Wines

92 Points! The NV Brut Réserve is the foundational wine at Bérêche, and the latest release is based on the 2022 vintage, incorporating a 40% perpetual reserve component, uniting the freshness of the northern slopes and the maturity of the hot, dry vintage. Fruit for this wine comes from vineyard sites across the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de Marne, and the Champagne was disgorged in October 2024 with six grams per liter dosage. Bursting from the glass with aromas of nectarine, orange zest and brioche, it's medium- to full-bodied and ample, with considerable density, underpinned by racy acidity and concluding with a chalky finish. The Brut Réserve has seen the most refinements in recent years as it no longer incorporates tailles and now features Chardonnay from Trépail; technically, this means that the pH is lower and the acidity is higher. It’s one of the most reliable entry-level NV bottlings on the market. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

94 Points! The 2023 Pinot Noir Cumberland Reserve opens with aromas of raspberry liqueur, mocha, floral perfume, and savory notes of fresh sage. Medium-bodied, it offers ripe, detailed tannins, balanced acidity, and a long finish. While this vintage hints at opulence, the wine remains beautifully balanced and refreshing. It’s a stunning introduction to the vintage and a benchmark for the region as an appellation wine. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

94 Points! Bright and seductive, this pinot offers fresh cherries, crushed wild berries, violets, wet rocks and subtle spices on the nose. Racy and mouthwatering, with spicy and minerally tension, it has a medium body, a dusty texture to its tannins and a lingering and racy finish. - JamesSuckling.com

93 Points! The 2023 Pinot Noir Cumberland Reserve is incredibly fresh, with a bouquet of dusty dried flowers, lavender pastille, nuances of cedary spice and wild blueberries. Ripe wild berry fruits and crisp mineral tones glide across the palate over a layer of pure silk. The finish is long and tense, yet remains remarkably fresh as violet tones resonate over a bed of silken tannins. The Cumberland Reserve represents amazing value. Already enjoyable, it will also excel in the cellar. - Eric Guido, Vinous

94 Points! The first of the reds, the 2024 Pinot Noir Cumberland Reserve pours a jeweled ruby hue and immediately impresses with aromas of incense, toasted spice, fresh black cherries, red berries, and dried rose and hibiscus potpourri. Medium-bodied, it has bright acidity, excellent tension, refined tannins, and terrific definition. It drinks far above its appellation today yet clearly has the structure to age for decades. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

97 Points! Beringer's Private Reserve in the 2021 vintage combines 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot, and 2% Malbec. It was aged 18 months in 65% new French oak. It's a very stylish wine with an excellent balance between its powerful, fine-grained tannins and plump, juicy, black-toned fruits. The bouquet is lovely, too, revealing a wealth of vintage-specific savoury potpourri character in its sagebrush, dried rose petal, and coriander atop candied red berry fruits and fragrant ironstone minerality. Full-bodied, with a deep core of succulent blackberry fruit that is downright silky. Between the dazzling fruit character and perfectly integrated tannin, the Private Reserve has a seamless quality, making it so approachable now but well-endowed with the structure to age gracefully. - Jonathan Cristaldi, Decanter Magazine

97 Points! The 2021 Private Reserve is the most refined of the 2021s from Beringer. The aromatics alone are so alluring. There's 12% Cabernet Franc in the blend this year, and that comes through loud and clear. Crushed flowers, espresso, mint, licorice and red/purplish fruit all grace this silky, super-polished offering. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous

97 Points! So much dark berry, dried berry, matchstick and iodine here. Plus intense aromas of black currants and black berries. So floral. Full-bodied with firm and compacted tannins that are super polished and balanced. Very long and linear. The tightness, focus and complexity harks back to the 1990s but the purity and transparency is today. September 2024 release. 80% cabernet sauvignon, 12% cabernet franc, 6% merlot, and 2% malbec. - JamesSuckling.com

93 Points! This is the second year for Berliquet under the Canon team, and it is proving to be an excellent addition to the stable of wines - with a more powerful, cocoa bean, espresso and blackberry fruit character than its sibling (and neighbour, as Canon is within walking distance of Berliquet), but still with the mouthwatering, gunsmoke, salted caramel and saffron hit of a limestone-dominant terroir. 45hl/ha yield, 45% new oak for ageing. Thomas Duclos consultant. - Jane Anson

94 Points! The 2019 Berliquet is showing beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of cherries, wild berries, sweet spices, violets and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and elegant, with terrific depth at the core, lively acids and ripe, powdery tannins, it concludes with a long, mineral finish. It's produced from a 9.5-hectare vineyard that encompasses three soil types: Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau (like its sibling, Château Canon); the slope, characterized by deep clay; and then sandy, colluvial soils at the foot of the slope. Right now it's planted with 70% Merlot and the balance Cabernet Franc, but the percentage of the latter is increasing as replanting progresses. - William Kelley, robertparker.com

Just a great Champagne-making family turning out a superior product from Grand Cru Le Mesnil vineyards and charging a more-than-fair price for their wares. Looking to get your holiday bubbles for 2024 and beyond? Look no further. At $39.98 this is one of the finest values we have in the store, hands down.

92 Points! From the Griva Vineyard in Arroyo Seco, this wine is picked at varying ripeness levels, and the nose hints at its heft and ripeness. Rich tropical notes of guava and ripe pineapple meld with honeyed apricots. The palate shows a phenolic ripeness with fleshy pineapple, ripe peaches, and a zippy acidity and brisk saline finish. - Decanter Magazine

92 Points! Snappy aromas of lemon pith, sun-warmed hay and oyster shells. A mouthwatering palate with white grapefruit, passion fruit and subtle creaminess, though it remains brisk throughout. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

Crazy good wine, like a German Roulot! A cuvee of pinot blanc and pinot gris that was wild-fermented and matured sur lie in small oak cooperage.

WS Top 100 2021 #36

92 Points! Velvety tannins give way to dark cherry, mocha and loamy earth notes, enhanced with black tea, anise and graphite accents. Broad, but keeps focused, with solid, integrated acidity. Drink now through 2029. - Wine Spectator

In medieval French, « les mouches » meant bees. The south east facing slope takes a lot of sun that attract flowers and bees. Clay and limestone, stony and well drained. From vines planted in 1958, 1968 and 1986 at an altitude of 250/300m.

From Les Rechaux and Les Meix. The word « Rechaux » comes from a source of heat or simply warmth . "Le meix" is a word formerly used to describe a small plot of land just enough to feed a family. In the Rechaux it is deep clay and alluvium and in Les Meix, clay and limestone. Micor plots of 12 ares and 28 ares planted in 1961 and 1965 respectively.

The Domaine Berthelemot Puligny-Montrachet 2022 generally offers a bright, mineral-driven experience with notes of citrus, white flowers, and a subtle hazelnut or almond character. The palate is often described as elegant and balanced, with vibrant acidity and a creamy mid-palate, leading to a saline and persistent finish. 

Les Levrons is downhill in Puligny-Montrachet next to Meursault. Levrons was a diminutive in the middle ages for hares of which there were probably many in the area. Deep in brown limestone with some banks of marl. The domaine has 60 ares here planted in 1947.

Bertinga winery is located on an exceptional hillside site in the area Gaiole in Chianti. Founded in 2015, it has already an established pedigree in the wine world. Bertinga is one of the best-known vineyards in the area; it was owned by Castello di Ama for many years and yielded wines of wonderful finesse and power, as well as drinkability and longevity.

Crafting small quantities of terroir-driven single parcel/single vineyard wines, Bertinga uses 100% estate grown and organically farmed fruit out its 16.4-hectare planted to Sangiovese and Merlot, both varietals having played the leading role in making the area famous.

The picture is complemented by a world-class team led by the director Luca Vitiello, the production manager Elisa Ascani and the consulting oenologist Stephan Derenoncourt. To secure an enduring place in the history of Tuscan winemaking is Bertinga’s long term aspiration and the goal to share with all partners worldwide.

A dymanic new Tuscan red from what was one of the main vineyard components for Castello di Ama's famed L'Apparita!

99 Points! Lots of lavender and violets on the nose, together with graphite, lead pencil, iodine and black olives. Full-bodied with extreme class and balance. The ultra-fine tannins are plentiful, yet integrated, and run the length of the wine. A masterpiece. Best after 2028. - JamesSuckling.com

97+ Points! The fruit for this 2019 Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz is picked predominantly from the old 1868 plantings in the Concongella vineyard on the Best's property. It is a resoundingly elegant wine, with a core of fruit that crouches, waiting on the mid-palate. It is complex and complete already, offering a window into what will be a very long life, indeed. It is an exercise in balance and length, line and form (mineral austerity comes to mind), with not a hair out of place. You'd be forgiven for saying the structure has an open weave, almost loose-knit quality about it, were it not for the super streamlined finish that shows all the openness and approachability is merely a clever disguise. This wine can be drunk now, and sure, it should be (it's delicious, the feel of it in the mouth is insane). But if you have the patience, wisdom and foresight to cellar it, your children will be amply rewarded. - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

96 Points! An extremely sophisticated and concentrated shiraz that’s so precise and focused on the beautifully balanced, medium-bodied palate. The interplay of fine tannins and lively acidity is really fascinating. Very clean and long finish. From the Concongella Vineyard. Drink or hold. Screw cap. - JamesSuckling.com