Bordeaux’s ‘Special’ 2025, Napa’s Transcendent Cabernet Sauvignons and Argentina’s Chard Stunners

Our April tastings of 2,695 wines from 14 countries included our broad sweep of Bordeaux en primeur 2025, first-rate cabernet sauvignons from Napa Valley and Washington State and a pair of mouthwatering chardonnays. We handed out perfect scores to three of these offerings, and there were eight potential en primeur 100-point scorers.

You can check out all the Bordeaux wines we tasted from barrel in James’ final special report, posted last week. On the whole, James found a lot to like and even love about the 2025 vintage, which he said can be compared to the best ever in Bordeaux. “The energy, moderate alcohol and fresh acidity are special for a young vintage considering how ripe so many recent years have been because of extremely hot growing seasons,” he said, adding that some of the wines are so outstanding “that you almost want to drink them on the spot when you taste them.”

It’s those qualities that put 2025 in a league above most past recent vintages, although James did see some downside: slightly aggressive tannins in some wines or other flaws such as overextraction, too much wood or even dilution. Still, there was much to like, as can be seen in the eight 99-100 point wines and 15 that rated in the 98-99 range.

The big surprise for some, James said, was the near-perfect rating for the Château Les Carmes-Haut-Brion Pessac-Léognan 2025, while Chateau Ausone, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Montrose and Chateau Le Pin were among the wineries in the pack of the other top scorers. Dry whites from the vintage also performed well, with the Domaine de Chevalier Pessac-Léognan Blanc 2025, Château Cos d’Estournel Bordeaux Blanc 2025 and Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte Pessac-Léognan Blanc 2025 all rating 98-99.

Staff Writer and Critic Ryan Montgomery uncovered two more perfect scorers from Napa by the hand of consulting winemaker Sam Kaplan, who crafts wines for Memento Mori and Vida Valiente. What stood out for Ryan was Kaplan’s management of tannins and mouthfeel, with both the Memento Mori Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2023 and Vida Valiente Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Beckstoffer To Kalon 2023 showing a clear sense of precision, harmony and seamlessness.

The Memento Mori Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard 2023 also impressed, sitting just below the two perfect-scoring wines, although the margin is narrow, with the site's prestige fully on display, Ryan said.

Thomas Rivers Brown is another highly regarded Napa Valley consultant who brings a charismatic winemaking approach that delivers offerings of density, power and generosity with ageability. One of Brown's most impressive wines is from Detert Vineyard, which has a reputation for producing some of the finest cabernet franc in North America. The Mending Wall Cabernet Franc Napa Valley Oakville Detert Vineyard 2023 is a strong example from the site, where Brown co-fermented the franc with 20 percent cabernet sauvignon, bringing layers of black, red and blue fruit, spice, dried flowers, graphite, bay laurel and licorice root.

Brown has also been working with the family-owned Revana winery, where, with winemaker Rose Ballantine, he crafted the dense and harmonious Revana Cabernet sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Beckstoffer To Kalon 2023, which comes from old-vine plantings of up to 30 years of age and highlights the quality of the cooler 2023 vintage.

In the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, meanwhile, Ridge Vineyards produced a brilliant, classic red from an elegant vintage at their home vineyard. The Ridge Vineyards Santa Cruz Mountains Monte Bello 2023 has only 13.2 percent alcohol yet it tastes vivid, concentrated and complex, offering black olive, black cherry, wild sage and cocoa flavors on tight tannins.

Several wines from the Sonoma-based Martin Ray winery also stood out, including three from its De Negoce brand – the De Négoce Pinot Noir West Sonoma Coast Lot 583 2024 and De Négoce Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County Moon Mountain District Lot 601 2023.

We also tasted some focused  white wines from Haynes Vineyard in Napa’s Coombsville AVA, the oldest chardonnay vineyard in Napa Valley, which was planted in 1968 to old Wente clone on St. George rootstock.

Despite its proximity to expanding suburbia, the Haynes vineyard retains an old-vine presence and benefits from cooling winds off San Pablo Bay, producing wines with clarity, structure and depth. The near-perfect-scoring Haynes Vineyard Chardonnay Napa Valley Coombsville Corazon 2023 demonstrates this clearly, with a taut, mineral profile and tightly wound aromatics. The 2023 versions of Haynes’ Forgeron and Vigneron bottlings are also definitely worth seeking out, according to Ryan.

Washington State gave us our third 100-point wine of April from one of the state’s nicely tense and mineral 2023 reds with their wonderful balance of red and black fruit, compelling citrus peel notes and range of purple flower aromatics. The Quilceda Creek Tchelistcheff Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 show these traits fully. It’s a deep and concentrated yet elegant wine with flavors of just-ripe black fruit, earth, creme de menthe and resinous herbs.

Quilceda Creek made three other noteworthy cabernet sauvignons – the 99-point Horse Heaven Hills Palengat 2023, which has incredible minerality, dusty tannins and cocoa flavors with a long finish that continues to evolve; the Columbia Valley 2023, which is a rich yet elevated and sophisticated wine with wonderful purity of fruit and a silky mouthfeel; and the big and powerful Red Mountain Galitzine Vineyard 2023.

As for Washington chardonnays, Tenor Estate made a couple that are super rich, layered and complex. The Tenor Chardonnay Royal Slope La Reyna Blanca Vineyard 2023 is mouth-filling and full-bodied, with flavors of creme brulee, baked lemons, Lillet Blanc and toasted spices, while the Tenor Chardonnay Royal Slope Solaksen Vineyard 2023 is more textural and driven, with linear acidity and a citrus oil and white vermouth-like bitterness surrounded by plump flavors of white peaches.

There were also a few noteworthy bottles we tasted from Oregon’s Domaine Drouhin in the Willamette Valley, with their 2024 pinot noirs notably elegant yet intense, aromatic and concentrated with wonderful purity of fruit and finely tuned structure. We rated their trio of Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir Dundee Hills Laurène 2024, Louise 2024 and Édition Limitée 2024 at 97 points each, with the Laurène pure and dark-fruited, the Louise silky and concentrated and full of wild berry flavors and the Édition Limitée lifted and bright with spicy and floral aromas of violets and anise.

Argentina's Chard Stunners

Two stunning high-elevation chardonnays from the Catena Zapata winery showed that Argentina can hold its own against their Burgundian and Californian counterparts, with the White Stones and White Bones two of the most distinctive chards we’ve tasted from South America. The cool conditions of Argentina’s 2024 vintage helped boost these wines even more, with the austere and restrained White Stones doubling down on its usual purity and depth of minerality, with a sharpened brightness from its acidity and limey sapidity.

The White Bones comes from a chalkier limestone plot, and Senior Editor Zekun Shuai said “it glows with its unique, idiosyncratic spicy, minty and herbal touches.” It’s slightly rounder than past vintages but nevertheless so unique, with notes of rosemary, green ginger, arugula and jarilla – the exotic herbs that are widespread in Catena Zapata’s Adrianna Vineyard.

And if you’re looking for remarkably precise pinot noirs, our recent visit to Martinborough, New Zealand uncovered a few in Ata Rangi’s 2024 releases, made by the renowned winemaker Helen Masters. Right at the top is their Ata Rangi Pinot Noir Martinborough McCrone 2024, a striking wine defined by its purity and impressive mineral tension, while their Kotinga 2024 is crisp and aromatic, with seductive notes of bitter orange peel and a crunchy, flinty tension.

Three more of Ata Rangi’s 2024 pinot noirs – the Martinborough, Abel, and Masters – displayed the same high quality while each expressing its own unique personality: the Martinborough was lively and vibrant; the Abel offered a more fruity and crisp profile; and the Masters stood out for its precision, discreet fruit, and impressive vertical structure.

A couple Italian Chianti Classico wines that we tasted in April are also well worth seeking out, including the  multilayered Villa Trasqua Chianti Classico Fanatico Riserva 2021, the perfumed and transparent Cigliano di Sopra Chianti Classico Vigneto Branca Riserva 2023 and intense Renieri Chianti Classico Tenuta di Renieri 2024.

– 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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