Tim Atkin MW (97)

My pick of the three top Mullineux Syrahs in 2018, this world-class red is the most perfumed and alluring of the trio right now. Combining fruit from the Kasteelberg and Roundstone, this has violet and lavender aromas, some sap and grip from 100% whole bunches, incredible focus and grip and a plush, seductive mid palate.

Wine Enthusiast (91)

Exceptional concentration, structure and balance mark this 11-year old blend of Cab, Cinsault and Carignan that's ripe with cassis and plums and a plume of smoke, earth and barnyard funk. Tannins subdued into a powdery softness, it's elegantly textured yet full and forward with a rich, layered complexity.

Jeb Dunnuck (94-96)

The 2018 Châteauneuf Du Pape Blanc looks to be the finest white to date and unquestionably ranks with the finest whites in the vintage. Beautiful notes of crushed rocks, honeysuckle, quince, and spice all flow to a medium to full-bodied, balanced, powerful white that’s flawlessly balanced. It’s one of the rich yet elegant whites that can drink nicely on its own or shine on the dinner table.

Wine Enthusiast (96)

2016 marks the first bottling of de Nalys under the Guigal umbrella and this intensely ripe but pristine wine makes a promising debut. It's luscious but elegant, loaded with rich black-plum and cassis flavors firmed by piquant hits of licorice and pepper. Silky tannins make it approachable already but the wine should improve through 2036 and hold further still.

Burghound (93-95)

Very ripe aromas of cassis, black berry liqueur, violet and anise precede the equally broad-shouldered flavors that also coat the palate with dry extract on the powerful, hugely long and very serious finish that is shaped by a markedly firm tannic spine. This is a buy and forget you own it wine as I would suggest not touching a bottle for at least 10 years. With that said, this is most impressive.

Greg Sherwood MW (97-99)

This lovely signature Niepoort 2019 vintage Port apparently has higher tannins than the famed 2017, but at this youthful stage, it is hard to comprehend this with its rich, accessible, voluptuous layers of silky, juicy soft black fruits. Benchmark certainly, a notable success – absolutely. The aromatics are so much more important than the palate flavours at this early blending phase (according to Dirk) and this enticing 2019 shows attractive notes of sweet sun ripened black berry fruits, hints of creamy molasses, savoury black stewed winter orchard fruits and a dusty, stony, smoked cigars complexity. Beautifully silky, supple and textured, there is also a fine, stony, grippy mineral tannin mouthfeel that lends a wonderful frame for the juicy blue and black berry fruit finery to be displayed. Fabulously drinkable, deliciously fresh and vibrant, but eminently bold and characterful, this is certainly another very accomplished wine from the House of Niepoort. (Residual Sugar: 88 g/l RS)

Vinous (95)

The 2018 Lessona is a wild, distinctive wine that captures all the exotic beauty of Nebbiolo in this appellation. Sweet dark cherry, orange peel, cinnamon, blood orange, sage and rose petal build effortlessly as this deep, layered Lessona shows off its quality and pedigree. The purity of the flavors is just remarkable. Readers lucky enough to find the 2018 will enjoy several decades of exceptional drinking. Superb.

Wine Advocate (97)

Even more concentrated than the impressive 2014, the 2015 Shiraz Reserve is almost painfully intense—in a good sense. Dark berries, culinary herbs and roasted meat notes combine in a mouthwatering nose, which leads into a dense, creamy-textured palate. While most Noon wines can be drunk on release (as can this one, albeit in a soft-core S&M sort of way), I would suggest holding this one for a couple of years and drinking it over the next decade.

Whisky Base (92)

n/a

James Suckling (99)

Extremely perfumed and floral with lavender, lilacs and violets to the sweet, ripe berries, such as blackberries and blackcurrants. Some slate and graphite, too. It’s full-bodied, yet ever so balanced and refined, with super fine tannins that last for minutes. Fresh herbs, such as bay leaf and lemon grass highlight the dark fruit. The quality of tannin is exquisite with wonderful polish and refinement. Lasts for minutes. So wonderful to taste now, but better after 2026.

Decanter (93)

The first time specific blocks have been used for this wine. Dark forest berry notes on the nose with perfumed elements and notes of milk chocolate. Supple and agile, generous with textured, slightly grainy tannins that are so pleasant - expansive and round in the mouth. It's well built and very approachable with blackcurrant and black cherry flavours on the palate. Concentrated, deep and layered but still with elegance. Extremely characterful. A blend of the 2018 and 2019 vintages with 18 months ageing in French oak barrels. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend.

Jeb Dunnuck (97)

The 2018 Ornellaia is mostly Merlot but includes a solid amount of Cabernet Sauvignon and tiny amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. It's a gorgeous wine that takes air to show at its best (and deserves bottle age), giving up a terrific array of red and black currants, cedar pencil, tobacco, iron, and savory herbs. These carry to a medium to full-bodied, concentrated, incredibly well-balanced red that has building, ripe, polished tannins, perfectly integrated acidity, a great mid-palate, and one heck of a finish. While not a blockbuster in the exuberant, extroverted sense of the word, it has incredible intensity and depth, and this is a gem of a wine. It needs another 5-7 years to hit maturity and, I suspect, will evolve for 30-40 years.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (93)

Grabs you from the first moment your nose hovers over the glass. Smudged charcoal runs into raspberry, underbrush and mandarin orange peel that speaks of Tuscan sun. Excellent quality, good persistency in the glass as it stretches out through the palate. Everything feels in balance, and this provides another indicator that 2020 is a great vintage in this corner of Italy - Le Volte is (almost) 100% Merlot but has freshness and nuance. Director Axel Heinz, oenologist Olga Fusari.

Decanter (95)

Grown in Sarmiento, the world’s southernmost vine land, some 1,450km from the Uco Valley, this is truly extreme Pinot Noir, withstanding fierce winds, cold temperatures and little rain at high altitude. Helped by consultant Alberto Antonini, winemaker Juan Pablo Murgia ferments the grapes in concrete then ages the wine in untoasted foudres for about 18 months. Anne Krebiehl MW: Red berry, white pepper, heightened aroma. Yum. Concentrated, peppery, bright and wonderful. There is structure and brightness but also vividly pure, tart fruit. Pristine and fresh. Justin Knock MW: Lovely colour, beautiful potpourri aromas! It’s delicate yet firm. Rose hip, white flower, cherry; a touch bitter. Dirceu Vianna Junior MW: Perfumed and vivacious, includes aromas of cherries, cranberries, rhubarb and a hint of spice. On the palate it is elegant, with beautiful silky texture, sophisticated structure and a long, refreshing finish.

James Suckling (94)

A red with very deep and intense fruit character, yet rich tannins to back it all up. Full-bodied, layered and powerful. The second wine of Cos d’Estournel is serious again in 2016. Try from 2025.

James Suckling (94)

A red with very deep and intense fruit character, yet rich tannins to back it all up. Full-bodied, layered and powerful. The second wine of Cos d’Estournel is serious again in 2016. Try from 2025.

The Wine Independent (99)

The Palmer 2019 is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs considerable shaking to unlock notions of baked plums, boysenberry preserves, and crème de cassis, leading to wafts of rose oil and espresso. The medium to full-bodied palate is jam-packed with rich, seductive black and blue fruit, supported by heart-thumping tension and very fine tannins, finishing with epic length and jaw-dropping fragrance. Stunning!

James Suckling (96-97)

There’s brightness and clarity to this young wine, with blackcurrants, violets, lavender and blackberries. Medium body with a sold core of fruit and a long, fresh finish. Fine tannins. Bright acidity. 56% merlot, 3% petit verdot and 41% cabernet sauvignon. From biodynamically grown grapes.

The 2016 Palmer Historical XIX, a vintage now widely recognised as one of the greatest vintages in modern times in both Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley. Jancis Robinson suggests that 2016 is “the best Bordeaux vintage I will probably ever taste” across her extensive career as a Master of Wine.

Château Palmer was the pinnacle of success in 2016 achieving four perfect 100-point scores, giving Bordeaux collector’s even more reason than normal to eagerly add this sought-after wine to their collection.

This wine offers a rare, unique and fascinating historical insight into the history of Bordeaux. It is a collector’s gem, with around 4,500 bottles made.

Wine Advocate (100)

Produced from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and sporting a deep garnet-purple color, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr Crane Vineyard offers up a profound and singular nose of loam, rocks and iron ore over a core of black cherries, baked black berries and preserved plums with hints of licorice, dark chocolate, cedar, sautéed herbs and beef broth. Full-bodied, rich and demonstrating great depth with a wonderfully compelling personality, it delivers a multitude of savory meat and toast layers, framed by firm, fine-grained tannins. It finishes with incredible persistence, allowing those provocative mineral nuances to shine through.

Matthew Jukes (18+)

Following on from the terrific 2018 vintage, this is another exuberant wine with an inky dark hue and masses of swirling, black fruit notes. This is certainly the most exotically perfumed Thalabert I can remember and this reflects the unique fruit concentration and ripeness found in this vintage. Once you taste this wine you see that it is not all about the luxuriously appointed nose because the palate is packed with spice and tension and the finish is positively electric. In terms of accessibility and also potential, this wine is a conundrum – how can something so young and attractive also seem so compact and age-worthy? This is the key to all of Jaboulet’s 2019s. The exquisite balance between ravishing fruit and refreshing, robust tannins is mesmerising. This is a stupendous Thalabert and I think it is a notch up on the brilliant 2018.

Matthew Jukes (18+)

Yet another beautiful 2020, Thalabert is deep, dark and brooding in this vintage, and it has an almost Italianate liquorice and black-fruited theme underpinning its Syrah characters. This makes it an indulgent treat, and the palate is more velvety and forward than any young Thalabert I have tasted. In addition, it has the stuffing to age well, too. What more could you ask for?

Matthew Jukes (20++)

Like La Maison Bleue, La Chapelle barely moved an inch over the five days that it sat open (and gradually oxidising) on my tasting bench. This is a monumental wine with the finest Syrah nose I have seen since the ethereal and intriguing beauty of the remarkable 2016 vintage and also the monolithic stance of the legendary 1990. However, this is not to say that this vintage can be directly compared to either year. There is a latent power about this wine that is as elusive as it is impressive. This solaire vintage has certainly given La Chapelle a sense of foreboding power and yet there is so much grace here, too. You could be sniffing a handful of granite and gravel, a bouquet of freshly picked herbs, a mortar of freshly ground pepper or a punnet of juicy black fruit and yet there is so much more to discover here. What I find so remarkable about this wine is that it does not show any trace of over-ripeness nor does it have any unwanted oiliness or excessive alcohol. In spite of its richness and depth, this is a pristinely refreshing wine with crunch and crackle of filigree tannin which enlivens every sip. In this regard, it is a far less obvious superstar than the preening 1990 and it is a more erudite and statuesque model than the esoteric 2016. In short, this is one of only a handful of vintages of La Chapelle to which I have awarded a perfect score and who is to say that this will not happen again before too long? The care and attention in this entire portfolio of wines are evident and the hard work and holistic approach are not only paying off in the vineyards but also in the glass, too, and this makes 2019 another phenomenally successful vintage for Jaboulet.

Matthew Jukes (19+)

While there are faint roasted coffee bean notes here, which hint at the warm summer, and exotic rose and musk characters that only ever emerge in concentrated vintages, this is a masterclass in restraint and self-awareness. While this 2020 perhaps lacks the overall gravitas and high-rise tannins of the majestic 2019 vintage, this is a very seductive La Chapelle and one that will appeal to lovers of textural, velvety Syrahs. I am certain that everyone who drinks this wine will fall for its charms.

Matthew Jukes (19++)

I fell for this wine in a microsecond – the very moment the first molecule of perfume exploded on my receptors. This is a step-change vintage for La Maison Bleue because I have not seen this degree of single-mindedness and overriding intention before in this wine. 2019 La Maison Bleue seems as if it has realised that it does not need to sit behind La Chapelle in Caroline Frey’s portfolio. It signals, loud and clear, that it ought to be seated alongside its more renowned stablemate and be accorded the opportunity to address the masses as an equal, not a subordinate. This is a bold move from this honed, sleek wine. In 2019, with just that little bit more power and ambition under its belt, it has broken free and it looks absolutely sensational. The fruit is regal and layered and the tannins are precision-cut and perfectly positioned making it every inch a superstar. By the end of day five of my tasting these amazing wines, La Maison Bleue seemed as if it were saying, let’s keep going! While this is a ‘finished barrel sample’, this wine wanted to be tested to its limits and I cannot fault its enthusiasm and excellence. You simply must track it down!