Breaking the Mold in Bordeaux and Prager’s Stunning Dry Wines: Weekly Tasting Report (Jan 4-10)

We have just about run out of our samples of Bordeaux 2020 in Hong Kong, and in total we have rated more than 1,400 different wines from simple blends to some of the best collectibles. As I have written before, I still need to taste many of the blue-chip wines in Bordeaux in late March, such as first growths and Right Bank jewels like Cheval Blanc, Lafleur, Le Pin and Petrus. But we have found many fantastic wines.

Two in the report are very much worth mentioning: Pontet-Canet and Petit-Village. The former is really at the forefront of biodynamic viticulture and low-intervention winemaking in the premium sector of the Bordeaux wine world. They even have their own stable of horses to work the vineyards! They use no inorganic treatments in the vineyard and follow the moon phases for all work. About one-third of the wine is aged in concrete vessels to reduce the impact of wooden barrels. Sulfur is kept to a minimum.

Petit-Village is moving toward the same genera with a philosophy of less is better in its vineyards and winery. This finesse-with-structure personality really comes through in the PV 2020.

READ MORE TOP 100 VALUES WINES OF 2022

Their philosophy creates wines that are much purer and more balanced in both aroma and flavor than most wines from Bordeaux. The true character of the terroir and fruit quality comes through both on the nose and on the palate. And the wines have a purity of fruit and refined tannin structure that give them an overall sophistication and energy.

I have spoken to both chateau owners numerous times, and what strikes me is the dedication to their philosophies in winemaking and that they are not afraid to break the mold in viticulture and winemaking for top Bordeaux domains. They have an underlying confidence in their vineyards, particularly the Tesseron family of Pontet-Canet, who have been biodynamic for more than a decade. Check out the video from last year when Justine Tesseron discusses the virtue of the 2020 vintage and more at Pontet-Canet (above).

PRAGER'S STUNNING DRY WHITES

While filling a few gaps in our tasting of the wines of Austria, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott encountered a trio of stunning dry wines from the Prager winery in the Wachau. They reinforce our very positive impression of this vintage and excellence of this producer.

The most remarkable of these is the Prager Riesling Wachau Wachstum Bodenstein Smaragd 2021, which is incredibly crystalline and packed with wet stone minerality. It comes from a vineyard at 420 to 460 meters above sea level, and this makes it a real mountain wine.

When Prager’s Toni Bodenstein planted the first vines of the site named after him in 1990, his colleagues were deeply skeptical that he would ever be able to ripen riesling grapes at this high an  altitude. But the spot has proven ideal as climate change has forced winemakers around the world to adapt, and the Bodenstein Smargd shows it with its breathtaking nose of white peaches and apple blossom, plus a super-long finish that pulls you back for more.

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF AUSTRIA 2020

Meanwhile, senior editor Zekun Shuai is wrapping up our China tastings from the past year, putting the finishing touches on our Top 100 Wines of China 2022 report, which will be out this week.

A few outstanding wines caught our attention over the past week, including the Domaine Freemind Ningxia Baixia Single Vineyard 放思·拜夏单一园品丽珠 2019, from  a new project by a boutique winery run by a group of creative young winemakers led by the Australia-trained Yao Ningning. This full-bodied, 100 percent cabernet franc shows graphite, tarry spiced fruit, cocoa powder and black olives, and it has a minty and leafy lift on the nose. The nicely grippy tannins are compact and tightly wound.

Baixia, which means “the cult of Ningxia,” epitomizes the ambitions of Ningxia winemakers to make world-class wines.

“We want to free people’s minds to let them know Ningxia and China can produce excellent wines, which the world knows about but Chinese consumers are not yet well aware of the quality and the potential of Chinese wines today,” said Du Jianxiong, who looks after Freemind’s marketing and sales, most of which occur online or through membership orders. But the question for most quality Chinese wine now is really about value, and the Baixia 2019, at more than $100 a bottle, puts consumer cost consciousness to the test.

Two distinctive syrahs from Ningxia’s 2019 vintage also popped up on our radar. The even more expensive but outstanding Chateau Hedong Syrah Ningxia 贺东庄园西拉干红葡萄酒 2019 has lots of exotic herbs and smoked meat characters with sweet, concentrated fruit and silky tannins on the palate, while Li’s Syrah Ningxia Family Reserve 利思酒庄家族典藏西拉干红葡萄酒 2019 is a little more opulent and polished. Compared with Hedong’s syrah, which is almost $200 a bottle, Li’s syrah family reserve, which retails for around $55, looks like a huge value. Nevertheless, we also found that syrah has a lot of untapped potential in China, especially in Ningxia and Hebei, where we have rated many inviting and glistening wines with real verve and character this year.

– James Suckling, Editor/Chairman; Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor; Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.