. Palate is too much: too sweet, liquor like wih no complexity. This wine is tiring to drink.
2003 vintage
Taster #7224
· Jun 4, 2009
83/100
A frustrating wine with pleasing tart cherry fruit, spice and a chocolate note but pronounced dusty dirt and green pickle. Silky, smooth and no heat, but ultimately flawed.
2003 vintage
Taster #9386
· Dec 13, 2008
Craig and Nita's Holiday Party (Champagne and Pinot Noir) : The nose had red fruit mixed with smoke. A little funky and not particularly pleasant. The taste was a blend of black fruit with carmel and some more funkiness. Unimpressive.
2003 vintage
Taster #7495
· Apr 16, 2008
Cali Pinot, Great Wine, Poor Notes (NYC) : No notes other than "really nice". Anyone?
2003 vintage
Taster #0171
· Mar 19, 2008
88/100
Somewhat funky with green stem taste. Interesting and not bad. Decanted 1 hour.
2003 vintage
Taster #5065
· Nov 3, 2007
90/100
Wine Bank Pino Noir tasting (Wine Bank, Menlo Park, CA) : Unique wood and old paper nose that the taste follows very well.
2003 vintage
Taster #2546
· Nov 3, 2007
80/100
Pinot Tasting with John Winthrop Haeger (WineBank, Menlo Park, California) : Intense green bean and pepper nose; odd, green bean, green fruit, stemmy, pickle palate; medium finish
2003 vintage
Taster #8874
· May 27, 2007
90/100
Great nose and spice. Very nice.
2003 vintage
Taster #4365
· May 18, 2007
90/100
I am huge BC fan but this seemed heavier than most. The nose seemed to have some dirt and very candied cherry in the mouth. Food corrected alot of the problems, I like the 2005s much better.
2003 vintage
Taster #5603
· Oct 28, 2006
90/100
Smoky
2003 vintage
Taster #7166
· Oct 22, 2006
86/100
Very sweet strawberry and cherry fruit. Intense cinnamon, clove and root beer flavors. Great nose, but the midpalate turns slightly hollow. The acid became more pronounced after an hour of air time. Big style, but not as hot or overextracted as other SLH Pinots from this vintage that I've tasted. A tough match with food; probably best consumed on its own.
2003 vintage
Taster #4868
· Feb 7, 2006
pretty green, but nice weight
2003 vintage
Taster #4711
· Jan 24, 2006
Beautiful light ruby color. Fairly light, but silky in the mouthfeel. Lots of sweet cherry and cola in the nose and on the palate. Maybe a slight taste of plum? This was a very nice wine, served with roasted chicken.
2003 vintage
Taster #4185
· Jan 24, 2006
(at The Modern – NYC) – no formal note. Wow – I really dig this wine. Deep ruby/garnet though not purple. The nose is very intense and distinctive. Powerful cherry fruit with a strong earth component and a hint of cinnamon and dirt. With all the power, there is balance and not a hint of over ripeness or alcoholic heat. The flavor profile is a perfect match to the nose – intense, balanced, layered and interesting. Got to be my …
2003 vintage
Taster #5946
· Jan 8, 2006
Very distinctive nose of stems, herb, noticeable green element. A bit hot on the back-end, fairly smooth over most of the palate with ripe and even fruit. But overall, I liked it. Night 2, much more spice box and black fruit on the nose...plusher on the palate. I would buy again, nice effort.
2003 vintage
Taster #8628
· Dec 27, 2005
literally taste like it was pickled! yuk
2003 vintage
Taster #4185
· Nov 20, 2005
At The Modern (New York - $95): Rich and viscous garnet; very characteristic B-C nose of blackberry syrup, herbs (sage and menthol) and olives/black truffle. Wonderful depth and complexity for such a young wine. This is something I could drink often – incredibly sweet fruit, full mouth feel and layers of flavor. The distinctive aromatics follow through on the palate. This is a wine that starts and finishes strong. Really hit its stride after 60 minutes. Not Burgundy, but wonderful, …
2003 vintage
Taster #6620
· Nov 3, 2005
85/100
This was opened at an offline at Scubarex's house over the weekend. Good deep red color. Very pretty nose of crushed black fruit. However, after that this wine lost it for me. On the palate, the primary flavors were sawdust and cardboard. I asked others at the tasting if they thought thte wine was corked because of my cardboard note but they did not think it was. Very young and immature. Some notes of lilac and blackberry. Perhaps this will …
2003 vintage
Taster #8771
· Aug 1, 2005
Had at Roy's in Maui- this wine represents a new benchmark in barnyard/brett- lacking in fruit, the overwhelming odor and taste of barnyard and manure created a new taste experience. Not alot of pinot characteristic; we hoped the funk would blow off over time; it didn't. very disappointing.
2003 vintage
Taster #2431
· Apr 11, 2005
90/100
Started off with an aroma of strawberries. Same on the palate with distinct flavors of strawberry shortcake and a touch of smoke. After a while, however, the wine started to take on a bitter finish. 92 pts after first opening; 88 pts after an hour.
2003 vintage
Taster #1135
· Feb 12, 2005
90/100
Wonderful cherry aromas in the glass with flavors of leather and tobacco. The wine took an hour or so to settle down. This is not a wine for those who want a lot of fruit flavors. I will wait a year or more before trying again.
2003 vintage
Taster #0493
· Dec 19, 2004
89/100
Interesting wine. Huge, massive nose, with a blockbuster, mouth-coating experience when tasted. However, it's almost hard to call this a Pinot, it's so big. There are definitely Pinot flavors of cherry, burnt/roasted cherry, root beer/cola, and some spices. However, they're so concentrated and this wine is so thick it almost falls into the Syrah category. Don't get me wrong - I personally love wines like this. However, for the Pinot purists out there, I think some of you may be …
2003 vintage