Search results for: 'mostly a'

90-93 Points! from a .31 ha holding of 60+ year old vines. Moderate wood can be found on the ripe aromas of mostly plum and black currant with background hints of earth and the sauvage. There is again very good volume and solid concentration to the tautly muscular larger-scaled flavors that also coat the palate with dry extract on the youthfully austere, compact and firm finale. - Allen Meadows, Burghound #89

92 Points! The estate’s 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is an excellent choice for drinking over the next few years. Juicy dark berries, flowers, mint and cloves all come together nicely in the glass. Today, the 2010 is open and expressive, with soft, silky tannins and tons of near-term appeal, all qualities entry-level Cabernets should have. The 2010 is mostly valley floor fruit, with dollops of Panek, Corona and GIII. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com

92 Points! The white 2019 Le Domaine is mostly Sauvignon Blanc, with 30% Verdejo, and comes from a warm year (not as warm as 2017) when Sauvignon Blanc achieved perfect ripeness. The wine has good ripeness, 13.5% alcohol, very good freshness, a subtle nose that is not that varietal (as it's often the case) and a soft palate with great balance and purity. It finishes with a faint bitter touch. The oak is neatly integrated. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! Lead-pencil aromas with currants and plums, too. Full body, silky tannins and a focused and very refined finish. It's the tannins that drive things. An excellent second wine of Lafite. Needs two or three years to soften. Start drinking in 2021. - JamesSuckling.com 

92 Points! The second wine of Lafite Rothschild is the 2015 Carruades De Lafite and is a beautiful wine in its own right. Based on 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc brought up mostly in used barrels, it has classy notes of cassis and lead pencil shavings as well as a medium to full-bodied, elegant, beautifully balanced style on the palate. It’s not a massive wine by any stretch, yet it exudes class and elegance, and is already a joy to drink. - Jeb Dunnuck

From the winery: Our second label wine, KEOLA is comprised of barrels and lots from the same vineyards that make up our top-tier Aaron cuvées. These barrels are declassified lots and extra barrels that simply don't find their way into our flagship wines, thus we blend them into KEOLA, our everyday drinking red that massively overdelivers for the price point. Juicy, vibrant and intensely aromatic, its a medium-bodied, absolutely delicious wine that goes with any place, any dish, and any time of day. Comprised mostly of Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Mourvèdre it's a rich and savory, with a blue/red fruit profile and notes of grilled meats and sage/underbrush. The palate is luscious and juicy, loaded with flavors of macerated cherries, cocoa powder, toasty oak, and licorice. Aged for 18 month is 100% French oak, 50% new, it's a wine that will certainly age in the cellar, but we recommend cracking it open now and enjoying it through the remainder of this year!

93 Points! The super bargain of the portfolio has to be the red 2017 Viña Cubillo Tinto Crianza, which this year shows more development and faster aging, with more tertiary notes than the other reds from 2013 and 2014 that I tasted next to it. The frost of April 2017 killed 100% of the vegetal mass at Cubillo, and the grapes they picked were exclusively from the second generation, therefore fruit that ripened in a much shorter cycle, as the harvest was also earlier. It has notes of damp earth, mushrooms, truffles and forest floor, dry leaves and decayed flowers and herbs. It has a polished palate and is medium-bodied, with mostly resolved tannins, and it feels a little lighter. But it's still worth it. It was produced with a blend of 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and 5% each Graciano and Mazuelo from vines averaging 53 years of age. It fermented in their old oak vats and matured in used American oak barrels for three+ years. It has 13.5% alcohol, a 3.0 pH and 6.5 grams of acidity. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92 Points! A fantastic balance of very zesty acidity and juicy fruit. I love the interplay of citrusy freshness and apples on the light-bodied palate. Elegant finish. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

Mostly from Oberhäuser Felsenberg and Kieselberg. Stony, weathered volcanic soils of porphyry and melaphyr, with slate and quartzite.

Fermentation & Élevage: A mixture of stainless steel vats and neutral 10+-year-old 1200L German stückfass from Hösch

The idea here is to make a village wine, basically, though it’s sold and marketed as a Gutswein or Estate bottled basic wine. The Estate wine combines the two major soils that dominate the holdings for the estate, giving the drinker a look into what Dönnhoff is all about. The basic wine is a calling card and thus Cornelius wants to make statement.

The geology of the middle Nahe is notably shaped by its eons-old clay slate formations and rich volcanic soils. The concentration of porphyry and melaphyre stone in and around the old Oberhausen vineyards – Kieselberg and Felsenberg, help provide the perfect berry base for Gutsriesling.

94 Points! The grapes for the 2021 Reserva (sold as Crianza in Spain), mostly Tempranillo with some Garnacha Tinta, Mazuelo and Graciano, were picked late in a cooler year when they finished the harvest the 20th of October, with plenty of times for the grapes to develop full aromas and flavors and complete ripeness. It fermented destemmed and lightly crushed in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, separating qualities, villages and soils, and matured in 80% French and 20% American oak barrels, 20% of them new, for 24 months, with racking every eight to nine months. It's a textbook example of their style in a very good year, with power, concentration and clout, elegance and freshness. It was a very harmonious year; the cycle was long and the tannins ripened to perfection. It's terrific... - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! The winery’s flagship, the wine that introduced Muga to the world, the 2021 Muga Reserva is Tempranillo-dominant, with Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Graciano filling in the gaps. A larger-production wine, it offers tremendous quality, fermented in wooden vats using indigenous yeasts, the grapes separated by quality, soil type, and village origin. This one in particular is from a beautiful vintage and practically beams in full-bodied concentration, with supple, silky tannins and light touches of oak spice, cedar, balsamic, and white pepper. A new release, it should continue to thrive another 15-20 years. - Virginie Boone, jebdunnuck.com

92 Points! Moving to the Pinot Noirs, the 2022 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills comes from a mix of sites (mostly Fiddlestix, radian, and Sanford & Benedict) and saw 15 months in neutral oak. Its medium ruby hue is followed by a complex, medium-bodied 2022 that has some gamey, iodine-like character in its savory red fruits, leafy herb, bay leaf, and forest, earthy nuances. I love its overall balance, and it has terrific complexity and a satisfying, lively, upfront style that will drink nicely through 2032. - Jeb Dunnuck

From the winery:

A longtime favorite, the 2023 SRH Pinot Noir combines wines from a “who’s who” of the most famous vineyards in our region. This wine comes from: Fiddlestix (42%), Radian (15%), La Rinconada (15%), Bentrock (8%), 10ninths (7%), Sanford & Benedict (5%), Spear (5%), and Rancho La Vina (3%). The very cool 2023 produced a superb SRH blend with grapes being picked over a remarkable 5-week period from Early September to Mid-October. Temperatures throughout the late summer and early Fall were moderate, and ripeness gained gradually until the last lots could be picked at Radian on October 12.

The deliberate inclusion of 20 separate blocks (9 distinct clones) at 8 vineyards is intended to create great complexity in the final blend, which we think is accomplished here. The wine shows wildly different berries (cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, loganberries) and red and black cherries, along with rhubarb, cola, and a panoply of baking spices (nutmeg, cardamom, cloves) and floral notes such as red rose and blood orange. The medium bodied wine has a silky texture and great length buoyed by great acidity and present tannins. The most approachable of our Pinot Noirs, the SRH will drink well right out of the gate, improve for 5-7 years and last another 8 after that at least.