Wine Advocate (97)

There is slightly more structure to the 2015 Barolo Ginestra Casa Maté than to the Gavarini Chiniera of the same vintage, and the only differences here are the soils and that this fruit is harvested about ten days later. It's a pretty fascinating demonstration of the power of the single vineyard. The Gavarini Chiniera parcel offers slightly sandier soils, whereas this site is composed of more clay. In rainy years, the Gavarini Chiniera vineyard drains more effectively, whereas the Ginestra's soil retains more moisture in the hot and dry vintages. As a result, in vintages such as this one, Ginestra shows a more compact nature and, in general, provides more impact and more structure. This is a very robust expression, extremely linear and tight. The Ginestra Casa Maté narrowly wins this round. It's another beautiful Barolo.

Wine Enthusiast (97)

Enticing scents of rose, iris, perfumed berry and an earthy whiff of truffle shape the fragrant nose on this dazzling wine. The delicious, full-bodied palate boasts structure and a weightless elegance, delivering juicy Marasca cherry, cherry compote, cinnamon and star anise. Taut polished tannins and fresh acidity provide balance and an elegant structure. It's already irresistible but will also age well for years. Drink 2022–2035.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Lastly, there are a tiny 532 magnums of the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Triniceros, a blend put together by famed consultant Michel Rolland. It's possibly closest in style to the Plyspline release and has incredible dark fruits (cassis, currants) as well as notes of graphite, toasted spice, chocolate, white flowers, and lead pencil shavings. A wine that builds incrementally on the palate, it has ripe, velvety tannins, an expansive texture, fabulous mid-palate depth, and the balance and class to drink well today yet also evolve for 20-30 years.

James Suckling (97)

A fantastic nose to this with currant, sage, rosemary and rose-petal character. Sweet tobacco and spicy chocolate, too. Very complex. The palate shows lovely depth of fruit with blackberries, blackcurrants and fine tannins. It’s racy and refined with a direct, focused palate. Just a baby. A blend of cabernet sauvignon 60%, merlot 32% and petite verdot 8%. This needs at least two or three years to soften. Try in 2023.

James Suckling (99)

So much crushed stone, rosemary, lavender, mint and blackberry. Full-bodied and very structured with layers of powerful and polished tannins. It goes on for minutes. Ink, blackcurrants and blueberries. 60% cabernet sauvignon, 35% merlot and 5% petit verdot. Needs at least five or six years to open. Try after 2025.

Wine Advocate (98+)

The 2016 Fontalloro is the best vintage of this landmark wine that I have tasted thus far. This is a very elegant vintage, with more volume in the mouth and precise notes of tar, licorice, camphor ash, resin and Indian spice. In a race between the highly competitive 2015 and 2016 vintages, I give a slight advantage to this wine. The warmer 2015 vintage shows more richness and exuberant fruit. However, this wine from 2016 offers a more focused and chiseled delivery. I am hopeful that this wine will continue to evolve and sharpen as it ages in the bottle. This is a beautiful wine to put aside in your cellar for ten years or more.

Wine Enthusiast (96)

Truffle, camphor violet and ripe berry aromas come together on this fragrant red. Full-bodied and full of flavor, the delicious palate doles out juicy Morello cherry, raspberry compote, baking spice and star anise while firm, refined tannins provide support. Bright acidity keeps it balanced. Drink 2027–2039.

Wine Advocate (95+)

Released only in magnum, the 2008 Brut Millésime de Collection Vieilles Vignes is the same wine as Gimonnet's Special Club, bit it sees more than 10 years sur lattes before disgorgement. Unwinding in the glass with a deep and complex bouquet of pear, green apple, citrus zest, oyster shell, smoke and pastry cream, it's full-bodied, chalky and incisive, with terrific depth at the core, promising reserve and a long, resonant finish.

James Suckling (100)

This is a splendid Brunello, showing extraordinary purity of sangiovese character. Cherry and floral aromas and flavors. Full-bodied with incredibly integrated tannins that seem like they are not there. But they are and are comprehensive on the palate. Great depth and agility. Just floats on the palate. Magic carpet. Drinkable, to enjoy the magic, but needs three or four years to come around.

Vinous (94)

“The 2010 Barbaresco Riserva Vanotu 60th Anniversary Limited Edition is drinking beautifully. Silky and perfumed, the 2010 is now entering its first plateau of maturity. Sweet tobacco, dried flowers, menthol and coffee lend striking aromatic complexity as the 2010 opens in the glass. The 2010 is rich and layered, as all of Giorgio Pelissero's wines are, but time has mellowed some of that exuberance.”

Wine Spectator (96)

A perfumed style, boasting floral, cherry, kirsch and licorice flavors. Slightly chewy, yet elegant overall, with fine balance and a lingering finish of macerated cherry, earth and tobacco notes. Shows fine length and intensity, leaving an essence of mineral. Best from 2021 through 2043. 1,941 cases made.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

Stunning on every level, the 2018 Proprietary Red Wine reveals a dense purple hue as well as an incredible bouquet of crème de cassis, graphite, crushed stone, iron, violets, and tobacco. Reminding me of a hypothetical blend of Ducru Beaucaillou and Pontet Canet from a great, classical vintage (or a more elegant version of the 2013 for simplicity), it's medium to full-bodied, perfectly balanced, powerful yet elegant, and has a finish that won't quit. This is pure gold in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s already drinkable yet will benefit from 4-6 years of bottle age and have 40 years of prime drinking.

James Suckling (99)

This is an extraordinary, hand-crafted Champagne with aromas of strawberries, spice, dried apples, clementines and subtle bread dough. Dried oranges, too. Full-bodied, yet so tight, compact and powerful with a solid core of fruit and a finish that goes on forever. 90% pinot noir and 10% chardonnay, all from the village of Ay and fermented and aged in new wood for 15 months. Then aged in bottle. Superb structure and complexity. One for the cellar.

Vinous (100)

The 2018 Il Caberlot is a stunning wine. It's not the most immediate nor explosive Caberlot, but it is such a tremendous example of this wine. The bouquet alone is mesmerizing. Crushed herbs, rose petal, mint, blood orange, incense and sweet pipe tobacco all build in the glass. Imagine Cheval Blanc, but with a good dose of Tuscan sun. Readers who can find the 2018 should not hesitate, as it is magical. I imagine it will be even better in the commercial magnums than this 750ml tasting sample.

James Suckling (99)

Wow. This is a bold, brassy shiraz that carries a wealth of very intense aromas of ripe blackberries, dark plums, licorice and sweetly spiced earth. Still so very youthful and primary. The palate is so powerful, so mouth-filling and so, so juicy. This manages to deliver such intensity and composure. Supple, long and deep-set tannins and heroically expressive fruit. Really impressive now, but this will deliver much more over the next two decades. One of the finest releases to date.

Tim Atkin MW (96)

South Africa's Sweet Wine of the Year 2017.

Decanter (98)

An historical wine, Vin de Constance has been re-established in the last few years as one of the world’s finest sweet wines. Dried Muscat grapes are aged for three years before bottling, in French and Hungarian casks with a touch of acacia wood. Citrus, orange zest, rosewater and spice notes leap out of the glass. The palate has a laser-like focus with massive sweetness perfectly balanced by acidity and a mineral finish. As impressive as Château d’Yquem (and considerably better value).

Tim Atkin MW (98)

Increasingly celebrated as one of the great sweet wines of the world, not just the Cape, Vin de Constance is a delight to taste and review. Slightly drier than the 205 release at 165 grams of sugar, it has more in common with the Loire or Tokaji than it does with Sauternes in terms of freshness and structure.

Matthew Jukes (19.5++)

I am informed by the top man at Klein Constantia that the price will be the same as last year’s superb 2017 and all of the likely candidates in the UK are likely to hold stock. It will require a little effort on Google and you will see that a large number of wine merchants will list 2018 Vin de Constance and while the prices swing around like no other wine I know, at £60 or so, for a half litre, it certainly makes sense to me and when you consider the sheer quality of this vintage, it is a bargain for this celestial experience. Stock is likely to arrive in September 2021, but do feel free to register your interest with your preferred wine merchant now. Vintage reports suggest that the build-up to the 2018 harvest brought the highest summer rainfall of the last six years and, combined with some of the coldest night-time temperatures on record, the vines were granted a very long and very slow growing season. These conditions have imbued extreme delicacy of perfume and flavour and also staggering concentration and length in this wine. It also means that the 2018 vintage has otherworldly characteristics and I cannot remember a young vintage tasting so refined and demure. Light bunches and tiny Muscat de Frontignan berries underline just how unusual this vintage was and with a harvest that was a fortnight later than average and crops down by about 15% all of these facts make sense when you taste this ethereal wine. Aged for three years in a combination of 50% new French oak barrels, a small number of acacia barrels, as well as large format foudres, this is both a sensual and also sensitive wine. For a start, the colour is incredibly pale – think a young Sancerre! But the viscosity is amazing when you pour a glass because the liquid moves ever so slightly slower and more deliberately into the glass. The lights come on and the brain fires up immediately and it takes you by surprise just how quickly your olfactory system senses that you are in the presence of greatness. I was in a state of heightened anticipation, long before I raised the glass to my lips and the reward is exquisite. The perfume and palate combine in an astral haze of delight with orange blossom, fig, lemon verbena, wild honey and acacia notes caressing your senses. The texture is super-smooth, incredibly long and unnervingly gentle. It certainly possesses the longest finish I can remember on a Vin de Constance and I have, very fortunately, a tasted huge number of vintages of this wine. If you have never tasted this wine before, please start with this vintage – it will blow your mind. If you have and you are a fan, this is a critical purchase for your collection. I cannot wait to add this wine to my cellar later in the year.

Decanter (98)

Butterscotch, lemon patisserie and peach aromas. Pristine quality to the texture, lively and thrilling, this is a serious, opulent and powerful wine, more on the spiced, nuanced side with aspects of dried herbs, wood scents and bitter lemon and orange with a touch of honeyed lychee. It feels supremely complex and characterful. Sophisticated, layered and balanced with some minerality, a slight graphite edge all of which adds to the whole. It's still extremely youthful but there is real sculpting here, a sense of precision, style and freshness. Well crafted with an extremely long life ahead. A wonder, and one of the best from the estate!

James Suckling (100)

The much-anticipated 2002 has impeccable detail and depth with a lot of chalky, stony and flinty elements on the nose as well as a very fresh edge. The nose is very complex and wound up tight but presents itself as very integrated and compressed. There are aromas of lemon rind, lime juice and a lime custard all at once, complemented in turn by a super-restrained hazelnut-like edge. Undertones of brown mushrooms, chalky minerals and lemon leaf. The palate has a core of sizzlingly intense, concentrated chardonnay framed whitin a powerful phenolic structure that will underpin the future of this Champagne. Flawlessly fresh and as perfect as it gets. Give this time as it needs to settle: best from 2020 and then for another decade beyond.

Jeb Dunnuck (100)

The 2019 Château La Mission Haut-Brion is Merlot-dominated, checking in as 53% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc. It's a more opulent wine compared to Haut-Brion, and the Merlot is front and center here, with ripe, sexy black cherry and redcurrant fruits as well as licorice, scorched earth, cedar pencil, and graphite aromas and flavors. Rich, exuberant, and straight up sexy on the palate, it's full-bodied, has a deep, layered mid-palate, building tannins, and a heavenly finish. Just a prodigious, powerful, off-the-charts expression of this terroir, it actually reminds me slightly of the 2005 (or 1998?) with its mix of sexiness and opulence. This is one of the few 2019s that will make your eyes roll back in your head. It will need 10-15 years of cellaring, but it’s a sensational wine on every level and will have 40+ years of prime drinking.

The Wine Independent (100)

The 2018 Lafite Rothschild is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs a little swirling to unlock notes of baked plums, boysenberry preserves, and crème de cassis, with touches of menthol, Indian spices and smoked meats. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers mouth-filling, spicy black fruits with velvety tannins and a long, energetic finish.

James Suckling (99)

So much violets, licorice, pencil, flowers and currants define this on the nose before it moves to fresh mushrooms. It’s full-bodied yet compacted with tension and a compressed center palate. Incredible, fine-grained tannins and energy. The length is truly great. Should be even more beautiful in 2024. Give it time.

Kerin O'Keefe (99)

Le Chiuse 2018 Brunello di Montalcino is fragrant, radiant and practically bursting with finesse. Made with organically grown grapes, this is an absolute stunner, offering enticing scents of woodland berry, forest floor, blue flower, eucalyptus and culinary spice. It’s energized and linear, delivering delicious layers of flavor including juicy red cherry, cinnamon, black tea and blood orange accompanied by taut, extremely refined tannins and vibrant acidity. Already showing beautifully, it also has the intensity and radiance to age well for 20 years or more.

Vinous (96)

The 2016 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Aluigi Campo ai Peri is fabulous. Bright, vibrant and intensely aromatic, the 2016 is total seduction right out of the glass. Intense floral/spiced aromatics, red/purplish berry fruit, spice, tobacco and mocha all race out of the glass in a wine that brilliantly marries power with finesse. The Aluigi is a Gran Selezione for the first time in 2016. It's quite simply one of the finest wines I have tasted from Le Cinciole.

Vinous (98)

The 2017 Petresco is a stunning, utterly captivating wine. In a vintage that produced so many rich, opulent reds, Petresco is vertical in build and endowed with tremendous energy. Black cherry, spice, leather, tobacco, licorice and dried flowers open with a bit of coaxing. All the elements are so well balanced. The purity of the fruit is breathtaking. What a wine!