Search results for: 'need to know'

From the winery: Nebbiolo is the queen of Piedmontese reds — and El Dolfo is our humble tribute. Grown in Barge, where clay and calm light give finesse, this Nebbiolo ripens gently, preserving its fine aromas and taut structure. It’s a wine that knows restraint, but never lacks expression.

97 Points! The 2020 Pinot Noir Angel Flower is a soulful, complex wine that you don't really want to pick apart. Compared with the Pinot Noir Earth Smoke, which hails from the same small estate, it's not as obvious and takes longer to get to know. It's harmonious, round and calming, sitting comfortably in the mouth like a good friend visiting. It's my job to deconstruct wines, but I feel that to do so would be to destroy them. Pure, elegant, and quiet with a confident but unobtrusive line of acidity and airy-light chalky tannins that envelop the mouth. Rich intensity of sweet strawberry, fruit, fennel, thyme and smoky characters without any sense of heaviness. Initially, you might prefer Earth Smoke for its immediate aromatics, but I'd prefer to spend time with Angel Flower getting to know it. Over three days, I tried to get to the bottom of it but soon realized that might take years. - Rebecca Gibb, MW, Vinous Media

The set is wrapped up in the perfect packaging to check off many on your holiday gift giving list. So easy you don’t even have to think twice. You may need to grab a couple for your fridge while you’re at it.

Straightaway is Portland, Oregon made, by a couple of cocktail enthusiasts who started batching cocktails for family and friends that became so popular they decided to make them for everyone. They make from scratch all the syrups and bitters in house and juice fresh lemons and limes instead of using concentrate or artificial flavorings like some of their competitors. They are perfectly balanced and never too sweet, which is often our biggest complaint in the category. There are 6 different drinks in the set, some are popular classics, and some are lesser known modern classics that are fawned over by cocktail nerds.

Contains 6 - 50ml Ready-to-drink cocktail bottles.

A picture-perfect example of the elegant complexity and aromatic intensity of the best of Vosne. Here the Vigots combine fruit from two plots, ‘La Colombière,’ near the heart of the village and planted in 1979/1980, and ‘La Croix Blanche,’ at the border with Nuits, planted in 1947/1948. (Know that Mugneret-Gibourg’s Vosne villages sources fruit from these same vineyards!) Silky, refined, sublime.

95 Points! You know, when you drink the Freedom 1843, I think you want the concentration and intensity dialed up to 11. They're very old vines. Well, good news: It is. This 2019 The Freedom 1843 Shiraz is luscious and plush but not overdone; the intensity has been pushed right out and accelerated but harnessed at the same time. The wine is complete, pleasurable and harmonious. Excellent. Very big, but excellent. - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

96 Points! The 2020 Pinot Noir Earth Smoke is a massively different wine from its stablemate Angel Flower, giving a more expansive wine that blossoms in the mouth without any sense of weight. There's elegance and sense of precision. And do you know what? It feels special. If I were tasting blind, aromatically, I'd think … sandalwood, fennel, agave and white pepper characters in abundance alongside pure cherry fruit. The finish is fresh and precise. - Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous

96 Points! The 2020 Pinot Noir Earth Smoke is a massively different wine from its stablemate Angel Flower, giving a more expansive wine that blossoms in the mouth without any sense of weight. There's elegance and sense of precision. And do you know what? It feels special. If I were tasting blind, aromatically, I'd think it were a cool climate Syrah with sandalwood, fennel, agave and white pepper characters in abundance alongside pure cherry fruit. The finish is fresh and precise. - Rebecca Gibb, MW, Vinous Media

A GREAT WAY TO SAMPLE SONOMA DISTILLING CO. BOURBON, RYE & CHERRYWOOD WHISKEYS. THE KIT ALSO MAKES A GREAT GIFT FOR THAT WHISKEY LOVER YOU KNOW.

From the producer: Sonoma Whiskey is craft to its core, made from grain to glass entirely in-house using select California grains and small batch double pot distillation in a copper Scottish still. This is a very old world approach to making whiskey. It’s less efficient, but as artisans we are deeply inspired by the food and wine of Sonoma County, committed to the craft of bringing you wonderful whiskey, even if we are doing it the hard way.

92 Points! The eponymous 2024 Artuke is a juicy and tasty carbonic maceration red, a modern rendition of the classical "cosechero" wines. It is perfumed, aromatic and heady, with aromas of bubble gum and flowers and a velvety palate with almost unnoticeable tannins. It's a young and unoaked Tempranillo with some 5% white Viura grapes from the village of Baños de Ebro and was kept in concrete until it was bottled...This is a bargain to buy by the truckload and drink unashamedly. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

Limit 1

A special, limited edition release honoring Dia de Los Muertos with 5,000 hand-numbered bottles of uniquely made tequila presented in specially made coffin boxes with three unique combinations of badges on their tops.

G4 is crafted using enhanced traditional methods, and Felipe knows that the fermentation process is where the magic happens, de Madera is fully fermented in new Pine Wood tanks vs. steel. This imparts a great deal of unique flavors into the tequila. Add to the wood-fermentation the use of well water in this expression and seven months of aging in G4's nearly ancient George Dickel American whiskey barrels. The layers of complexity in this G4 are entirely unique and highly complex.

96 Points! The 2021 Descendant is often termed as the "Baby Runrig," which, as we all know, is a bit of a myopic way to view things, but it gets the point across. This is Shiraz fermented on Viognier skins (8% by weight, no liquid) and decidedly floral on the nose, with marmalade and orange peel, pink peppercorns and blood plums. The wine is dense and velvety, with loads of tannin; the Viognier, while contributing floral aromatics, textural silk and flow, also contributes tannin, and it is felt here. There is no new oak, which helps with the tannin expression and core of red and purple fruit. The signature Barossan red dirt and ironstone show through the finish. It's really good! Excellent wine.- Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

93-94 Points! Apples and pears with stony minerality to it. Medium- to full-bodied with a polished, lightly phenolic finish. Attractive and lengthy. - James Suckling

92 Points! This has a nice lively quinine note running underneath lemon gelée, white peach and star fruit flavors. The finish glistens nicely, gilded with salted butter and verbena. Delicious. Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Drink now through 2028. - Wine Spectator

91 Points! The 2022 Château Cantelys Blanc is a classic, juicy white with revealing notes of lemon, pineapple, and minty flowers. Medium-bodied, round, and supple on the palate, it has nicely integrated acidity and a clean, refreshing finish. You wouldn’t know it was from hot, dry year by tasting it! Drink bottles over the coming 7-8 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

100 Points! The 2018 Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a rock star of a wine and is based on a unique blend of 37% Cabernet Franc, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 29% Merlot that was brought up in 80% new French oak. Offering a deep ruby/purple color as well as a thrilling bouquet of blackcurrants, smoked tobacco, chocolate, violets, damp earth, and truffle, it hits the palate with a full-bodied yet almost understated, building style that carries ripe, supple tannins, gorgeous amounts of smoky black fruits, and an endearing, layered, multi-dimensional texture that keeps you coming back to the glass. A dead ringer for a great vintage of Haut-Brion, it is far from unapproachable today yet needs 7-8 years of bottle age for the fireworks to develop and will have 50-years or more of longevity! Hats off to Guillaume Pouthier for a magical, seamless, singular beauty! - Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com

98 Points!  Even without knowing any of the story behind the bottle, you would be hard-pressed to pass this wine by. It has obvious intensity but as you sit with it the softness and approachability of the tannins becomes apparent, helped by the inviting floral edge to the nose, adding peony and violet lift. The black fruits running through the palate are tight but silky and seductive - this has a higher Cab count than usual because the Merlots were more affected by the challenges of the vintage. The palate pulses, switching between richness and delicacy, feeling expertly handled. You get the feeling that you can relax - they've got everything covered! It will inevitably close down in a few years, but until then you could almost go for it with a good carafe. - Decanter

The 2016 Tertio de Montrose Saint-Estephe is aged for 12 months in 15% new barrels. During the maturing process the wine is racked every three months. The 2016 vintage as you know is a great vintage and when tasting the Tertio de Montrose, Kyle and I were amazed at just how well this wine conveys Montrose’s illustrious terroir.  A blend of 61% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot and 2% Cabernet Franc, the wine sees all the top-notch treatment the Grand Vin gets. It’s opulent and markedly textured, it shares more in common with a flamboyant, exuberant year such as 2009 or 2015 than most 2016’s. Dense purple, its loads of blackberry and blueberry fruit, truffles, silky tannins and a sumptuous mouthfeel and terrific long finish.  

This is 100% Grenache from 50-year-old vines planted in black schist and marl soils. The grapes are harvested by hand, the yield is a very low 23 hl/ha, and the wines are fermented under temperature-controlled conditions. Think about what you’d pay for some California vintner’s ‘limited’ Grenache (probably $30-40) and realize that this refined little gem sells for less than $20. Aged for 12 months in concrete, there’s a rich mouthfeel but sense of precision and purity to the mineral-laced cherry fruit, rose petal and earth tones. Round texture, loads of personality and complexity for this kind of price, the 2020 was a Wine Advocate 93 (this 2021 just arrived and is as yet unreviewed) so you know we are talking serious juice at a not so serious price.

A ridiculously good value-priced blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from the Gamble Family Estate in the heart of the Napa Valley!

The (Gamble Family) Mill Keeper White Wine Napa Valley 2021 is a blend of fresh, lively Sauvignon Blanc and round, fruity Chardonnay. As some of you may recall from these pages before, the Gamble Family Sauvignon Blanc is one of the best in the valley. But did you know that Gamble’s Chardonnay fruit is the foundation of the Beringer Reserve Chardonnay program? Crazy, right?

Together, that blend of 70% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Chardonnay aged in 21% new French Oak for 10 months delivers an easier, rounder hypothetical mash-up of those two wines. The Sauvignon gives vibrancy and focus, and the Chardonnay provides an ample middle. What a ‘white wine’ for the money!

100 Points! The 2016 Pavie a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cabernet Franc. Very deep purple-black in color, it needs a little coaxing to begin, slowly unfurling to reveal a fragrant perfume of violets, chocolate-covered cherries, crushed blueberries and eucalyptus over a core of preserved plums, kirsch, black raspberries and crème de cassis plus hints of licorice and chargrilled meat. Full-bodied and built like a brick house, it has a solid foundation of firm, super ripe, grainy tannins and seamless freshness interknit with the black fruit preserves and minerally layers, finishing very long and very decadent. Superb! - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

100 Points! Spectacular aromas of crushed berries, such as blueberries and raspberries. Fresh flowers with hints of sandalwood. Exotic. Saturated palate of so much fruit, yet remains agile and energetic. Great length and texture. Fills your mouth. This needs time, but a classic. Twin brother of the perfect 2015. - James Suckling

92 Points! The Klein Constantia 2023 Constantia Sauvignon Blanc is extremely linear and sharp with a mineral quality the persists throughout. Winemaker Matthew Day says it took him a long while to understand what the soils mean to this wine. He works with ancient decomposed granite and reddish sandstone from Table Mountain and along the riverbeds. With 42 blocks to choose fruit from, the blending possibilities are enormous. He can pinpoint the best blocks each year. He starts blending after the wine has seen six months in tank, but he wants to extend that to nine months. A salty marine theme is dominant, but the wine also offers white fruits and light floral nuances. A tiny part of declassified wine from oak may work its way into this blend, but you would never know. If you enjoy Sauvignon Blanc, as I do, I enthusiastically direct your attention here. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

93-94 Points! Tasted just before bottling, so a sample of the final blend, the 2023 PSI is juicy, ripe and approachable. It is a little showier and headier, despite having similar alcohol to the bottled 2022 (perhaps a tad higher, but not quite reaching 14%), and it feels a little riper, with peachy notes and some decayed flowers. It has abundant tannins and feels like it's in need of some more time in bottle. This is usually the case for PSI: the tannins need time. They are resolved quite quickly, but it does need a bit of time. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com