Wines

94 Points! Sculpted smoky aromatics, love the carved out tannins and black fruits. This is a delicious 2012 that is full of plentiful berry fruits, blackcurrant and sloe, with an unfussy feel of hedgerow brambled freshness. The tannins have heft and give, and there is a sense of precision but also of expansion through the palate, great stuff. Ready to drink but only at the beginning of its drinking window. 60% new oak, 38hl/h yield. - Jane Anson, 2022

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97 Points! Elegant, vibrant and medium-bodied, so fresh, tangy and taut. Alive in florals, red tea, red cherries, cranberries and raspberries that keep ringing in the finish. Great acidity, moderate tannins and a medium body. Charming, almost delicate, but lithe and structured enough to age. Drink now or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! Seeing even more stems, the 2022 Pinot Noir Rancho La Viña Vineyard has a beautiful ruby hue to go with savory red and black cherry-like fruit supported by toasted nuts, savory herbs, violets, and orange blossom. I love its overall balance, it has fine tannins, and a great finish. Drink this incredibly classy, complex beauty over the coming 10-12 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

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97 Points! Aromas of salted nuts, toffee, brittle, and hints of tar. Honey. Candied almonds. Medium body. Very sweet. Crunchy and fresh. A blend of ports aged in wood from 40 years to 80 years. This is a new category for tawny port. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

96 Points! A bird of a different feather, this tawny Port features a high-pitched jasmine note along with a range of singed white peach, bitter almond, hazelnut husk, dried clementine and green fig flavors that glide through effortlessly, all carried by superfine acidity through a remarkably long and persistent finish that tilts to the dry side. Shows delicate sweetness, which lets the panoply of flavors play out unencumbered. Beautiful. Drink now. - Wine Spectator

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97 Points! Fabulous nose of red fruits, summer flowers and licorice. The very complex interplay of huge fine tannins and richness reminds me of Grand Cru Burgundy, but this has a southerly personality. Great velvety finish that goes on and on. Doesn't want to stop. 80% grenache, 10% mourvedre and 10% cinsault. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Drinkable now, but best from 2025. - JamesSuckling.com

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97 Points! Great red fruit aromas, but also wet earth and tar. Rich, concentrated and very suave on the full-bodied palate, this Chateauneuf has extremely fine tannins and terrific balance. Extremely long, velvety finish with great spicy complexity. A vineyard on sandy soil planted mainly with grenache plus small amounts of mourvedre and counoise. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink from release. - JamesSuckling.com

94+ Points! Crafted from 80% Grenache, 10% Mourvèdre and 10% Counoise, planted on safre soils in the commune of Courthézon, the 2022 Chateauneuf du Pape Les Saintes Vierges exhales a delicate, refined bouquet of peony, rose, flowers, dark cherries and fresh thyme. Medium to full-bodied, elegant and tense with a textured, fine mid-palate, it possesses fresh, bright acids. This wine exudes a lot of vertical energy. It is best kept in the cellar for the next decade and will be enjoyable for the following 15–20 years. - Yohan Castaing, robertparker.com

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97 Points! A dense, layered white with sliced apple, pear and crushed stone that follow through to a full body, yet it’s linear and fresh at the end. Very flinty and steely. Wonderful finish. It goes on for minutes. A new wine from here and a blend of chardonnay and a dash of friulano. Single vineyard and made in 25-hectoliter tanks. April 2022 release. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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91 Points! Plump, tangy and fresh, this offers a core of green apple, peach and meadow blossoms, with a squeeze of lemon. A deliciously drinkable Riesling, with great harmony, showing notes of herbs and chamomile. Finishes dry but not austere. Drink now through 2031. - Wine Spectator

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97 Points! Lots of classic darker, herbal notes define the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard, a rich, medium to full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon from winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown. With air, more chocolate, espresso, and spice notes emerge from the glass, and this medium to full-bodied, textured, ripe, yet also elegant 2019 is going to drink brilliantly for another 20 years or so. - Jeb Dunnuck

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99 Points! From the C1 Block of Beckstoffer To Kalon, winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown has worked with these Clone 4 Cabernet vines since 2005. This is a block bottling like many of the Schrader wines. Lush, generous fruit but with structure – all the elements amplified but on equal proportions. Explosive nose of rich black fruits, black olive, dried wild herbs and baking spices. Incredibly textural with pixelated three-dimensional tannins finishing with pops of dried tobacco and purple-red florals. A joy to drink but among the most collectable and cellar worthy wines of the vintage. The 'CCS' on the label refers to the initials of proprietor Carol Colesworthy Schrader. - Decanter Magazine

98 Points! Throws off a range of sassafras, chaparral and anise aromas before yielding up a prodigious core of açaí berry, plum and blackberry compote. Offers a nice interplay of power and purity, with tarry violet and loamy incense accents. While tannic through the finish, this terrific version reveals a subtle ripple of acidity and a hint of iron. Best from 2024 through 2040. - Wine Spectator

98 Points! The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard CCS from the To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville is another heavenly wine in the lineup. I always find another level of purity in this cuvée, and the 2019 offers remarkably pure crème de cassis-like fruits as well as notes of white flowers, incense, toasted spice, and unsmoked tobacco. Full-bodied, deep, round, and plush on the palate, I love its tannins, it brings incredible richness while staying perfectly balanced and fresh, and it’s just already a joy to drink. - Jeb Dunnuck

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97 Points! Lots of classic darker, herbal notes define the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard, a rich, medium to full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon from winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown. With air, more chocolate, espresso, and spice notes emerge from the glass, and this medium to full-bodied, textured, ripe, yet also elegant 2019 is going to drink brilliantly for another 20 years or so. - Jeb Dunnuck

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98 Points! A fine, effusive quality from the sandalwood, violets, black pepper and blackberry concentrate. Quite a denser and more muscular expression, yet you won’t feel any chew from the tannins, as they melt into the dark fruit. Long and focused. - JamesSuckling.com

97 Points! Revealing a vivid purple hue as well as a powerful, more black-fruited, iron, tobacco, and scorched earth-like aromatic profile, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon To Kalon Vineyard Monastery Block is full-bodied, has a rich, powerful attack, great mid-palate density, and brilliant tannins. Coming from a famous block located on the western side of this great vineyard, brought up in new barrels, it's another 2019 that has a rounded, supple, approachable style while also bringing impressive density, depth, and structure. - Jeb Dunnuck

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97 Points! Lots of violets, flowery incense, cassis, and spice notes emerge from the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard RBS, a full-bodied, silky, elegant 2019 that shines just as much for its purity and balance as its richness and depth. Possessing good acidity, a lively, vibrant mouthfeel, supple tannins, and a great finish, it has plenty of up-front appeal yet should easily evolve for a solid 20 years if properly stored. - Jeb Dunnuck

97 Points! Another historic site and another opulent wine from Thomas Rivers Brown. Cabernet clone 337 delivers a fresh, high-toned, juicy red teeming with black fruit, black pepper and toasty cedar. Lush dark fruit is round and rich on the palate, framed by ultra-fine, satiny tannins and tangy blood orange acidity. - Decanter Magazine

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99 Points! A big, muscular, powerful wine, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard T6 boasts a monster note of blackcurrants, fresh plums, scorched earth, tobacco, and chocolate. This all carries to a full-bodied 2019 with the ripe, savory, concentrated style of the vintage, building tannins, no shortage of fruit, and a great, great finish. It's certainly one of the biggest, richest, more structured wines in the lineup, yet the balance is spot on and everything is in the right places. It's going to take at least 7-8 years for this puppy to shed some of its considerable baby fat and hit maturity, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it evolve for 20 or 30 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

97+ Points! The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon T6 Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is made from Clone 6, an old California heritage clone that's notoriously shy-bearing. It boasts lovely aromatics, layering dried spices and exotic florals over super-ripe cherries, while the full-bodied palate is all silk and cashmere, finishing incredibly long and elegant. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com 

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97 Points! This is a fantastic new wine, with crushed berries, stones, and oyster shell with moss and pine needles. Full and linear, with agile acidity that gives the wine energy. It’s salty and lively. So focused and mouthwatering. So attractive now, but will age beautifully. - JamesSuckling.com

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99 Points! Superb aromas of black currants, rose petal and mint. Lavender and stones too. Full body with incredible fruit density. Complex, yet it's agile and bright. Tannins are perfectly polished. It builds on the palate and shows the structure of a first growth Bordeaux but remains so Chilean. A blend of 58% cabernet sauvignon, 15% carmenere, 12% malbec, 10% merlot, and 5% petit verdot. From biodynamically grown grapes. This is a joy to taste now but it will show itself in 2019. Even better than the amazing 2012. - JamesSuckling.com

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92 Points! Currant, berry and tobacco aromas and flavors with some thyme and coffee bean. Full-bodied, chewy and polished. Needs time to soften. Try after 2024. - James Suckling

91 Points! The 2019 Senejac is a complex, beguiling Haut-Medoc. Sweet pipe tobacco, cedar, mint, licorice, dried herbs, menthol, dried flowers and mint are some of the many aromas and flavors that lift from the glass. Senejac offers unreal complexity and tons of energy that continues to build through to a long, beautifully persistent finish laced with expressive savory top notes. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

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97 Points! I loved the 2018 Chardonnay UV- El Diablo. This beauty has a wonderfully pure, elegant style that carries both richness and freshness. Giving up notes of white peach, white flowers, lemon blossom, and honeysuckle, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, bright yet integrated acidity, a stacked mid-palate, and a great finish. It shows the more supple, silky style of the vintage and is already drinking nicely, yet I still think it will be even better with another 6-12 months of bottle age. It should evolve nicely for 7-8 years or more. - Jeb Dunnuck Learn More

97 Points! All elegance and silk, this beautifully balanced wine offers a lively texture, with subtle lemon, toast and kiwi flavors on a full body. The mouthfeel is graceful and mouthwatering, backed by acidity that perfectly meets the generous fruit flavors. Making a wine of this caliber in thousands of cases is quite an accomplishment. Best from 2027 - 2032- Wine Enthusiast

96 Points! A vibrant, agile and poised Chardonnay with aromas of pears, apples, sweet spices, jasmine and hints of stones. It’s medium- to full-bodied with precise definition on the palate. Fresh acidity and crunchy fruity at the center and a velvety touch to the edge, bringing volume and a voluptuous character throughout. Lively and long finish. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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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

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92 Points! Cherry stones, currants, tobacco and lemon peel on the nose. Sleek and focused, elegant, with fine-grained tannins, a medium body and a creamy, linear finish. Try from 2024. - JamesSuckling.com

 

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