James Suckling (100)

The subtle and nuanced aromas to this are so enticing with perfumed, floral, blackcurrant and blackberry character. Roses, too. Some lavender. Full-bodied yet so refined and polished with the most transparent and polished texture. Firm and seamless. So beautiful now. Give it three or four years to come around, but this already sings.

Wine Advocate (100)

Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Screaming Eagle soars out of the glass with vibrant notions of ripe blackberries, black cherries and fresh red and black currants plus wafts of licorice, candied violets, cedar chest and clove oil with a beguiling touch of sea spray. Medium-bodied with jaw-dropping elegance, the palate is finely textured and yet built like a brick house with a super taut backbone and exquisitely knit acidity. The intense black and red fruit flavors are accented by layers of mineral and floral notions, finishing with incredible length and depth. Undeniably stunning. “I loved it!” winemaker Nick Gislason told me when I asked him for his thoughts on the 2018 vintage. “Everything is just really perfumey with a lot of verve and a lot of freshness. It’s a wholesome vintage, if that makes sense? The canopies were big and healthy; there was a lot of life in the vineyard. After 2017, it felt like the bloom that comes afterward.” He went on to say, "We made a little 2017 red. Only four barrels of the Cab! Ten barrels of The Flight. Only from grapes that came in before the fires—mainly Merlot and a couple of blocks of Cabernet." Whereas Screaming Eagle is mainly sourced from Cabernet Sauvignon grown on the western side of the estate, there is one plot of old Merlot (1980s plantings) on the eastern side of the vineyard that continually makes the backbone of this Second Flight/The Flight. This is planted on very gravelly, well-drained soils. Gislason explained, “The Cabernet Sauvignon for The Flight is always about being fresh, light and perfumey, without the firmer tannins that Cabernet can sometimes give. There is a ‘fresh’ end of the property that this tends to come from. There is some other Merlot on the other side of the property that doesn’t have the acidity, perfume or brightness we’re looking for. We don’t use this in The Flight.”

Vinous (100)

The 2019 Screaming Eagle is a wine of mind-blowing elegance and finesse that stand apart from the generally more potent style of so many wines in this vintage. Deep, sensual and beautifully layered, the 2019 is simply magnificent from the very first taste. A whole range of red/purplish fruit, spice, leather, dried herb and blood orange accents give the 2019 its vivid, wonderfully detailed personality. Because of its price, both on release and in the secondary market, Screaming Eagle is the most talked about wine in Napa Valley. It is hype or not? All I can say is that I was very fortunate to drink a number of older vintages during lockdown and all those wines lived up to their reputations.

James Suckling (100)

This is an incredible wine with such depth and energy and ethereal, mind-blowing sensibility. It sent shivers down my spine tasting it. It just shines on the nose, like bright sunlight breaking through a dark sky. Aromas of raspberries, citrus, violets and dark earth. Full-bodied with extremely fine tannins that go vertical and endless, from top to bottom. A monument for merlot-based wines. Drinkable now, but needs six to eight years to come around.

Vinous (100)

The 2018 Sloan is a flat out stunner. Rich, dramatic and full-bodied, with striking energy, the 2018 is viscerally thrilling right out of the gate. Black cherry, plum, mocha, licorice and gravel all build as this towering, statuesque Cabernet shows off its pedigree. The 2018 is simply magical, and just as breathtaking from bottle as it was as a barrel sample last year. It is the very finest Sloan I have ever tasted. I can't wait to see how it ages.

The Wine Independent (100)

This 2015 Marchesi Antinori Solaia is so charmingly sweet, ripe, and open with very bright and exuberant aromas of cream and blackberries. My impression is that many 2015s in Tuscany in general have absorbed more oak than in some other vintages but this wine wears it so well. The palate is super-harmonious with a gentle ease and flow and the tannins are beautifully integrated and combine with subtle flavors of sweet oak-spice, cream, vanilla and blackberry. There is an elegant acidity and juicy freshness but in this wine the tannins take on a new dimension becoming seamlessly refined. Just beautiful!

Wine Orbit (100)

The 2021 Coleraine exhibits a commanding presence and majestic poise. The bouquet reveals classic aromas of cassis, dark plum and violet with whispering nuances of cedar and cigar. There are hints of warm spices, compounding the pleasure upon inhalation. The palate is bold and graceful at once, enhanced by plush texture and multi-layered mouthfeel, beautifully framed by refreshing acidity and fine chalky tannins. Robust and substantial with a great line and length, which seem to go on to infinity. This youthful wine is already impossible to resist, but time will reward those who can wait. In sports, they often talk about ‘The Greatest of All Time’, or 'The GOAT'. This 2021 Coleraine is undeniably THE GOAT of New Zealand wine.

James Suckling (100)

Such a deep yet complex and sophisticated nose, showing discretion, perfume and finesse. A hint of violet extract to the black cherries, crushed blueberries and cocoa powder aromas, together with Spanish cigars that slowly evolve to truffle, black pepper, incense and freshly chopped herbs. Juicy, yet really composed and dry, with medium to full body and abundant, immaculately fine-grained tannins that unwind evenly on the palate. A style that is restrainedly plush and refined, showing superb precision, cohesion and length, when you give it enough time in your glass. If Las Beatas is the fine Burgundy, then this would be Telmo Rodriguez’s Rioja answer to world-class Bordeaux. Decant it to let the complexity come through. Drink through the next 20 plus years.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (100)

I tasted this at the property from barrel, thrilled to follow it now in bottle. Grabs you from the first moments with its sage, thyme, dried flowers and incense aromatics, clings to your nostrils, drawing you in, so much depth of flavour to the vivid raspberry and sour cherry fruits, delicate and yet powerful. Hard to describe how little artifice is conveyed in the glass, it's not a wine that is coated in new oak, instead it is delicate, poised, crafted, utterly gorgeous, so moreish. Harvest October 6 to 18, 3.8ha, old gobelet vines, with any replacements coming from massal selction. Iconic winemaking partnership Telmo Rodriguez and Pablo Eguzkiza. I hope everyone folllowed my advice from the first vintage to get on board because it is more than living up to its potential, and its tiny quatities means that first come are almost certainly first served.

International Wine Report (100)

The 2019 Vine Hill Ranch 'Pure Magic' certainly lives up to its name, and it is even more impressive since my last tasting from barrel in April. This possesses such incredible pure characteristics and it is nothing short of magical, living up to its name. It instantly begins to impress as it bursts open to seductive aromas of ripe dark currants, black cherries and even hints of blueberries, which are woven together with exotic spices, violets, herbs, tilled-soil and a touch of licorice that all come together and explode from the glass. On the palate this continues to impress with its plush full-bodied texture that is dense and concentrated. It goes on to display a remarkable sense of freshness and striking overall balance, as layers of beautifully ripe dark fruits cascade on to the long supple finish. The VHR ‘Pure Magic’ is a simply brilliant wine and while it is nothing short of perfection today, it also shows tremendous promise for a tremendous future ahead.

The Wine Cellar Insider (100)

There are many things I love about wine tasting. One of the great pleasures is tasting wine in barrel and scoring it higher in bottle, which is a true sign of quality. That is what took place here clearly. This wine is off the charts! The level of intensity has to be tasted to be believed. The fruit tastes as if each berry was polished with a velvet cloth. This is incredibly hedonistic. With a surreal texture, the wine unfolds and coats your palate with waves of perfectly ripe fruits. cashmere tannins make you with the 60 second finish was even longer! This is an indulgence of pleasure at its best.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Another heavenly Pomerol in the vintage, the 2018 Château Trotanoy checks in as 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc brought up in (I suspect) lots of new French oak (although it's certainly not apparent). Revealing a dense purple hue as well as a smorgasbord-like bouquet of blackcurrants, dried flowers, cured meats, violets, tobacco, and chocolate, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a sexy, seductive texture, building yet sweet tannins, and just a rich, concentrated, yet flawless profile on the palate that's already impossible to resist. Nevertheless, a good 7-8 years of bottle age are warranted, and this magical elixir is going to evolve for 40 years or more.

James Suckling (100)

This is an extraordinary merlot with such purity and focus. Flowers such as violets and hints of orange peel. It is full-bodied yet incredibly energetic and structured. The finish goes on for minutes. Seamless texture. Fresh yet dense. Contrasty. Best Redigaffi ever. Hard not to drink now but a wine for decades.

James Suckling (100)

Incredibly floral and beautiful with dark berry, spice, cedar and mint. Chinese plums. Asian spices. Bark. Tea. Full body, dense and so soft and complex. The finish goes on for minutes. Endless and fine. January 2017 release. This reminds me of the gorgeous 1991 or 1964. Drink forever. A wine that you want to spend time with.

Tim Atkin MW (100)

Vega Sicilia Único Reserva 2010 (14%) Perfection is as rare in wine as it is in most things in life, but this is a stunning Único, reflecting the quality of one of the greatest vintages of the last century. Blended with 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, as it was in 2009, it's still a very youthful wine right now, with closeknit tannins, thrilling acidity, layers of spices, fresh earth, tobacco, red and black fruits, some oak sweetness and a wonderfully refreshing, leafy undertone. Simply stunning.

Tim Atkin MW (100)

Vega's Reserva Especial is surely the only world-class unfortified red that's a blend of vintages - 2008, 2010 and 2011 in this instance. Made from Tinto Fino and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s the result of long and harmonious slumber in large wooden foudres after previous ageing in smaller barrels. Structured, complex and elegant, with hints of tobacco leaf and balsam, a sprinkling of sweet baking spices, focused acidity and palate-caressing tannins. Perfection.

Jeb Dunnuck (La Muse) (100)

Including the highest percentage of Merlot (at the moment anyway), the 2016 La Muse checks in as 93% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, and the balance Malbec that spent 15-16 months in roughly 90% new French oak. This magical wine shows how good Merlot (and Sonoma) can be and offers extraordinary notes of crushed violets, spring flowers, scorched earth, graphite, black cherries, and crème de cassis. As elegant and seamless as they come, it’s full-bodied, perfectly balanced, has an incredible spine of acidity and tannins, and a finish that won’t quit. It has the class and purity to drink well even today, but it’s not going to hit prime time for at least another decade and will keep for 3-4 decades. Bravo!

Wine Advocate (Le Desir) (100)

The 2019 Le Désir is an exceptional blend of 83% Cabernet Franc, 8% Merlot, 5% Malbec and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, offering complex, layered flavors, soaring aromatics and very detailed expression. Deep ruby-purple in color, its aromas unfold slowly and offer new nuances with each return to the glass: Morello cherries, warm chocolate, dried thyme, desiccated roses and dried herbs. The full-bodied palate offers concentrated, floral fruits, pixelated tannins, bursts of fresh acidity and a very long finish with layer after layer of detailed flavor. 2,500 cases were made.

Wine Advocate (100)

The 2014 La Muse (2,800 cases ) is a legendary effort. The wine offers an opaque purple color and a gorgeous nose of lead pencil shavings, blackberry, incense, Asian spice, cocoa, plum, and a touch of chocolate and barrique. On the palate, more cassis and blackberry come to the forefront. The wine is unctuous, with adequate acidity and a stunning energy underneath the massive fruit and body. This is a spectacularly fragrant and, at the same time, dense wine, with enough structure (somewhat surprising in this vintage) to last 35-45+ years. The final blend was 88% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Malbec.

Vinous (100)

The 2016 Barolo Ravera is bursting with all of the tension that is the most singular characteristic of this site. Freshly cut flowers, white pepper and mint lend energy to a wine that is very shy and tightly wound today. Then again, it is Ravera. Macerated dark cherry, lavender, mint, crushed rocks and sage race out of the glass in a potent, stunning Barolo endowed with magnificent purity and translucency. The 2010 is quite simply a stunning, breathtaking wine. Don't miss it.

Vinous (100)

The 2019 Barolo Ravera is the most intensely mineral and saline of the Barolos. Crushed rocks, white pepper, flowers, orange zest, red berry fruit and bright acids all run through this finely sculpted, chiseled Barolo. Readers who enjoy Barolos of energy and tension will adore the Ravera. I have always had a soft spot for this Barolo. The 2019 is another magnificent dimension of Vietti's dark horse, a wine that over the last 10-12 years has routinely challenged for the crown here, and often won!

Wine Advocate (100)

One of the wines of the vintage, the 2019 Vieux Château Certan unfurls in the glass with a striking bouquet of cassis and cherries mingled with notions of violets, loamy soil, sweet spices and incense. Full-bodied, ample and layered, it's seamless and enveloping, with a fleshy core of beautifully vibrant fruit, lively acids and ripe, powdery tannins. Concluding with a long, resonant finish, this perfumed, sensual Vieux Château Certan is a remarkable achievement from Alexandre and Guillaume Thienpont.

James Suckling (100)

Extremely pure and aromatic with sandalwood, blackcurrant, fresh-mushroom and rose-petal character. Full body and an extremely compact center palate with profound tannins that are so polished, drawing you down and down into the wine. Goes on and on. Be patient. Drink after 2025. 2,200 bottles made.

James Suckling (100)

A compact and polished Cobos with lots of dark fruit, as well as green olives, flowers and stems. Raspberries and forest fruit, too. Full-bodied, very tight and compressed. Melted tannins give great presence and mouth-feel, but the feeling is that they are invisible. It goes on for minutes. Sensational. So sophisticated and thoughtful. An archetypal malbec from Argentina. Better after 2027.

Wine Advocate (100)

The 2021 Viñedo Chadwick fermented in stainless steel and troncoconic concrete vats, spent some 10 months in barrique, and then part of the wine (some 20%) was sent to the Stockinger foudres. The nose is reminiscent of a super elegant and sleek Bordeaux, pure and clean, less balsamic than in previous years and less herbal. It's perfumed and floral, precise, fresh and elegant, with very fine tannins, and despite the grape, it is more Pomerol than Graves, with 14% alcohol on the label but without any heat at all. It's velvety and luxurious, juicy and tasty, with fine-grained chalky tannins and the elegant stoniness that the best Maipos are capable of. It has structure and power, like the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove. This has to be the finest vintage for Chadwick; the wine made my heart beat faster—it's a wine of emotion. This is also my first 100-point wine from Chile! The final blend contains around 3% Petit Verdot from vines planted in 2005. There are some 10,000 bottles of this, and it was all bottled all at once on January 31, 2023.

Wine Advocate (100)

I was blown away by the 2016 Finca Piedra Infinita, a wine I have been anticipating because I’ve seen the progression of the wine over the last few years. They use almost 40 different components to make this wine from small plots within the vineyard, especially the soils they call "supercalcáreo" (super limestone). The other type of soil they use is what they call "gravas calcáreas" (limestone gravels), and they don’t use any of the grapes from the deeper soils that go into the Q range. The wine has reached a stratospheric level of precision, symmetry and elegance in 2016 that is really captivating. Everything seems to be in its place; there is great harmony, the aromatics are clean and pure and the texture is like liquid chalk. There is power and elegance, energy and finesse. This is a really outstanding wine that summarizes the hard work at Zuccardi in the last few years. Bravo! 6,400 bottles were filled in February 2017.

Wine Advocate (100)

The 2018 Finca Piedra Infinita Gravascal has notes reminiscent of some wines from the Northern Rhône, a combination of orange peel, blood and iron, denoting freshness and minerality, with a chalky sensation and a finish that is a mixture of juiciness, stoniness, saltiness and texture. It comes from a 0.51-hectare plot in the Piedra Infinita. The wine fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts and matured in concrete until bottling. I think they have fine-tuned these single-plot wines tremendously since the initial and almost experimental 2015; in this 2018 wine, I found lots of similarities with the Finca Piedra Infinita bottling—it really excels. It finishes with a sapid and salty sensation and marked chalkiness. Finesse, elegance, simply superb! 1,100 bottles were filled in August 2019.

Tim Atkin MW (100)

Red Wine of the Year - Argentina 2022 Special Report If you’d told me I’d be selling an Argentinian wine at this price when I started, I would have laughed at you,” says Sebastián Zuccardi, but this remarkable red is worth every peso and more. Reflecting the hard work and talent of two complementary generations of Zuccardis, Gravascal is as brilliant as it is daring. Entirely concrete-fermented and aged, it’s hauntingly complex stuff, with tangerine and dark berry fruit, thrilling minerality and precision, filigree tannins and a finish that lasts for over a minute. Truly world class, this is one of the two greatest young Argentinian wines I’ve ever tasted.

Wine Advocate (100)

I'm splitting hairs here, because the level is so high in the Malbecs from the Piedra Infinita vineyard that it's difficult to say, but the coup de coeur is the 2019 Finca Piedra Infinita Supercal, the single-plot bottling from the shallower soils with lots of rocks covered in calcium carbonate (hence the name: "superlime"). In a cooler year like 2019, this wine achieved a level of precision, austerity, elegance and balance that is amazing. The wine floats in the mouth, with an ethereal quality but with the clout and power from the place. The wine is juicy and fresh with a saline twist in the finish. This is approachable now because of its gobsmacking balance and elegance, but it has all the components and the balance between them to age for a long time in bottle. Bravo! 1,400 bottles were filled in June 2020. They told me that it's always a challenge to decide the picking date for this plot, and they feel they hit the bull's eye in 2019. And rightly so.