Wines

95 Points, Wine Spectator's #1 Wine of the Year 2024! Rose, strawberry and cherry aromas and flavors are the main themes in this red, along with wild herb, mineral and cut hay accents. Racy and full of energy, with a long, saturated finish. Best from 2025 through 2042. - Wine Spectator

95 Points! Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon tumbles out with plum preserves, blackcurrant cordial, and stewed blackberries notes with hints of bay leaves, graphite, and fragrant earth. The full-bodied palate is firm and grainy textured, supporting the tight-knit fruit, finishing long with a minty lift. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

93 Points! A blend of all the vineyards they work with (of which there are seven), the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley sports a deep purple hue to go with classic Napa notes of blue fruits, chocolate, spicy oak, and tobacco. It's full-bodied, opulent, sexy, and undeniably delicious. - Jeb Dunnuck

95 Points! The 2019 Chardonnay Bennett Valley waltzes out with alluring notes of fresh apricots, honeydew melon, and grapefruit, with hints of orange blossom and powdered ginger. The medium-bodied palate is tight-knit and elegant, with a seamless backbone and loads of savory nuances to accent the stone fruit layers, finishing long with a spicy kick. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

93 Points! A creamy and succulent sparkler, showing refreshing flavors of raspberry, peach and orange blossoms that gather richness on the finish. Drink now. - Wine Spectator

94 Points! Arietta's 2018 Merlot Hudson Vineyard shows the cool, savory style of Carneros. Dried herbs, licorice, menthol, gravel and spice lend striking aromatic complexity throughout. This is an especially savory, nuanced style. The 2018 is a fabulous wine that will challenge readers' conceptions of what Napa Valley Merlot is all about. The Arietta wine emerges from the oldest vines Merlot vines at Hudson, planted in 1986. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

96 Points! Juicy, ripe, plummy fruit with a spicy wood touch and a hint of citrus. Assertive and fine-grained with medium to full body. Excellent tannins are nicely woven and integrated with the fruit. Long finish. La Hoya stands out in this challenging vintage. 95% tempranillo and 5% viura. Sand and silt soils on an east-facing slope. 3.3 hectares. From organically grown grapes. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! The bottled version of the 2023 La Hoya feels quite serious and harmonious. It spent its first winter in 500- and 600-liter barrels and the second one in a 4,000-liter oak foudre. The nose is quite subtle and a little shy, with finesse. The top part of the plot is sandy, and the lower part has more silt; the combination gives the wine fruit and structure. It also has a lot of limestone and comes through as very balanced too. It's medium-bodied and really fine-boned. This is now showing much better than anticipated. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

97+ Points! The bottled 2023 San Lázaro, from the 1.62 hectares of vines they have, shows contained ripeness and has 14.4% alcohol. This is always more restrained, and there's no exuberance here; there's subtleness, finesse and verticality. It has a spicy side, with notes reminiscent of curry, a little à la Vosne-Romanée, a little cinnamon perhaps, but with the Tempranillo austerity, of course. The palate is medium-bodied, with great balance and super fine and elegant tannins. The wine is a little closed at the moment, but it should grow with time in bottle. It's really good and challenges El Carretil this year. I give it the edge—perhaps because it is the more approachable of the 2023s. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! The only white produced here is the 2020 Viñas de Gaín Blanco, which is balsamic and aromatic, floral and herbaceous, from a fresher and more elegant vintage. It fermented with some skins to give it complexity and volume, but he has reduced the time the wine is in contact with the skins, and this year, the wine finished part of the fermentation in used 600-liter demi-muids and was kept in stainless steel with lees for two years. They have stopped racking the white, and they feel it keeps a livelier character. It has the profile of the traditional Rioja whites with a modern twist, cleaner, more focused and precise. It has a moderate 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.31 and 6.05 grams of sugar, fresh and vibrant. It's beautiful, possibly the best year for the white and a year they think was better for the white than for the reds. Bravo! - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

95 Points!  The 2023 Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Old Vines blossoms in the glass, where balsamic-tinged black cherries mingle with dried roses, nuances of gravel dust and a hint of clove. This wine is seamless and elegant, silken in texture, with a solid core of minerals to balance citrus-infused wild berry fruits that slowly saturate the palate. It tapers off chewy and extremely long, leaving the palate water for more, all framed by regal tannins.  - Eric Guido, Vinous Nedia

95 Points! Beautiful cherries and red currants lead the way, showcasing a classic Dundee profile, with hints of red flowers and citrus peel. Bright and crunchy with a vibrant character. The texture is refined, with medium body and a compact tannin core. Succulent fruit and a mineral backbone lead to a precise and harmonious, bone-dry finish. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

93 Points! The winery’s flagship, the 2022 Crianza has a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Merlot and is aged in older barrels, 70% French. It has the appellation’s classic power and finesse, made in a full-bodied, concentrated style of smooth tannins and fruity passionfruit and cranberry. Leather, rose petal, and toasted oak nip at the long finish. Age another 10-15 years. - Virginie Boone, jebdunnuck.com

#ArzuagaTrio

95 Points! From 97% Tempranillo, the rest Merlot and Albillo Mayor, the 2021 Reserva spent 28 months in French oak barrel and has quite a bit of toastiness on the palate. The tannins are smoothened and round, with a hint of chalkiness and grip. From a sizable percentage of old-vine grapes, it has an ethereal freshness and full-bodied layers of dark berry, leather, anise, and dried herb. It should offer 15-20 years more of aging. - Virginie Boone, jebdunnuck.com

#ArzuagaTrio

92 Points! His 2021 Barolo sees fruit from vineyards in La Morra, Verduno and Serralunga d'Alba. There is a pretty chalky quality to the wine that you perceive across the senses, especially the bouquet. To that, I would add cocktail cherry and cassis. I am reminded of the Jolly Rancher candies we had as kids. The wine is informal, bright and accessible. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

93+ Points! The 2020 Cuvée Las Santas was produced from a number of small plots at higher altitudes and cooler expositions (north), only Garnacha, small plots. It has some Mediterranean, Châteauneuf-like character (cherries in liqueur, Mediterranean herbs) with 14% alcohol, very good acidity and very fine grained tannins. They fermented it with 50% full clusters and matured it in used French oak barrels for nine months. This is the wine they produce in the style they like, a more personal wine from special plots. 1,423 bottles were filled in March 2022.  - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94+ Points! The very young and pale white 2024 Txuria has a serious and stony nose. It was produced with grapes from small dry-farmed plots in different locations—Dicastillo (490 meters above sea level) and Andosilla (395 meters above sea level) in Navarra and Ábalos (550 meters above sea level) in Rioja—on sandy and silty soils with clay and limestone. It fermented in stainless steel without malolactic and was kept with the lees, 50% in stainless steel and the rest in used 400-liter French oak barrels. It has great purity, elegance, focus, clarity and balance. It comes in at a moderate 12.5% alcohol, with surprising freshness (pH 3.09) and high acidity (6.7 grams). This is stunning...- Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

90 Points! Truth in advertising, the 2022 Skin Contact Chenin Blanc offers a fresh and leesy expression with notes of yellow apples and hints of arugula and lemon skin. Medium to full-bodied, the palate displays surprising depth and a pleasing texture. The wine ends with a spicy, mineral-laced finish and a lingering kiss of phenolic bitterness. - Anthony Mueller, robertparker.com

90 Points! The entry-level 2023 Laya, produced with 70% Garnacha Tintorera and 30% Monastrell from dry-farmed 30-year-old vines on limestone and stony soils fermented in open-top stainless steel vats. It fermented with neutral yeasts and matured for four months in used French oak barrels, where it also underwent malolactic fermentation. It is fruit-driven and easy to drink, juicy, with 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.79 and 5.6 grams of acidity. It has a very dark color and an expressive nose redolent of black olives and tomato vine, notes descriptive of the variety, with a Northern Rhône whiff. It's juicy and round on the palate, with polished tannins. It delivers way above its price point. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

95 Points! The pale and delicate red 2023 Ollos de Maia, made with 40% each Brancellao and Caíño Longo and 20% Zamarrica (a.k.a. Caíño da Terra), was produced with a very long maceration. It's perfumed, aromatic and elegant, with notes of dried rose petals and wild herbs and is fine-boned and elegant palate with very fine tannins and great balance and harmony. It's really impressive, clean, focused and precise. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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

93+ Points! The Mercenario range changes with the 2022 vintage and the wines will be renamed, the red to 2022 Ollos Tinto. 2022 was a warmer year, and the blend is 50% Caíño and then equal parts of Brancellao, Sousón and Espadeiro. It fermented in bin with some 35% full clusters and the rest destemmed grapes and had a long and soft fermentation, followed by time in used barrels. It has a perfumed nose with notes of flowers and herbs, spicy and tasty. The wine is clean and precise, with a light to medium-bodied palate with vibrant flavors and almost unnoticeable tannins. It's elegant, fresh, light and perfumed.- Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com