Upon first opening this wine, I poured a glass, tasted, and thought, "This is a well made Chard. I don't see what the fuss is though".

About 10 minutes later, I realize that I am really enjoying this wine. It is immensely drinkable. The flavors are clean with a laser-like intensity -- no mushy flavors here.

After an hour, I understand why this wine is well loved. Yummy through and through. Just wonderful. It is not a Kistler, it is not a Marcassin, it is not a lot of other wines... but it is an excellent wine that you will seriously enjoy from beginning to end. Drink now and over the next 2 years, and you will enjoy. 91 pts.

I used a radio loudly playing an alternative rock station to expel the raccoons from under my house in Seattle. After a couple of days I saw the mother raccoon leading the babies out and down the street. It might work with chipmunks.

TJ - I had almost the same problem on my stoop, except with stray cats. I also had a family of sparrows who constantly built a nest on an architectural ledge on my front porch. Those are the filthiest little animals - I had to sweep my porch off every few hours with the mess they made. And NOISY! Argh!! I wanted to throw a rock at those things regularly!

Here's what I did - I bought a roll of "hardware cloth" (actually a metal mesh that has about 1/4" holes) and, discretely, stapled it to the openings of my stoop and around the ledge. Kept those buggers out.

I've seen people do this hardware cloth around the whole base of their house, if it's pier and beam (i.e., with a crawl space). The cloth is almost invisible from a distance and can be painted black, which makes it disappear to the eye. It's easy to cut with tin snips, bend, shape, and put up if you have a large stapler.

If I open one of mine it won't make an hour. I'm looking forward to trying one of these.

Congrats to Aubert on big scores from Tanzer - 96. The Quarry received a 94.

And did you see the barrel score for the Pinot? 93-96!

Shush...

To link two threads
A link to a duplicate TN

What I love is that thread has a link to this thread. I can click all day and not get anywhere!

An endless loop of Aubert chat.

WT - Doh!

Although a few bottles pop up retail, mailing list is your best bet:

Aubert Website

Had this past night:

Amazing CA Chardonnay. One thing that is so unusual about this wine is that it manages to mantain a strong CA identity while still being elegant and balanced. Roast hazelnut and key lime were the two flavors I picked up most, but there was plenty of complexity. Rich without being heavy, I opened this about 45 min before we consumed it, I think this is ready to go now and I doubt it will seriously benifit from significant cellaring. 92.5-93.


a

Wonderfully balanced and complex - a nice core of fruit, minerals and the backbone of acidity that keeps it all together nicely. 93 points. I don't do CA Chardonnays all that much, but this was worth searching for.

A delicious bottle - it was my wife's favorite wine of the evening. Thanks for bringing it whiner.

I never posted a follow-up. After later tastings, I would put this at 94pts. Truly a wonderful experience. Soft, smooth, almost a sexy wine. Greatly looking forward to the Pinot releases.

Jumped on the mailing list based on your comments and got a letter of confirmation. This winery seems to be a classy outfit as well. thnx.

I agree with Randy. Smooth and sexy is an excellent description. Not as heavy or oily as a good Kistler, but fresh and vibrant. I'm looking forward to enjoying my 7 other bottles!

I had another bottle Saturday night. Man is this nice stuff! Everyone at the table just said "ooohh, this is nice". Citrus & mineral flavors, went amazingly well with sweetbreads & Foie gras at Angele. I'm afraid my four bottles aren't going to make it very long...

I have access to this stuff at $52.50/bottle right now (AFTER discount). I'm going to purchase a few more today (probably 3 or 4). FWIW: Even though this takes a back seat to '01 Walter Hansel Cuvee Alyce (only allocated 2 bottles/person) in terms of quality, this is the CA Chardonnay that I will have spent more money on, and have bought more bottles of, than any other.

The real reason I'm posting again is that I have been unable to get this wine out of my mind. I can't figure out why this tasted like a classic CA Chard to me, yet simultaneously tasted better than nearly any CA Chard I've had. This is a special wine.

a

Sometimes I think about TJ's signature - "Great wines carve their initials on your brain". This one may be in that category.