Wine Advocate (100)

Very deep inky purple colored, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is a little youthfully reticent at this stage, offering glimpses at freshly crushed black currants, black berries and plums with touches of dried Provence herbs, menthol, cigar boxes and Indian spices. Full-bodied with very firm, very ripe tannins and an incredible core of black fruit, earth and spice layers, it has wonderful freshness and depth, finishing long and multilayered. 618 cases produced.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Unfortunately, there won’t be a 2017 due to the fires, but the perfect 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder should certain tide you over. This literally off-the-charts effort is a good as Cabernet Sauvignon gets, offering complex blueberry and blackberry fruits, violets, bay leaf, and forest floor aromas and flavors. It’s a big, structured mountain Cabernet, yet it has a seamless texture, incredible elegance paired with full-bodied power, building tannins, and a great, great finish. Hide bottles for 4-5 years and it will keep for 3+ decades. Good luck keeping your hands off it, though. Anticipated maturity: 2023-2051

James Suckling (100)

Blackberries, herbs, green pine needles, blackcurrants and lead pencil. Full-bodied with incredible structure and powerful tannins. It goes on for minutes. The structure is something else. Muscular, but the tannins give form and focus to the beautiful fruit. Mountain-grown Latour! Extraordinary. Try after 2026.

Vinous (100)

Roederer’s 2002 Cristal, from magnum, is just off the charts. What else is there to say? The magnum format is so well-suited to Champagne. As opposed to still wines, which are just aged in glass, for Champagne, the secondary fermentation takes place in the glass. I am convinced that is a major part of what makes Champagne from magnum (or larger) often so compelling. The texture, breadth and overall pedigree here is just remarkable, with layers of apricot, spice, dried flowers and citrus confit that continue to build over time. The 2002 is neither old nor young; it is quite simply eternal. What a great way to start the night. Wow!

Wine Advocate (100)

The finest rendition of this cuvée that Lécaillon has produced to date—and, indeed, one of the finest wines produced by any of Champagne's important houses in the last two or three decades—is the 2008 Cristal Rosé, a brilliant wine that derives from a mere four of the 45 plots that are candidates for inclusion in Cristal: two blocks of Pinot Noir from Aÿ, one of Chardonnay from Mesnil and another from Avize, and I suspect that its origin in the crème de la crème of Roederer's Cristal-worthy holdings has even more to do with the extra dimension it possesses above and beyond its white counterpart than the delicate infusion of Pinot Noir phenolics that give it its delicate pink hue. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of wild strawberries, tangerine, warm pastry and crisp green orchard fruit, the 2008 is medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with a racy but beautifully integrated spine of acidity, a multidimensional core and a searingly chalky and laser-focused finish. Impeccably balanced and harmonious, this superb wine represents one of the qualitative peaks of this great vintage. It will be seven or eight years until it truly starts to blossom, but its benchmark quality is already glaringly apparent.

James Suckling (100)

Amazing aromas of crushed berries, cherries, flowers, black truffles and wet earth, turning to violets and black tea. Extremely aromatic. Full-bodied, deep and profound with fantastically strong tannins that just melt into the wine. Fantastic length and intensity. Truly great. Drinkable, but better in 2024 and onwards.

The Wine Cellar Insider (100)

If you are wondering what heaven in a glass feel, smells and tastes like, look no further. This is everything a great wine needs. The texture is pure silk and velvet. And speaking of purity, the fruit delivers that in spades. The sensual texture really brings everything together. If you have a bottle and can wait another decade, as good as this is today, it will be even better!

The Wine Independent (100)

A blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2016 Chateau Margaux is deep garnet-purple in color. It is a real struggle to shake loose the aromas, this is so shut down at the moment. Eventually, notes of crème de cassis, blackberry pie, and blueberry compote begin to emerge, followed by licorice, dark chocolate, cumin seed, truffles, and iron ore suggestions. Full-bodied and full-on rich and seductive, the palate is absolutely crammed with bright, crunchy black fruit layers, framed by astonishingly ripe, finely grained tannins and amazing tension, finishing with a firework display of minerals, flowers, and exotic spices. Sell your car and get a few cases of this - you won't regret it!

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Another utterly heavenly wine from this estate is the 2019 Château Margaux, a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot coming from a selection of just 37% of the total production. Deep purple, with an incredible array of ripe currants, blueberries, sweet tobacco, sandalwood, and toasted spices, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a seamless, powerful, yet incredibly sexy mouthfeel, polished tannins, and a great, great finish. As I wrote in the barrel review, it reminds me slightly of the 2016, but has a touch more sun-kissed profile. It already offers incredible pleasure yet deserves 4-6 years of bottle age and will blow you away any time over the coming 40+ years.

Wine Advocate (100)

The wine that most delighted me at this historic tasting of Tuscany's most iconic wines was the 2006 Masseto. This is a wine of sheer power, bliss, opulence, infinity and sublime seduction. This Merlot-based masterpiece hits all your senses with the grace of a ballerina and the power of a heavyweight. It is steady on its proverbial feet, but it also glides over the palate with a profound sense of elegance, harmony and rhythm. Among the prized vintages of Masseto, including 2001, 2004 and 2007, this edition is my favorite. The wine delivers an extra sense of tightness or firmness at the back that serves to stitch together its fleshy richness and general sumptuousness. The personality is sunny, expansive, articulate and sophisticated. You'll remember that the 2006 vintage is celebrated for the elegance of its wines. In the coastal Bolgheri appellation, it is also remembered for the power of its wines. You get the best of both worlds with this stunning creation: elegance and power. These traits are particularly well suited to the versatile grape variety at the heart of this Tuscan all-rounder. This is a true Renaissance wine.

James Suckling (100)

Wow. Fabulous aromas of currants, rosemary, mint and orange peel. Perfect nose. Full body with perfectly integrated tannins. It's long and incredible with tangerine, toasted-oak, berry, terracotta and chocolate flavors. It lasts for minutes on the palate. This needs at least five years to soften but so spellbinding now.

Wine Advocate (100)

The release of this wine comes at a very happy time for the Masseto brand. The stunning 2015 Masseto is hitting the market just as the final touches are being made to the new Masseto winery. I'm told that Masseto might one day see other wines made under that same roof, so we can't exclude a future enlargement of the Masseto portfolio. The Masseto vineyard now covers seven hectares (divided into three plots), and the vines range from 30 to 40 years old. The wine is absolutely teeming with sensorial spirit that is transmitted through the bounty of the bouquet and the solid tannins of the mouthfeel. Nothing about the wine goes unnoticed or unchecked. Its many working pieces fit together with precision like a well-oiled machine. The 2015 vintage is characterized by a level of sheer exuberance that also defined the 2004 and 2007 vintages. Yet, it also reveals similar power, directness and linearity that we saw in the 2010 vintage. The 2015 Masseto takes the best of all those past vintages and confines those qualities to this single, spectacular bottle.

Falstaff (100)

Rich ruby. Deep dark nose, concentrated, but also very accessible with blackberry and mulberry fruit and savoury garrigue notes. Multi-layered palate with fine-meshed tannin, compact and juicy, followed by lots of tobacco. It literally dances across the tongue, very long with fine savouriness at the back.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (100)

Axel Heinz turning out yet again a wine that is generous and moreish but that goes deeper, offering layers of coffee, smoked herbs, rosemary, saffron, gentle waves of powerful brambled fruits. Mouthwatering, with tension and precision. Finely spun tannin that are elastic in embracing and taming the exuberant fruits yet chewy enough on the finish to show there is plenty of ageing ability ahead. Makes a big impression and yet has that Italian ability to be gulpable at the same time. A more elegant, moreish version of Merlot than you get in the biggest Pomerols, but every bit as beautiful. 11ha.

The Wine Independent (100)

Masseto is Italy's most expensive red wine, currently releasing onto the market with prices between 800-1000 euros per bottle. From the start it has been a 100% Merlot wine but for the first time in 2019 we see the inclusion of 10% Cabernet Franc. In my view this is a very intelligent move and a good response to climate change; Cabernet Franc has a natural home in Bolgheri and it is a later ripening variety. When it ripens well, it can add great depth of fragrance and flavor to a wine. The 2019 is deeply colored and dark purple in tone with an intriguing perfumed, violet note on the nose and lots of spice, red fruits, and black raspberry on the palate. The tannins are very fine and tightly knit and there is a lovely harmony and freshness to this wine with bright acidity providing a fresh finish. There is also a lick of creamy oak on the finish, but all very subtly done. The Masseto 2019 has a perfect texture and weight. It is concentrated but supremely elegant at the same time. For Axel Heinz, Director of Winemaking: “The 2019s are in a sweet spot at the moment.” I think I have to agree! Drink 2024 -2045.

The Wine Independent (100)

The 2019 Mouton Rothschild is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it races out of the glass with gregarious scents of creme de cassis, redcurrant jelly, black raspberries, and chocolate-covered cherries, giving way to a serious undercurrent of licorice, forest floor, candied violets, and cardamom with a touch of cast-iron pan. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is jam-packed with expressive red, black, and blue fruit layers, framed by fine-grained tannins and bold freshness, finishing with floral, exotic spices and a mineral firework display.

James Suckling (100)

The purity of blackcurrants, blueberries, creme de cassis, and flowers. Hints of subtle spearmint. Iron. Blood orange. Medium-bodied with a compacted palate, like a cylinder of perfectly ripe fruit and fine tannins. A million layers of tight-grained tannins. It goes on and on. Such freshness and weightlessness to it. Ethereal. New classicism. Modern take on the 1986. 12.79% alcohol. 84% cabernet sauvignon, 13% merlot, 2% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot. Drink after 2030 but hard to not drink now.

The Wine Independent (100)

Petrus 2015 has a deep garnet color, with a hint of purple. Upon opening (the bottle was opened in front of me) the nose explodes with an atomic mushroom cloud of molten licorice, black cherry preserves, ripe juicy black plums, and candied violets, followed by hints of Sichuan pepper, Indian spices, crushed rocks, and iron ore. Full-bodied, rich, concentrated and fantastically opulent, the palate delivers super-ripe, velvety tannins and amazing tension to the multi-layered black fruits and exotic spices, finishing with incredible length. Polished, pristine, curvaceous and hedonic - out of the gate gorgeous, this baby has a good 50-60 years+ further to go.

The Wine Cellar Insider (100)

Deep ruby in color, here you find truffle, dark chocolate, coffee bean, cigar box, black cherry and dark plums. Full bodied, elegant, velvety, opulent, sweet and fresh, the presence on the palate is silk and velvet in the texture with purity and sweetness to the fruits. The wine is hedonistic as well as intellectual, and a little bit firm. There is serious aging potential. The wine really sticks with you, for over 60 seconds in the finish. Give this at least 15 or more years in the cellar to develop before popping a cork.

Vinous (100)

I knew it was only a matter of time before Davide Cilli would make a wine at Promontory that would represent the maximum expression of this rugged hillside site. The 2014 Promontory has been exceptional in the past, but it has also gained another gear or two over the last year, which is pretty much now standard for these wines. Stunningly delineated and precise, with tremendous purity and exceptional balance, the 2014 Promontory dazzles from start to finish. This is an especially translucent style, one that is more about persistence and balance than power alone. Stated simply, the 2014 Promontory is towering achievement from one of Napa Valley's most talented young winemakers. Kudos to the Harlan family and the winegrowing team led by Bob Levy and Cory Empting for creating the framework that allowed Cilli to craft this exquisite, riveting Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Wine Independent (100)

Deep purple-black colored, the nose of the 2016 Promontory starts a little sluggish and broody before positively erupting with powerful scents of plum preserves and crème de cassis, followed by exotic hints of cardamom, Indian spices, and sandalwood, plus wafts of fertile loam and crushed rocks. The palate is full-bodied, rich, and velvety, intertwining opulence and minerality with wonderful vibrancy and gravitas, finishing with an epically long-lasting array of earthy sparks. Now starting to shut down as it heads into a slumber, give it a good 4-5 more years in the cellar before broaching, then drink it over the next 30+ years.

Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux (100)

Packed full of vivid (there really doesn't seem any other word for it) cassis and blueberry fruits, floral, textural and nuanced. Cabernet Sauvignon signature mix of crushed rocks, mint, crayon and slate, just a brilliant wine and a reflection of its exceptional site. This is elegant and precise while still delivering muscular, powerful flavours. I first tasted it at the property last November, and it's reassuring to see it make exactly the same impression when retasted back in Bordeaux, away from the awe-inspiring landscape. Harvest September 10 through to October 23. David Cilli winemaker, director Will Harlan.

Decanter (100)

An almost ideal growing season with no periods of extreme weather, ending with a cool but sunny September. Harvest began on 16 September. The very classy nose has a mineral-infused character underlying its spicy, floral scents. This Salon has the power to be long-lived and the freshness and vivacity to be already enjoyable, but also to be an ideal companion for a gastronomic meal. Perfection.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Scheduled to be released in March of this year, the deep ruby-colored 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon would give the 2015 Château Margaux (that’s what leaped into my head as I tasted this) a run for its money and is an utterly perfect bottle of wine that does everything right. Made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from very old, dry farmed vines in what was previously known as the J.J. Cohn Vineyard, its deep purple color is followed by a heavenly perfume of blueberries, spring flowers, lead pencil, exotic spices, and graphite. Slightly more focused and poised than the M. Etain release, with full body, ultra-fine tannins, and no hard edges, it’s a wine of incredible elegance paired with remarkable intensity, and it’s rare to find a wine that marries both so effortlessly. As with the vast majority of truly great Cabernet Sauvignons, it’s great today and will be great in 30 years.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

The 2015 Screaming Eagle is another monumental wine from this address, and it's one of those cases where if you afford it, you should buy it. A blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc, this magical elixir boasts a deep purple color as well as a blockbuster bouquet of blueberries, creme de cassis, violets, incense, and cedarwood. Reminding me of the 2015 Château Margaux with its off the charts class and purity, it’s full-bodied, thrillingly textured, and has a finish that just won't quit. This legendary wine is going to keep for 30-40 years.

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.”

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!