‘Heat Dome’ Surprises from Napa 2022, and the Pfalz Goes Deep

The two JamesSuckling.com tasters who live in Napa Valley, California, find it easy to keep up with what’s happening in the vineyards because they see grapevines every day and experience the same vintage conditions as the grapes do each year.

Executive Editor Jim Gordon has logged 29 years in Napa Valley, and he remembers 2011 as a dreary, wet year, 2017 and 2020 as major wildfire years and 2022 as the “heat dome” year, when unprecedented high temperatures lasted for a week in Napa Valley at harvest time, reaching 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) at Jim’s house in the city of Napa.

So for Jim and Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery, the relatively high quality of the red wines from 2022 is a continuing, pleasant surprise. Highly scored wines from Realm, Dalla Valle, Bryant Family, Shafer, Opus One and others in this week’s report testify to the skill and sacrifice of grape growers and winemakers to avert disaster during nightmarish harvest conditions.

For example, Realm Cellars in the Stags Leap District rejected a full one-third of the cabernet sauvignon grapes from their prized Houyi Vineyard on Pritchard Hill due to shriveling of the berries and cooking of the juice inside them.

“We did a huge selection in the vineyard, and purposely went light on the winemaking, with less extraction,” said CEO Scott Becker. “We kept the juice off the seeds, which were often green or light brown.”

The payoff for all their efforts is the three top-scoring Napa reds in this weekly report, coming from three different districts of the valley.

The Realm Cellars Napa Valley Farella Vineyard 2022 is delicious, deep yet elegant despite the Coombsville District hitting 117 degrees Fahrenheit at one point. The Realm Cellars Napa Valley Hartwell XX 2022 comes from the highest elevation and oldest vines on their home property. With its firm tannins, crème de cassis and graphite flavors, it is the most muscular of the 2022s. A rightfully famous Oakville district vineyard gave its signature chocolaty, velvety, luxurious character to the Realm Cellars Napa Valley Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard 2022.

The Dalla Valle Napa Valley Maya 2022 gives further proof of the excellence that was possible with meticulous viticulture and winemaking. Tightly structured but still generous, this red blend, made from 55 percent cabernet franc and 45 percent cabernet sauvignon grapes, is known for long-term aging. Second-generation owner-winemaker Maya Dalla Valle stressed the importance of water misters to cool the grapevines and having a full-time vineyard crew to pick the grapes promptly on a 24x7 schedule when necessary.

Yet as surprisingly drinkable and generous as the 2022s reds are, our team and most of the winemakers they spoke to are more excited about the 2023s, both red and white. This long, cool, unchallenging growing season produced a large quantity of excellent, balanced and fresh-tasting chardonnays and a few early-release, outstanding reds that we are just now getting to taste after bottling.

The long-established Hyde Vineyard in Napa Carneros grew the grapes for the two highest-scoring whites this week. Sonoma-based Kistler Vineyards made the wine that achieved the only perfect score. The Kistler Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2023 is a brilliantly balanced wine with a marked mineral streak, lime, chalk, sea breeze and grilled apple flavors.

Another Sonoma County winery, DuMOL, also coaxed the best out of Larry and Chris Hyde’s grapes. The DuMOL Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2023 tastes voluminous, creamy and distinctive. Yet DuMOL winemakers Andy Smith and Jenna Davis teased out some appetizing restraint and flinty, lively fruit flavors at a rather low 13.5 percent alcohol.

For 2023 Napa Valley reds, Relic Cellars’ early releases provide a sneak preview of potentially great cabernet sauvignons to come from all across Napa. Owners Mike Hirby and Schatzi Throckmorton uncorked three particularly appealing examples.

Their Relic Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Calistoga Kenefick Ranch Block 7 2023 is huge, powerful but beautifully polished. The Relic Napa Valley Calistoga Atmos 2023 is made from cabernet sauvignon with 12 percent petit verdot, and tastes pure, luxurious and structured but delicious. Equally impressive yet more cool and elegant is the Relic Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Stags Leap District Husic Vineyard 2023.

Our advice for the week is don’t be afraid of the 2022 Napa Valley reds when you find appropriate prices, and start exploring the consistent and well-balanced 2023s if you haven’t already. Scores of other wines in the tasting notes below are well worth considering in addition to these few highlights we’ve noted.

The Pfalz Goes Deep

When Senior Editor Stuart Pigott left for the Pfalz, the small number of 2024 dry wines he had already tasted from the region suggested this might be a very challenging vintage, just like 2021 was. Instead, he found a more complex picture, with the central Mittelhaart section of the region clearly outperforming the south.

No wines demonstrate this more clearly than the incredible range of 2024 dry rieslings from the famous estate of Dr. Bürklin-Wolf that Stuart tasted with winemaker Nicola Libelli and director Steffen Brahner.

The pinnacle of them was the Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Kirchenstück GC 2024, a perfect wine of enormous depth and concentration that also came with a lightness of touch. Because of its very limited production (less than a thousand bottles) and the large number of collectors hunting for this wine, it will be difficult to find. It’s also really expensive.

The Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Pechstein GC 2024, a giant of smoky minerality that’s both exciting and profound, will be easier to find, and is almost as good. However, all of this producer’s single-vineyard premier cru (PC on the label) and grand cru (GC on the label but equivalent to GG) bottlings from 2024 are stunners.

Bargain-hunters are directed to the excellent four village wines, a category of dry German wine that's seriously underrated by consumers right around Planet Wine. The star of them is the Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Riesling Pfalz Forst Village Trocken 2024, which has exceptional concentration and structure for the category. It is a cuvee of wines from 10-year-old vines in the Jesuitengarten and Pechstein GG sites.

Stuart found another great bargain among the wines of this category, the Müller-Catoir Riesling Pfalz Haardt Trocken 2024, which has fantastic tension and vitality with a very long, silky finish. 2024 was the last vintage at Müller-Catoir made by winemaker Martin Franzen, who joined the winery in 2002. The stunning range of dry riesling, weissburgunder (pinot blanc), chardonnay, muskateller and scheurebe here are a fitting farewell for Franzen.

One key feature of the 2024 vintage is the extreme rarity of successful late-harvest wines. Müller-Catoir is a shining exception, as seen in the incredibly compact Müller-Catoir Rieslaner Pfalz Beerenauslese EL 2024, which marries huge flavors of dried apricots, mangoes and papayas alongside gigantic freshness.

The nearby Christmann winery showed a stunning range of 2023 vintage spatburgunder (pinot noir) reds that included the first vintage from a forgotten great site, the Schild, which is comprised of a set of narrow limestone terraces close to Christmann’s base in Gimmeldingen.

The enveloping aroma of violets and profundity on the expansive palate of the Christmann Spätburgunder Pfalz Schild GG 2023 is stunning, although this isn’t even the best red from this producer in the 2023 vintage. That honor goes to the enormously dark and deeply velvety Christmann Spätburgunder Pfalz Idig GG 2023.

That the 2023 spatburgunders are capable of greatness was compellingly proven by the wines at the Okonomierat Rebholz winery, where twin-brother winemakers Hans and Valentin Rebholz have precisely applied what they learned working in Burgundy to the wines of their home region.

The Ökonomierat Rebholz Spätburgunder Pfalz Förster 2023 is not a GG, but it is one of the most amazing German pinots Stuart has ever encountered, almost perfectly intertwining earthy darkness and floral beauty. A cornucopia of red berries and pomegranate flavors cascades over you on the silky palate.

Stuart also encountered at Okonomierat Rebholz the side of the 2024 vintage that will delight those older drinkers who pine for the austere and steely German wines of the 1970s and 1980s, but may not delight those looking for roundness and harmony.

Most of the dry rieslings of the 2024 vintage from Okonomierat Rebholz and the nearby Dr. Wehrheim winery weigh in at around just 11 percent alcohol. These are impeccably made wines, but Stuart feels there’s a definite limit to how exciting dry riesling can be when it’s this light in body. The standout wines in the dry riesling category at both producers were all GGs with around 12 percent alcohol.

Clearly, here in the south of the Pfalz in 2024 it was easier to fully ripen pinot blanc than riesling, the latter having been held back by the rains of July and August. Franz Wehrheim of Dr. Wehrheim explained that, “crop thinning was essential to getting to full ripeness.“ His Dr. Wehrheim Weissburgunder Pfalz Mandelberg GG 2024 is one of the pinot blanc stars of the vintage, with a fantastic interplay of fruit, lees creaminess and chalky minerality.

The Bergdolt winery’s stunning top pinot blanc comes from another vineyard site that confusingly has the same name. The Bergdolt Weissburgunder Pfalz Mandelberg GG 2024, made by Carolin Bergdolt, has amazing tension between flinty minerality and deep candied lemon fruit. It, too, really shows what this underrated grape can do when it is taken as seriously as riesling or pinot noir!

Finesse from Montepulciano

Last week’s tastings ot Italian wines showed Vino Nobile di Montepulciano hitting a confident stride, with Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk encountering several standouts that balanced intensity with finesse. The clear highlight was Avignonesi’s Nobile Poggetto di Sopra 2021, a beautifully crafted wine with depth of red berries, mulberries, exotic spices, hazelnuts and hints of iodine and undergrowth, showing compact balance, refined tannins, and a seamless, fine‑textured finish. Contucci’s Palazzo Contucci 2020 followed closely, more restrained yet elegant, with red‑fruit purity and spice in a flowing, harmonious style. The broader Contucci lineup impressed as well, delivering a classic style with elegance and polish, much of it from the 2020 vintage, which brings warmer, deeper fruit and a sense of generosity.

Several more youthful examples stood out for their clarity and focus. Poliziano’s Asinone 2022 shows a darker, more structured profile, with ripe plums and cherries framed by firm tannins, while Bindella’s Tenuta Vallocaia I Quadri 2022 offers layered complexity, combining dark berries with a savory, earthy edge. The Tenuta Vallocaia Riserva 2021 from Bindella leans brighter, with lifted fruit and subtle spice, pointing to a promising evolution in bottle.

Alongside the Vino Nobiles, we tasted several Chiantis outside the Classico zone that proved both interesting and charming, offering bright red fruit, savory spice, and easy drinkability. Among them, Chianti Rufina showed the most compelling character. Selvapiana’s Vigneto Bucerchiale Riserva 2022 opened with a rich, savory nose of red and dark berries, cherry chocolate, licorice, and hints of bark. The palate was dry and juicy, medium to full in body, framed by fine tannins and finishing with spice and crushed‑stone notes.

The Vigneto Erchi Riserva 2021 follows in a similar vein, combining ripe red and dark fruits with savory complexity and a spiced, mineral finish. Castello del Trebbio’s Lastricato Riserva 2021 adds another dimension, with aromas of red plums, leather, potpourri and warm stones leading into a medium‑bodied palate of structured tannins, mellow fruit and a touch of orange peel, all from organically grown grapes. Together, these wines confirm that while Chianti outside the Classico zone continues to offer honest, accessible pleasure, it is Rufina that most clearly distinguishes itself for its precision and finesse.

– Jim Gordon, Stuart Pigott and Andrii Stetsiuk contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. 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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