Search results for: 'plot de 30'

94 Points! The 2004 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is showing beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of rich dark berry fruit, cigar wrapper and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with velvety tannins and a seamless, charming profile, it is really beginning to drink with some style. It's one of the wines of the vintage and continues to represent terrific value. - William Kelley, robertparker.com, 2022

94 Points! The 2019 Château Carbonnieux sports a deep purple/ruby hue to go with a brilliant nose of red and black currants, spring flowers, spicy oak, and hints of tobacco. It's beautiful on the palate as well and is medium to full-bodied, has a seamless, elegant texture, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's the finest wine I've tasted from this estate. The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, all brought up in 40% new barrels. It’s well worth tracking down some bottles and will keep for two decades. - Jeb Dunnuck

94 Points! I am so pleased that the 2019 Carbonnieux has retained the engaging aromatics that I found from the barrel sample: copious blackberry, raspberry, incense and light violet aromas soar from the glass. The palate is very well balanced with fine-grained tannins, and much more precise than recent vintages, leading to a harmonious, silky-smooth, almost tender finish. More polished than recent vintages, this Carbonnieux comes highly recommended.- Neal Martin, Vinous Media

98–100 Points – Wine Advocate (William Kelley)
“A blend of 51% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Franc and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2025 Château Cheval Blanc stands out once again as among the finest wines of the vintage in Bordeaux. Full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with terrific mid-palate density, sweet tannins and a long, vibrant, violet-inflected finish.”

98–100 Points – Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider
“Purple in hue, the wine explodes with an array of flowers, smoky truffles, black plums, black cherries, blue fruits, orange rind, tobacco leaf, licorice, and chocolate in the perfume. The palate perfectly balances hedonistic tendencies with a touch of restraint. There is length, intensity, opulence, and lift with seamless silk and velvet tannins throughout the extensive finish.”

97-99 Points – Antonio Galloni, Vinous
“The 2025 Cheval Blanc is seamless and textured. A wine of mystery and seduction, the 2025 dazzles. Sage, mint, lavender, cloves and cool blue-toned fruit all build in the glass. More intellectual than exuberant, this is a Cheval Blanc that will require years in bottle to fully reveal itself.”

96 Points – Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux
“Of all the wines I tasted in the 2025 En Primeur season, this is the one that I have thought about the most. Deep plum colour, intense, slate, graphite, carved tannins, campfire, chamomile, bitter chocolate, cassis, mint leaf and crushed rocks. Stunning and impressive with extraordinary ageing potential.”

96 Points – Georgina Hindle, Decanter
“One of the lowest yields of Cheval Blanc ever at just 15hl/ha with no Petit Cheval made this year. Supple and fleshy, round and enveloping yet softly chalky. Generous yet reined in, glossy, bright with lovely acidity. Complex, charming, soft, pretty and delicious without trying too hard.”

95–97 Points – Neal Martin, Vinous
“The 2025 Cheval Blanc includes all 47 plots on the estate except one that was sold off. Blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry and blueberry fruit mingle with tobacco and graphite. Medium-bodied with sapid red berry fruit and a structured, vertical finish driven by Cabernet Franc. An uncompromising Cheval Blanc that will require patience.”

98 Points! Starting out, the 2017 Tychson Hill is gorgeous, revealing a saturated purple color as well as a sweet bouquet of blackcurrants, ground herbs, chocolate, toasted bread, and subtle yet high class oak. Full-bodied, beautifully textured, and flawlessly balanced on the palate, it has silky tannins, a stacked mid-palate, and a big finish. This is a backward, primordial beauty that’s going to need 4-5 years of bottle age yet shine for 30 years or more. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 Points! The berries at Tychson Hill vineyard were very small in 2017. “This wine totally required baby steps with the extraction,” said winemaker Allison Tauziet. Very deep purple-black in color, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Tychson Hill Vineyard leaps from the glass with vibrant black cherries, warm blackberries and blackcurrant scents with hints of violets, dark chocolate, lavender and camphor plus a fragrant waft of rose hip tea. Medium to full-bodied, the structure is taut, restraining all the tightly packed, energetic black fruit layers, with a wonderfully fine-grained texture and bags of freshness, finishing long and mineral laced. Still very tightly wound, this one needs time, but it should handsomely reward patience. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, robertparker.com

Matthias Planchon is a talented and determined young winemaker, representing an old line of winemakers in Sancerre. He broke with the family tradition of selling his grapes to negociants or taking them to the Cave Cooperative in Sancerre. He took over the domaine in 2014 and, until 2018, collaborated with Alphonse Mellot by selling him his grapes. Alphonse Mellot confirmed his decision to work with organic and even biodynamic viticulture. The vines are located in Sancerre, with the superb limestone terroir of “Le Paradis” adjacent to the domaine's cellar. In total, the domaine covers 5.5 hectares, part of which is still sold to negoce Alphonse Mellot, leaving only 4,000 bottles of whites and 600 of reds bottled under the domaine's name. The white wines are bright, pure and intense in flavor, and after decanting reveal a rare saltiness and mineral-articulated length on the palate. These are wines built with a vertebrate column, the result of a huge amount of work in the vines to match the vines to the rock. Le Paradis brings the generosity of limestone, embraces the contours of the mouth and unfolds in length. Matthias vinifies 30% of the grapes in barrels of 500-600L, the rest in stainless steel.

From the importer: Made of a blend of Nero d’Avola (Frappato 45%, Nero d’Avola 55%), estate-grown in vineyards near Chiaramonte Gulfi, in the Contradas Ponte, Biviere e Fegotto. The soils are a calcareous mixture of clay and sand, at just under 300 meters (1,000 feet) above sea level. The grapes are picked at moderate ripeness (with care to avoid over-ripeness, in other words, in this hot climate) around mid-October; fermentation is carried out with indigenous yeasts, and maceration with the skins lasts for about 3 weeks. After fermentation the wine is aged on the lees in the tank for a further 2 weeks, then racked and aged in a tank for 18 months. 

Nero d’Avola is the best-known Sicilian red wine grape when bottled on its own, but for my money, this blend is better. The Frappato lightens and lifts the meatiness of the Nero d’Avola, giving it juicier aromas and flavors and making it MORE DELICIOUS. See note above about temperature; stick the bottle in the fridge for 30 minutes for best results. Drink with red meats or more substantial pasta dishes. I bet this will age well, but I doubt I’ll have any left to find out.

97 Points! Like a stallion out of the gate, this shows an initial explosion of power, in the form of mouthwatering flavors and fine texture, before quickly settling into an elegant gait. The racy acidity is seamlessly knit, buoying the lacy mousse and flavors of cassis, toasted brioche and tangerine, with accents of candied ginger, hazelnut and fleur de sel lingering on the long, creamy finish. Drink now through 2035. - Wine Spectator

94 Points! Another ripe, sexy, exuberant Gigondas, the 2022 Gigondas Vieilles Vignes reveals a vibrant ruby/purple hue as well as youthful aromatics of black raspberries, sandalwood, ground pepper, and herbes de Provence-like nuances. This sunny, medium to full-bodied 2022 has sweet tannins, a supple, elegant mouthfeel, and a great finish. It's a beautiful wine in the vintage that I suspect will drink nicely over the coming decade. - Jeb Dunnuck

From the village of Santa Ana del Rio in Oaxaca, La Tierra de Acre Mezcal Espadín is made from seven-to-eight year old Agave Angustifolia and milled using the Tahona method. Espadín has a medium nose with floral notes as well as hints of smoked agave, pineapple, and lime. It is slightly spicy in the beginning, and light on the finish. The Espadín includes a bit of sweetness due to the maturity and slow cooking of the agave.

97+ Points! Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Missouri Hopper is a little youthfully mute to begin, slowly revealing evocative crème de cassis, blueberry pie, chocolate box and black tea notes with nuances of forest floor, wild sage and crushed rocks. Full-bodied and packed to the gills with black fruits and earthy layers, it has a firm, grainy frame and just enough freshness, finishing with epic persistence. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, robertparker.com

Les Lavières is situated east of the village of Savigny-lès-Beaune right in the middle of the hillside. The vines, from Michel's mother's side, came to the estate in the 1940s after the marriage of his parents.

Grapes were mostly de-stemmed and fermented in cement tank with native yeast. Following fermentation, the wine was transferred to barrels for malolactic fermentation and aging about 10 months in oak pièces (10-25% new barrels).

94+ Points! The 2020 Crozes-Hermitage Le Clos is tighter and more focused, with a more blue-fruited perfume of cassis, graphite, violets, and peppered meat-like aromas and flavors. The polar opposite of the broad, ripe, sexy Domaine des Grands Chemins, this stays focused and inwards on the palate, with ripe, polished tannins, beautiful balance, and outstanding length. Hide this for 4-5 years and it's going to drink brilliantly over the following 10-15. - Jeb Dunnuck

Blend of six different parcels from a selection of old vines. Some vineyards are in the hills – Vireuils and Meix Chavaux – and contribute freshness and tension, others at bottom of hills just under the 1er crus – Marcausses, Vignes Blanches and Pellans – contribute body, and the parcel of Millerands rests on gravel and gives finesse. Vines are trained 1/3 Cordon de Royat and 2/3 Guyot. Pneumatic pressing and static settling. Aged in barrels with 20% new wood.

La Escribana is a vino de pasto from the Pérez family’s holdings in the famed Macharnudo vineyard (La Escribana & San Cayetano). After a green harvest in early August to reduce production and provide a small amount of “green wine” for distillation or adjusting the acidity of the final wine, La Escribana is picked in late August and pressed into stainless-steel tanks for fermentation. It sees a year of biologic aging in 80-year-old botas before bottling.

Les Deux Tours is produced by Baron Patrick de Ladoucette in the Loire Valley on soils that are mainly limestone with some parcels of flint clay. Patrick is sometimes referred to as "The King of the Loire Valley" for his contribution to the worldwide recognition and acclaim of this appellation. Les Deux Tours wines originate from a terroir that is known as the “Valley of the Kings,” which is located along the Loire River, the longest waterway in France.

95+ Points! The 2010 Les Pavots (3,000 cases produced) is composed of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc, 14% Merlot and 2% Petit Verdot. More backward and firmer than the 2009, it exhibits copious notes of chocolate fudge, creme de cassis, blackberry liqueur, graphite and licorice as well as stunning concentration, full body, perfect balance and a massive personality. Still unevolved, it will benefit from several more years of bottle age, and should keep for three decades. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com

A bouquet of ripe black and red fruits, the wine palate is full-bodied. It has a soft attack, but the sharp tannins that are drawn out in the aftertaste give it a perfect balance of “fullness and freshness.” This is a gourmet wine that maintains its presence when accompanying a spicy meal and also complements the most delicate of dishes.

Mourvèdre (15%), Syrah (25%), Grenache (60%) De-stemmed harvest, classic vinification with mid-fermentation pigeage and temperature-controlled fermentation (12 days).

From the importer: The Neveu family is fortunate to own land in the Clos des Bouffants, an unusually steep parcel with a very poor, thin soil composed of rocky limestone. Facing due south, the Sauvignon here receives generous sunshine to produce an ample, concentrated wine.

True to its terroir, it possesses striking nerve and minerality that underscore the mouthfilling citrus flavors. This is serious Sancerre made by a family whose roots in the region date back to the twelfth century.

Domaine Albert Joly, Puligny Montrachet Vieilles Vignes. This wine is made annually from a blend of older parcels located on the left side of the Rue de Poiseul on the way up towards Saint Aubin. The grapes are hand-picked and gently pressed, the wines are spontaneously fermented on small Burgundy pieces followed by 12 months of maturation, of the house's bottlings this is the most classic, steely Chardonnay with dense stone fruit, mineral notes and a streak of cask spices.

93 Points! The appellation blend from this notable estate, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley checks in as 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc. Deep purple-hued, it offers beautifully pure aromatics of crème de cassis, graphite, crushed stone and violets. I love its overall purity, it's medium to full-bodied, has a layered, fresh, focused mouthfeel, and enough tannins to keep it drinking nicely for 10-15 years if well stored. - Jeb Dunnuck