Wines

98+ Points! The 2015 Côte Rôtie La Mouline has closed down substantially since I tasted it from barrel, yet it’s nevertheless a magical wine in the making. Sporting a deep, saturated purple color as well as a monster bouquet of crème de cassis, graphite, crushed rocks, and hints of flowers, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, building tannins, and a focused, tight, backward vibe that’s going to need 4-5 years of bottle age. It’s going to be incredibly long-lived. - Jeb Dunnuck

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98-100 Points! The 2018 Cote Rotie La Mouline is immensely seductive, offering up enticing notes of floral potpourri and red berries on the nose. Those strawberries and raspberries persist onto the full-bodied palate and through the long, lush finish, buoyed by supple, creamy-textured tannins. This is the most complete, compelling vintage of La Mouline I've tasted. - Wine Advocate

99 Points! Just about pure perfection as well as a desert Island wine, the 2018 Côte Rôtie La Mouline comes from a tiny parcel in the Côte Blonde lieu-dit and spent four years in new barrels. Incredible notes of black raspberries, spring flowers, bacon fat, smoked game, violets, and pepper all emerge on the nose. These carry to a full-bodied, round, supple, sexy Côte Rôtie offering ultra-fine tannins, an insane level of purity, no hard edges, and a monster of a finish. As with the other 2018s here, it leads with its fruit and has a supple, ethereal style on the palate... - Jeb Dunnuck

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91 Points! A blend of 70% Grenache Noir, 10% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre and 10% Cinsault, the 2022 Chateauneuf du Pape Bel Ami from Guillaume Gonnet reveals a spicy bouquet of fresh thyme, licorice and dark wild berries. Medium to full-bodied, round and enrobing, it's dense with a fleshy core of fruit, velvety tannins and a long, structured, elegant finish. Partly destemmed and matured for 12 months in a combination of foudres, large barrels, stainless steel and concrete tanks, it could improve in the cellar. - Yohan Castaing, robertparker.com

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93 Points! Pure, focused, and elegant, the 2023 Châteauneuf Du Pape Bel Ami offers an attractive floral perfume of light red fruits, rose petals, spice, and crushed stone-like minerality. Based on 70% Grenache with 10% each Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Cinsault and aged 18 months in 50% foudre and 50% stainless steel, it's medium-bodied, with a pure, layered, graceful mouthfeel, integrated tannins and acidity, and outstanding length. With roughly 833 cases produced, it's delicious already, yet it should have 10-15 years of overall longevity.  - Jeb Dunnuck

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This wine is a complete cellar savior. Guillaume has constructed the perfect, bulletproof white wine quaff for any season, as the blend of 40% Viognier, 30% Grenache Blanc and 30% Roussanne provides a little bit of everything. The Viognier? Florals, honeysuckle, great mid-palate weight. The Roussanne? Minerality, structure, power. The Grenache Blanc? The ease, the glue that fits these two grapes perfectly together and fills in all the cracks. This stuff is majorly gulpable and incredibly friendly towards a number of cuisines…or maybe just your patio and a glass…either way you’re winning.

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93 Points! Crafted from the 2022 vintage and disgorged in August 2024 without dosage, Sergent’s NV Blanc de Blancs Prés de Dieu originates from two northeast-facing parcels: Les Prés in Vrigny and Les Vignes Dieu in Coulommes-la-Montagne, both defined by sandy soils. Vinified in 400- and 500-liter barrels, it wafts from the glass with a bouquet of grapefruit zest, white flowers and crisp green apple. On the palate, it is medium-bodied, tensile and luminous, with a piercing spine of acidity, a youthful and chiseled core and a long, saline finish. It is the tautest, most linear expression in Sergent’s range—a study in purity. - Kristaps Karklins, robertparker.com

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93 Points! The 2018 Viré-Clessé Quintaine is showing beautifully, wafting from the glass with a lovely bouquet of honeyed citrus fruit, fresh pastry and orange blossom. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and supple, it's elegantly textural and refined, with a fragrant core of fruit and a long, penetrating finish. Even though it will reward a bit of bottle age, it's slightly finer-boned than the more concentrated, muscular 2017, so I would opt to drink this immensely charming wine before its older sibling. - William Kelley, robertparker.com Learn More

97 Points! Some people say that Riesling Kabinett must be sleek and very acidic, but this wine shows why this is narrow-minded. Fabulous nose of white flowers, ripe pear and white peach, then on the seriously concentrated palate this is so succulent and so precise you don’t want to think about anything else! Almost perfect balance at the long super-silky finish. From 60-year-old vines. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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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.

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From the importer:

Made entirely of Frappato grapes, planted in 2008, estate-grown in the parishes of Ponte and Fegotto, near Chiaramonte Gulfi. These vineyards are of reddish iron-rich sand interspersed with layers of clay, at about 280 meters (900 feet) above sea level; the climate is very hot but with cooler night-time temperature (which leads to better acidity in the grapes). The fruit is harvested in several passes, at moderate ripeness, normally around the middle of September; the grapes are lightly crushed and fermented at controlled temperature in stainless steel tanks using indigenous yeasts. Maceration is around two weeks. The wine is aged in stainless steel for 9 months before bottling.

Frappato is an aromatic variety, unusual for a red grape. The wine is brilliant mid-red in color, with clear floral and berry/pomegranate fruit notes and some spice and tea-leaf on the nose and the palate. Very useful food wine; I pair this with many pasta dishes, fish, pork, and roast chicken. Amazing with grilled tuna, and a clear candidate for the Summer Red Wine Hall of Fame. I drink it slightly chilled, but then any good red wine should be drunk at the temperature of a cool cellar, not room temperature.

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Winemaker Notes:

Coquelicot Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley - 170 Cases 

PH 3.5 TA 5.4 Alcohol 13% Picked 10-4-2022 Bottled 6-06-2024

Certified CCOF Organic. 100% whole cluster fermentation, native yeast, fermented in a tall steel open top fermenter, foot stomped, free run gravity fed daily, then gravity fed back over the top for a very long slow fermentation over three weeks.

Aged in a large Puncheon on the lees until bottling. This wine is a stunner! Bright fruit, earth and spice.

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94 Points! The 2022 Hacienda Monasterio is a blend of 86% Tinto Fino, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Malbec. They only got 170 liters of rain and suffered five heat waves—what happens in Ribera is accentuated at the Monasterio estate—but they were able to manage it quite well. Since 2018, they have been harvesting earlier, in early September, because they have managed to achieve ripeness a little earlier, and it shows in the wine, which has 14.5% alcohol on the label (perhaps a little lower in the real analysis, but they need to round up to half a degree on the labels). The skins were thick, so the vinification was softer to avoid too much extraction. They also did a longer aging in barrel; it's usually 15 to 17 months, depending on the lot, but this year, the average was 17 months and it helped. In contrast, they did a shorter élevage in 2023, because it was what the wine called for. The nose is harmonious and shows no heat or excess ripeness (or oak), and the palate is silky with surprisingly ripe and round tannins, escaping the excess grip I found in many 2022s in the zone. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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92 Points! The 2021 Gran Reserva Hussonet is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from Pirque in the Maipo Valley. It deftly showcases the region's intense flavors. This terroir-driven wine features cherry, black pepper and herbal-spice notes on the nose. Dry, juicy and relatively light-bodied, its leaner palate reflects the rainy 2021 season, resulting in a savory, slender red wine. - Joaqin Hidalgo, Vinous

90 Points! The suave texture and dense fruit profile lend plenty of appeal to this red, with leather, loam and fresh thyme notes melding with macerated plum and cherry flavors. Ends with a push of licorice and cassis around mouth-coating tannins. - Wine Spectator

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95 Points! Moving to the West Sonoma Coast (about 4-5 miles inward from the ocean), the 2022 Chardonnay Far Coast Vineyard boasts has a decadent feel but is not heavy. On the nose, it reveals bright, lifted notes of chalky earth, saline, citrus zest, white peach, honeycomb, and fresh flowers. Medium to full-bodied, it has a lovely freshness, with a kiss of sweet fruit through the finish. It has a lovely, savory, and mouthwatering feel without feeling austere and retains its rounded viscous texture, with notes of almond on the finish. Drink it over the next 6-8 years. - Audrey Frick, JebDunnuck.com

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93 Points! A rich golden hue with a slight haze, the 2021 Chardonnay Four Hearts Vineyards is a bit more inward aromatically at the moment but has a darker tone, with warming notes of toasted cedar, spice, and ripe, baked orchard fruits, Full-bodied, with a nutty texture and notes of ripe yellow pear, tangerine, and almond, it has a pithy texture and meatiness throughout. - Audrey Frick, JebDunnuck.com

 

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94 Points! Fresh and vibrant satsuma tangerine, Meyer lemon, pear pastry and ginger notes mingle with Honeycrisp apple and lemon sherbet, with accents of brioche, sweet cream and spices on a supple, elegant frame. Drink now through 2034. - Wine Spectator

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92 Points! Coming from across the neighborhoods of the Russian River Valley, the 2022 Chardonnay Russian River Valley is ripe with aromas of toasted spice, orange rind, preserved lemon, honeysuckle, and baked apples. Full-bodied, with a ripe, classic feel, it has a nice, rounded mouthfeel and offers a lovely sense of place. - Jeb Dunnuck

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93 Points! Another appellation wine, the 2023 Chardonnay Russian River Valley is a bright golden yellow color and offers notes of poached yellow apples, toasted spice, almond, chamomile, and lemon curd. The palate is full-bodied and elegant, as is characteristic of this vintage, and has an even and floating feel on the finish. It’s ripe and has a more pithy texture, but it’s well-detailed and more immediate. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

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