Wines

98 Points! Another incredibly concentrated, focused, insanely impressive wine in the lineup is the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain, which offers a powerful nose of darker currants, scorched earth, graphite, and savory herb aromas and flavors. This full-bodied, dense, concentrated, powerful, inward beauty needs 4-6 years in the cellar but will age forever. - Jeb Dunnuck

97 Points! So much black currant, dark fruit, pine cone, bark and pine needle aromas that show a depth and intensity with round, polished and creamy tannins. Medium to full body, with a complex and gorgeously flavored finish. A blend of 82% cabernet sauvignon, 6.5% cabernet franc, 5% malbec, 4% merlot and 2.5% petit verdot. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! The 2021 La Mission Haut-Brion unfurls in the glass with a complex, detailed bouquet of plums, cassis, flowers, spices, licorice and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, rich and concentrated, its fleshy, layered core of fruit is framed by beautifully velvety tannins. In bottle, much as en primeur, this blend of 48% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Cabernet Franc is a charming, sensual rendition of La Mission. - William Kelley, robertparker.com

95 Points! Green peppercorns and tomato leaf mingle with blackcurrant on the nose. Quite herbal and savoury, earthy almost with hints of fragranced perfume also. Supple with lots of energy, focus and precision - this has a real brightness to the red berry summer fruits. Crystalline and pure, a weightless touch almost but there are still tannins that give a soft support around the palate. Elegant and charming, not demonstrative really, but confident nonetheless. Quite high acidity keeps the freshness and zing and this also has a graphite undertone giving the minerality. Well worked and a characterful wine. Delicate but very enjoyable. - Decanter Magazine

96 Points! Blackcurrants and graphite aromas follow through to a medium body with very fine tannins and a savory finish. Fluid, with a subtle and open character. Stone and dust at the end. So drinkable now but will improve with age. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! The 2021 La Mission Haut-Brion unfurls in the glass with a complex, detailed bouquet of plums, cassis, flowers, spices, licorice and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, rich and concentrated, its fleshy, layered core of fruit is framed by beautifully velvety tannins. In bottle, much as en primeur, this blend of 48% Merlot, 46% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Cabernet Franc is a charming, sensual rendition of La Mission. - William Kelley, robertparker.com

95 Points! Green peppercorns and tomato leaf mingle with blackcurrant on the nose. Quite herbal and savoury, earthy almost with hints of fragranced perfume also. Supple with lots of energy, focus and precision - this has a real brightness to the red berry summer fruits. Crystalline and pure, a weightless touch almost but there are still tannins that give a soft support around the palate. Elegant and charming, not demonstrative really, but confident nonetheless. Quite high acidity keeps the freshness and zing and this also has a graphite undertone giving the minerality. Well worked and a characterful wine. Delicate but very enjoyable. - Decanter Magazine

96 Points! Blackcurrants and graphite aromas follow through to a medium body with very fine tannins and a savory finish. Fluid, with a subtle and open character. Stone and dust at the end. So drinkable now but will improve with age. - JamesSuckling.com

From the importer: 'Mai sentito’ means ‘unheard of,’ and this sparkling Verdicchio, bottled before the second fermentation is finished, is certainly the first of its type I’ve had. It’s not some random hipster experiment, though, it’s an intentional, thoughtful, delicious bottle of wine. The Verdicchio variety supplies the green apple and herbal notes you’d expect, along with lovely fresh acidity; the maceration of the yeast in the wine as the fermentation finishes adds texture and background notes. Excellent aperitif, would pair perfectly with all manner of antipasti. Nice job, Riccardo.

94 Points! The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Blueprint comes from multiple vineyards across the Napa Valley but draws most heavily upon Rutherford. The separate lots are blended after approximately 12 months in barrel, then allowed to marry for a few months prior to bottling. Fruit-forward scents of blueberries, cassis and black cherries mark the nose, while the balanced, medium to full-bodied palate is silky, fine and elegant, with just the right amount of ripe, savory tannins on the finish. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com

93 Points! The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Blueprint is brilliant, and readers looking for a great Cabernet Sauvignon under $100 should snatch up bottles. Cassis, blackberries, chocolate, spice, and graphite notes all define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a layered, seamless mouthfeel and a great finish. - Jeb Dunnuck

100 Points! Lail's 2021 J. Daniel Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon blends lots from several high-end vineyards, including Heimark (Calistoga), Vine Hill Ranch (Oakville) and Steltzner (Stags Leap), plus Lail's own Mole Hill on Howell Mountain. It's an exciting wine, starting from the pulse-quickening aromas of raspberries and black cherries tinged with dark chocolate. In the mouth, this full-bodied beauty is richly concentrated, with a sensuous texture somewhere between silky and velvety, while the softly dusty finish shows terrific length and a spine-tingling hint of licorice. To reduce this wine to deceptively simple yet hard-to-pin-down words, it's complex, harmonious and elegant, yet it's enough of its place that it could only come from Napa Valley. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com

98+ Points Jeb Dunnuck's Wine of the Year! One of the finest wines in the vintage, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon J. Daniel Cuvee is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Dutch Henry Canyon area in Calistoga, Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, and Stelzner in Stags Leap (which was added in 2018). It spent 20 months in 75% new French oak. Still tight and inward, it has sensational purity in its currant, mulberry, truffly earth, graphite, and leather aromatics. These carry to a full-bodied, rich, incredibly concentrated 2021 that has the vintage’s fresher, focused style, ripe tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. It's going to benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve for a quarter of a century. - Jeb Dunnuck

95 Points! This is surprisingly full-bodied and round, reflecting the warmth and sunny exposure of the vineyard around the chateau. Tangy and vivid with currants, fresh flowers and plenty of energy and length. Delicate yet ripe. 77% cabernet sauvignon, 19.5% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 0.5% petit verdot. Needs two or three years to come together completely. Drink after 2027. - JamesSuckling.com

93 Points! The second wine of this great château, the 2021 Le Petit Mouton De Mouton Rothschild offers up a mini-Mouton-like nose of pure cassis, graphite, and spicy oak and hits the palate with medium-bodied richness, a deep, layered mid-palate, plenty of fruit and richness, and almost velvety tannins. Based on 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, aged in 50% new barrels, this textured, focused, impressively concentrated 2021 will benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age (which is rare for a second wine) and cruise for 10-15+ years in cold cellars. - Jeb Dunnuck

A blend of Malbec from their three different soil types picked at different times within a 10 to 12-day span, it is for this that Laurent’s mid-range Cahors, Les Calades, is the most accessible and widely appealing. He describes it as the flagship of their range, “a pure Malbec with power and freshness that represents the king grape variety of our appellation on limestone, and the new generation of Cahors: more fluid, rich and balanced with a distinct and very present mineral and marine finish.”

Each plot has an average age of around 40+ years and naturally ferments in separate concrete vats with 10% of whole bunches between three weeks to a month. Because Malbec already provides a lot of substance from its very thick skin, he does a single short pump-over every two days to preserve the hygiene of the cap of about 300 liters in total of the 50hl vat. After fermentation, the grapes are pressed and mixed with the free-run wine and aged for 11-13 months equally between Italian terracotta amphora, old 30hl French oak vats and six-year-old 225l French oak barrels. They’re lightly filtered at bottling without any added sulfites.

97 Points! Starting with the 2021 Grenache Estate Blend, this blend of 70% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 11% Cinsault, and 4% Roussanne comes all from the Adams Ranch Vineyard and was aged 20 months in new and used mostly French oak. It has a deeper ruby/plum hue as well as a beautiful nose of ripe black raspberries, darker cherries, spicy herbs, sandalwood, and ground pepper. It's complex, medium to full-bodied, has a broad, layered, seamless mouthfeel, and an incredible finish. It's a brilliant Grenache that has so much to love. It will evolve like a great Châteauneuf du Pape and have 15 years or more of overall longevity. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 Points! 2021 was marginally cooler for whites, and while this is young, its power is irrepressible yet it also shows restraint and harmony. A fine gauze of delicate florals and spice tucked behind structure, power and tension. Tuberose, green peppercorn, pear skin, preserved lemon, green cardamon and peach blossom. The palate offers jewelled hues of peach pit; a little flint, lots of wet stone minerality and crushed white sage dance with a very fine thread of salinity and lacy acidity. This takes time to unravel and unfurl, but once it does, it's got everything. The structure is superb and the 100% new oak meticulosity managed. Is this the greatest Art Series yet? - Decanter  Magazine

98 Points! This stunning 2021 Margaret River Chardonnay Art Series shows beautiful racy lines with a slick and seamless style as it bursts with toasted cashews, melon, lemon peel and pith aromas lifted by mandarin rind. Fabulous fruit density with immense power yet retaining refinement and shape over a long, strong finish. Energetic, vibrant, perfectly formed and built for the long haul. - Angus Hughson, Vinous Media

96 Points! The 2021 Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon is lighter in color and tannic intensity than the 2020 tasted beside it. No surprise for the vintages that birthed these wines. The latter was sunny, hot and dry, while the 2021 season was decidedly cooler, with more cloud cover and rain. This wine bears the fruits of the diligent labor in the vineyards and is one of the shining lights in the region this year. There are notes of raspberry and nori, moss and petrichor, blood and forest floor. This is a lighter style of Cabernet—and a lovely one at that. - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

95 Points! The nose is perfumed and lifted, showing aromas of blackcurrants, boysenberries, cedar, tobacco leaves and graphite. The full-bodied palate has finely integrated tannins and focused acidity, giving complex notes of mulberries, wild blackberries, mocha and spices. Wonderfully balanced and fresh with an underlying power. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

One of the best Cab Francs in America! From Leo: The Ascona vineyard is farmed by Ken Swegles. The sites that he and his team manage have become quite legendary, and continue to get better and better over the years. We are very excited to share this new release, aged in concrete egg and neutral French oak barrels.

94+ Points! The 2021 Léoville Barton has turned out beautifully in bottle, wafting from the glass with notes of cassis and plums mingled with subtle hints of pencil shavings, menthol and spices. Medium to full-bodied, deep and impressively concentrated, it's layered and refined, built around lively acids and a chassis of sweet, powdery tannin that will reward some bottle age with greater plenitude. It's a real success. - William Kelley, Wine Advocate

95 Points! This wine has aromas of blackberries, graphite, tar, bramble berries and blackcurrants. Grape skin as well. Medium- to full-bodied, with very integrated, ever-so-refined tannins that fan across the palate and show definition and tension. It's supple, savory and svelte, long and vivid at the end. A little shy but will deliver more excellence in three or four years. Better after 2027. -JamesSuckling.com

96+ Points! The 2021 Léoville Las Cases has turned out beautifully in bottle and clearly numbers among the very finest wines of the vintage. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of dark berries and cassis mingled with notions of cigar wrapper, violets and pencil shavings, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated with a deep and multidimensional core of fruit framed by beautifully refined tannins and girdled by lively acids, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. Serious and structured without being austere, it's a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and a mere 5% Merlot. - William Kelley, Wine Advocate

97 Points! A classic Leoville Las Cases with blackcurrants, blackberries, stone, graphite and lavender aromas that follow through to a medium body with firm and refined tannins and a juicy finish. Plenty of subtle flavor at the end. Racy tannins. 80% cabernet sauvignon, 15% cabernet franc and 5% merlot. Already very integrated and attractive but will be even better in three or four years. - JamesSuckling.com

97 Points! Utterly captivating on the nose, fragrant and floral with soft orange flecks, sweet cedar and cinnamon. Textured like heavy silk, weighty with a hold to the tannins that says ‘I’m a serious wine’, offering energy and focus. Precision and density, finessed layering that lets the wine deepen and expand over time. Not immediately as attention-seeking as some, but this is classy no doubt and ultimately calls for another sip, and then another. A gorgeous wine that is all the better for what it’s not saying at this point. - Decanter Magazine

96+ Points! The 2021 Léoville Las Cases has turned out beautifully in bottle and clearly numbers among the very finest wines of the vintage. Unfurling in the glass with aromas of dark berries and cassis mingled with notions of cigar wrapper, violets and pencil shavings, it's medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated with a deep and multidimensional core of fruit framed by beautifully refined tannins and girdled by lively acids, concluding with a long, penetrating finish. Serious and structured without being austere, it's a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and a mere 5% Merlot. - William Kelley, Wine Advocate

97 Points! A classic Leoville Las Cases with blackcurrants, blackberries, stone, graphite and lavender aromas that follow through to a medium body with firm and refined tannins and a juicy finish. Plenty of subtle flavor at the end. Racy tannins. 80% cabernet sauvignon, 15% cabernet franc and 5% merlot. Already very integrated and attractive but will be even better in three or four years. - JamesSuckling.com

97 Points! Utterly captivating on the nose, fragrant and floral with soft orange flecks, sweet cedar and cinnamon. Textured like heavy silk, weighty with a hold to the tannins that says ‘I’m a serious wine’, offering energy and focus. Precision and density, finessed layering that lets the wine deepen and expand over time. Not immediately as attention-seeking as some, but this is classy no doubt and ultimately calls for another sip, and then another. A gorgeous wine that is all the better for what it’s not saying at this point. - Decanter Magazine

94 Points! The Grand Vin 2021 Château Léoville Poyferré from this brilliant estate checks in as 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot. It has a serious, concentrated, inward style as well as impressive red and black currant-like fruit supported by notes of graphite, smoked tobacco, spicy oak, and chocolate. With terrific richness, a layered, concentrated mid-palate, and fine tannins, this is clearly one of the gems in the vintage. It needs to be forgotten for just 4-5 years, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it evolve for over two decades. - Jeb Dunnuck

96 Points! Excellent depth and complexity with a nice modern touch of cocoa powder to the black olives, pencil shavings, cassis, violets, black mushrooms and dark earth. Full-bodied palate with fresh, vertical tannins and lots of juicy fruit that seamlessly dissolve into the flavorful, persistent finish. Refined power with real length. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! The 2021 Chardonnay Estate Reserve is 100% from Greyton matured for 11 months in 500-litre barrels, 40% new. It has a wonderful bouquet with honeydew melon, apricot blossom and light crushed stone scents that percolate through with time. The palate is very well balanced with tropical hints of passion fruit and guava, but the acidity keeps everything on a tight course, very minerally on the finish. Top class. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

The best Syrah in South Africa? You be the judge. Her last reserve from 2018 was 97 points from Neal Martin and this one's better...

100 Points! Insane aromas of black currants, crushed stones, violets, and sweet dark tobacco. Black truffle. Full-bodied with superb depth of fruit and plush and chewy tannins that give tension and length. It reminds me of the 1975 La Mission Haut Brion because of the stone, iodine and purple fruits. Love. Made from 100% cabernet sauvignon. 883 cases produced. Needs four or five years to come together. - JamesSuckling.com

99 Points! Since 1995, Lokoya has produced Cabernet from the Veeder Peak Estate at 548m on the western ridges of the Mayacamas Mountains. This is a do-not-open wine for until at least 2026. Full-bodied with palate-arresting tannins that are super-compact, long, and so densely pixelated they etch themselves into every nook and cranny on the palate. Only a minute later does your mouth find release as this thread of crunchy acidity begins to sweep away the powerful tannins to reveal the underlying blue fruit and violet aromatics that are so beautifully pure and youthful. Simply put, tuck it away for several years and then, if you can, explore bottles every few years until your stash runs out. In the low-yielding 2021 vintage, the skin-to-juice ratio is such that this may prove to be one of the longest-lived Lokoya wines yet, given the intensity of the tannin and the freshness of the underlying acidity. Chris Carpenter makes the Lokoya wines, and the label is owned by the Jackson Family. The winemaking is the same for all the wines, with mostly native yeast fermentation, pump-overs by hand, malolactic fermentation in barrel and ageing for 22 months in 90% new French oak. Carpenter believes that fine Napa Valley Cabernet wines are not only defined by the soils of their sites but also by the Bay Area Pacific breezes that roll in and out daily, cooling the valley from the south to the north in the evenings and from the north to the south in the mornings. These mountains define cooling as any place in the valley and the diurnal temperature shifts at higher elevations create an equilibrium where climatic fluctuations aren't as pronounced as fruit grown below the fog lines. - Decanter Magazine

98+ Points! A massive, powerful, full-bodied beast of a wine that reminds me of a great vintage of Chateau Latour with its structure and regal character, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder offers a beautiful bouquet of blackberries, wild cherries, iron, spring flowers, and wild scrub brush. It's concentrated, has massive extract and richness, no shortage of tannins, and a huge finish. It's not for the instant gratification crowd and needs 7-8 years of bottle age, but it will see its 30th birthday in fine form. - Jeb Dunnuck