Weine

The Wine Advocate: Here's our new little super star from the Tuscan Coast. The 2018 Massetino is Merlot with a dash of Cabernet Franc that makes all the difference in terms of the wine's aromatic precision and its overall staying power. Dark fruit and dried blackberry are followed by exotic spice and campfire ash. The aromas are fluid and relaxed, flowing seamlessly in unison and grace. If you love Masseto, you can't miss the Massetino. This wine offers a whole new take on the world-famous Merlot, and if we are to be honest, it paints a path to where future vintages of Masseto are going as an expression of a vineyard and territory rather than just a strict read of one grape."

Jeb Dunnuck: The 2019 Massetino is 94% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc. This is only the third vintage of this cuvée, which adds a splash of Cabernet Franc to give a dramatically different take on Masseto. Ripe black cherries, currants, tobacco leaf, scorched earth, and ample graphite are just some of the nuances here, and it does have a slightly more floral, herbal, focused edge compared to the more round and opulent Grand Vin. Rock solid on the palate and structured, tannic, yet balanced and concentrated, it's built for the long haul and will need 7-8 years to hit maturity, but it’s going to have 25-30 years of overall longevity."

The Wine Advocate: The 2016 Único was perfumed and elegant, showcasing a very good vintage in the region. Winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga started in 2015-a powerful year-and he remembers 2016 as a very balanced year, with higher yields and finer-boned wines. The winter was mild, and there was a cooler than average spring and a warm summer. September was dry, which provided healthy grapes and balanced ripening. The harvest started the 22nd of September and finished the 11th of October. The bottled wine is 96% Tinto Fino and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon with 14.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.82 and 4.8 grams of acidity. It has the old Vega perfume, intoxicating, complex and nuanced, full of personality and a very energetic palate, vibrant and fresh, not lacking power but with lots of elegance. The wine is released 10 years after the harvest, combining time in new and used American and French oak barrels and 20,000-liter oak vats, and it obviously spends plenty of time in bottle. This is a monumental vintage of Único. A total of 92,292 bottles, 3,695 magnums and some larger formats were produced. It was bottled in May 2022."

Lisa Perrotti-Brown: The 2022 UV-SL Vineyards Chardonnay was tasted as a barrel sample. Super intense notes of lime leaves, green mango, and green apples jump from the glass with hints of wet pebbles, honeysuckle, and allspice. The full-bodied palate is so light on its feet, with vibrant citrus and mineral sparks and a lively backbone to lift the long yeasty/zesty finish. This vineyard is named after one of Sonoma’s most reputable vineyard managers, Ulises Valdez Sr. (UV), who passed away recently. The site is on Stoetz Lane (SL), only six miles from the Pacific Ocean, up on the hills around Graton and Occidental. Aubert and Valdez Sr. collaborated on the planting of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir here. There's a real mix of heritage clones here, making it quite complex. Around 2,000 cases will be made."

James Suckling: Intense aromas of apples, green tea leaf oil and cooked apple. Full-bodied yet so reserved and intense, with a tight palate and a long, long finish. The concentration is phenomenal, but it’s framed by near perfect phenolics. Tightly wound and weightless. So spicy at the end. Reminiscent of Montrachet. Grand cru quality. Goes on for minutes. This is fantastic now to understand it’s potential but will be even better in years to come."

Lisa Perrotti-Brown: The 2022 Larry Hyde & Sons Chardonnay, tasted as a barrel sample, rockets from the glass with intense notes of grapefruit essence, juicy white peaches, and fresh pineapple leading to touches of orange blossoms, candied ginger, and chopped cashews with a hint of honeycomb. The full-bodied palate bursts with concentrated stone and tropical fruit layers, supported by a refreshing backbone and creamy texture, leading to a lingering ginger ale note on the finish of this delicious wine. Planted with the Corton Charlemagne and Old Wente clones on St Georges rootstock, this is one of the last vineyards to be harvested, hence a long hang-time."

Lisa Perrotti-Brown: The 2022 Powder House Chardonnay, tasted as a barrel sample, is a bit shy to begin, needing a little shaking to wake up notes of tarte au citron, lime cordial, peach preserves, and baking bread, plus hints of wet slate and sea spray. The full-bodied palate is tense and intense, featuring a crisp backbone to define the citrus and mineral layers, finishing on a lingering marzipan note. This estate vineyard, on Goldridge soils near downtown Forestville, was planted in 2013. There are basically 2 clones, Hyde and Mt Eden, on 420 A & 114 rootstocks, and the row direction is due north."

Lisa Perrotti-Brown: The 2022 Chardonnay Lauren Estate was tasted as a barrel sample. Wow - you could just smell this all day, notes of candied orange peel, lemon tart, lime zest, pink grapefruit, and ginger tea emanate from the glass with hints of baker's years, Marcona almonds, and crushed rocks. The full-bodied palate has beautiful tension and so much energy that it vibrates with citrus and mineral layers, finishing with long, lingering ginger and orange peel notes. Lauren Estate, named after Mark Aubert's daughter, is a vineyard planted to four different clones: two old Wente clones (Hyde and Hudson), Mt Eden, and Corton Charlemagne. There are 6 acres here, planted in 1999 on an ancient seabed."

Lisa Perrotti-Brown: The 2022 CIX Estate Chardonnay was tasted as a barrel sample. It comes bounding out of the glass with notes of freshly squeezed lemons, Granny Smith apples, freshly shaved ginger, and chalk dust, leading to wafts of coriander seed and white pepper. The full-bodied palate is tight-knit and racy with a chalky undercurrent to the citrus flavors, finishing long and minerally. CIX stands for 109, as this vineyard was called “parcel 109” when Aubert bought it. Planted in 2008 to the Montrachet clone, the berries accumulate flavor very slowly here."

Im Hause Vilmart ist man bescheiden. Das Haus wurde im Jahr 1890 gegründet und „seit damals von leidenschaftlichen Söhnen und Schwiegersöhnen geleitet, die es diesem kleinen Haus ermöglicht haben, berühmt zu werden“, so ist es auf der Internetseite des Betriebs zu lesen. Das ist natürlich richtig - aber fürchterlich untertrieben. So verliert zum Beispiel das renommierte Food and Wine Magazine nich

Jane Anson: Even is a lighter-styled vintage like 2017, Troplong Mondot needs serious coaxing if you are looking at early drinking. This was an important vintage in the development of the estate, with the arrival of new owners and of director Aymeric de Gironde, and a move towards earlier harvests and less intensive extraction during fermentation. It's still pretty young but already showcasing stunning depths and nuance, with iris and peony floral character given lift to the muscular cassis and damson fruit. 65% new oak for ageing, Thomas Duclos consultant. Tasted a few times this year, and in the end its quality has placed it among the wines of the year - but definitely remember to give it a good number of hours in the carafe before drinking."

Decanter: This wine is surprisingly accessible, with a charming, bright pomegranate and ripe cherry fruit, and rose petal, pepper and mineral notes. The texture is silky and fresh - it lacks the imposing density of some years (like 2020), but it is beautiful nonetheless. Méo has 2.75 hectares, second only to Château de la Tour, and the parcels are very well placed in La Garenne (which he calls Pres du Château), Les Chioures, and Grand Maupertuis. The 2021 vintage is a blend of all of the parcels."

James Suckling: The nose is really glorious with strawberry, wet-earth, blackberry and dark-mushroom character. Full body, a solid core of fruit and beautiful tannins. It’s polished and velvety. Better in 2022 but gorgeous."

Weinwisser: 71 % Merlot, 20 % Cabernet Franc, 9 % Cabernet Sauvignon. Sattes Granatrubin mit aufhellendem Rand. Duftiges Bouquet mit Weichselkirschen, dahinter Preiselbeermus und Veilchen. Am eleganten Gaumen mit straffem Gerüst und feinspröder Textur, eine grandiose Präzision. Im gebündelten Finale Wildkirschen, Graphit und zarte Adstringenz. Ein klassischer Pomerol, der seinen Weg gefunden hat! "

Nase: Feine Vanillenoten und der Duft von frischem Popcorn. Dazu kommen frische Akzente von Limette und saftiger Birne. Alles sehr harmonisch und präzise, zugleich animierend und strukturiert, mit einer angenehmen Balance zwischen Frische und dezenter Würze.   Gaumen: Sehr ausgewogen und elegant. Eine feine Zitrusfrische mit Anklängen von Grapefruit verbindet sich mit einer subtilen, spielerischen Süße. Erinnernd an eine Zitronentarte aus Menton. Perfekte Säure, feiner Schmelz und ein harmonisches Zusammenspiel, das dem Wein Leichtigkeit, Spannung und einen animierenden Trinkfluss verleiht. Unser Fazit: Ein deutscher Chardonnay, der Maßstäbe setzt!

Jancis Robinson: Very pale greenish gold. Light aromatic nose that I took for a Riesling when tasting inattentively. Then wonderfully substantial on the palate with a real beginning, middle and end. Juicy and honeyed with a satin texture. Long. Very complex. Waxy. Long and confident. But it fell apart slightly in the glass."

The Wine Advocate: Surrounded by the grands crus Ungeheuer and Jesuitengarten, the Ziegler was a single vineyard until 1971, when it became part of the Ungeheuer. The boulder-rich soils are composed of weathered sandstone, basalt and limestone debris. Now classified as VDP.Erste Lage (1G like Erstes Gewächs), the 2022 Forster Ziegler Riesling Trocken 1G opens with a pure, fresh and refined, rather stony bouquet of bright fruits. Dense and elegant on the palate, this is a lean yet intense and racy, stimulatingly saline and intense-finishing Riesling classic from the Mittelhaardt. Less powerful than Rieslings from Forst normally are, this is a playful and savory dry Riesling with character and tension and a long and salivating finish. 12.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in July 2024."

The Wine Advocate: The 1985 Château La Conseillante has long been one of my favorite vintages of this decade and this ex-château bottle, opened by co-proprietor Valmy Nicolas, did nothing to change that opinion. The nose is disarming with those gorgeous warm gravel scents infusing the melted red berry fruit. This is Pomerol through and through, fully mature yet still captivating. The palate is beautifully balanced with fine tannin, moderate depth, displaying that fleshiness and comeliness that the finest 1985 Pomerol wines possess. It is almost easy-drinking in nature, so much so that you almost miss its inherent complexity. At its peak now, if you own any bottles, enjoy them now, though larger formats will offer 10-15 years of pleasure. Tasted November 2015."