Grattamacco’s Touch of Lightness, Plus an Aussie Transplant in Napa: Weekly Tasting Report

Often seen as the underdog of Bolgheri for offering top-tier quality without speculative pricing, Grattamacco is in fact a founding name of the Tuscan appellation, producing some of the region’s most compelling wines.

What sets it apart from other Bordeaux-style blends is the inclusion of sangiovese, a choice that lends the wine its signature tension – though, in the view of Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli, it’s the hillside vineyards that truly define its character, as can be seen in the 2022 vintage wines, which Aldo tasted with Grattamacco's technical director, Luca Marrone.

Owned by the Bertarelli family, part of the Collemassari group – which also oversees the eponymous estate and Poggio di Sotto in Montalcino – Grattamacco marks its 40th harvest with the release of the 2022 vintage this year. The first official wine was in 1982, though its founder, Giorgio Meletti Cavallari, had already been producing wine there since 1979.

As is now widely known, 2022 was a hot year full of “statistical anomalies” as Marrone explained. “If there’s a weak spot in 2022,” Marrone said, “it’s a certain lightness.”

But is that really a flaw? In Bolgheri, where elegance has long distinguished icons like Sassicaia, Ornellaia and Masseto, a touch of lightness might just be a virtue.

2022 is very much a “hillside vintage” – leafy and fresh more than classically elegant. It was a year in which extraction had to be restrained due to fast-tracked phenolic ripening brought on by the heat. It’s a vintage to drink rather than to cellar.

The Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore is fermented in open-top 10-hectoliter wooden vats. In certain vintages – 2021, 2019, 2016, and 2004 – it undergoes the traditional “piemontesina” technique: extended skin maceration with submerged cap. The classic blend is 65 percent cabernet sauvignon, 25 percent merlot and 15 percent sangiovese. In 2008, merlot dominated; in 2004 and 2012, more cabernet was used. Up until 1994, the blend was an even split between cabernet and sangiovese.

The 2022 version is delicious – bright, lightly leafy in the best possible way and well-balanced on the palate. Among the recent vintages, 2019 stands out. Already excellent at its release, it is now showing remarkable complexity and is an incredibly dense wine full of tension. Among the older vintages, 2016 and 1995 are especially beautiful, with the former a merlot-led bottling.

Last week also offered Aldo the chance for some pied-dans-l’eau tastings in Castiglioncello, on the Tuscan Coast, with his friend and colleague, Riccardo Gabriele, playing the role of guide. Together, they revisited the Champagnes of Tribaut Schloesser, a house known for its oxidative complexity, and found bottles now showing greater precision in style. The standout was the Cuvée René Extra Brut NV, which is remarkable for its mineral style – both filigreed and elegant. Here, the limestone minerality is perfectly aligned with pastry aromas, citrus notes and strawberry whiffs alongside pinprick bubbles, a medium body, zesty acidity and tight-knit structure as well as a long, dairy-toned finish.

Aldo also sampled the wines of Tenute Gregu, a young winery in Gallura, Sardinia, located in the Giuncheddu area between Monti and Telti in the municipality of Calangianus. For lovers of structured vermentino, the Vermentino di Gallura Superiore Selenu 2023 is an ambitious white, where complexity is layered among lemon peel, chalky minerality, white pepper, iodine and seaweed. Medium-bodied, it shows zesty acidity, seaweed and smoky flavors – tight yet precise.

An Aussie Transplant in Napa

Although Executive Editor Jim Gordon has been recommending plenty of delicious 2022 Napa reds recently, a portfolio tasting of mostly late-release ‘21s with Australian transplant winemaker Nigel Kinsman at Wheeler Farms in St. Helena drew a big gold circle around 2021 on the vintage charts. His fantastic, concentrated cabernet sauvignons and blends prove once again what a great vintage 2021 is.

Out of the 111 California wines we tasted over the past week, 18 reds from 2021 received scores of 96 and above. Topping the list is a beauty by Kinsman – the J.H. Wheeler Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard 2021. Destined for long aging, this wine is muscular, tense, linear and fresh, offering red cherries, raspberries, orange zest, dusty cocoa and dark chocolate.

Just a hair lower in the ratings were eight other ’21 reds and one ’22 white. The reds from Acccendo Cellars, Bella Oaks, Bergman and Kinsman Eades are all Kinsman productions, too, and the latter is his own family’s brand.

The Accendo Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021 is a focused, powerful yet polished Bordeaux-style blend. The Bella Oaks Napa Valley Rutherford 2021 is one of the silkiest, prettiest, red-fruited wines of the vintage. The debut vintage of Bergman estate wines is also a huge winner. The Bergman Napa Valley Spring Mountain District 2021 tames the mountain tannins. It seems to melt in the mouth, offering such creaminess and depth on powdery, superfine tannins.

Jim also found two brilliant 2021s from Jesse Katz’s Sign of the Dove. While Katz is based in Sonoma County at Aperture Cellars, his two great wines in this report were sourced from Napa vineyards. The Sign of the Dove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Oakville Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Vineyard 2021 is super chocolatey, rich and plush, while the Sign of the Dove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Rutherford Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard 2021 offers very ripe and inviting fruit flavors and plenty of handsome oak spices.

The highest-scoring California white this week is a classic from Sonoma County’s Ramey family, sourced from the Napa side of Carneros. The Ramey Chardonnay Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2022 is outstanding in quality, ageworthy, showing all the richness, breadth and depth typical of this singular property.

The children of founders David and Carla Ramey,  Claire and Alan, have been running the winery for several years now, not missing a beat in keeping up the winery’s prowess in several wine types, but chardonnay seems to be what they do best. Look for their almost equally impressive 2022s from Ritchie Vineyard, their own Westside Farms estate vineyard and from Fort Ross Seaview, a Sonoma coastal district.

And it’s good to note that greatness in California chardonnay can come at a much lower price than in cabernet sauvignon. Many of the reds cited above cost $250 to $350 per bottle, while the top-rated Ramey chardonnays are $85.

A final note on value is struck by the Sierra Foothills winery Lava Cap, one of the most consistent and widely distributed brands in that high-elevation appellation, whose impressive 2024 chardonnay, 2023 grenache blanc and 2023 cabernet franc can all be found for under $30.

Intense and Focused from Argentina

The Zuccardi winery's Malbec Gualtallary Agua de la Jarilla 2022 is the newest addition to the increasingly specific focus on the diverse sections of Gualtallary – an intense and focused expression of this singular terroir in Argentina's Uco Valley. Sitting at altitudes between 1,200 and 1,600 meters, Gualtallary has become one of the most highly regarded winegrowing regions in Mendoza and the entire country.

What makes the Agua de la Jarilla subregion of Gualtallary particularly unique is its position on the hillside of Lomas del Jaboncillo, a site recognized as one of Argentina’s most prestigious areas for viticulture. The level of investment and precision dedicated to this location is a testament to its importance, not only for Argentine wine but also within the broader global conversation about origin and terroir expression, and of course, quality.

“This is a very complex site, in terms of geology,” Zuccardi’s winemaking director, Sebastian Zuccardi, said about Agua de la Jarilla. “The decision behind the viticultural approach for each parcel comes down to inclination, orientation and soil composition. In the flatter areas, trellised vineyards are, in most cases, the natural choice.”

However, on the steeper, poorer soils of the hillsides, the Zuccardi team has chosen to plant using the single-post training method, both for practical reasons – easier vineyard management on slopes – and because of how the vines yield under these conditions. These soils are generally extremely poor and alluvial in origin, with varying levels of calcium carbonate.

Because of how it is grown, the resulting wine gives off hints of the northern Rhone, showing sanguine, ferric and savory qualities, with a saline edge that is especially compelling. Without the tie to Rhone, these wines have a distinct identity of their own – they are austere but in a delicious way.

The winemaking behind the Agua de la Jarilla malbec is intentionally minimal – it's fermented and aged in cement – in order to highlight the precision viticulture behind the wine. Ultimately, it is an assemblage of five microparcels, each defined by its own soils, inclinations and exposures.

Punctuating the Marlborough Shift

The Marlborough wine region in New Zealand has experienced a noticeable shift in wine style over the past few years, with producers moving beyond the region’s early reputation for bold, overt sauvignon blancs. Instead, they are focusing on site expression and balance, with single-vineyard and subregional bottlings becoming more common, particularly for Burgundian varieties. Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery and James visited Marlborough during harvest, where they are undertaking a new winemaking project that explores chardonnay’s potential in the Southern Hemisphere under James’ label. While crafting chardonnay from the Clayvin Vineyard, Ryan took time to taste the region’s evolving styles, starting in the Awatere Valley.

Located in the cooler, southern part of Marlborough, Awatere experiences higher diurnal shifts than the Wairau or Southern Valleys. The cooling influences from Clifford Bay and the rain shadow of the Wither Hills delay ripening, yielding wines with greater tension, minerality, and precision. This was evident when tasting the Vavasour Chardonnay Awatere Valley Papa 2022, which offers a racy acidity and a high-tension mouthfeel that lingers, building to a refined and powerful finish.

Crossing over the Wither Hills into Marlborough’s northern sector, Ryan discovered producers crafting chardonnay with a more Burgundian influence, with Jeremy McKenzie at Isabel Estate being one of the leaders in this movement. McKenzie, who is working with 38-year-old organically farmed Mendoza clone vine, produces the Isabel Estate Chardonnay Aratoro Single Vineyard 2022, which is aged in 500-liter French oak puncheons and amphora to retain freshness and tension. The wine’s energy and depth are especially striking.

A new generation of winemakers and vineyards are also emerging. Murray and Rachael Cook, who both work for Dog Point Vineyard, are quietly establishing their own project located right next door to Dog Point. Their NOUS vineyard covers only 0.29 hectares and is New Zealand’s smallest certified organic vineyard. Steeply sloped and meticulously hand-farmed, it produces wines of real density and individuality. Ryan tasted the NOUS Chardonnay Marlborough Wairau 0.29 ha 2022 and noted flinty and citrus-driven aromas that flowed onto the palate with a precise, pure and laserlike finish – a project to watch closely.

Outside the new wave of young winemakers exploring the limits of Burgundian varieties is a compelling producer from Switzerland, Hans Herzog, who arrived in Marlborough 26 years ago to embark on a winemaking discovery in true vigneron style. Hans and his wife, Theresa, planted 11.5 hectares in Marlborough with 26 varieties and make microbatches of wine that have captivated the wine world. Herzog said that Marlborough is continually getting hotter, and so he works with grape varieties that better adapt to climate change. Herzog believes vermentino has a future and released his first bottling in 2024, although he only made 89 bottles. The Hans Herzog Estate Vermentino Marlborough 2024 is very mineral and citrusy with a textural, rounded mouthfeel, and it also has a tightly wound acidity that carries a lovely phenolic grip.

– Aldo Fiordelli, Jim Gordon, Jacobo García Andrade and Ryan Montgomery 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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