Alsatian Perfection, Plus Napa Chards Come Alive

Our tastings of 2,464 wines in May brought a wealth of delicious offerings from 11 countries, but it was Alsace, France, where we hit the jackpot, uncovering four perfect-scoring bottles and leaving Senior Editor Stuart Pigott gushing over the dry white wines from Alsace’s 2023 vintage.

Stuart raved about the finesse and purity of the Domaine Barmes-Buecher Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Hengst 2023, with its refinement, concentration and precision taking it to another level, while he also thinks that 2023 is the best-ever vintage for dry whites for the Barthelme family and their team at Albert Mann. Their riesling from the Schlossberg Grand Cru site – the very limited production Albert Mann Alsace L’Epicentre 2023 – “tastes like an essence of white peaches,” but it is the purity of this perfect dessert wine that left Stuart speechless.

And Stuart found the Domaine Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Alsace Grand Cru Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Urbain 2023 to be a perfect expression of the pinot gris grape, with its “brain-rattling intensity of the smoky and flinty character that makes this site with volcanic soil a unique French terroir.”

Out fourth perfect-scoring wine was found at Domaine Weinbach, where Stuart encountered the “overwhelming beauty” of the Domaine Weinbach Gewürztraminer Alsace Grand Cru Furstentum Sélection des Grains Nobles 2022, with its aromas of yuzu, shiso and dried mint miraculously lifting the wine.

And there were a three more standouts from 2023 in Alsace that blew Stuart’s mind, two  from Albert Mann. The first of these, the Albert Mann Pinot Noir Alsace Les Saintes Clairs 2023, he found “seductively silky yet with an incredible chalky intensity that takes your breath away, and the second, the Albert Mann Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Schlossberg 2023, Stuart called “a giant of granitic minerality that is simultaneously very compact and very graceful.

The Domaine Barmes-Buecher Pinot Noir Alsace Grand Cru Hengst 2023, meanwhile, is “astonishingly, dense, compact and tightly wound with seemingly a supernatural depth of wild blackberry, bitter chocolate, blood orange and blood aromas.”

Riesling wonders

In Germany, Stuart uncovered some more great rieslings when he visited the Wegeler winery group. He called their Wegeler Riesling Mosel Doctor GG 2023, with its combination of sharp minerality and great delicacy, the best wine Wegeler has made in a decades. A stunning pendant to this was the intensely stony and mineral Wegeler Riesling Rheingau Berg Schlossberg GG 2023 – a “superstar in a spectacular row of Rheingau riesling GGs.”

At the Tesch winery in the Nahe, he found the Tesch Riesling Nahe Karthäuser Trocken (Brown Label) 2024 to have “great wild herb and wet-stone complexity plus terrific drive and focus,” and then encountered some daring new releases from the same 2024 vintage from Eva Fricke in the Rheingau.

The off-dry Eva Fricke Riesling Rheingau Eltville Collection Spätlese 2024 “has kaleidoscopic complexity and comes close to having the maximum of finesse,” while equally amazing is the Eva Fricke Riesling Rheingau Schlossberg Spätlese 2024, with its electric energy on the sleek and dynamic palate “a gift to anyone who enjoys the acidity of Champagne.”

Heavenly chards

Executive Editor Jim Gordon and Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery tasted great examples from the creme de la creme of mostly Northern California chardonnays from 2023 and 2022, but it’s 2023 that many winemakers are the most enthusiastic about – with perhaps the top standout being the Nid Tissé Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2023. Jim said it would be “difficult to imagine a better California chardonnay than this one,” which is made by Marie-Laure Ammons and combines great balance and freshness with creaminess, breadth and length.

Ryan’s favorite California chard was the Haynes Vineyard Chardonnay Coombsville Corazon 2022, which he found to be “mineral driven with a lovely phenolic grip and striking acidity,” while another chard from Carneros, Stephane Vivier’s Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2023, earned a similarly high score.

Jim also tasted dozens of wines from the Gallo family’s luxury portfolio, and he was most excited about the Pahlmeyer Chardonnay Napa Valley Savoir Faire 2023, saying the “wine’s quiet intensity will help it age for years.” Another Gallo property that made a big impression was Louis M. Martini, where for the second vintage in a row, the fine-grained, ultraconcentrated Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Mount Veeder (2023, in this case) was the highest-scoring among several outstanding Martini reds.

Pahlmeyer's reds were almost as fantastic as its chard. The Pahlmeyer Napa Valley Piece de Resistance 2023, a 100 percent cabernet sauvignon, impressed with its super-sleek yet intense structure and mountain-grown intensity, while the equally high scoring Pahlmeyer Napa Valley Proprietary Red 2023 is a full-bodied, tannic and deep wine that is primal in meaty, mineral and blackcurrant flavors.

In Italy, it was the Amarone stalwart Bertani that topped our ratings in May. Following the powerhouse 2015 vintage – which was awarded a rare perfect score and was our Wine of the Year for 2024 – the Amarone Classico 2016 shifts gears toward refinement, with  winemaker Pietro Riccobono likening it to the storied 1986 and finesse taking precedence over force … “with deep, elegant tannins and a long, toasty finish that lingers with quiet authority,” Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli said.

Aldo was also impressed by the Capo di Stato – “Head of State” – wine crafted by Loredan Gasparini of Veneto – a blend of half cabernet sauvignon with cabernet franc, merlot and malbec. The 2021 iteration is a standout, Aldo said, opening with bright, precise aromas of cassis, prunes, oak bark and smoke, while the palate is full-bodied and structured, delivering focused cassis fruit layered with graphite.

And Travaglini’s newest release marks a quiet revolution in the cellars of one of Alto Piemonte’s most storied estates, Aldo said. For the first time in its history, the winery has produced a single-vineyard wine: the Vigna Ronchi, a 2019 Gattinara Riserva drawn from a site deeply rooted in the volcanic soils that define this northern Piedmont denomination. The 2019 is “structured yet refined, layered and austere, offering notes of dried cherries and red currants with earthy undertones of meat, tar and dried flowers, Aldo said.

Another notable wine Aldo tasted in Piedmont in May was the 2021 Gattinara, and the finest Barolo he had during the month was the crisply acidic Barolo Gattera Riserva 2019 – “a depthy, dark and saturated wine with notes of black cherries and blood oranges, coffee grounds, wild strawberries and red currants.”

Seamless Shiraz

From Australia, Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery uncovered some terrific shiraz and chardonnay from Adelaide Hills’ 2023 vintage, including the seamlessly constructed Michael Hall Shiraz Adelaide Hills Mount Torrens 2023, which Ryan said was Michael Hall’s “best bottling from the Mount Torrens vineyard so far,” despite the  wet and cool conditions of that year.

The Shaw + Smith Chardonnay Adelaide Hills Lenswood Vineyard 2023, meanwhile, is “mineral-edged and steely, with a highly strung palate, precise acidity and an energetic mouthfeel that leads to a medium-bodied experience with brooding power that will resolve with time in the bottle,” Ryan said.

And from the Yarra Valley, Ryan tapped into three bottles from the 2023 vintage, with  cooler, slower-growing season giving producers the opportunity to craft wines with greater finesse and allowing both red and white varieties to ripen fully without excess weight.

The Yarra Yering Viognier Yarra Valley Carrodus 2023 was a particular surprise, Ryan said – aromatic and complex without being heavy and cloying, with a creamy texture and subtle grip that give it shape and drive.

In the Yarra Yering Yarra Valley Dry Red Wine No. 1 2023, a cabernet-dominant blend with merlot, malbec and petit verdot, Ryan found a classical structure with an approachability and longevity in equal measure, and the Yarra Yering Yarra Valley Underhill 2023 shows what a quiet achiever shiraz can be, and for this particular bottle, “It’s not about weight or power, but purity and precision.”

More great antipodean wines were uncovered in New Zealand, where Ryan, Senior Editor Jacobo García Andrade and James worked the harvest of James’ 1986-planted pinot noir vineyard in the heart of Martinborough. And it was from Martinborough where our top-ranked Kiwi bottling came, with the sweet Kusuda Riesling Martinborough Trockenbeerenauslese 2022 a “masterfully constructed and truly incredible … with a focused acidity and a textural, viscous mouthfeel.”

Kusuda, founded by Hiroyuki “Hiro” Kusuda in 2001, is known for its meticulous grape selection and minimal intervention, and that showed in the Kusuda Syrah Martinborough 2022, which James described as “being the benchmark syrah for New Zealand” that recalled the “complexity and focus of France’s great Hermitage wines from bygone years of the 1980s and 1990s.”

Staying in the world’s nether regions, the Catena Zapata Chardonnay Mendoza Adrianna Vineyard White Bones 2023 was at the top of the list of Jacobo’s tastings of Argentine wines. Sourced from a specific parcel within the Adrianna Vineyard in Gualtallary, at 1,445 meters above sea level, the White Bones “is a chardonnay that speaks with its own voice, Jacobo said

Equally as inviting from Argentina’s 2023 vintage, the intense Susana Balbo Wines Torrontés Paraje Altamira Torrontés de Raíz Naranjo Signature Limited Edition 2023 remains one of the most distinctive expressions of the variety, Jacobo said, expressing aptly why the torrontes grape variety “refuses to go unnoticed.”

READ MORE WINE JOURNEY TO THE EXTREMES: ARGENTINA MAKES THE MOST OF ALTITUDE

– Vince Morkri, Editor-in-Chief

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. 

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