Search results for: 'new gritty is good'

The grapes for this delicious Zweigelt are sustainably farmed from vineyards located in the dry, hot region Seewinkel region of Neusiedlersee. The soils are also quite dry and gritty full of minerals which are imparted to this refined wine made by Pepi Umathum and Domaine Andau working in tandem at their green, solar and wind powered winery. An incredibly deep red color with a nose of fresh plums and dark berries and hints of black pepper. Lovely weight balanced by acidity and a long juicy finish.

Producer: Pokeno Origin celebrates our unique place in the world. Produced from the finest local barley, and unrushed through fermentation and distillation to enhance body and flavour, we mature it only in first fill bourbon casks. It is an incredibly sweet and round whisky, with beautiful citrus, honey, grapefruit and creamy toffee notes, giving way to a complex and lingering finish.

Producer: Pokeno Discovery celebrates our unique place in the world. First we carefully select and blend parcels of stock which have been fully matured in first fill bourbon, Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez Casks. We then lay these back down in cask to allow them to marry perfectly together. It is a rich and complex whisky, with beautiful notes of dark chocolate, black forest gateau, ripe cherries and sweet citrus, giving way to a rich, smooth and incredibly long finish.

97 Points! The 2021 Sauvage Vineyard Pinot Noir is supremely pretty. It's elegant and fine and still powerful, thanks to the Bannockburn area; however, the wine itself shows rose petals and spring flowers, graphite and pencil lead, white pepper and tapenade. Svelte and sleek, this is composed and detailed and so, so good. I am (mostly) resisting hyperbole and adverbs here. This is a standout wine from a superstar producer—an asset for the region and indeed the country (and the New World in general). 13.5% alcohol, sealed under natural cork. - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

96 Points! Aromas of dark berries, ash, tar, blackcurrants and lead pencil, following through to a medium to full body, with firm and integrated tannins and a medium, chewy finish. Needs four to six years to soften and come together. Very tight and nicely structured. Try in 2027 and onwards. - James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

97+ Points! The flagship from this great château, the 2020 Château Léoville Barton checks in as 85.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 14.5% Merlot that saw 60% new French oak. It has fabulous aromatics of crème de cassis, graphite, liquid violets, spring flowers, and background oak. Full-bodied and concentrated on the palate, its purity of fruit is just about off the chart, it has a great mid-palate, and enough tannins to warrant 7-8 years of bottle age. This is another sensational wine from this team that will have 30-40 years of overall longevity. - Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com

Good news: you haven’t traveled back to the ‘90s. Better news: the Espresso Martini is back. Ours is strong and smooth, with a hint of vanilla. It boasts a delicious complexity from our coffee pals at Counter Culture. This is a drink that keeps the party going—or starts one from scratch.

Tasting Notes: Roasted Coffee, Vanilla Bean, Rich and Smooth

92 Points! The 2024 Village Chardonnay had just been freshly bottled when I tasted it at the estate in Kumeu in March 2025. The other 2024 Chardonnays were tasted as tank samples prior to filtration and bottling soon. The wine leads with yellow citrus and crushed shells. It is texturally fine, sleek and tightly coiled around a core of salty acidity. It is complex but composed and very good. "2024 was a fantastic year, just very small," says Paul Brajkovich. "Weather during flowering wasn't good in spring in 2023," says Michael Brajkovich. "Ripening in 2024 was excellent, so we have a 40% down in yield but very high quality. The Village wine is a blend of Kumeu and Hawke's Bay [and is] a mixture of barrel and tank fermentation." - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

97 Points! Beau-Sejour Becot is a dense, powerful wine. A rush of black cherry, plum, chocolate, new leather, licorice, spice and sweet oak builds as this towering, vertically explosive Saint-Émilion opens in the glass. This is an especially broad, expansive Saint-Émilion, much of that attributable to the clay in these soils. The 2020 is magnificent in its intensity and overall volume. Superb. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media Learn More

95 Points! Slightly more expensive, the single vineyard 2018 Pinot Noir Platt Vineyard spent 17 months in 20% new barrels. It's a bigger wine, with a touch more mid-palate density and depth, yet it still has plenty of underlying structure and tannic grip, offering up lots of redcurrant and darker cherry fruit as well as curing spices, smoke, and foresty, earthy notes. Give this rocking effort 2-4 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following decade or more. This beauty strikes a good balance between Old World and New World. - Jeb Dunnuck

93 Points! The 2022 Silver Label now shows the name on the label (and also "Etiqueta Plateada" in Spanish). It's their first wine in their new era, which started in 2002, a wine that aims to promote the quality and potential of Monastrell. It matured in new and second-use French oak barrels for one year, but they were looking for lower toast and less impact of the wood in the wine than earlier vintages when it was 100% new oak. It has a paler color and a subtler and more floral nose, keeping the poise and showing surprisingly fresh for the conditions of the year. It's ripe, reflecting the warm and dry weather, with 15% alcohol but very good freshness, coming through as balanced and harmonious, clean and pure. This is a bargain and a success for the year, a champion in drinkability. Bravo! - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

Kings County Distillery's Straight Bourbon is crafted using a high-malt recipe, double pot distilled, and aged in new charred oak barrels. This approach results in a bourbon with rich flavors and a robust character, frequently cited among the best craft bourbons.​

Nose: Soft fruity notes of citrus oil and pear, complemented by cinnamon and butterscotch.

Palate: Alcohol-forward with wood spice, vanilla, and an underlying note of banoffee pie.

Finish: Woody tannins provide a slightly bitter, spiced finish

Le Moné is a modern aperitif crafted in the Finger Lakes of New York, blending wine with botanicals and citrus for a bright and refreshing style. This expression highlights the unique character of Meyer lemon, prized for its balance of sweetness and acidity.

Tasting Note:
Fresh citrus blossoms and zesty lemon peel rise from the glass. The palate is lively and refreshing, with juicy Meyer lemon, gentle herbal undertones, and a subtle touch of honey. The finish is crisp, clean, and slightly mouthwatering, perfect for spritzes or light cocktails.

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

McKenzie Straight Rye Whiskey is a robust, small-batch spirit crafted by Finger Lakes Distilling in upstate New York. Made with a mash bill of locally sourced rye, it delivers bold, spicy notes of black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg, balanced by hints of caramel, vanilla, and oak from aging in American charred barrels. Finger Lakes Distilling is known for its dedication to traditional methods, including grain-to-glass production and the use of pot stills, ensuring every bottle captures the essence of handcrafted, high-quality whiskey.

96 Points! The 2024 Otira Glacial Stones Sauvignon Blanc is just such a fantastic wine. I love it every year. Mineral tension, poise and elongated shape are the hallmarks of this wine. The wine has a smell of fresh sheets, crisp, crushed shells, white spice and ocean air. I appreciate the length and stretch of this wine—it fully extends and lingers, and there is a textural pulsing and undulation. It is truly excellent. 2024 was a warm vintage and produced wines of amplitude and volume, yet here the terroir has compressed the fruit into its own shape. So, with the coupling of the season and the terroir, we have this. It's a triumph among triumphs. The numbers of this wine are mad/impressive to behold: very low pH (2.97), a good level of total acidity (6.5) and 14% alcohol. Years of high-density planting and organic management (since 2010, certified 2013) in this place has enabled a wine of balance to achieve these numbers. - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

92 Points! The new young red 2021 El Predilecto recovers Predilecto, which was a historic brand of the house, a wine with less aging than the rest and more fruity character. In this case, they want it to show the fruit expression of the vineyard without oak. They call it the new old concept in Rioja, what the wines used to be before the arrival of the French, pure fruit. It's a blend of 65% Garnacha from Cárdenas and Cordovín and 35% Tempranillo from Samaniego that fermented destemmed but uncrushed (so not exactly a carbonic maceration) with clean and fresh aromas and flavors. It's ripe and hedonistic, with 14.5% alcohol and good freshness. It matured in concrete for five months. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! The 2021 Chianti Classico is a powerful wine. Dark, layered and beguiling, the 2021 has so much to offer. Macerated black cherry, licorice, new leather, cloves, incense and blood orange build as the 2021 opens in the glass. This is a very serious, hugely overachieving Chianti Classico from proprietor Paolo Cianteroni. 

Proprietor Paolo Cianferoni releases his wines a bit later than most. The 2021s are worth the wait. Readers will find Chianti Classicos of uncommon depth and character, starting with the Annata, which is ridiculously good. Caparsa remains one of the Chianti Classicos under-the- radar gems, a small estate known only to relatively small subset of wine lovers. These new releases are nothing short of captivating. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

93 Points! Made by a man who understands Pinotage better than anyone, Abrie Beeslaar’s red is good to drink now but will also develop in bottle. Comfortably handling its 80% new wood, it has notes of Asian spices and toast, succulent blackberry and cherry fruit, refreshing acidity and a stony, mineral core. - Tim Atkin, MW