Wines

95 Points! It’s really hard to believe that this is a 2020, such is the youthful energy of this extraordinary wine. I love the intense lemon blossom aroma in the nose. Concentrated, creamy and very elegant, this high-end Savennieres isn’t difficult to understand. Less fundamentally mineral than the very best, but still plenty of wet stone at the long silky finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.- JamesSuckling.com

98 Points! It’s hard to find adequate words for the cornucopia of flowers, citrus and stone fruit aromas of this wine. The flinty element creates the most beautiful tension along with the wonderful interplay of fruit and wet stone minerality on the breathtakingly precise and pure medium- to full-bodied palate. And the incredibly energetic, almost endless finish sweeps you away. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! Still youthful with aromas of summer meadows, dried flowers and flint, this sleek and medium-bodied chenin blanc is extremely focused and mineral. At the very long, dry finish the wet stone character is wrapped in a delicate veil of beeswax and honeycomb. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

96 Points! Hold on to your hat! The nose of this extraordinary dry chenin blanc is right on the borderline between summer flowers and floral hone, and it pulls you inexorably into this extremely vibrant and mineral wine. Astonishing concentration for the barely medium-bodied palate, the minerality cascading over you as if you were standing directly beneath an Alpine waterfall. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

Great value here from the famous Bedrock Vineyard (Shhh....)! From the winery: A punchy, spicy blend of zinfandel (80%), barbera (15%) and Alicante Bouschet (5%). The Zinfandel and Alicante were sourced from the Bedrock Vineyard in Sonoma. The fruit was from adjacent blocks so we picked both on the same day, co-fermenting them together. Traditionally this fruit has always been the base for our red table wine. We then blended in a few barrels of Barbera to level up the acidity and aromatics.

92-94 Points! The 2022 Zinfandel Pesenti Vineyard is a very pretty wine, and also surprisingly delicate for Paso. Medium in body, with terrific nuance, the Pesenti is super-expressive in this vintage. Crushed flowers, blood orange and cedar overtones linger on the aromatic, finessed finish. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

Cienega Valley is an elevated pocket in the Gabilan Mountains 1,100 feet above sea level. The region’s warm, dry conditions are quite agreeable to the thin-skinned
Zinfandel grapes, enabling sound crops to be picked late in the year without the threat of bunch rot. The Gabilan Range is high enough to protect vines from direct contact with the cold coastal air, but low enough to allow breezes to mitigate the heat of summer afternoons. Rainfall averages 15 inches per year while fog is rare. This temperate climate is well suited to producing rich red wines.

DeRose has 15 acres of Zinfandel vines originally planted on their own roots in the late 1890s. Dry farmed on steep hillsides in Cienega Valley, the head-trained vines produce highly pigmented grapes inscribed with a spicy mountain terroir.

96 Points! Grapes for the 2021 Angeli Zinfandel are picked in three passes. Proprietor Scot Bilbro notes that Zinfandel's naturally varying levels of ripeness can lead to raisiny flavors if all the grapes are picked at a higher brix. "If you bring Zinfandel in over 25 brix, that means the juice inside is at 25, but the skins have a lot more sugar, and the level will go up to 28 or more," he explains. "So, we pick at 23, 24 and just shy of 25. You can enable the wine to show off layers with those different picks." This strategy led to a gorgeous Angeli in 2021 that is incredibly expressive and perfumed. Blueberry, boysenberry and blackberry give way to wafts of graphite, gobs of violet and even touches of tangerine. The medium to full-bodied palate explodes with concentrated fruit and expansive layers of floral perfume and spice. It has a powdery frame, bursts of mouthwatering acidity and a very long, nuanced finish. - Erin Brooks, robertparker.com

93 Points! Pure and focused, offering violet, cherry, raspberry and mineral aromas and flavors. Shaped by vibrant acidity, this red persists with a lingering, resonant aftertaste. - Wine Spectator

93 Points! A bright saturated ruby, the 2021 Zinfandel Russian River Valley is lifted with fresh aromas of candied peach, grenadine, and pressed red flowers. Medium to full-bodied, with great energy in its notes of fresh mixed berries, gravelly earth, and mocha, it’s an elegant wine with fine tannins, a stony texture, and a good, clean finish. It’s a fantastic entry to the wines from Limerick Lane to drink over the next several years. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

93 Points! Fragrant and vibrantly structured, with expressive raspberry, green peppercorn and roasted sage flavors that build richness and tension toward briary tannins. - Wine Spectator

An important new source! The fermentation of this classically styled white, Aubépine, takes place in old oak barrels with the total lees from the press—no débourbage (wherein the lees are settled before the wine is racked off them). There are no finings and filtrations, nor additions of sulfites—though, as already mentioned, necessary exceptions can be made. Fermentations can last months or more than a year before dry. Aubépine is a specific site of old vines closer to the Cher than the Loire.