April 2023 Tasting Report: A Rhone Immersion, Veneto Style and Washington Mind-Blowers

Our monthly tastings in April covered a huge number of wines – 3,642 from 18 countries – but the quality was superb, with nine bottles scoring either 100 or 99 points. The Rhone wine region of France comprised a large part of our tastings, with Senior Editor Stuart Pigott on the ground to immerse himself in the latest offerings.

Stuart gave out two perfect scores, with one going to a spectacular syrah ­– the M. Chapoutier Ermitage L’Ermite 2020, which Stuart said “has as much mountain freshness as concentration and underplayed power.” The other 100-pointer was the Domaine du Pegau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Ella 2020, a stylistic innovation from Domaine du Pegau that fulfilled the promise it showed last year, when Stuart tasted it from barrel: “Cuvée Ella is a self-confidently modern wine that can stand against the finest that the world can offer. It is very suave and perfectly harmonious in spite of the almost overwhelming fragrance and concentration,” Stuart said.

Another great bottle from Chateaueuf-du-Pape was the “enormously concentrated and structured” Château Mont Redon Châteauneuf-du-Pape Le Plateau 2019, which for Stuart was “the widescreen wine of the vintage in this appellation,” although it has not yet been released. Stuart also said the Raymond Usseglio Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc 2022 “must be tasted to be believed,” while his highest-rated white in the northern Rhone – a marsanne ­– was another offering from M. Chapoutier, “the nearly perfect” M. Chapoutier Ermitage De L’Orée 2020.

From the Rhone’s 2021 vintage, Stuart liked the Chateau de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Hommage à Jacques Perrin 2021, which he said “is very dense and vivid with excellent aromatic complexity.”

Stuart also tasted the wines of Alsace, finding a “mineral masterpiece” in the Mélanie Pfister Riesling Alsace Grand Cru Engelberg 2020, which he said “has a wonderful cool elegance in spite of the very warm, drought vintage.” He also raved about Pfister’s orange wine, the Mélanie Pfister Gewurztraminer Alsace Macération 2021, and pinot noir, the Mélanie Pfister Pinot Noir Alsace Hüt 2020, which he said “should age magnificently.”

Also from France, There were also two Champagnes of note we tasted during the month. The first, the Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas François 2008, is a tribute to the Champagne house’s founder, and shows both structure and softness after a lengthy 150 months of lees aging, while the second, the Rare Champagne 2013, “is an elegant blend of 70 percent chardonnay and 30 percent pinot noir that shows fantastic freshness, with silky bubbles and lingering saline and mineral elements, as well as delicious pastry and toasty notes.” Both Champagnes are beautiful to drink now or to cellar.

Our tastings of Austria, meanwhile, spanned the late-bottled dry whites from the 2021 vintage, which Stuart said were spectacular in various ways, and included “the greatest Austrian chardonnay I have ever encountered,” the Velich Chardonnay Austria Tiglat 2021.

Stuart called it “both super-concentrated and super-elegant, with an almost endless finish,” as well as being “close to perfect.”

And Stuart’s first taste of Germany’s 2022 vintage included the excellent example of the just-bottled Robert Weil Riesling Rheingau Kiedricher Trocken 2022, which he said “has stacks of citrus and exotic fruit along with something exotic, but also lively acidity and a well-integrated tough of tannin.”

Another discovery of Stuart in Germany came from the Kranz winery in the southern part of the Pfalz region, where he came across the stunning Kranz Riesling Pfalz Ransbacher Seligmacher EL 2021, which he said “is an incredibly racy and expressive wine with stacks of wild herb and stony character.”

STRIKING A DELICIOUS CHORD

The newest addition to the JamesSuckling.com tasting team, Ned Goodwin MW, was on a wide-ranging tasting tour of Italy’s Veneto region and its “broad panoply of wines.” For red wines, Valpolicella and Amarone serve as the regional signposts for Veneto’s stylistic aspirations, but Ned said that many of the wines he tasted struck a delicious chord, no matter their category.

His favorite Valpos included the Tedeschi Valpolicella Lucchine 2022, the Bertani Valpolicella Classico Le Miniere di Novare Bertani Cru 2021 and, above all, the Rubinelli Vajol Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2019, which he said are all examples of “bright, transparent wines that will light up any table.”

And he pointed to Bertani and its shift from fustiness in the 1990s and early- to mid-2000s to poise, freshness and pixelated detail today as a “joy to behold.” The Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2001 is merely a hint of what to expect in coming vintages, Ned said, while he also delighted in the “redder fruit profile and pungent mineral undercarriage of the Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Capitel Monte Olmi Riserva 2016.”

READ MORE VENETO ANNUAL REPORT: LEAPING INTO A FRESHER FUTURE

For Soave wines, Ned’s favorite producer might be Gini, saying that its style “is one of texture, with a phenolic pucker and breadth of larger-format wood serving as structural attributes of its top wines,” which include the Salvarenza Vecchie Vigna 2020 and single cru La Frosca 2013. Ned also liked Suavia winery’s “reductive precision with cool tank fermentations, and called its trebbiano di Soave wine, Massififtti “brilliant, irrespective of vintage.”

Ned also tapped into a few wines from Campania, notably from the “finest traditional producer,” Salvatore Molletieri, whose best wine, the Taurasi Vigna Cinque Querce 2016, “is a sculptured masterpiece defined by elastic, almost sooty tannins, tightly furled and prodigiously complex.”

BENCHMARK FOR WASHINGTON

Associate Editors Andrii Stetsiuk and Claire Nesbitt tasted several hundred Washington state wines during their trip there, and we’ll have a full report out soon. Cabernet sauvignon continues to be the cornerstone, and there’s no greater benchmark than the wines of Quilceda Creek, whose Columbia Valley 2020 and Horse Heaven Hills Tchelistcheff 2020 show power and depth with incredible tannin structure.

For syrahs and grenache, Brennon Leighton rules the roost, and he keeps blowing our minds with such offerings as the Syrah Yakima Valley Motor City Kitty 2020 and Grenache Walla Walla Valley The Boy 2020. Frenchman Christophe Baron is also making his mark with offerings like the Cayuse Vineyards Syrah Walla Walla Valley Bionic Frog 2020 and Horsepower Grenache Walla Walla Valley Fiddleneck Vineyard 2020 – both “pure expressions of the terroir: deep, meaty and spicy with a purity of fruit and incredible length,” Claire said.

And James’ tasting of the wines of Santa Rita Hills, California, which you can read about in his report on the region, included our third perfect-scoring wine, the Domaine de la Côte Chardonnay Santa Rita Hills Juliet 2021. It was the first American chardonnay James has given a perfect score to outside of Napa Valley or Sonoma County, and he touted its unique character as being more akin to Burgundy’s grand crus from a cooler vintage.

From the Iberian Peninsula, both Spain and Portugal brought us some memorable wines during our April tastings, starting with Alvaro Palacio’s vibrant garnachas from Rioja and delicate mencias from his Descendientes de J. Palacios estate in Bierzo. The Descendientes de J. Palacios Bierzo La Faraona 2021, Descendientes de J. Palacios Bierzo Las Lamas 2021 and Palacios Remondo Rioja Quiñón de Valmira 2021 all came from an “aromatic vintage” that produced “charming and retronasal” wines, Palacios told Senior Editor Zekun Shuai.

Other top-rated Rioja wines we tasted included the Contino Rioja Viña del Olivo 2020 and CVNE’s terrific trio of the Rioja Imperial Gran Reserva 2017, Rioja Pagos de Viña Real La Virgen 2020 and Rioja Real de Asúa Carromaza 2020.

James and Andrii rated more than 1,100 2022 barrel samples and a few hundred top 2020s during their trip to Portugal, finding the usual impressive reds and Ports, but it was really the white wines that surprised. The best came from Dirk van der Niepoort, who is arguably the godfather of great whites in Portugal, as James said. His Douro white, Coche, is “a stunning bottle with all the subtle complexity of a top white Burgundy.”

And Portugal producers are focusing more on making balanced and fresh wines from little-known local grape varieties rather than big and rich reds these days. One worth checking out, James said, is the Quinta do Vallado Douro Vinha da Granja 2019, which is made from 32 different grape types co-planted in ancient vineyards.

Zekun also tapped into a few hundred wines from Chile and Uruguay, with Pedro Parra leading the march in Chile with his inspiring cinsault and pais wines from his hometown, Itata. His Pedro Parra y Familia Valle de Itata Newk 2021 and Pedro Parra y Familia Valle de Itata Miles 2021 push the limits of cinsault, Zekun said, showing great clarity, airiness and drinkability.

The new tannat releases from Uruguay’s 2021 and 2022 vintages impressed Zekun with their crunchier styles and tannin quality, with Santiago Deicas of Familia Deicas explaining to Zekun that their extraction methods, borrowed from coffee-making, were making for deliciously drinkable wines. Deicas made both the Bizarra Tannat Sierra de Mahoma Espresso 2021 and Bizarra Tannat Sierra de Mahoma Cold Brew 2021, with the latter coming with  a beautiful load of fruit, pepperiness, elegance and fluidity with lots of crunch and clarity on the palate.

Even more impressive from Familia Deicas, Zekun said, was their sensational albariño – the Familia Deicas Albariño Canelones Cru d’Exception 2020. It’s the first vintage from the granite-rich soils of their vineyard in Garzon, in the coastal province of Maldonado. It is also worth noting that the wine was matured in Burgundy barrels – two-thirds of which were new – for 15 months.

It’s a great wine to put at the top of your wine list, and an even better one to top off our Monthly Tasting Report.

– Vince Morkri, Managing Editor