Search results for: 'paraje note valley red white'

91 Points! A medium red color, the 2023 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley offers an elegant perfume and spiced profile with aromas of red cherries, roses, forest herbs, and mossy earth. It’s a very pretty and elegant red with a refined texture and an even, floating feel through the finish. It’s a very attractive wine to enjoy now or over the next 4-6 years. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

From the winery: Our 2023 Russian River Pinot Noir is a beautifully complex expression of this renowned region, blending fruit from four distinct vineyards to create a wine of depth, elegance, and balance. Bommersbach Vineyard (29%) lends rich cherry cola notes, while Bode Vineyard (38%) provides a silky, seamless texture. The cooler Rogaway Vineyard (14%) in the Sebastopol Hills and Monroe Vineyard (19%) south of Sebastopol contribute vibrant floral and spice notes, with Monroe’s sandy Goldridge soils intensifying the wine’s structure and acidity. Aged in 24% new oak with 15% whole cluster fermentation, this 225-case production Pinot Noir (13.9% ABV) is a harmonious blend of power and finesse, showcasing the best of Russian River Valley terroir.

91 Points! The smart buy in the Ackerman lineup is the suave, polished 2018 Memoir Red Wine. A blend of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% each Cabernet Franc and Merlot, and 6% each Malbec and Petit Verdot, it seamlessly marries cedary oak notes with cassis and dark chocolate flavors. Medium to full-bodied and less opulent and weighty than many of its Napa counterparts, it's still velvety-plush but also marked by ample freshness and length. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com

91 Points! The 2022 Papillon Red Wine is a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% each Malbec and Syrah, 6% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 4% Merlot. It also includes a bit more than 5% of 2021 vintage wine, so it is labeled as Napa County, rather than Napa Valley. All the bookkeeping aside, it offers plenty of ripe cherries and a faint herbal streak on the nose, a full-bodied, silky-textured palate and a welcome bit of cedar (it spent 13 months in 40% new oak) on the charming, supple finish. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com

91 Points! Lifted, with cherry cola up front, the 2020 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley has a generous palate of fresh cranberry cocktail, sweet baking spice, and tangy acid on the finish. This red is hard not to love and is full of pleasure. Drink it now or over the next 5-6 years. - Audrey Frick, JebDunnuck.com

95 Points! This has a lovely core of fruit with aromas of nectarines, grilled lemons and flint. The midweight, textural palate shows balanced acidity, finishing with a slight phenolic grip. Moving out of the cooler 2023 bottling, this is far more generous and open. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! For fans of Chardonnay without malolactic fermentation, Shafer's 2024 Chardonnay Red Shoulder Ranch remains a standard-bearer. Ripe pineapple, pear and honeysuckle mark the nose, while the full-bodied palate is loaded with opulent mango fruit that's expansive and lush but brought back into focus on the crisp citrus-and-green-apple finish. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com

95 Points! The 2019 Chardonnay Bennett Valley waltzes out with alluring notes of fresh apricots, honeydew melon, and grapefruit, with hints of orange blossom and powdered ginger. The medium-bodied palate is tight-knit and elegant, with a seamless backbone and loads of savory nuances to accent the stone fruit layers, finishing long with a spicy kick. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

94 Points, Wine Spectator's #10 Wine of the Year 2024! Oozing with character, this succulent and mouthwatering white offers a fleshy, juicy mix of perfectly ripe peach, mango and lemon bar flavors, with fresh herbal accents of lemon verbena and vetiver. Offers accents of freshly grated ginger, tangerine and crunchy sea salt on the finish. Drink now through 2036. - Wine Spectator

95 Points! The 2022 Chardonnay Russian River Valley is also a bright silver straw color and has a slightly deeper tone. Revealing notes of smoky wet stones, lemon balm, green apples, and fresh flowers, it has a bit more medium-bodied richness. with a lovely. light-on-its-feet feel in this vintage. - Jeb Dunnuck

91 Points! The 2022 Woodcutter's Shiraz is a brilliant entrée to Barossa Shiraz. It exhibits all the earthy, red gravel, ironstone characters that infuse the tannic structure, while fleshed out by dense, purple fruit. It has levity and balance and freshness too, which is ultimately what makes it a great wine. There's gorgeous splay of spicy tannins, chewy and a little grippy. Matured for 10 months in seasoned oak, "the 2023 is coming out of oak as we speak now," says winemaker Ian Hongell. The fruit for this wine cascades down from a number of different sources within the Barossa (including Eden Valley). It's very good. - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

95 Points! The star of the show is the 2022 Ontogeny, a broad, layered, richly textured 2022 that has gorgeous cassis and blue fruits as well as integrated oak, some classic Cabernet graphite, iron, and smoked tobacco. It’s rich, full-bodied, and wonderfully complex, with ripe tannins and a great, great finish. I love it today yet it should cruise over the coming 10-15 years in cold cellars. - Jeb Dunnuck

95 Points Vinous! From the winery:The Loechel Eden Valley Shiraz is sourced from a single vineyard at the Southern tip of the Eden Valley township. It was planted half a century ago by the Loechel family to granitic loam, at 400 metres altitude.

The vineyard is planted on a steep Easterly aspect with high drainage and low yields, resulting in concentrated fruit and rich, complex wines. The vineyard is picked in three seperate components which are kept seperate throughout vinification. One third of the vineyard’s fruit is retained to produce the Loechel Shiraz which is determined at blending prior to bottling

91 Points! Tropical aromas of lychees, lemon curd and dried mangoes. The palate is medium-bodied with a creamy texture and a slight phenolic edge, giving notes of baking spices, pineapple and red apple skin. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

93 Points! They consider the 2023 La Servil a paraje wine, despite coming from a large vineyard with different soils. It's always a floral and expressive red, and in a year of low yields, the larger size of the grapes compensated and gave the wines more texture and more tension, resulting in a subtle and fine vintage for the reds. It fermented completely destemmed and matured in foudre for 18 months, as they are extending the time in oak for all their wines (the 2024s will be two years). All the 2023 reds are around 14% alcohol, but they're very balanced and fine-boned. In this case, it showcases the sandy, elegant soils that resulted in finer tannins. All the reds are very pure, fresh and mineral, with a strong stony sensation. I think there is more elegance this year. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

95 Points! Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon tumbles out with plum preserves, blackcurrant cordial, and stewed blackberries notes with hints of bay leaves, graphite, and fragrant earth. The full-bodied palate is firm and grainy textured, supporting the tight-knit fruit, finishing long with a minty lift. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

93 Points! A blend of all the vineyards they work with (of which there are seven), the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley sports a deep purple hue to go with classic Napa notes of blue fruits, chocolate, spicy oak, and tobacco. It's full-bodied, opulent, sexy, and undeniably delicious. - Jeb Dunnuck

95 Points! Pouring a dark magenta/purple color, the 2023 Zinfandel Russian River Valley is deeper, offering notes of black cherry cordial, dark chocolate, lavender oils, wet stones, and dark sappy earth. The palate is full-bodied, with a broad-shouldered tannic structure that has an even feel, while refreshing acidity holds this wine together. It’s well-structured and has the ability to age over the coming 10 years. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

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

95 Points! Probably the raciest, most vibrant version of Hyde chardonnay made by any winemaker. Vivid stone fruit and baked apple aromas, then a brilliant texture saturated with green apple, creme brulee and lemon zest flavors. Well balanced, fresh and linear in style. Medium-bodied. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

93 Points! The intense, sleek, mouthwatering mix of yuzu, pineapple, lemon curd and fresh ginger flavors is refreshing and distinctive, with notes of crunchy sea salt, fresh lime and jasmine, all on a sleek and crisp frame. Drink now through 2035. - Wine Spectator

From the winery:

We are proud to source the Chardonnay for this wine from Hyde, one of California's most famous and historic Chardonnay vineyards, founded by Larry Hyde in Carneros in 1979. Tucked away in the southern part of Napa Valley, the entire estate is a gorgeous expanse of rolling hills with southeast exposure and saline morning fog. The parcels of Musque clone Chardonnay and old Wente that make up this bottling were planted between 1979 and 1992. This wine was fermented and aged in 100% new French oak, then bottled as this single-vineyard wine.

92 Points! A proprietary red blend of Petite Sirah, Grenache, Syrah, and Zinfandel aged eight months in 31% new oak. Orin Swift has opened a new, lovely tasting lounge in the town of St. Helena, CA and is worth a visit for those coming to the Napa Valley. Dave Phinney, the founder of Orin Swift, calls all the picks and continues working and honing these wines in the cellar. Rich black cherry, toffee, and caramel spices lead to a full-bodied wine with red berry fruit and chocolatey, robust, chewy tannins. The long fruit driven finish offers ample brown spices and toasty cedarwood. - Decanter Magazine

91 Points! Potent and dense, with brooding flavors of blackberry and cherry accented by bitter chocolate, cracked pepper and savory meat tones as this builds tannins on the finish. Grenache, Syrah and Petit Sirah. Best after 2025. - Wine Spectator