Search results for: 'mostly a one plot'

97 Points! The 2011 Pluribus is absolutely magnificent. It represents a synthesis of the preceding wines in the range, marrying the freshness of the Melbury with the greater textural resonance found in the other Cabernets. This site, which is at elevation on Spring Mountain, benefitted from more favorable conditions than vineyards on the valley floor. The result is a distinctive, potent Cabernet Sauvignon that is has aged impeccably and is in the zone today. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media, 2021

92 Points! This is absolutely ready to drink now, showing some lovely perfume that runs through the extremely well balanced palate. It's one of the few that was hard to spit out because the juice grabs you right from the first attack, but it's not in any way a blockbuster. Enjoy this with simple food, don't crowd the flavours, as this is delicacy personified. A great second wine for lovers of gentle elegance, this tiptoes along nicely. - Decanter Magazine, 2017

95–97 Points – Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider
“Flowers, mint, black cherries, forest leaves, and licorice are at play in the aromatic profile. The palate is vibrant, expressive, and mineral-driven. The wine has freshness, length, and complexity. The finish packs in herbs, pepper, cherries, plums, and chocolate with a refreshing, minty edge on the backend.”

94–96 Points – Jeb Dunnuck
“Deep purple-hued with a beautiful limestone character, the 2025 Château Poesia reveals plums, black raspberries, and liquid violet nuances on the nose. Medium to full-bodied, with a deep, layered, pure mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. Another incredibly complete, balanced, satisfying Saint-Emilion.”

94–96 Points – The Wine Independent (Lisa Perrotti-Brown)
“The 2025 Poesia springs from the glass with vibrant notes of blueberries, fresh blackberries, and ripe plums, followed by hints of lilacs, bergamot, and fertile loam. The medium-bodied palate is light on its feet and refreshing with fine-grained tannins and intense blue and black fruit layers, finishing long and chalky.”

94–96 Points – Antonio Galloni, Vinous
“The 2025 Poesia is stellar. Limestone soils on a cooler terroir, along with a higher presence of Cabernet Franc, yield a Saint-Émilion that blends richness and saline-infused energy. Dark red/purplish fruit, rose petal, crushed rocks, sage and mint race across the palate.”

98 Points! Wild blackberry, cassis, dark chocolate, tobacco and dark spice on the nose. Dried violets, too. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm, powdery tannins and a creamy texture. Intense, yet restrained and refined, with a solid core of dark berries and bitter chocolate. Really focused and crafted with exemplary Napa cabernet character. Try from 2024. - JamesSuckling.com

97 Points! The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve is based on 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, brought up in 90% new French oak. It’s a beautiful wine that shows the vintage’s pure, elegant, yet concentrated style perfectly. Gorgeous crème de cassis, violets, blueberries, and cedar pencil notes emerge from the glass, and this beauty builds incrementally on the palate, with full-bodied richness, a lively, pure, layered texture, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It can be enjoyed any time over the coming 20-25 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

97 Points! The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve is every bit as impressive today as it was last year. It might very well be the finest Private Reserve I have ever tasted. More than anything else, the 2018 impresses with its energy and total sense of finesse. It's a wine that marries power with vibrancy in grand style. As always, most of the fruit is sourced from Beringer's ranches on Howell Mountain. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous

91+ Points! Sourced from the upper part of the vineyard, the 2014 Riesling Grand Cru Hengst Samain is rich, ripe and concentrated on the nose, though still closed. Rich, round and intense on the palate, this is a very firmly structured but also finessed Riesling that indicates an enormous ripeness and power; but it should be aged for another couple of years. Picked at the 9th of October, so a week later than the regular Hengst. - Stephan Reinhardt, robertparker.com

97 Points! The 2019 Au Sommet Cabernet Sauvignon is magnificent. A classic mountain wine, the 2019 offers up an exciting mix of dark fruit, gravel, graphite, savory herbs, chocolate and menthol. The bouquet alone is mesmerizing, but there is plenty of fruit depth, complexity and overall structure, too. Quite simply, the 2019 is one of the best wines I have tasted from John Schwartz's Atlas Peak estate. Sadly, there is no 2018 or 2020. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

93 Points! This new multi-vintage cuvée feels very at home in Laurent-Perrier's lineup, displaying some density and concentration evident in the choice of the reserve wines from all around Champagne which constitute the blend from 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2014. Led by 55% Chardonnay, with the balance Pinot Noir, there's a super-ripe, juicy orange fruit and tropical lilt to the profile here, with succulent apricot, pear and lemon peel pulled into quite a firm, tightly bound coil of structure. It's detailed with an energising, super subtle twist of quinine-like bitterness and some richer roasted almond notes hinting at maturity. For now it feels complete, yet not fully unwound. There's fine, compressed intensity here that will emerge beautifully with a little time on cork or, failing that, enough time to warm up in the glass. - Decanter Magazine

92 Points! The NV Brut Héritage, blended exclusively from reserve wines with half from Grand Crus, consists of 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir and spent at least four years on lees. Lemon oil suffused with smoke and rye bread rind creates a subtle but enticing scent on the nose. Frothy, lively bubbles on the palate somewhat detract from the wine's underlying smoky nuance, which shimmers between smoky plum, sponge cake and lemon. This lovely wine will benefit from a little more bottle age. Dosage is 6 grams per liter. - Vinous Media

92 Points! Inky colour, pencil lead and smoke concentration, where the tannins lend a sense of pressure bearing down on the fruit, keeping things moving and building in tension through the palate. Tiny edge of peony and iris flower as it opens in the glass. Harvest September 9 to 25th. Extremely well extracted, this is not a delicate wine but it is a measured one, and it has the sense of slowly building towards the close of play that is most enjoyable. 30% of overall production in HBII this year. Not vinified in the cellar, but will be aged in it. - Jane Anson, Decanter

97 Points! From the Solomon Hills Vineyard, not far from Bien Nacido, and brought up 17 months in 65% new French oak, the 2023 Pinot Noir Suerte is slightly deep ruby/plum-hued and shows spicy black cherries, black tea, orange blossom, and forest floor notes. It's incredibly complex and layered, medium-bodied on the palate, with a pure, seamless mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and some classic Santa Maria salinity on the finish. It too will keep for a decade. - Jeb Dunnuck

97+ Points! Based on 100% healthy grapes from ungrafted, 127-year-old vines, the 2023 Erdener Herzlei Riesling Spätlese Alte Reben (Gold Capsule) opens with an intense and complex, concentrated and rich bouquet. Concentrated, intense and mouth-filling on the palate, this is a generous and rich, savory and saline, very stimulating and sustainable Spätlese with a long, enormously complex, stimulating saline and crystalline finish. 8% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine from AP 09 24 in January 2025. - Stephan Reinhardt, robertparker.com

97 Points! The 2020 Petresco is 100% Sangiovese from the estate's highest-elevation blocks facing Lamole, where soils are especially rocky and the vines are older. Wildflowers, herbs, rocks, menthol and licorice soar out of the glass. This is an especially savory, expressive Sangiovese that emphasizes mineral and floral notes more than primary fruit. Petresco spent two years in 60-70% cask and the rest in barrique, followed by a year in cement. It remains one of the most distinctive wines in all of Italy. Magnificent. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

92+ Points! I was quite surprised by the complexity and nuance of the 2020 Matsanko, despite being very young. It fermented with full clusters and semi-carbonic maceration and matured in barrel for five months. It's a blend of old-vine Garnacha (75%), Tempranillo (15%) and Viura (10%). It's elegant, serious and somehow austere, with good ripeness (14.5% alcohol) and concentration, abundant fine-grained tannins and good depth. 1,239 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2021...Aseginolaza & Leunda is one of the new names from Navarra worth following. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

97 Points! Great red fruit aromas, but also wet earth and tar. Rich, concentrated and very suave on the full-bodied palate, this Chateauneuf has extremely fine tannins and terrific balance. Extremely long, velvety finish with great spicy complexity. A vineyard on sandy soil planted mainly with grenache plus small amounts of mourvedre and counoise. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink from release. - JamesSuckling.com

94+ Points! Crafted from 80% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre and 10% Counoise, planted on safre soils in the commune of Courthézon, the 2022 Chateauneuf du Pape Les Saintes Vierges exhales a delicate, refined bouquet of peony, rose, flowers, dark cherries and fresh thyme. Medium to full-bodied, elegant and tense with a textured, fine mid-palate, it possesses fresh, bright acids. This wine exudes a lot of vertical energy. It is best kept in the cellar for the next decade and will be enjoyable for the following 15–20 years. - Yohan Castaing, robertparker.com

97 Points! Lavender and sage with berries and dried strawberries, but so perfumed and subtle. Medium- to full-bodied with very fine tannins that are totally integrated with finesse and beauty at the end. Caresses your palate. - JamesSuckling.com  

96 Points! The 2020 Barbaresco Costa Russi is a classy, polished wine. Dark cherry, plum, mocha, new leather, licorice and lavender all take shape. As always, Costa Russi is the most supple and charming of the Gaja Barbarescos in the early going. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

95 Points! The Gaja 2020 Barbaresco Costa Russi has a rose and floral note that emerges at first, and it doesn't have the heavy dark earth or cured leather aromas that we get in the Barbaresco. This wine is focused on fruit tones, bright ones, and those nuances are juicy, generous and long. There's more youth in this wine, and the tannins are extremely fine and silky. Count on this wine to improve with age. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

98 Points! The 2023 Syrah Sonoma Hillsides is one of the greatest wines I have tasted from Pax Mahle. The Hillsides is a blend of the best sites in the range, fermented in cement with whole clusters and also aged in cement. The long growing season resulted in a rich, heady wine with intense fruit and perfectly ripe tannins. Magnificent. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous

97 Points! The 2023 Syrah Sonoma-Hillsides is a blend from the best parts of their vineyard sites, fermented and aged in concrete, with the only oak it sees coming from portions of the barrels of the vineyard designates. In the glass, it pours a deep purple color, revealing aromas of lavender oils, blackberry preserve, and sweet sage. At this tasting, the focus is more on its fruit than its savory tones, but these will undoubtedly emerge as it matures. It has a rich and noble structure, with full body, ripe tannins, and a long-lasting finish. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

95 Points! A juicy and flavorful Champagne with phenolics and a brightness and energy. Full with lots of flavors like sliced pineapple, dried peach and stone, yet it is fresh and vibrant. New label and bottle. Henri Giraud DNA in this. About 80% pinot noir and 20% chardonnay. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

92 Points! Based on the 2017 vintage (complemented with some 50% from the house's perpetual reserve) and disgorged in January 2020, the latest rendition of the NV Brut Esprit Nature is showing very well, mingling aromas of yellow orchard fruit and peach with nuances of toasted bread, candied peel, white flowers, clear honey and fresh almonds. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, it's elegantly vinous, with lively acids and a long, delicately oak-inflected finish. Fermented in barrels, some 20% of the blend derives from domaine holdings. - William Kelley, robertparker.com

PLEASE BE AWARE, THIS IS A PRE-ARRIVAL WINE - YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED SHIPPING FEES UNTIL THE WINE(S) ARRIVE

95-96 Points! Very good poise, tension and depth, with a light peppery, mineral and citrusy touch to the fruit. Good fruit here, with medium to full body and elastic, chalky tannins. There is something quite pure and transparent in the middle. So elegant, al-dente and long. An excellent wine from this difficult vintage. 70% merlot, 10% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon. Picking between September 26 to October 8. - Zekun Shuai, James Suckling

92-94+ Points! A blend of 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2024 Château Bellefont-Belcier is deep purple-hued and opaque, showing remarkable purity in its black and blue fruits, graphite, crushed stone, and violet notes. Medium-bodied and concentrated on the palate, it has a pure, layered mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and integrated acidity. This château continues to never put a foot wrong, and their 2024 will absolutely be worth your time and money. - Jeb Dunnuck

94 Points! Bright, with crushed-stone and floral character on the nose. Medium body with a firm core, expanding through the palate. Vivid and bright. Lots of good energy. Crushed-stone and lightly chalky character at the end. Needs two or three years to come around. - James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

92 Points! The 2019 Potensac is fabulous. Bright and focused, the 2019 impresses with its energy, balance and total class. Crushed flowers, mint, cinnamon, crushed rocks and blood orange all open in the glass. The 2019 is class personified I love the purity here. The 2019 is a standout, and should be a terrific value, too. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

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