February 2025 Tasting Report: Californian Bounty, Polished Super Tuscans and a German Pinot’s ‘Dangerous Energy’

The four wines that we gave our top rating of 100 points to in February all came from California – three from Sonoma County and one from Napa. Surprisingly, only one was a cabernet sauvignon-based, the Colgin Cellars Napa Valley IX Estate 2022.

The IX Estate comes from a vineyard that was managed with precision in a year that featured a heat dome, where temperatures soared past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 Celsius) in some valley-floor vineyards. It also helped that the vineyard sits at a higher altitude on Pritchard Hill, which experienced relatively lower temperatures that year. James compared the wine to legendary Bordeaux cabernets from extreme vintages, like the iconic 1961 Chateau Latour, saying that it’s “strikingly structured and tannic, yet light on its feet, with captivating complexity in both aroma and flavor.”

Executive Editor Jim Gordon found three perfect wines during his tastings in Sonoma – a chardonnay and pinot noir from Carlo Mondavi’s RAEN wines, as well as a beautiful cabernet franc from Vérité.

Jim found the perfect-scoring RAEN Chardonnay Sonoma Coast Fort Ross-Seaview Charles Ranch 2023 to be elegant, vivid and bursting with energy, while the RAEN Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Freestone Occidental Bodega Vineyard 2023, is “concentrated and electric.” Vérité’s Bordeaux-style Sonoma County Red Wine Le Desir 2021, meanwhile, “is as near perfect as cabernet franc can be in California” – tightly wound and precise, smooth and silky on the surface, but with intense flavors and tannic energy underneath.

Another RAEN pinot noir that fared nearly as well in our ratings was the RAEN Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Fort Ross-Seaview Sea Field Vineyard 2023, with its  bold, dramatic fruit and mineral flavors, while Vérité’s merlot-based La Muse 2021 dazzled with its velvety texture and pure fruit flavors and La Joie 2021 exuded drinkability and freshness despite its muscular character.

For other California cabernet sauvignons from 2022, the aromatic vibrancy and layered flavors of the Futo Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Stags Leap District 5500 Estate 2022 helped “defy expectations for the vintage,” according to James, while the Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2022, showed surprising freshness and drinkability, which the team at the estate said was due to extremely well-timed and perfectly executed viticulture and picking. At Pym Rae, their cabernet sauvignon-based red from the 2021 showed the strong structure that is one of the hallmarks of the vintage, alongside typical forest and mountain character.

And California also gave us some noteworthy syrahs in February, led by Pax Mahle’s signature wine, the pure and perfumed Pax Syrah Sonoma County Sonoma Hillsides 2023, which like all of his offerings has layers of depth, spice, and earth that arise from sustainable viticulture, 100 percent whole-cluster fermentation and native yeast fermentations.

Another of Mahle’s standouts is the powerful Halcon Syrah Yorkville Highlands Mendocino County Au Choix 2021, which is enriched by layers of spice, herbs, and cured meats that are characteristic of exceptional Rhone syrah.

POLISH SUPER TUSCANS

Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli was tasting widely throughout Italy’s wine regions in February, with a Super Tuscan rising to the top of the ratings from the country. The refined Petrolo Toscana Campo Lusso 2022 has an ultra-polished texture that elevates the young cabernet to a “mind-blowing” level, perhaps because it was organically farmed and manually tended, with the grapes handpicked and fermented with natural yeasts in cement vats before aging for about 18 months in French oak.

Careful measures used in the vineyard by the Tenuta San Guido winery to mitigate the effects of scorching dry weather that in 2022 also helped them craft their “remarkable”  Bolgheri Sassicaia, which is fresh, vibrant, and infused with Mediterranean energy. “Structured and almost chewy in texture, it offers an aromatic symphony of red and black currants, cedar, iron and terracotta,” Aldo said of it.

And even though drought posed a challenge for Barbaresco’s 2022 vintage, the Carlo Giacosa Montefico 2022 proved that elegancy and vibrancy can still occur during such years. This one shows it in its full body and velvety character, as well as its fine balance between acidity and tannins.

A couple other Barbarescos with notable showings in 2022 were the Ceretto’s Barbaresco Asili 2022, which showcases fresh, clean notes of watermelon, wild strawberry and blood orange, as well as the complex and earthy Albino Rocca’s Barbaresco Cottà 2022.

Aldo also made a trip to Bolgheri to taste the latest vintage of Ornellaia at a special dinner organized by Ornellaia's co-owners, Lamberto and Ferdinando Frescobaldi. The 2022 vintage of Ornellaia’s Bolgheri Superiore stands as one of the driest on record in Tuscany, and yet the wine is surprisingly graceful and fresh, according to Aldo – distinctly Mediterranean in character, with elegant aromas of dried eucalyptus leaves, wild berries, dried banana and milk chocolate, accented by graphite and clove.

And Aldo found remarkable quality and consistency in the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino riservas he tasted in February, noting their striking transparency and their lean, almost sinewy character –  “structured yet never austere.” But one wine from the vintage deserves special attention, Aldo said – the Tassi Brunello di Montalcino Franci Riserva 2019. “Traditional in style, it is both full and concentrated, yet so impeccably balanced that its power is almost imperceptible,” is how Aldo described it.

'DANGEROUS ENERGY'

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott tasted his usual bounty of German rieslings and spatburgunders (pinot noirs) during the month, starting in the Mosel region, where the Gunther Steinmetz winery is pushing the envelope for what dry riesling wines can be there. The Günther Steinmetz Riesling Mosel Dhron Hofberg Reserve Late Release 2023 , Stuart said, “has an amazing interplay of monumental concentration with wet-stone freshness and salty minerality,” while the Günther Steinmetz Riesling Mosel Wintricher Geierslay Rondel 2023 has “an intensely smoky and flinty nose from the very long fermentation, yet is extremely focused on the tightly-wound palate.”

It was the German spatburgunders that really popped during the month, however, and Stuart came away greatly impressed by the offerings of Vincent Eymann in the Pfalz region, who made two extraordinary single-vineyard wines from the 2022 vintage. The Eymann Spätburgunder Pfalz Sonnenberg 2022 is the more sensual, with incredible black and sour cherry fruit, while the extremely spicy, herbal and rooty Eymann Spätburgunder Pfalz Mandelgarten 2022 has “dangerous energy and superfine tannins that give it mind-blowing vitality,” Stuart said.

Stuart also attended a “remarkable” vertical tasting of pinot noirs from Solveigs, an under-the-radar producer from the Rheingau region of Germany, where owner/winemaker Jens Heinemeyer is making his mark. The vertical, of almost every vintage since 1995, highlighted the wines’ “extraordinary stylistic homogeneity,” with each offering “self-confidently dry with a pronounced stony minerality,” Stuart said.

But 2020 is the best ever vintage for Solveigs, Stuart said, with the spectacularly floral and super-focused Solveigs Pinot Noir Rheingau Present 2020  pushing this unique style to the limit (“Present” being the name of the vineyard plot where Solveigs' top pinot noir grows.) And the Solveigs Pinot Noir Rheingau Present 1998, with its exciting interplay of crunchy tannins, mineral acidity, sour cherry fruit and savory complexity, “shows how long-living these idiosyncratic beauties are.”

Stuart also tasted an “extraordinary” syrah from France – the first bottling of the intercontinental joint-venture wine of Australian vintner Penfolds and France’s Domaine de la Chapelle.

The Grange-La Chapelle Shiraz-Syrah South Australia-Rhône Valley 2021 is a blend of the Grange 2021 from Penfolds and the Hermitage La Chapelle 2021, and it’s extremely rich and plush, with a unique texture on the full-bodied, wide-screen palate.

“The very fine-grained tannins anchor this masterpiece, which marries the boldness of Grange on the front palate with the coolness of La Chapelle at the extremely long finish,” Stuart said.

DAO WONDERS AND AN EXOTIC RARE TAWNY

Senior Editor Jacobo Garcia Andrade tasted some of the latest offerings from renowned Portuguese producer Quinta da Pellada – an estate that has consistently championed traditional field blends in its top reds – and found the blended Quinta da Pellada Dão Alto 2019, with its high proportion of of jaen, to have an ethereal quality, lively spark and silky texture, with a nervy core and a seamless, elegant profile. And the Carrocel 2021, a pure touriga nacional from an old, high-altitude vineyard, is "one of the purest expressions of the variety the JamesSuckling.com team has ever tasted," Jacobo said.

The singular wine of note that we tasted from Australia came from Barossa Valley and the Seppeltsfield winery, which has a long and storied history of making fortified wines. Adding to the history is their latest edition of the wine they bring up from their cellars every 100 years. In this case, their unique and exotic Rare Tawny South Australia Para 1925 – the 48th consecutive release of this truly unique and rare wine – offers great complexity, texture and concentration, according to Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery.

In our Hong Kong tastings, Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk came across a couple of notable wines from Hungary in the complex and concentrated Tokaj-Hétszőlő Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos Nagyszölö-Dülö 1er Cru 2017 as well as the Tokaj-Hétszőlő Tokaji Eszencia 2010, where “the freshness of the 2010 vintage delivered stunning acidity, beautifully balancing the wine’s super-rich, almost syrupy texture,” Andrii said.

Finally, from China came our annual tasting of the wines of Ao Yun, the ambitious mountain project in Yunnan province run by Moet Hennessy Diageo. Senior Editor Zekun Shuai met with estate director and winemaker Maxence Dulou for a Zoom tasting of Ao Yun’s 2021 release and its village “cru” wines. Zekun found ai dense, concentrated and full-bodied red, in the Ao Yun 20221, but also a fresh and refined wine – somewhat of a surprise given such a dry year.

The village cru wines, he said, exhibited less uniformity in quality compared with the 2020 vintage, although he said Sinong’s incisive minerality and Adong’s spicier, Mediterranean profile highlighted the sense of place and the unique characteristics of the terroirs from each village.

– Vince Morkri, Editor-in-Chief

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