Wines

97 points, Vinous' #6 Wine of 2024! Light and elegant, the 2021 Cheval des Andes is 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Malbec, 3% Petit Verdot. It achieves a feat that only cool years can provide: smooth texture, agile palate and just the right amount of freshness for a nuanced build. As it breathes, it begins to reveal notes of fresh cherry and plum, with a hint of menthol, maraschino cherries and a touch of pepper. It opens further with aromas of sandalwood and oak that complete the framework. This is a somewhat leaner, more ethereal Cheval than other years, but it has a higher level of precision. It's a wine inspired by Bordeaux, executed in a Bordeaux style, with Mendoza terroir. A wine without edges, it’s a polished red in the early stages of a long, balanced life. - Joaquín Hidalgo, Vinous Media

98 points! The finest vintage of this wine I've tasted, the 2021 Cheval Des Andes is based on 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Malbec, and the balance Petit Verdot. It has a decidedly Bordeaux-like nose of ripe currants, leafy tobacco, cedarwood, and a kiss of flowers, with perfectly integrated background oak. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has a layered, seamless mouthfeel, ripe, polished tannins, and a great finish. It has this remarkable sense of purity and class, and while it's incredible today (especially with a decant), I wouldn't be surprised to see it evolve gracefully for two decades. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 points! Complex aromas of blueberries, pie crust, fresh flowers and currant bush with hints of baking spices like nutmeg. Medium- to full-bodied with extremely fine tannins that are integrated and gorgeous. Graceful and refined, with super length. Interestingly, 20% of the wine was aged in large oak casks (2,500 liters), mostly from Slovenia. Try after 2027 but a joy to taste now. - JamesSuckling.com

98 Points! Since Gerald Gabillet's arrival in Mendoza in 2018, Cheval des Andes wines have gained in elegance and precision. In a great vintage like 2021, the results are spellbinding. Near-equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, with 3% Petit Verdot; the fruit comes from an old vineyard in Las Compuertas and a newer property in the Uco Valley. A fruity, floral wine, with minty hints and a subtle layer of oak that contributes spice and cedar notes. The palate is silky and energetic, with a vibrant freshness and polished, grippy tannins that channel it nicely into the long, perfumed finish. - Decanter Magazine Learn More

95 Points! The 2017 Chimère reminds me a little of the 2011 with its more elegant yet still powerful style. Beautiful notes of black cherries, blueberries, cured meats, pepper, tree bark, and new leather all emerge from the glass, followed by a rich, medium to full-bodied, tight, backward and unevolved Mourvèdre that needs forgotten for 4-5 years. As always, this cuvée is primarily Mourvèdre (it’s normally blended with Grenache and other varieties, even some white varieties) and there are a scant 100 cases made. - Jeb Dunnuck

This is another stellar set of Champagne from Christophe Baron. The 2018s are simply lights out. Readers will note the addition of a new wine in this range, the Closeaux, which rounds out the collection of four pure Meunier Champagnes, all bottled in magnum only. Mignon and his cousins practice a decidedly Burgundian approach to winemaking. The wines are fermented in 600L Taransaud demi-muids (25% new), with heavy lees stirring, an approach Baron favors for building the wines, especially on the mid-palate and that allows for bottling with no dosage. As for 2018, Baron calls it a typical modern vintage for Champagne marked by climate change. “You better get used to it, because this is the future!” he told me emphatically. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

This is another stellar set of Champagne from Christophe Baron. The 2018s are simply lights out. Readers will note the addition of a new wine in this range, the Closeaux, which rounds out the collection of four pure Meunier Champagnes, all bottled in magnum only. Mignon and his cousins practice a decidedly Burgundian approach to winemaking. The wines are fermented in 600L Taransaud demi-muids (25% new), with heavy lees stirring, an approach Baron favors for building the wines, especially on the mid-palate and that allows for bottling with no dosage. As for 2018, Baron calls it a typical modern vintage for Champagne marked by climate change. “You better get used to it, because this is the future!” he told me emphatically. - Antoni Galloni, Vinous Media

98 Points! Intense, vibrant aromas of strawberries and raspberries, together with cola and flowery notes. Milk and mint nuances, too. Shows a lot of licorice elegance and blood-orange freshness on both the nose and palate with firm, velvety tannins and well-packed, brilliant acidity and a polished finish. Good aftertaste and amazing potential. Very classic. Drinkable now, but best from 2025. - JamesSuckling.com

Some impressive sourcing for this incredible 'value' Pinot Noir, with fruit coming from Eden Rift and Gimelli Vineyards, two VERY respected sites in the, you guessed it, Cienega Valley. Both vineyards produce a multitude of $50+ dollar wines so to see this one at this price? Amazing!

From the importer: 

Originally, Ciro produced only Fiano because the vineyards he bought were planted only with that variety. A few years ago he started making Greco from a rented vineyard, a vineyard that he is now renting and farming himself. The soil is a sandy clay of volcanic origin called tuff, or 'tufo' in Italian (but the name of the appellation refers not to the soil, but to the village of Tufo, which is not far from Avellino). Chunks of pure sulfur can sometimes be found in the vineyard.

Picariello's Greco is made similarly to his Fiano, although the must is pressed more quickly to avoid oxidation. Ciro tells me that Greco can age like Fiano; given that he started making Greco more recently, I haven't had the chance to test this for myself, but the first Picariello wine I ever tasted was a ten-year-old bottle of Fiano di Avellino that knocked my socks off, so I have no reason to doubt it. My sense is that Ciro is getting better with this variety; I clearly preferred the Fiano when we first started working together, but the Greco is excellent white wine, savory, very minerally, long and complex. Ciro's description: 'orange blossom, citrus peel, melon.' 

96+ Points! I loved the 2019 Pinot Noir Garys' Vineyard. It's a rich, backward, relatively closed wine that's going to blossom with another 2-3 years of bottle age. Giving up Gevrey-Chambertin like notes of smoked black fruits, pomegranate, violets, spiced meats, iron, and leafy herbs, it's medium to full-bodied and has a beautiful mid-palate, building tannins, and a solid spine of acidity. It has plenty of ripeness and is certainly a California Pinot Noir, with beautiful fruit and purity. It needs a healthy decant if drinking any time soon, and it's going to hit prime time in another 2-4 years and have a solid decade of prime drinking. It's a gorgeous wine. - Jeb Dunnuck

From 18 acres of vines growing in a celebrated vineyard named the Fat Sheep.* This is in the adjacent commune of Saint Fiacre, which is the smallest of the 23 communes in the Sèvre et Maine AC and one with some of the best grape- growing land. The rocky gneiss soil here is thin, between 6-14 inches deep, in a seam of amphibolite, a greenish metamorphic rock. The vines were planted between 1930 and 1986, and average more than 50 years old. The meager soil and old vines on this small hill give naturally low yields, averaging 45 hl/ha. After spontaneous fermentation, the wine rests on its lees in underground tanks for twelve to fourteen months. Ripe, round, concentrated and intensely mineral, this wine can age beautifully, developing aromas with bottle age that are a cross between Riesling and Pinot Blanc.

Dugat's 2022 Bourgogne delivers aromas of sweet cherries, berries and petals, followed by a medium-bodied, bright and precise palate that's vibrant and mouthwatering. William Kelley, robertparker.com, Jan 2024 

The 2023 Gevrey-Chambertin Village presents a pretty nose with a mixture of blackcurrant and raspberry fruit. Well defined with nicely integrated oak, it conveys a sense of transparency. Fine tannins frame the palate, offering raspberry and strawberry fruit with a dash of spice on the finish, which is more structured than I expected. Delightful. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

A slightly riper nose freely offers up its array of plum, dark currant and more prominent earth influence. There is more size and weight, if not necessary better density, to the sappy, dusty and complex finale that is noticeably firmer. This is a lovely Gevrey villages and worth considering. - Allen Meadows, Burghound, Jan 2025 

Most of the fruit in this Bourgogne Blanc comes from the area of Charnay,  just  North  of  Pouilly. This is 100% Chardonnay, vinified in stainless steel tanks. High-toned aromatics of calcaire, apple and pear skin. In the mouth the wine is vibrant  and fresh, with good tension and very fruit-driven: lemon oil, tangerine, smoke, wet chalky stones.

A massal selection of Dolcetto carved out from their other two Dolcetto vineyards. After fermenting it in steel, it is also aged about 10 months there, to make it even more intense and solid. The palate is of the highest level, capable of sustaining any gastronomic pairing with elegance and pleasantness.

Harvested from a sustainable, 31-year-old, .82-hectare plateau vineyard planted on clay-silt soil and with a western exposure. The wine is matured for 11 months on fine lees in neutral oak. Bottled with light bentonite fining and unfiltered.