Deep in the Wine Heart of Texas, and Rebellious Italian Reds: Weekly Tasting Report

The JamesSuckling.com tasting team rated 558 wines over the past week, with Executive Editor Jim Gordon moseying on down to Texas from his home in Napa to taste more of the Lone Star State’s wines in a week than he had in any of his 40 years of writing about wine.

And what did he find? Almost every grape variety and wine style you can imagine, and many high-quality, high-scoring wines that are little known outside the region: textured tempranillos, silky cabernets, spicy tannats, meaty mourvedres, savory sangioveses and even rare-in-the-USA picpoul blancs, montepulcianos and teroldegos.

The tasting comes at a pivotal point in the evolution of Texas wine. Just three years ago, the state revised regulations that previously allowed any Texan wine to contain up to 25 percent of grapes grown outside of the state. Today, any Texas wine labeled with an American Viticultural Area, a Texas county or a vineyard designation must be made from grapes grown only in that location. Many of the first wines bottled under the new rules are now ready to buy and drink.

For this tasting, Jim focused mostly on the Texas Hill Country and Texas High Plains AVAs plus a smaller number of wines wearing the simple Texas appellation. About the only familiar variety he didn’t encounter was pinot noir. This land of droughts, floods, scorching heatwaves, snow-pocalypses and hailstorms is too rowdy, in most winemakers’ opinions, for the delicate red grape of Burgundy.

Jim stayed in the bustling, boutique-y yet undeniably Western town of Fredericksburg, 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Austin in Texas Hill Country. He tasted from long rows of bottles at Blumenthal Farms, an events venue and community meeting center, in the mornings before exploring vineyards, meeting winemakers and ducking into cellars in the afternoons.

The range of quality was wide, from 82 points to 96 points on the 100-point scale, but the majority scored 90 and above. It’s easier to name the top wineries he discovered than the top wine types, which are tremendously diverse and undergoing constant experimentation, trial and error.

In the tasting notes below you’ll find beautiful Bordeaux varietals from Calais winery, outstanding Rhone types from its sibling winery French Connection, excellent red Bordeaux and white Rhone offerings from Uplift Vineyard, merlot from Robert Clay, layered tempranillos from Pedernales and wide, consistent portfolios from both Becker and William Chris, to mention just a few.

Four of the highest-scoring bottles came from the same small winery founded by a French-born software engineer, Ben Calais, who started making wine in his Dallas garage about 10 years ago. His Calais Cabernet Sauvignon Texas High Plains Cuvée de l’Exposition Clone 47 Navarra Vineyards 2020 is a breathtaking, almost ethereal wine with a silky, delicate texture and pretty, intricate floral and red currant flavors.

A long-aged library wine from an even smaller operation, tucked just off the town square in Mason, Texas, is also a stunner. The Robert Clay Merlot Texas Hill Country 2015 is supple, intricate and layered, and is sold only direct to consumer in tiny quantities.

Other remarkable red wines illustrate the state’s diversity. A grape variety famous in Abruzzo, Italy, is one of them. The Uplift Vineyards Montepulciano Texas Hill Country Uplift Vineyard 2022 is linear, fresh and dynamic, a charming wine that asks, “Who needs pinot noir?”

Equally impressive but from a famous Spanish grape variety is the Pedernales Tempranillo High Plains Lahey Vineyard 2020, which bucks the grape’s reputation for a heavy texture and instead offers an elegant feel, fresh flavors and soft, powdery tannins that seem to disappear as you sip.

Jim was not as impressed with the Texan white wines in general, but there were a few great exceptions, such as the French Connection Texas High Plains La Connection 2020, which is a white Rhone-style blend with amazing quality and great length.

Stay tuned for more tasting notes and more advice on what to buy from Texas in the coming weeks.

A BREEZY CULT CLASSIC

Clos Rougeard is widely regarded one of the iconic estates in France's Loire Valley, and some of its wines have earned a cult following. After its acquisition by the Bouygues family in 2017, this historical estate has been revitalized with a new energy. James, Senior Editor Zekun Shuai and Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk recently tasted their stunning chenin blanc, the Clos Rougeard Saumur Brézé 2017, with Charlotte Bouygues. The wine came from the first harvest right after the acquisition.

This rather rare white hails from plots on a limestone slope with sandy clay, and the 60-year-old-plus vines found there have long been tended organically. Zekun exalted the wine's depth and uncoiled complexity, which he said taps into the tropical aspect of chenin. It's mineral, precise and incisive, with huge density, acidity and salinity. In a nutshell, Zekun said, it's "a great, quite thrilling chenin."

REBELLIOUS ITALIAN REDS

If you’ve never heard of Italy’s Buttafuoco Storico Consortium, imagine an enclave of rebellious, reactionary winemakers. They reside in Oltrepo Pavese, a winemaking region that for years supplied the taverns and families of Milan. They have their own vineyards, follow their own winemaking philosophy and use a unique label for their bottles, featuring an embossed sailing ship.

Legend has it that the sailing ship was a tribute from a group of sailors who drank the wine – sometimes as a means of survival – during the days when they navigated the Po River from the Adriatic sea to Milan. It has since become the symbol of a bold, powerful, rebellious red wine, with older vintages becoming increasingly rare and sought after.

Buttafuoco Storico  wines comprise the native grapes croatina, barbera and ughetta di canneto (also known as vespolina). But it’s not an ordinary blend – it’s done directly in the vineyard, with the rule that all varieties must be harvested together.

This is no easy task, given the two-week difference in ripening times between barbera and croatina. It’s no coincidence that croatina is often planted at the top of a vineyard hill while barbera grows mid-slope. This tells us three things: Buttafuoco Storico always comes from a single vineyard, is never grown on the plain, and is a highly complex wine.

Notable producers of the consortium include Fiamberti, Francesco Maggi and Cantina Scuropasso. Fiamberti’s Buttafuoco Storico Vigna Solenga 2015 is one of the standout releases. It’s concentrated and powerful, dark, with notes of leather and tobacco alongside deep fruit and a very savory finish – all hallmarks of this wine. Francesco Maggi's Vigna Costera Buttafuoco Storico 2015, meanwhile, pairs ripe dark fruit with notes of eucalyptus and a salted chocolate finish, and Calvi’s Vigna Montarzolo 2018 highlights the vintage, although this historic winery struggles with consistency across vintages.

Another excellent offering is Cantina Scuropasso's Vigna Pianlong 2019, with its deep, wild profile featuring aromas of pipe tobacco, leather, game, oak bark, smoky woodland, black pepper and restrained fresh fruit. It has a full body and velvety tannins yet finishes with the typical austerity of this wine.

A WONDERFULLY BALANCED CRISTAL

The latest release of Louis Roederer’s top Champagne, the 2016 Cristal, is at the top of our ratings from Hong Kong this week, and for good reason: it shows fantastic balance of classic minerality, with typical salty and chalky undertones as well as wonderfully pure and ripe fruit aromas, like peaches and Asian pears. Associate editor Claire Nesbitt found the 2016 Cristal to have superb concentration and integration with a super-long, resolved and creamy finish.

Speaking to Claire via Zoom, Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, Louis Roederer’s chef de cave,  compared the 2016 season to 2012, but said the former had a little more freshness. He  added that he bottles Cristal at 5.2 bars of pressure, rather than the typical six bars, so that it is softer and less aggressive, because it has “such salinity and minerality.” It’s a blend of 58 percent pinot noir and 42 percent chardonnay, and has seamless, almost imperceptible bubbles.

The Louis Roederer Champagne Blanc de Blancs 2017 also shone among our tastings. It’s pure chardonnay from the grand cru village of Avize, and is creamy, beautifully balanced and silky on the palate, with delicate pastry notes alongside sliced pears and white flowers.

And don’t miss the Moët & Chandon Champagne Collection Impériale Brut Nature. It’s their inaugural release of a long-time project that chef de cave Benoît Gouez has worked on since 2000. It’s the highest expression of their range and blends seven vintages: the 2013 base wine, kept in stainless steel tanks; 2010, 2008, 2006 and 2000 base wines, all aged in oak casks; and bottle-aged 2004 Champagne. The aging of vintage reserve wines in different environments adds a “fourth dimension” to the art of blending varieties, villages and vintages in Champagne, Gouez told Claire via Zoom.

Claire found the wine to have complex, smoky aromatics, from white truffles to beeswax and licorice, as well as umami and salty elements on the palate. It’s a Brut Nature (no sugar added), but it’s mellow and balanced with a dried-fruit sweetness, bottled in 2014 and then disgorged after eight years on the lees.

– Jim Gordon, Aldo Fiordelli 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.

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.