Our latest Weekly Tasting Report covers 374 wines, with the tastings of Senior Editor Stuart Pigott and Tasting Manager Kevin Davy in the famous French appellations of Cornas and Cote-Rotie in the Northern Rhone uncovering some extraordinary offerings.

Tasting Manager Kevin Davy and Senior Editor Stuart Pigott just spent a hectic week in the Southern Rhone tasting Chateauneuf-du-Pape, where their first impression of the 2023 vintage is that although many wines are excellent and a few are spectacular, it is not a homogeneously excellent vintage like 2020 was.

The 2021 release of Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz is here, and Stephen Henschke describes it as one of the finest wines to emerge from the historical vineyard.

We tasted 440 wines over the past week, with a 2009 Champagne, some sterling pinot noirs from Oregon and a classic Napa cabernet sauvignon at the top of our ratings and other offerings from Germany and Chile showing terrific potential.

The 2022 vintage is what’s currently on offer for cabernet sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties grown in Napa Valley, and our tastings over the past week continue to prove that most winemakers did yeoman’s work in crafting very good to excellent wines despite the blistering heat dome in early September of that year.