Wines

94 Points! There is a clear Jura twang in the white 2022 Ollos Branco that makes me wonder if the wine had any biological aging under flor (Garrido confirmed that it did!). It's the evolution of the wine he used to call Mercenario and comes from selected vineyards in different locations and soils and a myriad of varieties—Treixadura, Albariño, Godello, Loureira, Torrontés, Lado, Branco Lexítimo and Verdello Antigo—picked when they were still crunchy. It finished at 12.3% alcohol with a pH of 3.3 and 6.1 grams of acidity. It's tasty, complex, long, salty and vibrant, with effervescent freshness and a bitter and salty twist in the finish. I love it. He wants to represent an overall picture of Ribeiro, fermenting and aging in barrels and tinajas, where the wine matured for 10 months.- Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

98 Points! Tasting this very powerful and concentrated Cornas is like listening to a piece of organ music when the bass kicks in. Very meaty. A wealth of blackberry aromas unfurls as it aerates in the glass. More than enough fruit and flesh to wrap around the imposing core of beautifully crafted tannins. The deep bass notes echo on and on in the compelling finish. - JamesSuckling.com

97 Points! No Renaissance was produced in this vintage. Reminding me of the 2017, the 2022 Cornas reveals gorgeous red and black fruits, violets, bouquet garni, and gamey, iron-like nuances. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has fine tannins, beautiful overall balance, plenty of mid-palate depth, and a gorgeous finish. This is well worth your time and money, and I'd be thrilled with bottles in the cellar. Hide bottles for 5-7 years and enjoy over the following two decades. This is another beautiful lineup from the Clape family. The 2023s are supple and upfront, with terrific depth of fruit. Due to tiny yields, no Renaissance cuvée was produced in 2022, and the Grand Vin is brilliant stuff, with a sunny yet concentrated, structured style that reminds me of the estate's 2017. These are beautiful, classic Cornas that readers will love. In addition, don't miss their Saint-Péray, a fresher, crisp, absolutely delicious white. - Jeb Dunnuck

96 Points! A tasting of various barrel samples suggests that the 2022 vintage here will be very good, if not necessarily the most powerful year. The fruit is quite dark in character and there's a good sense of purity if not the same freshness as 2021 or 2020, or the grandeur of 2019. Nonetheless, an excellent wine and a fairly typical expression of Clape Cornas. Tannins are ripe and elegant. - Decanter Magazine

94 Points! Mirabelle plums and acacia blossoms are woven into the fabric of this creamy and elegant St.-Peray. Flinty freshness right through the very long, pure finish. Should age really well. A cuvee of 90% marsanne and 10% roussanne. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

97 Points! I’m still looking forward to tasting the great Château Ausone of Saint-Émilion later this week, but in the meantime I’m thinking back to this great 1998 I had this summer. In fact, it looks like 2014 was the antithesis of 1998, a year that saw the Right Bank and the early-ripening-merlot-dominated blends triumph over the Left Bank; as I’ve just written, I believe 2014 is showing much better for cabernet sauvignon and the Right Bank. Even so, this was tight and powerful with hints of cream and blueberries. It was full and pretty with firm tannins. On the finish it was so long and intense. Some balsamic and dried fruit undertones. It’s only beginning to open up now. - JamesSuckling.com, 2016

PLEASE BE AWARE, THIS IS A PRE-ARRIVAL WINE - YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED SHIPPING FEES UNTIL THE WINE(S) ARRIVE

97-98 Points! A really classic Ausone, reminiscent of the great ones of the 1980s. Medium-bodied, it has such clarity and brightness and length. Purity and precision with drive and focus from superb viticulture and winemaking. A blend of 65% cabernet franc and 35% merlot. - James Suckling

94-97 Points! A classic blend of 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot resting in new barrels, the 2024 Château Ausone sports a vivid ruby hue to go with a gorgeous perfume of black raspberries, subtle cassis, graphite, sappy flowers, and lead pencil. It's gorgeous on the palate, with medium to full-bodied richness, a pure, focused, remarkably elegant mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, and perfectly integrated oak. This classy, perfumed, sensationally elegant Ausone will drink nicely with just a few years of bottle age. - Jeb Dunnuck

93-96 Points! The 2024 Ausone is pure sensuality. Intensly perfumed, pliant and silky on the palate, Ausone is haunting in its beauty. All the elements are so well balanced. Black cherry, lavender, mocha, espresso and exotic spice overtones all take shape in the glass. A wine of understated depth, the 2024 is impressive. Even in the early going, the 100% new oak is not at all evident, suggesting a wine with superior balance. The blend is 65% Cabernet Franc and 35% Merlot. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

94 Points! Blackberry, blackcurrant, dark chocolate and spices. Bright and vivid. Medium-bodied with firm, racy tannins and excellent length. There’s an energy and focused directness with lovely length. 75% cabernet sauvignon, 15% mablec, 7% cabernet franc and 3% petit verdot. Drink or hold. - James Suckling

92 Points! While the 2021 Proprietary Red could be released as a Cabernet Sauvignon (it's 75% Cabernet Sauvignon), they've opted to keep it as a Proprietary blend to allow for more flexibility in the future. It has a great nose of juicy blue fruits and subtle cassis as well as medium to full-bodied richness, some textbook Cabernet chocolate and tobacco notes, a round, mouth-filling texture, and outstanding length. It's a beautiful wine that will evolve for 10-12 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 Points! The captivating Baricci 2019 Brunello is another gorgeous wine from this storied producer. It offers enticing scents of woodland berry, new leather, camphor, pipe tobacco and dog rose while the full-bodied, elegantly structured palate delivers juicy Morello cherry, red plum, licorice and cake spice before a flinty mineral finish. A backbone of tight, refined tannins and fresh acidity provide support and racy tension. While it’s still youthfully austere, it already shows great balance and precision. - Kerin O' Keefe

97 Points! The 2019 Brunello di Montalcino is youthfully inward and darkly floral with an herbal tinge and hints of crushed ashen stone that give way to vivid black raspberry and exotic spice. This is juicy and spry, with racy cherry-berry fruit and stimulating acidity that creates a sensation of boundless energy, even as a saturation of primary concentration settles in toward the close. The 2019 finishes with incredible length and youthful tension, leaving balsamic spice, sage and licorice notes lingering over a bed of dusty tannins. - Eric Guido, Viinous Media

97 Points! Baricci shines with this stunning 2019, from the estate’s south- to southeast-facing plots at 300 metres on the Montosoli hill. It is still far too young, but everything is in place for a long and gratifying life. Preliminary cedar and vanillin nuances melt into sumptuous cherry, and there's a pronounced stony, mineral edge along with juicy blood orange to impart further intricacy. Refined and graceful with layered substance, it has long, chalky, perfectly ‘al dente’ tannins and sappy, mouthwatering acidity. - Decanter Magazine

97 Points! Packed with cherry, raspberry and pomegranate flavors, this red is also succulent and verging on racy in profile, with a deep vein of mineral and peppery spice notes that intensify on the extended finish. Shows superb balance and grace, with the best yet to come. - Wine Spectator

96+ Points! The Barone Ricasoli 2021 Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Gaiole Colledilà opens to dark fruit, but perhaps more significantly, you get a slate-like mineral note that adds focus. That mineral note appears in all these beautiful Gran Selezione wines from vintner Francesco Ricasoli, but in the case of this bottle, it adds a dark or slightly brooding personality. The finish is absolutely savory and salty. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

95 Points! Energizing tannins and vivid fruit acidity power the massive black fruits and intricate oak spices in this muscular but polished wine. Plump blackberries, baked blueberries, black currants and cedar all add to the compelling flavors. Built to improve and gain complexity with age, this wine should drink best from 2027–2037. - Wine Enthusiast

94 Points! The Rutherford Reserve leads with black fruits, toffee and oak spices. Full-bodied with ripe sweet blackberry and black cherry notes, building tannins that are a bit granular. The wine has plenty of grip and is built on 90% Cabernet Sauvignon with 10% Petit Verdot, aged 21 months in 80% new French oak. It is nicely balanced with a pH of 3.64 and is one not easy to put down. - Decanter Magazine

92 Points! The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Reserve is packed with dark fruit, chocolate, grilled herbs, leather and incense. In 2020, winemaker Trevor Durling added 10% Petit Verdot to add body, a decision that paid off handsomely. This is a very fine wine for the year. Chocolaty tannins linger on the close. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

97 Points! Beau-Sejour Becot is a dense, powerful wine. A rush of black cherry, plum, chocolate, new leather, licorice, spice and sweet oak builds as this towering, vertically explosive Saint-Émilion opens in the glass. This is an especially broad, expansive Saint-Émilion, much of that attributable to the clay in these soils. The 2020 is magnificent in its intensity and overall volume. Superb. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media Learn More

98 Points! Another stunning vintage from this brilliant estate that is just delivering hit after hit. Concentration and intensity right from the initial aromatics, damson, cassis and blackberry fruits that you could almost drink now until the tannins build up across the palate and remind you that this is built to last. Velvety texture, black chocolate and crushed stone minerality on the finish. One of the wines of the vintage. Tasted twice, one week apart. 60% 1st wine. A yield of 45hl/ha. -Jane Anson, Decanter Magazine

97 Points! The 2019 Beausejour Duffau-Lagarrosse is deep garnet-purple in color. It slowly expands on the nose to deliver impactful scents of blackberry preserves, Morello cherries, and warm black plums, followed by suggestions of Ceylon tea, iron ore, tilled soil, and fallen leaves. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has exquisitely ripe, silt-like tannins and energetic, nuanced black fruits, delivering a fine backbone of racy freshness and tons of mineral sparks on the very long finish. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

96+ Points! From one of my favorite châteaux on the Right Bank, the 2019 Château Beauséjour (Duffau-Lagarrosse) is 86% Merlot and 14% Cabernet Franc brought up in a mix of new and used barrels. It's a tighter, more closed 2019, yet it offers beautiful purity and focus in its cassis and black raspberry fruits as well as notes of tobacco leaf, graphite, chocolate, and chalky minerality. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and again, with this remarkable purity and precision, it has enough tannins to warrant 4-6 years in the cellar and will be incredibly long-lived. It's a beautiful Saint-Emilion. It’s worth pointing out that the 2019 is the vintage bottled by Nicolas Thienpont and starting in 2021, the estate is in the hands of Josephine Duffau-Lagarrosse. - Jeb Dunnuck

100 Points! The 2020 Château Beauséjour (Duffau-Lagarrosse), made mostly by the team of Nicolas Thienpont (the final blend was put together by Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse), is another tour de force from this incredible terroir, and undeniably one of the wines of the vintage. Based on 81% Merlot and 19% Cabernet Franc brought up in 70% new French oak, it offers a sensationally pure bouquet of black raspberries, blueberries, scorched earth, graphite, and a dense, smoky, floral character that emerges with time in the glass. With a voluptuous, layered mouthfeel, gorgeous mid-palate depth, building tannins, and a liqueur of mineral-like character on the finish, it shows the density, purity, precision, and vibrancy of this vintage perfectly and displays that rare mix of richness, intensity, elegance, and length that are the hallmarks of a truly great wine. This is unquestionably in the ranks of the 2009, 2010, and 2016 and will evolve for 40 years or more. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 Points! Intense but delicate, really an exciting wine to taste where you feel the energy build through the palate. Unmistakable limestone influence with the floral aromatics, a jumble of peony, roses and violets, opening up to brambled raspberry and loganberry fruits, with fennel, oyster shell and slate. Huge ageing potential. Cabernet Sauvignon rather than Cabernet Franc in this blend, just one of the many ways in which it stands out from its peers even on the limestone plateau of St Emilion, its delicacy suggesting it is one of the most Burgundian of Bordeaux wines. This vintage was overseen during the growing season and vinification by the team under Nicolas Thienpont, but given its final blend and ageing by new co-owner Josephine Duffau-Lagarosse, along with Prisca Courtin-Clarins. - Jane Anson

94 Points! The 2021 Pagani Ranch is a beautiful, expressive wine from one of Sonoma Valley's great sites. Rich, pliant and explosive, the 2021 possesses captivating inner perfume, vivid fruit and exceptional balance. Sweet red cherry, blood orange, mint, spice, mocha and a kiss of new oak all race across the palate. An alluring, captivating wine, the Pagani Ranch is total sensuality...Unfortunately, this is the last Pagani Ranch for Bedrock. - Antonio Galloni, Viunous Media

94 Points! The 2024 Zinfandel Katusha's Vineyard emerges from vines in Lodi planted in 1915. Dark and explosive, the 2024 offers up a heady mix of blackberry, sage, scorched earth, tobacco, incense and licorice. This burly, potent Zinfandel has so much sheer character. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous

PLEASE BE AWARE, THIS IS A PRE-ARRIVAL WINE - YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED SHIPPING FEES UNTIL THE WINE(S) ARRIVE

95-96 Points! Very good poise, tension and depth, with a light peppery, mineral and citrusy touch to the fruit. Good fruit here, with medium to full body and elastic, chalky tannins. There is something quite pure and transparent in the middle. So elegant, al-dente and long. An excellent wine from this difficult vintage. 70% merlot, 10% cabernet franc and 10% cabernet sauvignon. Picking between September 26 to October 8. - Zekun Shuai, James Suckling

92-94+ Points! A blend of 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2024 Château Bellefont-Belcier is deep purple-hued and opaque, showing remarkable purity in its black and blue fruits, graphite, crushed stone, and violet notes. Medium-bodied and concentrated on the palate, it has a pure, layered mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and integrated acidity. This château continues to never put a foot wrong, and their 2024 will absolutely be worth your time and money. - Jeb Dunnuck

95 Points! The 2019 Bellevue Mondotte, picked at 18hL/ha on a single day (October 5) has a tightly wound bouquet of blackberry, briary, blueberry and light violet petal scents, but less of the marine aromas that I picked out from the barrel sample. However, there are some lovely orange pith scents that percolate through with continued aeration, and these are accentuated after a couple of hours. The palate is medium-bodied with gentle grip, good acidity and fine backbone. This is quite a sturdy Saint-Émilion with impressive density toward the finish. It needs just a little more charm and personality, though they may develop with time. Very fine, but patience required. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

98 Points! More seamless and elegant than the more powerful, structured Pavie Decesse (these all emerge from the Perse team), the Merlot-dominated 2019 Bellevue Mondotte just about jumps out of the glass with its ripe, spicy red, blue, and black fruits as well as spring flowers, graphite, chalky mineral, and violet-like aromas and flavors. Almost Pomerol-like with its seamless, polished tannins and gorgeous mouthfeel, it's flawlessly balanced, has a deep, layered mid-palate, and a great, great finish. This stunning Saint-Emilion will benefit from just 4-6 years of bottle age and cruise for 30+ years in cold cellars. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 Points! A linear and very compacted Bellevue with blackberries, blueberries and chocolate. Full and tight with racy tannins and a long and flavorful finish. Racy and focused. 100% merlot. Give this until 2028. - James Suckling, jamessuckling.com

98 Points! The 2020 Bellevue Mondotte is another powerhouse from the team at Pavie. All Merlot from the upper plateau above Château Pavie (the soils here contain a touch more clay), this full-bodied, deep, concentrated 2020 has a tight, unevolved bouquet of darker raspberries, cassis, truffly earth, and chocolate. Balanced, structured, and incredibly pure, it's mostly potential at this point and needs to be forgotten for 5-6 years. - Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.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