February 2023 Tasting Report: Napa Comes on Strong, South American Sweet Spots and Rediscovering Beaujolais

February was a month of adventure for the JamesSuckling.com tasting team, with our editors road-tripping it around various parts of the globe to bring you the best of what the wine world has to offer. We tasted nearly 3,000 wines during the short month from 13 countries, with Chile (964 wines) Argentina (603), France (487) and the United States (227) leading the way.

James was in Napa most of the month rating hundreds of 2020 and 2021 releases. 2020 was a very hot and dry growing season with two damaging wildfires, so anyone making a clean wine could consider themselves lucky – and several did. Tod Mostero, the winemaker for Dominus and Ulysses, was among them. He made some of the best of the 2020s that James tasted, with many of the wines, particularly the reds, showing extraordinary clarity in aromas, despite the possibility for smoke taint. The structure and flavors of the wines, James said, ranged from “being completely normal for an outstanding vintage, with ripe fruit and tannins, to having crunchy and vivid palates and character, from fresh raspberries and lemons to blackcurrants and cherries.”

Generally, those that picked early were the big winners. One was Will Harlan, the head of the Harlan and Bond wine projects, whose 2020s all rated 99 or 98 points. “These wines are not really outliers from what we did in the early 1990s,” Harlan said, adding that they had taken the risk of accelerating the process of picking earlier by five to 10 years given what now seems to be an annual fire season around Napa, but that the risk had paid off.

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF THE USA 2022

Winemaker Nick Gislason of Screaming Eagle also made two spectacular reds in 2020 – the Screaming Eagle Napa Valley 2020 and The Flight 2020, both of which are aromatically gorgeous as well as vivid and energetic on the palate. Gislason, too, started picking early in 2020 – about the time the first wildfire hit in mid-August. Continuum, a favorite of ours each year from Napa, elected to make just a second wine in 2020, Novicium, which was much more open and drinkable than other young vintages from this winery. “We are pretty happy with the quality in the end of this wine, even though we couldn’t release our Continuum,” said winemaker and owner Tim Mondavi.

But others weren’t as lucky in 2020, with some of the wines James tasted having obviously been treated for smoke taint and showing a leaner and sometimes stripped character from various winemaking methods such as reverse osmosis and charcoal filtering as well as blending in other vintages.

Napa’s 2021 vintage was much different, and James’ opinion is that it appears to be a classic vintage in the making for both reds and whites. The Beringer Chardonnay Napa Valley Private Reserve 2021 is an excellent example for the whites from that year, showing phenolic structure, intense fruit and wonderful freshness, in addition to selling for less than $50 bottle.

For the reds, James points to the 2021 pinot noirs coming out on the market as showing the same high quality, with a great combination of aromatic brilliance with tight and pure fruit. A few dozen barrels sample of mostly cabernet sauvignons from 2021 that James tried are especially noteworthy, and you can read about them in the small tasting report on 2021 reds James did for the annual Premiere Napa Valley wine auction in St. Helena.

James also tapped into a few great bottles from New Zealand before he headed to the States, including the recent releases from top wineries like Escarpment, Te Mata and Kumeu River. James met up with the entire Brajkovich clan from Kumeu River and tasted their 2022 chardonnays from barrel, and he was especially impressed with the chards from their top site, Mate’s Vineyard, which showed “superb phenolic texture and depth of fruit."

His tastings at Escarpment Winery in Martinborough included their 2021 releases, which James thinks are “more tannic and structured and could turn out to be better in the long run” than the outstanding 2020. Another wine from 2020, the Te Mata Hawke's Bay Coleraine 2021, is a terrific young wine with superb depth and complexity and could be one of the best Coleraines ever.

Senior Editor Zekun Shuai continued his field trip in South America, and found Chile’s 2021 vintage to mostly be fresh and silky, with noticeable fine tannin quality – even in the simpler wines that don’t strive to deliver great depth. Santiago-based Concha y Toro proved this with its more “Bordeaux-driven” carmeneres, including the Concha y Toro Carmenere Peumo Carmin de Peumo 2021, which Zekun said is “a fresh, pure and spicy expression loaded with juicy fruit and fine tannins.”

In Traiguen, winemaker Francisco Baettig is making some world-class chardonnays like the Baettig Chardonnay Traiguén Selección de Parcelas Los Primos 2021, which Zekun said rival the top chards from the north of the country, like the mineral and tense Errazuriz Chardonnay Aconcagua Costa Las Pizarras 2021, which is one of Viña Errazuriz’s best chardonnays in years.

Zekun may have peaked out in Chile’s Central Valley, though, with the perfect-scoring Seña Valle de Aconcagua 2021. He found it to be one of the purest renditions of Seña, calling it “a creek of red fruit that burbles with poise and elegance.”

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The 2021 Seña was not the only wine that hit the sweet spot for impeccable balance, and 2021 wasn’t the only vintage that demonstrated such promise. A few 2020s also showed incredibly well. One of the best was the Emiliana Valle de Colchagua Los Robles Estate Gê 2020, a blend of syrah, carmenere, malbec and garnacha that delivered vibrancy and drinkability from a hot and dry vintage.

“It is the first vintage that we did not include cabernet sauvignon at all and the first vintage that we added 1 percent garnacha,” said winemaker Noelia Orts.

Clos Apalta and Lapostolle also made some fantastic 2020s, despite the vintage’s “fast and furious” character due to the heat of that summer. But harvesting early helped, along with precise vineyard management. The result was wines with finesse and vibrancy. One, the Clos Apalta Valle de Apalta 2020, is a refined, expressive and layered expression with a fine saline, savory twist and silky tannins. Another is a pure syrah from the Clos du Lican vineyard, which is set amid a forest and has granitic soils with plenty of clay and a southeastern exposure.

In Argentina, malbecs and barbecues ruled during Zekun’s visit to the Mendoza wine region, which Zekun said is “clearly shining” for the 2020 and 2021 vintages. 2020 was another early vintage became of warm weather and the Covid outbreak, and many producers started picking the reds in the first week of March. Grupo Peñaflor’s Trapiche Malbec Cabernet Franc Mendoza Iscay 2020 and Trapiche Syrah Viognier Mendoza Iscay 2020 are some of the best from this vintage, capturing the right balance between ripeness and freshness, but their most exciting wine is the Bemberg Estate Wines Gualtallary Valle de Uco Pionero 2019, a 99-point blend of malbec, cabernet sauvignon, and cabernet franc, which comes from a fantastic, almost perfect vintage, according to chief winemaker Daniel Pi. Zuccardi’s 2020s are also very consistent, with the Zuccardi Malbec Valle de Uco Paraje Altamira Finca Canal Uco 2020 one of the top malbecs of the vintage.

One of the best and top-value wines Zekun tasted comes from the cooler 2021 – a cabernet franc from Gualtallary. The Matias Riccitelli Cabernet Franc Gualtallary 2021 is all about tension and precision, showing the transparency of varietal typicity and freshness. The prodigious amount of red and blue fruit characters from this vintage in Mendoza is also found in many cabernets and malbecs.

READ MORE TOP 100 WINES OF ARGENTINA 2022

In Europe, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was tasting through his small mountain of Beaujolais samples, ranging from 2015 to 2022. He founds a few wine peaks in 2021 Morgons, the most amazing of which was the Michel Guignier Morgon Canon 2021, which Stuart said “is so concentrated and structured it tastes like it came from a different vintage.”

Stuart also made an important discovery when he tasted wines from Domaine Dupre Guyon, which he had never heard of until he tasted the samples that had been sent to him. But he praised them, particularly the Domaine Dupré Guyon Côte de Brouilly La Rose de Brouilly 2017, which he said “was the richest and most sensual red I’ve ever tasted from this appellation. I didn’t know that kind of wine was possible in Cote de Brouilly!”

Another surprising wine for Stuart was the Nicolas Boudeau Brouilly Garanches 2021, which, he says, had such amazing ripeness and concentration for such a challenging vintage that it “blew my mind.”

Stuart also tasted a number of German wines from the 2021 vintage, including from one of the largest and oldest producers in Franken, Burgerspital. Two dry GGs in particular stood out –the Bürgerspital Silvaner Franken Würzburger Stein-Harfe GG 2021, which has a great Burgundian-type richness, and the super-elegant and super-mineral Bürgerspital Riesling Franken Würburger Stein-Berg GG 2021.

Of course, our monthly tasting wouldn’t be complete with a few great wines from Italy, and James and Tastings Editor Jo Cooke found some beauties. James uncorked the latest releases from Tuscan producers Tenuta San Guido and Bibi Graetz. The first produced a 2020 Sassicaia that is fresh yet opulent, despite coming from such a challengingly hot and dry grape-growing season, while Bibi Graetz released three new and fresh single-vineyard reds from Tuscan grapes including sangiovese, colorino and canaiolo.

Jo, meanwhile, began his annual review of Veneto wines, with the stars of the show being two late-release Amarones – the Bertani Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2013 and Zymē Amarone della Valpolicella Classico La Mattonara Riserva 2009. He said the first is an excellent example of the “Bertani style” – meaning plenty of complexity, well-integrated tannins and great length with nothing over-pushed and nothing out of place ­– and is a wine you can enjoy now or allow to age in your cellar for decades. The second, he said “is stunning for its youthful, fresh feel,” adding that for a 14-year-old wine, it’s simply “amazing” – although not unique in the Amarone category, which is renowned for its aging potential.

Of course, these were just some of the top wine picks from the month. There are so many others in the notes below that would all make wonderful additions to your wine list, but just be sure to sift and winnow wisely (although random picking sometimes works, too). And as always, enjoy, and learn, from whatever your choices are.

– Vince Morkri, Managing Editor