California’s Great Vineyards Shine Through in 2021, Plus Fritz Wassmer’s Wonders: Weekly Tasting Report (Nov 29-Dec 5)

California continues to impress in this week’s tasting report with so many outstanding quality 2021s, both red and white, as well as a few special 2020s, such as the pinot noirs of Calera.

According to Calera winemaker Mike Waller, his 2020s were exceptional quality because his old vines, some more than 40 years old, delivered superb fruit despite the drought conditions. “Vines are like teenagers for about 20 years,” he said. “And then they grow up and they can talk to you. They produce wines with more depth.”

Depth is a word that I use a lot to describe reds from 2021, which is clearly an excellent vintage that compares in quality to the outstanding 2019 and 2018. The vintage produced fewer grapes and smaller berries due to the continued drought at the time, and vine canopies were reduced in size in many cases. It all meant a smaller production of grapes. Yet the top wines out of the more than 1,000 we have rated from the vintage usually show a balance to the structure, with slightly more open-grained tannins and a nice freshness.

“It was the vintage that gave the quality to the wines, but we have also worked the wines better,” admitted Benoit Touquette of Realm and Fait-Main. “The only change from past years was the extraction in 2021.  We were really careful. We really had tension in the wines and 2021s should do really well.”

He added that 2021 “really shows you the expression of site” and that “the 2021s are much more savory, and 2023 will be like that.”

Touquette’s observation comes through in my tastings, and some of the top 2021 reds in this report illustrate how 2021 nicely spotlights great vineyards in Napa Valley and other parts of California. The Inglenook Napa Valley Rutherford Rubicon 2021 and La Jota Vineyard Co. Merlot Napa Valley Howell Mountain W.S. Keyes Vineyard 2021, both at the top of the list, are prime examples.

“We are focused on making wines from where they are from,” said Josh Widaman, the head winemaker for Pine Ridge Vineyards. “We want to show the nuance of each place. That’s the fun part.”

I believe that the tendency for many Napa winemakers, particularly those in their 30s and 40s, is to make reds with more precision and less density.

“The story of Napa Valley is changing,” said Philippe Melka, a well-known consulting enologist in Napa. “I see a lot of the new generation of younger winemakers who arrive with strong ideas, and they want to have a presence in Napa Valley, and they come from a generation of drinking light wines and not wines that we made in the 1990s and early 2000s.  But also, it is the climate change. The wines are lighter on their feet.”

Check out all the notes below to see some great examples, particularly from 2021.

FRITZ WASSMER'S WINNING 2021s

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was very impressed with the 2021 vintage single-vineyard chardonnays and weissburgunders (aka pinot blancs) from Fritz Wassmer that he tasted, particularly considering that this was a challenging vintage for these grape varieties in the Baden region of Germany. Nowhere on Planet Wine are vintages homogenous, and the goal for the world’s leading winemakers is always to still reach our highest category of ratings (95 points or above) in those difficult years. Fritz Wassmer did that with three dry whites, two chardonnays and one weissburgunder.

Of these, Stuart’s top pick is the Fritz Wassmer Chardonnay Baden Schlossberg Staufen 2021, which has a terrific interplay of creaminess and stony minerality – the motor that gives all of these wines their drive. The fruit and creaminess are a bit more forthright in the weissburgunders than the chardonnays, though, which have more tension.

The story behind this winemaker is unusual. The self-taught Wassmer's other business is growing Christmas trees. Wassmer’s chardonnays could easily be mistaken for Burgundies and are ideal for creating blind-tasting confusion. However, the climate in the Markgraflerland subregion of Baden, where most of Wassmer’s vineyards are located, is a bit cooler than Burgundy now. Still, the wines had the feel of white Burgundies from the 1970s and early 1980s.

In our Hong Kong office, we tasted a trio of fantastic vintage Champagnes from Champagne Philipponnat, all from their 5.8 hectare walled vineyard, Clos des Goisses. It’s a steep south-facing slope in Champagne’s Mareuil-Sur-Ay, planted to 14 parcels, the majority of which are pinot noir.

The latest iteration of Clos des Goisses is from 2014 and will be released next month. It’s a blend of 71 percent pinot noir and 29 percent chardonnay, with richness and complex aromas of pastries and spiced fruit, but elegant, sleek and fresh. The president of the house, Charles Philipponnat, who tasted with Associate Editor Claire Nesbitt via Zoom, compared 2014 to 2004 or 2006, saying it was an easygoing vintage with a relatively large harvest, resulting in an elegant Clos des Goisses.

The second wine they tasted was the 2012 Les Cintres. This cuvee is a very small production consisting of two plots of pinot noir at the heart of the Clos des Goisses vineyard, where the slope is steepest and most eroded and where the oldest vines (up to 70 years old) are planted. The 2012 is intense, deep and structured. It’s from one of the best vintages the region has seen, according to Philipponnat. It's one for the cellar, if you can find it, as only 2,176 bottles were produced.

And Philipponnat’s latest L.V. (long vieillissement) Clos des Goisses, from 1998, is now being released 25 years after the vintage. It was disgorged earlier this year and is drinking beautifully with complex honey, earthy and salty undertones to the dried fruit.

– James Suckling reported from Napa, California. Stuart Pigott and Claire Nesbitt contributed reporting. 

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.

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